124 Progress of Population and Wealth 



representatives as either Delaware or Arkansas ; and that the six 

 largest States are entitled to more votes than the remaining twenty, 

 so great is their disparity. So great, too, have been their relative 

 changes, that Tennessee, which, in 1790, was at the bottom of the 

 list of sixteen States, is now the fifth of twenty-six ; that Ohio, 

 which was the lowest in 1800, is now the third in rank ; and that 

 Virginia, which was first, and New York, which was the fourth, in 

 1790, have now changed places. 



But the dangers threatened by this gross inequality of power, and 

 the changes which its distribution is ever undergoing, are effectually 

 guarded against by the senate, a co-ordinate branch of the legisla- 

 ture, in which every State has two members. By this provision, 

 the smaller States are protected from the possible abuse of the 

 power possessed by the larger ; and the community from those 

 sudden changes of public policy, which might be apprehended from 

 the changes in the relative weight of the States after every census. 



In the election of president and vice president, the votes of the 

 States also vary according to their several numbers ; but as each 

 State has as many votes as it has members in both houses of con- 

 gress, the inequality is here much less than it is in the house of rep- 

 resentatives, and the relative weight of the smaller States receives 

 a great proportionate increase. Thus, New York, which has thirty- 

 four times as much weight in the house of representatives as Dela- 

 ware or Arkansas, has but twelve times as much in the presidential 

 election, that is, as 36 to 3. Rhode Island, which is but one-seven- 

 teenth of New York in the house, is one-ninth in the election ; and 

 New Hampshire, and the other States entitled to four votes, have 

 their relative weight increased, on a like comparison, from less than 

 an eighth (^\) to a sixth (j\.) New York herself, which has more 

 than a seventh of the whole number of representatives, has less than 

 a seventh of the presidential electors, or, more accurately, her rela- 

 tive weight is reduced from 15.2 per cent to 13.1 per cent. The 

 States of a medium population have nearly the same relative 

 weight in both cases. 



Time, which will augment the inequality among the States in 

 some respects, will diminish it in others. When they shall have 

 attained a dense population, the disproportion between the largest 

 and the smallest States will probably be greater than that which now 

 exists between New York and Delaware, and certainly greater than 

 that which is between New York and the next smallest States ; but 

 there will then, also, be a greater number of States which will ap- 



