Michigan?

Minnesota ?

Mississippi?

Missouri?

143.

Nebraska ?

Nevada ?

tions, nor to any person who now has the right to vote, nor to any person who shall be sixty years of age or upward at the time this amendment takes effect. Id. 298. By amendment XXVI., of 1850, persons of foreign birth not allowed to vote until two years after naturalization. Id. 300.

MICHIGAN. Every white male citizen; every white male inhabitant residing in the State on the 24th day of June, 1835; every white male inhabitant on the first day of January, 1850, who has declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, pursuant to the laws thereof, six months preceding an election, or who has resided in this State two years and six months, and declared his intention as aforesaid; and every civilized male inhabitant of Indian descent, a native of the United States and not a member of any Indian tribe, shall be an elector and entitled to vote. Residence three months in the State. Const. of 1850. Id. 307. Persons absent in the actual military service of the United States not disqualified. Presence in such service is not residence. Id. 308.

MINNESOTA.-1. White citizens of the United States; 2. White persons of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention to become citizens; 3. Persons mixed with white and Indian blood, who have adopted the customs and habits of civilization; 4. Persons of Indian blood residing in this State who have adopted the language, customs, and habits of civilization, after an examination before any district court of the State, &c., and pronounced capable of citizenship; residence one year in the United States and four months in the State before the election. Const. of 1857-8. Id. 325.

MISSISSIPPI.-Free white male citizens of the United States; one year's residence in the State, four months in the county or town. Const. 1832 as amended in 1865. Id. 336.

MISSOURI.-White male citizens of the United States, and every white male person of foreign birth who may have declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, according to law, not less than one year nor more than five years before he offers to vote; residence one year in the State and sixty days in the county, city, or town. The disqualification of all who participated in or sympathized with the rebellion is most searching and comprehensive. After 1876, new voters must be able to read and write or be disabled therefrom by physical disability. Const. of 1865. 348-351.

NEBRASKA.—1. White male citizens of the United States; 2. White persons of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention to become citizens, conformably to the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization. Const. of 1867. Id. 371. By the act of admission agreed to by the legislature, the right is not restricted to whites.

This State was admitted March, 1867, as the 37th State.

NEVADA.--Every white male citizen of the United States; residence six months in the State and thirty days in the county; persons convicted of treason or felony and not restored to civil rights,

or who, after arriving at the age of eighteen years, shall have voluntarily borne arms against the United States, or held civil or military office under the so-called Confederate States, unless an amnesty be granted to such person by the Federal Government, excluded; also idiots and insane persons. Const. of 1864. Id. 380, 381.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.-Every male inhabitant of each town, and New Hampparish with town privileges, and places unincorporated, excepting shire? paupers, and persons excused from paying taxes at their own request. Const. of 1792. Id. 403.

NEW JERSEY.-White male citizens of the United States; resi- New Jersey? dence one year in the State and five months in the county; officers, soldiers, and marines of the United States do not acquire residence; paupers, idiots, and insane persons and persons infamous excluded. Const. of 1844. Id. 413.

NEW YORK.-Male citizens who shall have been such ten days; New York? residence in the State one year, and in the county four months. Men of color, unless citizens of this State for three years, and for one year seized of a freehold of the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, on which they shall have paid a tax, excluded. sence in military service does not exclude. Const. of 1846, as amended in 1863. Id. 49, 50.

Ab

NORTH CAROLINA.-Every free white man-being a native or North naturalized citizen of the United States, and who has been an in- Carolina? habitant of this State for twelve months immediately preceding the day of election, and shall have paid all taxes. Amendment of 11th December, 1856, ratified 10th September, 1857. Id. 431.

OHIO.-Free white male citizens of the United States; residence Ohio? one year in the State. Soldiers, marines, idiots, and insane persons excluded. Mulattoes in a certain degree are excluded. Const. of 1851. Id. 438.

OREGON.-White male citizens of the United States, and white Oregon? males of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention; residence one year as to foreigners and six months as to citizens. Sailors, soldiers, idiots, insane, Chinamen, and negroes excluded. Const. of 1857. Id. 449.

