Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; Constitutional law -- United States
In the last State the members of Assembly for the cities and counties
of New York and Albany are elected by very nearly as many voters as
will be entitled to a representative in the Congress, calculating on
the number of sixty-five representatives only. It makes no difference
that in these senatorial districts and counties a number of
representatives are voted for by each elector at the same time. If the
same electors at the same time are capable of choosing four or five
representatives, they cannot be incapable of choosing one. Pennsylvania
is an additional example. Some of her counties, which elect her State
representatives, are almost as large as her districts will be by which
her federal representatives will be elected. 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 federal
representatives. It forms, however, but one county, in which every
elector votes for each of its representatives in the State legislature.
And what may appear to be still more directly to our purpose, the whole
city actually elects a SINGLE MEMBER for the executive council. This is
the case in all the other counties of the State. Are not these facts
the most satisfactory proofs of the fallacy which has been employed
against the branch of the federal government under consideration? Has
it appeared on trial that the senators of New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
and New York, or the executive council of Pennsylvania, or the members
of the Assembly in the two last States, have betrayed any peculiar
disposition to sacrifice the many to the few, or are in any respect
less worthy of their places than the representatives and magistrates
appointed in other States by very small divisions of the people? But
there are cases of a stronger complexion than any which I have yet
quoted.
One branch of the legislature of Connecticut is so constituted that
each member of it is elected by the whole State. So is the governor of
that State, of Massachusetts, and of this State, and the president of
New Hampshire. I leave every man to decide whether the result of any
one of these experiments can be said to countenance a suspicion, that a
diffusive mode of choosing representatives of the people tends to
elevate traitors and to undermine the public liberty.
PUBLIUS.
THE FEDERALIST.
No. LVIII.
Objection That The Number of Members Will Not Be Augmented as the
Progress of Population Demands Considered
MADISON
To the People of the State of New York:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account