Those who vote for Representatives to Congress must have the qualifications requisite to enable them to vote for members of the lower house of the State legislature, but it is not clear by whom these qualifications are to be prescribed. The common opinion has been that the State prescribes them. The Constitution says simply that the qualifications must be the same; so that whoever can vote for the State representative can vote for the National one also, and vice versa. The Constitution does say that Representatives to Congress shall be elected by the people; thus virtually saying that the members of the most numerous branch of the State legislature shall also be elected by the people.

Clause 2.-No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

The qualifications of a Representative relate to age, citizenship, and inhabitancy; he must be twenty-five years old, a citizen of the United States for seven years, and an inhabitant of the State where he is elected. It has been decided that the States can not prescribe additional qualifications.

According to the Articles of Confederation, no person could be a Representative in Congress more than three years in six; and each State prescribed the qualifications of its own Representatives. In the British Parliament the required age is twenty-one years; and the same age is required in the different States of our Union. The Representative must have been a citizen of the United States for seven years. The United States is spoken of as one country, a nation. It would be nonsense to say a Representative must have been seven years a citizen of the thirteen States. Yet a United States Senator, in an argument for secession, once said, on the floor of the Sen

C. G. 5.

ate, that he pitied the stupidity of any one who supposed there was or could be a citizen of the United States! There was stupidity somewhere plainly enough, and with the Constitution before us it is not difficult to see where it belonged.

The Representative must be an inhabitant of the State in which he is chosen, but not necessarily of the district. In England, members of Parliament often represent boroughs and cities other than those in which they live. No such case has occurred in this country, however. The Constitution does not require the Representative to be a voter. If a State should come into the Union through conquest or purchase, the inhabitants becoming citizens thereby, the seven years' citizenship would not be insisted on.

Clause 3.-Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, 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. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shal not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until suci enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three; Massachusetts, eight; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one; Connecticut, five; New York, six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, eight; Delaware, one; Maryland, six; Virginia. ten; North Carolina, five; South Carolina, five; and Georgia, three.

When the Continental Congress commenced its sessions, September 5th, 1774, the following resolution was adopted:

"Resolved, That in determining questions in this Congress, each colony or province shall have one vote: the Congress not being possessed of, or at present able to procure, proper materials for ascertaining the impor tance of each colony."

'As if foreseeing the time when population would become of necessity the basis of congressional power, they inserted, in the resolve determining that each colony should have one vote, a caution that would prevent its being drawn into precedent."

1

The Articles of Confederation followed the same rule, and thus this method of voting prevailed till the Constitution went into operation in 1789. When the Convention decided to form two legislative bodies, the question of voting came up. Some were in favor of an equal representation by States in each branch, while others favored a popular basis, and a proportionate representation in each House. In general, the larger States wished the representation to be in proportion to the importance of the State, while the smaller States favored an equality, as in the Continental Congress.

It was first decided that in the House of Representatives suffrage should not be like that under the Confederation, but according to some equitable ratio of representation. The question then arose as to the basis of that ratio. Should the different States send Representatives in proportion to their population or their wealth? And if according to population, who were the people? Should the number of representatives be according to the number of voters, or as the white population, or as the free population, or as the

1 Curtis, I, p. 17.

whole? It was decided that the representation from the States should be "according to their respective numbers," that is, as the whole population, but that only three-fifths of the slaves should be counted.

According to the Articles of Confederation, the votes were by States - each State, whether large or small, having one vote. But the quotas for the support of the General Government were as the values of real estate in the several States. In 1783, a proposition was made to alter that provision so that each State should pay "in proportion to the whole number of free inhabitants, and three-fifths of the number of all other inhabitants of every sex and condition, except Indians not paying taxes in any State." The Convention followed, both as to representation and direct taxes, the rule approved by the majority of the Continental Congress in 1783 for the payment of taxes, and this was the origin of the three-fifths rule.

The adoption of this rule was favorable to the Slave States as it increased the number of their Representatives; it was unfavorable as it increased their proportion of direct taxes. The advantage was greater than the disadvantage, however, as they enjoyed the increased number of Representatives continually, while direct taxes have been levied but five times since the adoption of the Constitution.

Slavery having been abolished in 1865, by an amendment to the Constitution, all the colored population must be counted in determining the number of Representatives from a State. If this class of the population could not vote, the Southern States would have nearly twice as many Representatives, in proportion to the number of voters, as the Northern States. Thus, by the census of 1860, Pennsylvania had 2.893,266 white inhabitants, and twenty-four Representatives.

Jour. Cont. Congress, VIII, p. 123.

North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana had 2,829,785 white inhabitants, and thirty-nine Representatives. If the white inhabitants and three-fifths of the blacks gave them thirty-nine Representatives, these States would have fifty Representatives, counting all the blacks; that is, with a less voting population than Pennsylvania they would have more than twice as many Representatives. To remedy this inequality, the Fourteenth Amendment provides that if the right to vote is denied to any class of citizens, the basis of representation shall be reduced in proportion.

The basis of representation was reported at forty thousand by the Committee, and so remained till the last day of the Convention, when it was changed to thirty thousand, General Washington himself advocating the change. This is said to have been the only occasion on which he entered into the discussions of the Convention.

Should the

A question arose early in Washington's administration as to the construction of this clause. number of Representatives be determined by dividing the whole population of the United States by the number taken as the basis of representation, or by dividing the population of the respective States by that number, and taking the sum of the quotients. The former method would give the largest number of Representatives, and was adopted by Congress in the bill first passed. But the bill was returned by President Washington, as conflicting with the language of the Constitution. Congress yielded to the judgment of the President; and the method then adopted, of dividing the population of each State by the basis of representation, continued till 1842, when an act of Congress provided that there should be one Representative for every 70,680, and for a fraction greater than one-half of this number. By act of May 23d, 1850, it was pro