[Footnote 1: See e.g., Farrand, "Records of the Federal Convention,"
Vol. II, p. 201 et seq.]

[Footnote 2: For a statement of the qualifications in the various states
see _Minor v. Happersett_, 21 Wall., 162.]

There the matter rested, with suffrage qualifications regulated entirely
by state law, until after the Civil War. Meanwhile, the states had been
abolishing property tests, and universal male suffrage had been written
into state constitutions. The cry for woman suffrage had begun, but as
yet it was only a still small voice, inaudible to legislators.

After the Civil War the problem of protecting the emancipated slaves had
to be dealt with, and three constitutional amendments (Nos. XIII, XIV,
and XV) were adopted with that end primarily in view. Number XIII,
ratified in 1865, formally abolished slavery. Number XIV, ratified in
1868, extended citizenship to all persons born in the United States and
provided (among other things) that no state should abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. Number XV,
ratified in 1870, provided that "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." Here was the entering wedge of federal interference. The
amendments did not purport to deal with woman suffrage, but the pioneers
of the suffrage movement thought they discovered in them a means of
advancing their cause and lost no time in putting the matter to the
test. Susan B. Anthony voted at Rochester, N.Y., in an election for a
representative in Congress, claiming that the restriction of voting to
males by the constitution and laws of New York was void as a violation
of the Fourteenth Amendment providing that "no state shall make or