PENNSYLVANIA.-Freemen; residence one year; must have paid Pennsyl taxes within two years; white freemen, citizens of the United vania? States, between twenty-one and twenty-two years of age, not obliged to have paid taxes; if absent in the military service of the United States, electors not to lose the right to vote. Const. of 1838, as amended in 1857 and 1861. Id. 472.

RHODE ISLAND.-Male citizens of the United States; residence Rhode one year; real estate in the State of the value of one hundred and Island ? thirty-four dollars, or which brings a clear rental of seven dollars per annum. Soldiers, marines, &c., do not thereby acquire a resi dence; paupers, lunatics, or persons non compos mentis, and Narraganset Indians, specially excluded. Const. of 1842. Id. 474, 475. Soldiers absent in actual military service allowed to vote. Id. 481.

South

Carolina?

Tennessee?

Texas?

Vermont ?

Virginia?

West
Virginia?

Wisconsin?

Is there any

SOUTH CAROLINA.-Free white men; residence two years in the State and six months in the district; immigrants from Europe with like residence who have declared their intention to be naturalized; paupers, soldiers, and marines specially excluded. Const. of 1865. Id. 486.

TENNESSEE.-White men, citizens of the United States (certain blacks included under previous constitution); residence one year. Const. of 1839. Id. 495.

By the amendment of 1866, § 9, the qualifications of voters and the limitation of the elective franchise may be determined by the General Assembly which shall first assemble under the amended constitution. Id. 504. The General Assembly extended the right of suffrage to the blacks, and excluded certain classes of those engaged in the rebellion.

TEXAS.-Every free male person, who shall be a citizen of the United States (Indians not taxed, Africans, and descendants of Africans excepted); residence one year in the State and six months in the county. Const. of 1866. Id. 507. The words, "or who is, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution by the Congress of the United States, a citizen of Texas," were in the Constitution of 1845, but were omitted from the revision. Paschal's Annotated Digest, 51, 932.

VERMONT.-Freemen of the State, who are natural born citizens of Vermont or some one of the United States, or naturalized. Const. of 1793 as amended. New York Convention Manual, by Hough, 523, 529.

VIRGINIA.-White male citizens of the Commonwealth; residence one year in the State and six months in the county. Must have paid the previous year's assessment of taxes. Const. of 1864. Id. 533, 545.

WEST VIRGINIA.-White male citizens of the State; residence one year. Paupers, convicts of treason, felony, or bribery in election, persons who have given aid to the rebellion, unless he has volunteered into the military and naval service of the United States and been honorably discharged therefrom, excluded. Const. 1861-3, as amended 24th May, 1866. Id. 547, 548.

WISCONSIN.-1. Citizens of the United States. 2. Persons of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention to become citizens, conformably to the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization. (The word "white" was stricken out by amendment.)

3. Persons of Indian blood who have once been declared by law of Congress to be citizens of the United States, any subsequent law of Congress to the contrary notwithstanding.

4. Civilized persons of Indian descent, not members of any tribe. Const. of 1848. Id. 561, 562.

It will thus be seen that the only uniformity is, that electors in uniformity? all the States require the qualification of being males over twenty

ne years of age, and of residence longer or shorter. The general rule is, "white citizens of the United States;" but negroes or persons of African descent are electors in all New England except Connecticut; in Nebraska, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and by construction, perhaps, in other States; persons in the military and naval service are excluded in some States, and idiots, lunatics, and persons non compos mentis in others.

In Oregon, Chinamen are excluded. In all the late fifteen slave States, except Tennessee, persons of African descent are excluded. In Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, and South Carolina, unnaturalized persons of longer or shorter residence who have declared their intention are voters; while in Massachusetts the naturalized are excluded until two years after naturalization. In a few of the northwestern States Indians are allowed to vote. The qualification of freeholder or tax-payer is required in a few States; and the benefit of clergy or the power to read and write is required in two States. Disqualification for infamous offenses exists in a few States. So that in fact there is no uniformity except as to sex What is the and age, and less than there was at the formation of the federal only uniConstitution. The qualifications in no two States were exactly alike. formity? Story's Const., § 637; The Federalist, No. 54. As to the free persons of African descent, while they were only half a million, the majority of whom resided in the slave States, "de minimis non Why the necurat lex," seems to have been the maxim. But now that they are cessity of a cne-eighth of the whole population, and constitute a majority of "citizens of the United States" in several States, whatever may have been our habits of thought, the statesman and the philosopher is obliged to face the question, and to consider the propriety of a uniform rule for electors.

