the right to life or
liberty. Governments give them, refuse them, and take them away. In
America this means the state governments. The federal government only
declares that the states must follow the "due process of law," and not
discriminate on account of race, religion, or servitude. In allowing the
right to vote they may and do discriminate on other grounds, such as
morals, illiteracy, intelligence, property, and sex. This may result in
race or immigrant discrimination, and does so in the case of illiteracy
and intelligence. After the Irish immigration of the forties,
Connecticut in 1855 and Massachusetts in 1857 refused thenceforth to
enfranchise those who could not read the Constitution. Since 1889 six
other Northern and Western states--Wyoming, Maine, California,
Washington, Delaware, and New Hampshire, in the order named--have
erected barriers against those who cannot read or write the English
language or the Constitution.[115] Six Southern states have done the
same, but one of them, Mississippi, has added another permanent
barrier,--intelligence. This is supposed to be measured by ability to
"understand" the Constitution as read by a white man. Southern states
have also added vagrancy, poll tax, and property clauses even more
exclusive than reading and writing.[116] The federal courts have refused
to interfere because these restrictions in their legal form bear alike
on white and black. If in practice they bear unequally, that is a matter
for the state courts.[117]

To take away the suffrage from many of those who enjoy it is peacefully
impossible under our system. But voters who hold fast to the privilege
for themselves may be induced to deny it to the next generation. It was
in this way usually that the foregoing restrictions were introduced.
Massachusetts set the example by retaining all who could vote when the
test was adopted, and making the exclusion apply only to those who came
after. The Southern states did the same by "grandfather" and
"understanding" clauses. By either method, in course of time, the
favored voters disappear by death or removal, and the restrictions apply
in full to the succeeding generation.[118]

The effect of the educational test on the suffrage of the foreign-born
is not as great as might be supposed. Naturalization itself is almost an
educational test. Only 6.3 per cent of the naturalized foreigners are
illiterate, but 28 per cent of those who remain aliens are unable to
read. In