Rome, bound to it by the
reciprocal obligations of allegiance on the one side and protection on
the other? When you, young man, shall travel abroad, among the
monarchies of the old world, and there proudly boast yourself an
"American citizen," will you thereby declare yourself neither more nor
less than a "member" of the American nation?

This opinion of Attorney-General Bates, that a black citizen was not a
voter, given merely to suit the political exigency of the Republican
party in that transition hour between emancipation and enfranchisement,
was no less infamous, in spirit or purpose, than was the decision of
Judge Taney, that a black man was not one of the people, rendered in the
interest and at the behest of the old Democratic party in its darkest
hour of subjection to the slave power. Nevertheless, all of the adverse
arguments, congressional reports and judicial opinions, thus far, have
been based on this purely partisan, time-serving decision of General
Bates, that the normal condition of the citizen of the United States is
that of disfranchisement; that only such classes of citizens as have had
special legislative guarantee have a legal right to vote.

If this decision of Attorney-General Bates was infamous, as against
black men, but yesterday plantation slaves, what shall we pronounce upon
Judge Bingham, in the House of Representatives, and Carpenter, in the
Senate of the United States, for citing it against the women of the
entire nation, vast numbers of whom are the peers of those honorable
gentlemen themselves in morals, intellect, culture, wealth, family,
paying taxes on large estates, and contributing equally with them and
their sex, in every direction, to the growth, prosperity and well-being
of the republic? And what shall be said of the judicial opinions of
Judges Cartter, Jameson, McKay and Sharswood, all based upon this
aristocratic, monarchial idea of the right of one class to govern
another?

I am proud to mention the names of the two United States judges who have
given opinions honorable to our republican idea, and honorable to
themselves--Judge Howe, of Wyoming Territory, and Judge Underwood, of
Virginia. The former gave it as his opinion a year ago, when the
legislature seemed likely to revoke the law enfranchising the women of
that Territory that, in case they succeeded, the women would still
possess the right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment. The latter, in
noticing the recent decis