CHAPTER LXIV.

AS TO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.

ART. 15.

"Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

"Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

§ 764. The Fifteenth Amendment does not confer the right of suffrage on any one, but it protects citizens from any discrimination in the exercise of the elective franchise on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

§ 765. As in the case of the Fourteenth Amendment, the power of Congress is limited to corrective legislation as distinguished from direct legislation, in the form of a declaration of rights, privileges and immunities to be enjoyed by any class of citizens. (United States v. Reese et al., 92 U. S. 214.)

§ 766. In the case of the United States against Cruikshank (92 U. S. 542), the Court said: "The right to vote in the States comes from the States; but the right of exemption from the prohibited discrimination comes from the United States. The first has not been granted or secured by the Constitution of the United States; but the last has been."

§ 767. This doctrine was enlarged upon in the case Ex parte Yarborough (110 U. S. 651).

"While it is quite true, as was said by this Court in United States v. Reese, 92 U. S. 214, that this article gives no affirmative right to the colored man to vote, and is designed primarily to prevent discrimination against him whenever the right to vote may be granted to others, it is easy to see that,

under some circumstances, it may operate as the immediate source of a right to vote.

§ 768. In all cases where the former slave-holding States had not removed from their Constitution the words 'white man,' as a qualification for voting, this provision did, in effect, confer on him the right to vote, because, being paramount to the State law, it annulled the discriminating word 'white,' and thus left him in the enjoyment of the same right as white persons. And such would be the effect of any future constitutional provision of a State which should give the right of voting exclusively to white people, whether they be men or women. In such cases the Fifteenth Amendment does, proprio vigore, substantially confer on the negro the right to vote, and Congress has the power to protect and enforce that right."

Certificates of indebtedness not taxable
by States, 180.

Issued by States, bills of credit, 249.
Certiorari, writ of, cannot issue to a
military commission, 303.

Writ of, in habeas corpus cases, 237.
Chalmers, spy in America, 145.

Bank of United States, legal character Charters, colonial, extent and nature
of, 179.

Bankruptcy, 207.

Opinion of court in regard to, 208.
Banks, capital of, how taxable, 180.
Exempt from taxes by States on

capital invested in securities of
United States, 181.

of, 134.

Colonial, compared to Magna Charta,

140.

Royal, sorts of, 138.

Royal, treated as compacts, 138.

Cherokee Nation, treaty with, rights of,
under, 286.

Of States, liability to tax on currency Child, Major John, pamphlet of, 146.

issued by, 245.

China, treaty with, interpreted, 291–293.

Chisholm, case against the State of Confederation, power of States in, 159.