REPRESENTATION. 



jrovernments of tie I'liiicd States and of the Statea at 

 tin 1 formation of UM OoMtttodoB. 



We find in examining the repn sontative system u 



ti in tin- 1 nitcd States two modes of repi 

 lion. Ixitli of which may be tcnneil popular, but differ- 

 ing Iri'lii each other :is ilirecl ami indirect. The' rep- 

 .tion in the House of Representatives of the 

 GoncrM of the United 'tales uol'the direct kind, 

 while I hat in tlie Senate of tin- I'liiicd Stales is indirect. 

 Ill Uilh eases the people of the Stairs are the sources 

 from w hieh the reproeentation is derived, but in th- one 

 M adireot ehoice of tlio representatives 

 through a popular cleetioii. while in the oilier that 

 choice is made hy the Ix-gi.-latiiro of the State, and yet 

 a- that Ix-gi.-lature is the product of popular election. 

 it may t-till be regarded as poimlar in its nature 

 although indirectly exorcised by tlie people. 



Tlie members of the U. S. House of Repre- 

 sentatives are chosen by the people in OOQgrWHOOa] 

 dislricis, caeh State being subdivided to mal.e Mich 

 district*. The Senators, on the other hand, are 

 chosen by the legislatures of the several States. The 

 congressional districts from which members of the 

 House of Representatives are chosen are not organ- 

 ized conniiunilies, but merely geographical divisions of 

 population. As the people of these districts do not 

 ad together as a distinctive eoniinniiity, exercising 

 municipal power.it is to be concluded that their choice 

 represents a collective body of individual preferences. 

 On t lie oilier hand the selection of the U. S. Sena- 

 ntors is the act of the agents of government of a 

 Slate, chosen by the people of the State for objects 

 having direct relation to the local interests of such 

 State. It will be found, when considering the rep- 

 resentative system of certain of the States, that 

 the U. S. House of Representatives has a more 

 distinctly popular character, as proceeding directly 

 from popular choice , independently of the cf,- 

 local organization, than prevails in the legislative 

 bodies of the States, and that the Senate of the I'nited 

 is the only legislative body in the Knifed States 

 that is based upon the governmental action of organ- 

 ized communities. 



Of these two methods of deriving representation 

 that which proceeds from the action of 'organized com- 

 munities through their local governmental agencies ap- 

 |>ears to be that most intimately related to forms of 

 government that preceded popular institutions. Such 



ro 



representation are round in federated states 

 that have a common administration of such interests 

 as are in common among them, anil indeed prevail 

 where independent states are represented in consulting 

 bodies acting in the common interest. This mode of 

 utation although popular, as based on popular 

 selection, may be termed frdi-rtil, for although the 

 term federal in its origin cxpivs.-ed the idea of author- 

 ity derived from a compact or contract, still in its 

 modern use it is applied to relations between organ- 

 izi d communities of a governmental nature bound 

 together by A national tie. 



We 6nd that, in the early constitution of the Tirilish 

 House of Commons, cities and boroughs were distinct- 

 ively represented as municipal bodies, and that direct 

 popular representation in that body lias been tin- pro- 

 dud of the development of liberal ideas in later times. 



When the whole people of an organized community 

 thai is part of a more general government vote. 

 ively in the choice of representatives to 

 powers of such general government, it in evident that 

 the local interests of such community will be reflect! d 

 in the choice made by them to a much greater decree 

 than where such community is subdivided upon 

 geographical rather than upon political lines into 

 districts, each district exercising independently of each 

 other a collective choice of siieh rcpresentap 

 AVhilc a State or lesser community may maintain a 

 certain line of policy as a whole, it is not, to be an 

 paled that that jMilioy will express the preferences of ! 



each of the various geographical subdivisions into 

 which it may be divided. A choice that lots iipuii 

 the action of an organized community through its 

 governmental agents may be said to bo based 

 corporate opinion, while that which proceeds directly 

 from the people, independent of corporati -organization, 

 may IK- said to represent individual opinion. Th;r 

 munilics in their organic action do not a. -euratelv rep- 

 resent the ( - of individual opinion and n n- 

 liment nrcvaiiing among their people is commonly 

 observed. Material interests are apt to dominate 

 social ideas in what is here termed corporate opinion. 

 while a better opportunity for the expte.-.sion oi 

 ideas and tendencies is afforded by direct individual 

 action. 



It is apparent from what has been said that the. 

 tendency, that is observed in popular governments, to 

 reach a direct expression of individual opinion 

 to enhance the social influences as distinguished from 

 those of a material character, while the conservation 

 of methods intimately connected with corporate opin- 

 ion tends to give coherence to the system, thus e.-ni 

 billing tOgetMr progres.-ive and conservative tcndi n- 

 cies to produce that dualism without which society 

 would be incomplete. 



As has been observed, the constitution of Congress 

 utilizes both of these sources of influence each in its 

 most vigorous form. In the constitution of the logis- 

 ative bodies of the States of the 1'nioii the same gen- 

 eral truths are observed, but less disiinetl. 

 In Massachusetts the representation in the House of 

 Representatives is based upon the towns, while that of 

 the Senate rests on towns united to form districts, but 

 the choice of representatives proceeds from tl 

 pie of the towns, and not from their corporate antlior- 

 \Vhile this is an instance of direct popular 

 choice, the. compact organization of the towns, and the 

 doM relation of the action of the town authority to 

 the interest of the people, (end strongly to color the 

 popular choice with the qualities of the prevailing cor- 

 porate opinion. In New York the legislative repre- 

 sentation is based upon counties thecouniics being sub- 

 divided for the choice of members of Assembly, and 

 united to form districts for the election of senators. The 

 counties of New York arc much less compact bodies 

 than the towns of Massachusetts, affecting the inleie-ti 

 of the people in a much more limited way, and hen, c it 

 would follow that individual tendencies would, as com- 

 pared with corporate tendencies, 1; more effective in 

 New York than in Massachusetts. The subdivisions 

 of the counties in NC.W York for the formation of dis- 

 tricts for the (lection of representatives to the popular 

 branch of the legislature tend to give expression to 

 neighborhood interests and opinion, and thus individ- 

 ual opinion is brought under the influence of limited 

 local c:i 



The instances of Massachusetts and New York may 

 be taken as the typos of the systems prevailing 

 throughout the I'nited State.', the former principally 

 in New England, and the. latter throughout the rest 

 of the Tinted States. It has already been remarked 

 that neighborhood opinion is a factor whore small elec- 

 tion districts aroere-ited. and this affords the reason lor 

 einent already made that representation in 

 the U. S. House of I'oprescntativos has a more 

 direct relation to generalized popular (.pinion than in 

 any of (ho systems prevailing in the Stales. The large 

 territorial extent of the congre~.-ional di.-triels cancels 



tho influence of neighborhood opinion, while, the fact 

 ii di.-liiets have no corpoiMle e.xislenee for mu- 

 nicipal pi irp. i i exclude the < I i nation . 



porato opinion, and the result, is. or should be, a clean r 



approximation to a fair generalization of individual 

 opinion. Methods of selection and the influence of 

 party action may and do change these results, but tho 

 tendencies ncvert' i and continue to act. and in 



lone periods of time will produce their proper result". 

 The govcrniiK-:.t of the I niied Males, considered 



