of the laws." The clause on which we rely, to wit:--"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," might be stricken out of the section, and the residue would secure to the citizen every right which is now secured, excepting the political rights of voting and holding office. _If the clause in question does not secure those political rights, it is entirely nugatory, and might as well have been omitted._ If we go to the lexicographers and to the writers upon law, to learn what are the privileges and immunities of the "citizen" in a republican government, we shall find that the leading feature of citizenship is the enjoyment of the right of suffrage. The definition of the term "citizen" by _Bouvier_ is: "One who under the constitution and laws of the United States, has a right to vote for Representatives in Congress, and other public officers, and who is qualified to fill offices in the gift of the people." By _Worcester_--"An inhabitant of a republic who enjoys the rights of a freeman, and has a right to vote for public officers." By _Webster_--"In the United States, a person, native or naturalized, who has the privilege of exercising the elective franchise, or the qualifications which enable him to vote for rulers, and to purchase and hold real estate." The meaning of the word "citizen" is directly and plainly recognized by the latest amendment of the constitution (the fifteenth.) "_The right of the 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." This clause assumes that the right of citizens, _as such_, to vote, is an existing right. Mr. Richard Grant White, in his late work on Words and their Uses, says of the word citizen: "A citizen is a person who has certain political rights, and the word is properly used only to imply or suggest the possession of these rights." Mr. Justice Washington, in the case of _Corfield vs. Coryell (4 Wash, C.C. Rep. 380)_, speaking of the "privileges and immunities" of the citizen, as mentioned in Sec. 2, Art. 4, of the constitution, after enumerating the personal rights mentioned above, and some others, as embraced by those terms, says, "to which may be added the elective franchise, as regulated and established by the laws or constitution of the State in which it is to be exercised." At that time the States had entire control of the subject, and could abridge this privilege of the citizen at its pleasure; but the judge recognizes the "elective franchise" as among the "privileges and immunities" secured, to a qualified extent, to the citizens of every State by the provisions of the constitution last referred to. When, therefore, the States were, by