24.

uniform

rule?

220.

18. But citizenship of the United States, or of a State, does not Is citizenof itself give the right to vote; nor, e converso, does the want of it ship prevent a State from conferring the right of suffrage. Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 422.

The right of suffrage is the right to choose officers of the ment; and it does not carry along the right of citizenship. on Citizenship, 4, 5. Our laws make no provision for the deprivation of citizenship. Id.

suffrage?

govern- What is the Bates right of loss or 30.

suffrage?

The word CITIZEN is not mentioned in this clause, and its idea Does this is excluded in the QUALIFICATIONS for suffrage in all the State section exconstitutions. Id. 5, 6.

clude the idea of citi

American citizenship does not necessarily depend upon nor zen? coexist with the legal capacity to hold office or the right of suffrage, Does citieither or both of them.

zenship de

suffrage?

No person in the United States did ever exercise the right of pend upon suffrage in virtue of the naked, unassisted fact of citizenship. Id. 93. There is a distinction between political rights and political powers. What is the The former belong to all citizens alike, and cohere in the very distinction name and nature of citizenship. The latter (voting and holding between office) does not belong to all citizens alike, nor to any citizen merely rights and in virtue of citizenship. His power always depends upon extra- powers? neous facts and superadded qualifications; which facts and 19, 35, 63, 169,

political

170.

What are

the qualifi

representatives.

qualifications are common to both citizens and aliens. Bates on Citizenship.

[2.] No person shall be a representative who shall cations of not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

What persons?

46.

19. "PERSON " is here undefined, but it is supposed to mean males. A representative is one chosen by the qualified voters, at the time prescribed by the States or Congress, in the manner preRepresenta scribed by law, and having the qualifications of age, citizenship, and inhabitancy or domiciliation.

tive?

Citizen of

States?

220

The Constitution having fixed the qualifications of members, no the United additional qualifications can rightfully be required by the States. Barney v. McCreery, Cl. & Hall, 176: Story's Const. § 624–629; Federalist, No. 52. But if a country be conquered, purchased, or annexed, and the inhabitants thus incorporated by such revolutions, as the purchase of Louisiana and Florida, the annexation of Texas, and the conquest and cession of California, the inhabitants become national citizens, and are eligible to office, not as naturalized people, according to uniform rule, but as denizens of the acquired soil, whether native born or naturalized. It was so held in the case of Mr. Levy [Yulee], of Florida, upon a contest in the House of Representatives of the United States. Mr. Clark of Louisiana, and Senator Porter, of that State, as well as all the European inhabitants of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Walrussia, and all born upon those Territories, owed their naturalization to the law of conquest, purchase, or annexation. Native inhabitants have been admitted as delegates from New Mexico, under the general description of citizenship. The object was to exclude aliens. Story's Coust. § 612-629.

Who are citizens?

See Farrar, § 256-281.

Yet"

66

PERSON" and "CITIZEN in this sentence cannot have the 6, 17, 24, 35, same comprehensive meaning of "PEOPLE" or ELECTORS in the 44, 220. preamble, and in Art. 1, § 1, clause 1. From necessity it must have a limitation beyond what is defined in the clause.

Who is an inhabitant when

elected?

66

20. AN INHABITANT OF A STATE is one who is bona fide a member of the State, subject to all the requisitions of its laws, and entitled to all the privileges and advantages which they confer." 22, 23, 44, 46. Bailey's Case, Cl. & Hall, 411. A person residing in the District of Columbia, though in the employment of the general government, is not an inhabitant of a State, so as to be eligible to a seat in congress. Id. But a citizen of the United States, residing as a public minister at a foreign court, does not lose his character of inhabitant of that State of which he is a citizen, so as to be disqualified for election to congress. Id.: Forsyth's Case, Id. 497. See Ramsay v. Smith, CL. & Hall, 123. Key's Case, Cl. & Hall, 224.