of voters to population differs very widely in different sections,
varying, in the States referred to, from a minimum of nineteen per
cent to a maximum of fifty-eight per cent; and some of the changes
which its effect would work in the relative representation of certain
States would be monstrous. For example, California has a population of
358,110 and Vermont a population of 314,369, and each has three
representatives on this floor to-day. But California has 207,000
voters and Vermont had only 87,000. Assuming voters as the basis of
apportionment and allowing to Vermont three representatives, California
would be entitled to eight. The great State of Ohio, with nearly
seven times the population of California, would have but little more
than two and a half times the number of representatives; and New York,
with quite eleven times the population of California, would have, in
the proposed method of apportionment, less than five times as many
members of this House."

Mr. Blaine adduced some other examples less extreme than those quoted,
but the generalization was no doubt too broad and presented in some
respects an erroneous conclusion. The only mode of getting at the
number of voters was by the ballots cast at the general elections,
and the relative ratio was varied by so many considerations that
it did not correctly represent the actual number of voters in each
State. But the facts presented by Mr. Blaine and elaborated by other
speakers turned the attention of the House away from an apportionment
based on voters.

Mr. Conkling, a few days later, in referring to Mr. Blaine's argument,
maintained that "the ratio, in dividing the whole population of the
United States into two hundred and forty-one representative districts,
leaving out such extreme cases as California, would not be seriously
affected by assuming the white male voters as the basis of
apportionment." On the 15th of January Mr. Conkling submitted a
Constitutional amendment on the subject, in two forms; making the
proviso in one case that "whenever in any one State the political
rights or privileges of any man shall be denied or abridged on
account of race or color, all persons of such race or color shall be
excluded from the basis of representation," and the other providing
that "when the elective franchise in any State shall be denied or
abridged on account of race or color, all persons of such race or color
so denied shall be excluded from the basis