EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Equality before the law

... franchise. The minority, however, was composed of very earnest men of the same type as those who originally created and combined the anti-slavery sentiment of the country, and who now espoused the right of the negro to equality before the law. Equality, they believed, could neither be conferred nor maintained unless the negro were invested with the badge of American manhood—the right to vote—a right which they were determined to guarantee as firmly to the colored man as it was already ...

— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine