“I do not hesitate to say that when the slaves of our country became ‘citizens’ they took their place in the body politic as a component part of the ‘people,’ entitled to equal rights, and under the protection of these two guardian principles:  First—­That all just governments stand on the consent of the governed; and second, that taxation without representation is tyranny; and these rights it is the duty of Congress to guarantee as essential to the idea of a Republic.”

The preamble of the Constitution of the State of New York declares the same purpose.  It says: 

     “We, the people of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God
     for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings, do establish
     this Constitution.”

Here is not the slightest intimation, either of receiving freedom from the United States Constitution, or of the State conferring the blessings of liberty upon the people; and the same is true of every one of the thirty-six State Constitutions.  Each and all, alike declare rights God-given, and that to secure the people in the enjoyment of their inalienable rights, is their one and only object in ordaining and establishing government.  And all of the State Constitutions are equally emphatic in their recognition of the ballot as the means of securing the people in the enjoyment of these rights.

Article 1 of the New York State Constitution says: 

     “No member of this State shall be disfranchised or deprived of the
     rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the
     law of the land, or the judgment of his peers.”

And so carefully guarded is the citizen’s right to vote, that the Constitution makes special mention of all who may be excluded.  It says: 

     “Laws may be passed excluding from the right of suffrage all
     persons who have been or may be convicted of bribery, larceny or
     any infamous crime.”

In naming the various employments that shall not affect the residence of voters—­the 3d section of article 2d says “that being kept at any alms house, or other asylum, at public expense, nor being confined at any public prison, shall deprive a person of his residence,” and hence his vote.  Thus is the right of voting most sacredly hedged about.  The only seeming permission in the New York State Constitution for the disfranchisement of women is in section 1st of article 2d, which says: 

     “Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, &c., shall be
     entitled to vote.”

But I submit that in view of the explicit assertions of the equal right of the whole people, both in the preamble and previous article of the constitution, this omission of the adjective “female” in the second, should not be construed into a denial; but, instead, counted as of no effect.  Mark the direct prohibition:  “No member of this State shall be disfranchised, unless by the ‘law of