[170] Except in Virginia, where the number was modified in proportion to the change made by the separation of West Virginia.
[171] By the act of that date all persons elected or appointed to any office under the government of the United States were required to take the following oath previous to entering upon the duties of such office: “I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility thereto; that I have neither sought nor accepted nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever, under any authority or pretended authority in hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power or constitution within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto. And I do further swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.”
[172] Appendix, Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 40th Congress, 39, 40.
[173] Johnson, Reconstruction, in Lalor, iii, 552; Cox, Three Decades of Federal Legislation, 378.
[174] Congressional Globe, appendix, 1st Session, 39th Congress, 43-4.
[175] McPherson, History of the Reconstruction, 335-6.
[176] Stanbery had ruled that the willingness of an applicant to take the oath must be regarded as final evidence of his qualification to register. Thus those notoriously incapacitated from taking the oath honestly, could not be prevented from registering. This additional power virtually enabled the boards of registration to exercise their own discretion as to whom they should enroll.
[177] Scott, Reconstruction during the Civil War, 317 ff.
[178] Cox, Three Decades of Federal Legislation, 512-14.
[179] McPherson, History of the Reconstruction, 336-7.