thirty-three of this body. It was also to be expected
that the six Johnsonian new converts to Democracy would oppose and
vote against this measure, commencing with the gentleman from New
York, [Mr. Raymond,] who, I believe, has the disease in the most
virulent form, thence down to the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr.
Smith,] who preceded me on this question, and who has the mildest and
most amiable type of the infection. Upon them, too, arguments are
useless. There must, then, be thirty-nine votes against the measure,
and I want there to be no more."

To the objection urged against the third section of the proposed
amendment, that it would disfranchise nine-tenths of all the voters of
the South, Mr. Broomall replied: "This is a grand mistake. There were
in 1860 one million one hundred and twenty thousand voters in those
eleven States. We may take seven hundred and fifty thousand as the
number of individuals in the South who rendered aid and comfort to the
enemy, not counting the comparatively few though powerful leaders who
rendered aid and comfort outside of the army. But, sir, we do not
propose to disfranchise even these seven hundred and fifty thousand.
Supposing two hundred and fifty thousand of the rebel army were lost,
we have five hundred thousand actual voters in the South to be
disfranchised by this measure, if they come within the meaning of it.
But do they come within the meaning of this provision? Why, sir, it
does not embrace the unwilling conscripts; it does not embrace the men
who were compelled to serve in the army. It would be fair to say three
hundred thousand of these people belonged to the unwilling class, who
were forced into the army by rigid conscription laws and the various
contrivances of the leading rebels. This will leave two hundred
thousand; and I say now it is utterly impossible, in my opinion, that
the number of people in the South who can be operated upon by this
provision should exceed two hundred thousand, if, indeed, it should
reach the one half of that number. Is this nine-tenths of the voters
of the South? Why, it is about one in every twelve."

Mr. Shanklin opposed the amendment as intended "to disfranchise the
people of the Southern States who have gone into this rebellion, until
the party in power could fasten and rivet the chains of oppression for
all time to come, and hedge themselves in power, that they may rule
and control those people at will."

Mr. Shanklin closed his speech