Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/835

 UNITED STATES V. AMBDEN. 823 �trom exercising or in exercising the right of suffrage, to whom the right of suffrage is secured or guarantied by the fif- teenth amendment." Punishment is not limited to aets of discrimination on account of race, etc., and we have already seen that the right of suffrage is not guarantied by the fif - teenth amendment. It is not an ofience against the laws of the United States to prevent a citizen, white or black, from Yoting at a state election by violence or otherwise. A further element is necessary in such a case to subject the offender to federal jurisdiction and punishment. The violence or other act which is resorted to must be done on account of the voter's race, etc. �In U. S. V. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, certain counts of the indictment, which was based upon section 6 of the enforce- ment act, charge the "intent of the defendants to have been to hiuder and prevent the citizens named, being of Afriean descent and color, in the exercise and enjoyment of their several and respective right and privilege to vote." In deliv- ering the opinion of the court, Chief Justice Waite said : "Inasmuch, therefore, as it does not appear in these counts that the intent of the defendants was to prevent these parties from exercising their right to vote on account of their race, etc., it does not appear that it was their intent to interfere with any right granted or secured by the constitution or laws of the United States. We may suspect that race was the cause of the hostility, but it is not so averred. This is a material description of the substance of the offence, and can- not be supplied by implication." The essential element of discrimination on account of race, etc., is wanting, both in the indictment and the section upon which it is based, and for that reason the indictment is bad, and the section is un- authorized by the fifteenth amendment. �It was a local state election at which it is charged that Wilson was prevented from voting. No law of the state is eomplained of, and no election or state officer is charged with wrong-doing. The allegation is that Wilson, a colored man, and a citizen of the United States, was prevented by the defendants from exercising the right of suffrage at the town- ��� �