ver for trial in Rochester for voting at the last
election. If the control of the franchise is the right of each
State as sovereign, then the National law of 1870 in regard to
frauds in voting was an unauthorized interference of the United
States in a matter belonging solely to the respective States. On
the contrary, if the question as to who may vote in any
State--exclusive of black men, over whom it is conceded the
nation has thrown its aegis of protection--is one of National
control, how does it happen that the Judiciary Committee of the
present Congress reported adversely upon the petition of the
10,000 naturalized citizens of Rhode Island? If, then, voting is
a matter of State control alone, what authority had the United
States to prosecute Susan B. Anthony? One of two things is
plainly true. Either the United States authorities had no right
to prosecute Miss Anthony in the State of New York, or, if they
had, then they had the right to regulate suffrage in Rhode
Island. If the general government could not extend suffrage to
Irishmen in Rhode Island, it could not abolish it for women in
New York.

The time has passed when men can take their choice between "State
sovereignty" and "centralized power." What State of the
thirty-seven has power to make a treaty, to form an alliance, to
declare war? Not one, because not one of them is a sovereign
State. An attempt would be treason against the Nation. If the
general government can not be secure with a diversity of laws in
regard to war, or the tariff, in regard to questions of property,
how much less secure is it with diverse laws in regard to
personal rights; in regard to the elective franchise, the vital
principle of our government.

This government does not stand to-day on free trade, or tariff,
or the war-power, or its right to manage post-offices, or to coin
money, or to make treaties. Not one of these singly, nor all
collectively, form the ground-plan of this Nation. This Nation
stands upon the ballot, the self-governing power; it stands upon
the right of every person governed by the Nation to share in the
election of its rulers.

How can statesmen believe the Nation secure unless personal
rights are held inviolable? The National government has control
over money, currency, an