By the Act of May 31, 1870, above cited, Congress has ordained, in legal effect, that if any person violates the penal Code of the State of New York, or any State, in respect of voting, he may be punished by the United States.  And the offense is a variable quantity; what is a crime in one State under this Act, is a legal right and duty in another.  A citizen of Rhode Island, for instance, who votes when not possessed in his own right, of an estate in fee simple—­in fee tail, for life, or in reversion or remainder, of the value of $134 or up-wards, may be convicted of a crime under this Act, and imprisoned in a State Prison.  He voted in violation of the laws of his State.  A citizen of New York votes under precisely similar circumstances, and with the same qualifications, and his act is a legal one, and he performs a simple duty.  Any State may, by its Constitution and laws, permit women to vote.  Had these defendants been acting as Inspectors of Elections in such State, their act would be no crime, and this indictment could not be sustained, for the only illegality alleged is, that the citizens whose votes were received were women, and therefore not entitled to vote.

The Act of Congress thus, is simply an Act to enforce the diverse penal statutes of the various States in relation to voting.  In order to make a case, the United States must combine the federal law with the statutes of the State where the venue of the prosecution is laid.

Before the enactment of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, it is not, and never was pretended, that Congress possessed any such power.  Subdivision 1 of Section 2, of Article one of the Constitution, provides as follows: 

“The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.”

By this provision, what shall qualify a person to be an elector, is left entirely to the States.  Whoever, in any State, is permitted to vote for members of the most numerous branch of its legislature, is also competent to vote for Representatives in Congress.  The State might require a property qualification, or it might dispense with it.  It might permit negroes to vote, or it might exclude them.  It might permit women to vote, or even foreigners, and the federal constitution would not be infringed.  If a State had provided a different qualification for an elector of Representatives in Congress, from that required of an elector of the most numerous branch of its Legislature, the power of the federal constitution might be invoked, and the law annuled.  But never was the idea entertained, that this provision of the Constitution authorizes Congress to pass laws for the punishment of individuals in the States for illegal voting, or State returning officers for receiving illegal votes.