1 Opinion of the Court. vania put it, "equal numbers of people ought to have an equal no. of representatives . . ." and representatives "of different districts ought clearly to hold the same proportion to each other, as their respective constituents hold to each other." "7 Some delegates opposed election by the people. The sharpest objection arose out of the fear on the part of small States like Delaware that if population were to be the only basis of representation the populous States like Virginia would elect a large enough number of representatives to wield overwhelming power in the National Government.18 Arguing that the Convention had no authority to depart from the plan of the Articles of Confederation which gave each State an equal vote in the National Congress, William Paterson of New Jersey said, "If the sovereignty of the States is to be maintained, the Representatives must be drawn immediately from the States, not from the people: and we have no power to vary the idea of equal sovereignty." 19 To this end he proposed a single legislative chamber in which each State, as in the Confederation, was to have an equal vote.20 A number of delegates supported this plan.2 The delegates who wanted every man's vote to count alike were sharp in their criticism of giving each State, 17 Id., at 180. 18 Luther Martin of Maryland declared "that the States being equal cannot treat or confederate so as to give up an equality of votes without giving up their liberty: that the propositions on the table were a system of slavery for 10 States: that as Va. Masts. & Pa. have 42/90 of the votes they can do as they please without a miraculous Union of the other ten: that they will have nothing to do, but to gain over one of the ten to make them compleat masters of the rest . . . ." Id., at 438. 19 Id., at 251. 20 3 id., at 613. 21 E. g., 1 id., at 324 (Alexander Martin of North Carolina); id., at 437-438, 439-441, 444-445, 453-455 (Luther Martin of Maryland); id., at 490-492 (Gunning Bedford of Delaware). Opinion of the Court. 376 U.S. regardless of population, the same voice in the National Legislature. Madison entreated the Convention "to renounce a principle wch. was confessedly unjust," 22 and Rufus King of Massachusetts "was prepared for every event, rather than sit down under a Govt. founded in a vicious principle of representation and which must be as shortlived as it would be unjust." 23 25 24 The dispute came near ending the Convention without a Constitution. Both sides seemed for a time to be hopelessly obstinate. Some delegations threatened to withdraw from the Convention if they did not get their way." Seeing the controversy growing sharper and emotions rising, the wise and highly respected Benjamin Franklin arose and pleaded with the delegates on both sides to "part with some of their demands, in order that they may join in some accomodating proposition." 2 At last those who supported representation of the people in both houses and those who supported it in neither were brought together, some expressing the fear that if they did not reconcile their differences, "some foreign sword will probably do the work for us." 26 The deadlock was finally broken when a majority of the States agreed to what has been called the Great Compromise," based on a proposal which had been repeatedly advanced by Roger 22 Id., at 464. 23 Id., at 490. 24 Gunning Bedford of Delaware said: "We have been told (with a dictatorial air) that this is the last moment for a fair trial in favor of a good Governmt. .. The Large States dare not dissolve the confederation. If they do the small ones will find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith, who will take them by the hand and do them justice." Id., at 492. 25 Id., at 488. 26 Id., at 532 (Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts). George Mason of Virginia urged an "accomodation" as "preferable to an appeal to the world by the different sides, as had been talked of by some Gentlemen." Id., at 533. 27 See id., at 551. 1 Opinion of the Court. Sherman and other delegates from Connecticut.28 It provided on the one hand that each State, including little Delaware and Rhode Island, was to have two Senators. As a further guarantee that these Senators would be considered state emissaries, they were to be elected by the state legislatures, Art. I, § 3, and it was specially provided in Article V that no State should ever be deprived of its equal representation in the Senate. The other side of the compromise was that, as provided in Art. I, § 2, members of the House of Representatives should be chosen "by the People of the several States" and should be "apportioned among the several States . . . according to their respective Numbers." While those who wanted both houses to represent the people had yielded on the Senate, they had not yielded on the House of Representatives. William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut had summed it up well: "in one branch the people, ought to be represented; in the other, the States." 