160 



CONGRESS. (THE APPORTIONMENT.) 



voliiiif age 121,504, a total electorate of 271,940. 

 The workings of the new Constitution reduced the 

 registered colored electors to 10,234 and the reg- 

 isfered white electois to 109,337, or a total elect- 

 orate of 125,571. This is an abridgment of 140,- 

 309,. or 54 per cent. 



" There is a vagueness to these statistics, because 

 it is not shown how many voters eligible to regis- 

 ter under the new law failed for reasons other than 

 legal to do so. They show, however, the extent of 

 the abridgment. 



"In 1897, under the operations of the old law 

 in Louisiana, we find there was a registration of 

 104,088 white electors and 130,344 colored electors. 

 Under the new law the registration in 1898 was 

 74,133 white and 02,402 colored electors. This is 

 an abridgment of the 294,432 voters of 1897 to 

 130.535, or of 157,897, or 53 per cent. 



" Having shown a general abridgment, irrespec- 

 tive of sectional lines, of the electorate in a num- 

 ber of the States, it is of moment to inquire into 

 the manner in which the applications of the penal- 

 izing provisions of the fourteenth amendment 

 would a f Feet the representation in Congress. It 

 is the purpose of my resolution to secure informa- 

 tion through official channels that is needed. Es- 

 timates can be made from incomplete and scat- 

 tered data, but these are not sufficient for Congress 

 to act upon. From such as have been available I 

 estimate the proportion [percentage?] of males 

 over twenty-one and citizens of the United States 

 who have been disfranchised by the action of the 

 States to be as follows: California, 7.7; Connecti- 

 cut, 5.3; Delaware, 14.3; Louisiana, 45.8; Maine, 

 5.5 ; Massachusetts, 0.2 ; Mississippi, 40 ; North 

 Carolina, 35.7; South Carolina, 45; Wyoming, 3.4. 



" The Committee on Census has prepared ma- 

 jority and minority reports to this House on this 

 matter. To my mind neither answers the require- 

 ments of the Constitution. The majority report is 

 one which is absolutely in defiance of the Consti- 

 tution in that it makes population alone the basis 

 of representation, while it ignores the fact that in 

 10 States the electorates have been abridged an 

 average of 21 per cent. The minority report is 

 defective in that, while it is based upon the four- 

 teenth amendment, the information which Con- 

 gress must have upon the matter before it can 

 proceed has not as yet been gathered. It is incom- 

 plete, and therefore unsatisfactory; but it is far 

 preferable to the other, because it attempts, though 

 in a crude fashion, to comply with the require- 

 ments of the Constitution." 



Mr. Burleigh, in advocating an increase in the 

 membership of the House of Representatives, 

 said: 



" I know that there is always a tendency in a 

 legislative body, especially among those who have 

 had long experience in its service and who have 

 been more or less entrusted with the direction of 

 its affairs, to guard jealously its powers and 

 privileges, to be distrustful of changes, and to 

 ding tenaciously to the old-established order of 

 things. While this feeling is not unnatural, it 

 may readily be carried to extremes, and when it 

 reaches a point where those who entertain it 

 are willing to overlook or ignore the facts of 

 progress it may easily become an impediment or a 

 menace to the public welfare. The movement for 

 a contracted House of Representatives an as- 

 sembly making no attempt to keep pace with the 

 nation's growth and needs has had, so far as I 

 have observed, its source and its inspiration in 

 this Capitol and not with the American people. 

 The people of this country demand and they 

 ought to have adequate and efficient representa- 

 tion here, and every measure that tends to widen 



the distance between the individual citizen and his 

 Representative in Washington is a contraction of 

 popular power and privilege, and out of harmony 

 with the spirit of our institutions. 



" So far from being a source of weakness a strong 

 popular assembly is a source of strength, as the 

 experience of other nations has amply demon- 

 strated. I submit the following table, showjng 

 the representation in a number of the leading 

 countries of the world and the ratio which it 

 bears in each instance to population: 



" The comparisons afforded by these figures are 

 certainly striking. We have been so accustomed 

 to think of our land as the home of liberty, and 

 so gradual has been the official usurpation of 

 popular power, that it is somewhat startling for 

 us to come face to face with the fact that there 

 is not to-day a single constitutional monarchy 

 in all Europe whose people do not enjoy vastly 

 more power in national legislation than is pos- 

 sessed by the citizens of the United States. Take 

 a member of the English House of Common's, a 

 member of the French Chamber of Deputies, a 

 member of the lower house of the Spanish Cortes, 

 and a member of the Italian Chamber of Depu- 

 ties, and their combined constituency is but 220,- 

 347 only 17,479 more than the bill reported by 

 the gentleman from Illinois purposes to give to 

 a single Representative of the great American 

 people! " 



Mr. Crumpacker made a speech in behalf of 

 his ow 7 n measure, in which he strengthened the 

 appeal to general principles and to the provi- 

 sions of the fourteenth amendment by specific 

 illustrations and citations from election statistics. 

 In closing he said: 



" Whenever an attempt is made to consider any 

 measure that affects the race question in the 

 South, the unworthy cry of ' sectionalism ' is 

 raised. I am only insisting upon the enforcement 

 of the plain mandate of the Constitution, and 

 for that I make no apology to any person or State. 

 Is the Constitution sectional? Are human rights 

 local? If they are, I am justly subject to the 

 reproach of ' sectionalism.' Gentlemen who re- 

 cently talked themselves into a frenzy of passion 

 over fancied transgressions of the charter of gov- 

 ernment, ought to willingly assent to the enforce- 

 ment of its plain provisions in their own States. 

 Gentlemen who hysterically urged the interven- 

 tion of the Government to protect an* inferior 

 race against tyranny and oppression in the dis- 

 tant islands of the sea, should not protest so 

 vehemently upon the suggestion that an inferior 

 race be accorded its plain constitutional rights 

 at home. 



" But the question is not sectional. Every State 

 in the Union is vitally interested in it. Inequal- 

 ity is injustice; therefore, it is unjust that one 

 voter in Mississippi should exercise as much power 

 in national affairs as four voters in New York; it 

 is unjust that one vote in South Carolina should 

 count for as much as ten votes in Indiana. 



" Besides this, each State is powerfully affected 

 by the customs and institutions in every other 



