of the land, and the Judges in every State shall
be bound thereby; anything in the Constitution or laws of
any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

Is the Constitution supreme in the case of the 10,000 naturalized
citizens of Rhode Island, whose petition the honorable judiciary
reported adversely upon, the 12th of December?

The naturalized citizens of our country should rise _en masse_
against his attack upon their liberties. If Rhode Island can say
that a naturalized citizen shall not vote unless possessed of a
certain amount of property, any State can, with equal justice,
enact a law declaring that only those naturalized citizens who
live in brick houses shall vote; a law, equally as binding as the
present property qualification in Rhode Island, can be enacted,
that only those foreign-born citizens who come over in a Cunarder
shall vote. Why not? If a State has a right to deprive one class
of citizens of its vote for one cause, it has a right to deprive
any other class of its vote for any reason.

The power and the mischief do not stop here. If a State has power
over the political rights of a naturalized citizen of the United
States, it has like power over the native-born citizen. If a
State has power over the franchise of the women citizens of the
United States, it also has power over the men citizens. Unjust
laws, like curses, go home to roost; they can always be made to
plague their enactors. When the rights of any one class of
citizens are assailed, a blow is struck against the rights of
all. The danger to individual liberty lies in special laws. If
States are powerful enough to weaken the National constitution,
then are we weak indeed. The safety of the citizen lies in a
strong National constitution: it lies in a National
centralization of power that shall override the States in their
attempt to destroy individual rights.

If the National government has not power over the ballot in the
several States, where did the United States Commissioner get his
authority to institute proceedings against Miss Anthony for
voting in the State of New York? If the ballot is in the control
of the States, then is the United States guilty of a high-handed
outrage against New York, in the case of the fourteen women who
are now bound o