The next point of inquiry is, How is it that the State laws which formerly did proscribe women and exclude them from the exercise of suffrage, no longer _do_ so? Simply and effectively by this fact, that, by the adoption of the XV. Article of Amendments to the Constitution, the States established, as the “SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND,” the fact that no person born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof shall be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, of the RIGHT TO VOTE. Women are citizens of the United States; and the States themselves, by their own voluntary act, have established the fact of their citizenship, and confirmed their right to vote, which, by such action, has become the supreme law of the land, which supersedes, annuls and abrogates all previous State laws inconsistent therewith or contravening the same. The XV. Article of Amendments to the Constitution is as much a part of it as any originally adopted; for Art VI., ¶ 2, says: This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, _shall be_ THE SUPREME _law of_ THE LAND; and the _judges in_ EVERY _State shall_ BE BOUND THEREBY; anything in _the Constitution or laws_ OF ANY _State_ TO THE CONTRARY NOTWITHSTANDING. The XV. Amendment was adopted by the several States as a legislative enactment by their Legislatures, under Art V., which provides: The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, _shall propose amendments to this Constitution_; or, on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, _which_, in either case, _shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution_, when _ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths thereof_ as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress, provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, shall, in any manner, affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; AND THAT NO STATE, WITHOUT ITS CONSENT, SHALL BE DEPRIVED OF ITS EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN THE SENATE.