in the United States in Fifty Years. 



123 



CHAPTER XV. 



DISTRIBUTION OF POLITICAL POWER. 



As, by the federal constitution, political power, in some of its 

 highest functions, is distributed among the several States according 

 to their respective numbers, their relative weight in the govern- 

 ment, besides being very unequal, has greatly varied after every 

 census, in consequence of their very different rates of increase. 



The following table shows the number of representatives in con- 

 gress assigned to each State under the several apportionments : 



Note.— The States marked thus * were admitted into the Union after the apportionment under which 

 they are here arranged was made, but before the succeeding census. 



It will be seen, by the preceding table, that the largest State, 

 New York, has thirty-four times as much w r eight in the house of 



