Speech #530204932

I do not believe that it was ever contemplated that my rights as a citizen of the United States should be at the mercy of the particular State in which I happen to reside. It may seem presumptuous in me to give expression to it. but I never believed in the doctrine that a mans right to vote in a republican government was a privilege conferred.upon him by that government. or that it was essential to confer it by the fundamental law. When a man is born under the flag of a republic he becomes a citizen of that republic. and when born elsewhere and he takes the oath of allegiance he becomes a citizen of that republic. and in a republic that rests upon popular sovereignty as its foundation. that man carries with him by birth or by naturalization the inalienable right to participate in the affairs of the government and to cast his vote. if that be the method adopted for the choice of officers and the policy it is to pursue. I understand that in saying this I am opposed by a long line of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. I am not in ignorance of the fact that possibly I stand alone in this belief. but I can not conceive of the existence of an American citizen or a citizen of a republican government without at the same time considering his right to participate in that government as natural and as inalienable as is the arm or any other member of the human body.