are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of
law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection
of the law.

The 15th amendment provides 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.

Chief Justice Waite, in the case of the United States vs. Cruikshank, 92nd
U.S. 542, said:--

"The 14th amendment prohibits a State from denying to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. The equality of the
rights of citizens is a principle of republicanism. Every Republican
government is in duty bound to protect all its citizens in the enjoyment
of this principle if within its power."

The same Chief Justice, in the case of the United States vs. Reese, 92nd
U.S. 214, said:

"The 15th amendment does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone. It
prevents the States or the United States from giving preference in this
particular to one citizen of the United States over another, on account of
race, color or previous condition of servitude. Before its adoption this
could be done. It was as much within the power of a State to exclude
citizens of the United States from voting on account of race and color, as
it was on account of age, property or education. Now it is not."