State laws determine many civil
rights; they may, for instance, as in Vir-
ginia, prevent a woman—who, the opponents of suffrage are apt to tell us,
has equal civil citizenship with men—
from practicing law, or in Delaware,
from having an equal claim with her
husband to her children, or, as in Louisiana, from having equal control of the
community property with her husband.
Since there are forty-eight states with
forty-eight codes it is impracticable to
specify here what the state civil rights
of citizens consist in.
The first eight amendments of the federal constitution are always thought of
as giving civil rights to American citizens. They did, in fact, give civil rights
to "all residents or inhabitants of the
country, alien or citizen. These rights
are freedom of religion, of speech, of assemblage and of petition, right to bear
arms, to public trial, to trial by jury,
security from seizure of life, liberty or
property without due process or law,
from excessive bail fines and penalties
and from the burden of quartering soldiers in time of peace.
Justice Miller of the United States
supreme court in the Slaughter House
cases sums up the federal civil rights of
citizens and Inhabitants. The citizen of
the United States has "the right to seek
its protection, share its offices, tans-
act business and engage in administering its functions. He has the right to
free access to its seaports through
which all operations of foreign com-
merce are conducted, to the sub-treas-
uries(?) and land offices in the several
states.
