144 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



bank capital of the country, and have and use 

 one quarter of its entire circulation; whose 

 citizens hold nearly three fourths of the whole 

 gold certificates of the Government, and within 

 whose State limits were collected in 1881 

 $141,958,855.90 of the customs, or nearly three 

 fourths of all in the country; whose banks 

 paid the Government $2,042,838 in taxes, or 

 one fourth of all paid ; the citizens of which 

 pay $17,233,393.75, or one eighth of the in- 

 ternal revenue of the Treasury, shall by a just 

 apportionment, according to numbers, because 

 of the largest ratio of apportionment, receive 

 an increase of one thirty-third of her repre- 

 sentation, or shall California receive an in- 

 crease of one fifth, Florida of one half, or 

 Rhode Island one half, as you shall give to one 

 of them the Representative taken from New 

 York. 



" Rhode Island, with only 276,531 ; Florida, 

 with only 269,493 ; and California, with 864,- 

 694, are each the equal of New York now in 

 the Senate, and will continue to be, although 

 her 5,082,871 should become 10,000,000. In 

 one branch of the Government they stand her 

 equal in legislative power, and, while their 

 combined population is but a fraction of hers, 

 their voice is three times as potential. 



" Am I met with the claim that wealth, the 

 sinew for the support of the Government and 

 her bulwark of defense, counts nothing in 

 representation ? 



" That such was not the design of the found- 

 ers of the Constitution, is self-evident. Taxa- 

 tion and representation they considered joint 

 factors in their blows for freedom. They re- 

 iterated it in the original wording of the Con- 

 stitution : 



> " Ecpresentation and direct taxes shall be appor- 

 tioned among the several States . . . according to 

 their respective numbers. 



u But they went further, when they added : 



"Which shall be determined by adding to the 



whole number of free persons, including those bound 



to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians 



not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. 



" This added three fifths of the described per- 

 sonal property of the States to make up the 

 representative population of the States. This 

 property in 1790 had 12 Representatives; in 

 1800, 16 ; in 1810, 20 ; in 1820, 22 ; in 1830, 25 ; 

 in 1840, 21 ; in 1850, 20 ; in 1860, 18, and it may 

 be her material wealth and position in the 

 Union in 1790 gave Massachusetts her extra 3, 

 in 1800 her extra 5, in 1810 her extra 7 and New 

 York her 2, in 1820 Alabama and Virginia their 

 1 additional. Be that as it may, this is not a 

 new claim. In 1791 Mr. Barn well asserted 

 that extent of territory should be regarded in 

 apportionment. Mr. Giles in 1792 contended 

 1 that a full and large representation was nec- 

 essary to give the landed interest of the coun- 

 try its proportion of power,' and Mr. Quincy 

 in 1810 asserted that apportionment ' ought to 

 be made, not merely in relation to population, 

 but the weight of the different States in the 



Union.' The same will be found in each dec- 

 ade of later date, and forms a reason why the 

 Representatives of other States upon this floor 

 should act equitably and deal justly with New 

 York, which, though originally the fifth State 

 of this Union, stands to-day, as she has since 

 1820, the first in the galaxy of States." 



Mr. Robinson, of Massachusetts: "I shall 

 address myself to one particular feature of this 

 bill, because the question of the total number 

 of the House will be discussed by other gen- 

 tlemen at length. I wish to speak of the dis- 

 tribution. 



"It will be noticed on examination, as has 

 been stated by my friend from New York, that 

 the only States that are affected in that distri- 

 bution by the choice of the old method or the 

 new method are six. Take the table that is 

 given to us by Mr. Seaton, of the Census Office, 

 under the number 320 you will find the column 

 that gives the numbers to the different States 

 under the old method first and then under the 

 new. Following down this column of figures 

 you will observe, for the figures catch the eye 

 readily, that no States are affected differently 

 from what they were under the former com- 

 putation, except Florida, Rhode Island, Cali- 

 fornia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Illinois. 



" Now, if the number fixed in this bill, 320, 

 is right and as to the discussion of methods 

 we will take it that it is starting with that 

 number as your basis, how will yon apportion 

 it ? Shall we take the old way, or shall we 

 take the new ? Certainly let us take the new 

 if it is better, if it is more just and equitable ; 

 but let us scan it very closely before we do 

 adopt it and discard the old method, which has 

 been heretofore considered just and equitable. 



"Now, in the last Congress when the bill 

 for 319 members was introduced and the total 

 number is not a matter of consequence in this 

 immediate connection the apportionment was 

 made on the old method ; and I find that the 

 gentleman from New York (Mr. Cox), who 

 was at that time the chairman of the Commit- 

 tee on the Census, said after assigning the 

 number of Representatives, that is, taking out 

 the even numbers in the first place from the 

 total numbers and assigning them to the States, 

 then he would assign the balance according to 

 the old method, and said : 



"The difference according to the best and most 

 equitable recent practice should he made up by as- 

 signing to the States having the largest fractions addi- 

 tional Representatives. 



" Now, on that basis of operation let us see 

 how we will manage. In the first place, we 

 take the entire number of members ; say 320 

 is the number fixed upon. The population of 

 the United States, leaving out those that should 

 be excluded, foots up 49,371,200. Dividing 

 that population by the number of Representa- 

 tives fixed in the bill, and you will have a quo- 

 tient of 154,285 to each Representative. That 

 is the precise number. Now, you are to take 

 that number, 154,285, and go around with it 