29 The debates at the Convention make at least one fact abundantly clear: that when the delegates agreed that the House should represent "people" they intended that in allocating Congressmen the number assigned to each State should be determined solely by the number of the State's inhabitants.30 The Constitution embodied Edmund Randolph's proposal for a periodic census to ensure "fair representation of the people," " an idea endorsed by Mason as assuring that "numbers of inhabitants" 31 28 See id., at 193, 342-343 (Roger Sherman); id., at 461-462 (William Samuel Johnson). 29 Id., at 462. (Emphasis in original.) 30 While "free Persons" and those "bound to Service for a Term of Years" were counted in determining representation, Indians not taxed were not counted, and "three fifths of all other Persons" (slaves) were included in computing the States' populations. Art. I, §2. Also, every State was to have "at Least one Representative." 311 Ferrand, at 580. Opinion of the Court. 376 U.S. should always be the measure of representation in the House of Representatives.32 The Convention also overwhelmingly agreed to a resolution offered by Randolph to base future apportionment squarely on numbers and to delete any reference to wealth.33 And the delegates defeated a motion made by Elbridge Gerry to limit the number of Representatives from newer Western States so that it would never exceed the number from the original States.34 It would defeat the principle solemnly embodied in the Great Compromise-equal representation in the House for equal numbers of people-for us to hold that, within the States, legislatures may draw the lines of congressional districts in such a way as to give some voters a greater voice in choosing a Congressman than others. The House of Representatives, the Convention agreed, was to represent the people as individuals, and on a basis of complete equality for each voter. The delegates were quite aware of what Madison called the "vicious representation" in Great Britain 35 whereby "rotten boroughs" with few inhabitants were represented in Parliament on or almost on a par with cities of greater population. Wilson urged that people must be represented as individuals, so that America would escape 32 Id., at 579. 33 Id., at 606. Those who thought that one branch should represent wealth were told by Roger Sherman of Connecticut that the "number of people alone [was] the best rule for measuring wealth as well as representation; and that if the Legislature were to be governed by wealth, they would be obliged to estimate it by numbers." Id., at 582. 34 2 id., at 3. The rejected thinking of those who supported the proposal to limit western representation is suggested by the statement of Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania that "The Busy haunts of men not the remote wilderness, was the proper School of political Talents." 1 id., at 583. 35 Id., at 464. 1 Opinion of the Court. the evils of the English system under which one man could send two members to Parliament to represent the borough of Old Sarum while London's million people sent but four.36 The delegates referred to rotten borough apportionments in some of the state legislatures as the kind of objectionable governmental action that the Constitution should not tolerate in the election of congressional representatives.37 Madison in The Federalist described the system of division of States into congressional districts, the method which he and others 38 assumed States probably would adopt: "The city of Philadelphia is supposed to contain between fifty and sixty thousand souls. It will therefore form nearly two districts for the choice of Fœderal Representatives." " "[N]umbers," he said, not only are a suitable way to represent wealth but in any event "are the only proper scale of representation." 40 In the state conventions, speakers urging ratification of the Constitution emphasized the theme of equal representation in the House which had permeated the debates in Phila 39 36 Id., at 457. "Rotten boroughs" have long since disappeared in Great Britain. Today permanent parliamentary Boundary ComLissions recommend periodic changes in the size of constituencies, as population shifts. For the statutory standards under which these commissions operate, see House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Acts of 1949, 12 & 13 Geo. 6, c. 66, Second Schedule, and of 1958, 6 & 7 Eliz. 2, c. 26, Schedule. 37 2 id., at 241. 38 See, e. g., 2 Works of Alexander Hamilton (Lodge ed. 1904) 25 (statement to New York ratifying convention). 39 The Federalist, No. 57 (Cooke ed. 1961), at 389. 40 Id., No. 54, at 368. There has been some question about the authorship of Numbers 54 and 57, see The Federalist (Lodge ed. 1908) xxiii-xxxv, but it is now generally believed that Madison was the author, see, e. g., The Federalist (Cooke ed. 1961) xxvii; The Federalist (Van Doren ed. 1945) vi-vii; Brant, "Settling the Authorship of The Federalist," 67 Am. Hist. Rev. 71 (1961). |