The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1805-09-13

es
ducing, merits attention. He was ,he wife and
! benevolent friend of man. Riches and bonours
| made no alteration in his principles or his man.
DerS.
The contribution OF '7s was conformsble 70
the Declaration of Independence and the decla-
ration OF rights. which the preftnt contribution
is not for it makes artificial tliftintions among
men in the right of fuffrage, which the princi-
Piles OF equity know nothing of: neither is it
confident with found policy. We every day
fee the rich becoming poor, and ,hofe " no were
poor before becoming rich. Riches, therefore,
having no liability, cannot and ought not to be
| made criterion of rights. Man is man in every
eosdition of life, and the varieties of fortune
and misfortune are open 10 all.
Had the number of representatives in the le-
fsinatore. etabil,ed by thar contribution, been
'ncreaied, and irftead of their fitting together in
one chamber and debating and voting all at one
time, to have divided them by lot into two G.
qna''parts and to have fat in feparate chambers,
the advantage would have been, that one half
by not being entangled in the fift debate. nor
having committed itfelf by voting, would be f.
lently pohefed Of the arguments, for and a
gainft, of the former part and he in calm con-
dition to review tie whole. And initead of one
chamber, or one houfe, nr by whatever name
they NAV be called, negativing the vote of the
other, which is now the cafe, and which admits
70 arfurdities, to have adj
ded thr votes of both chambers together and
the majority of the whole to be the final decifi
on. There would be reafon in this but there is
none in the pre{ent mode. The inftance that
occurred in the Pennsylvania fcnate iii the year
+, 1900 on the bill for choofine electors, where a
fmall majority in that houfe controlled and me-
Gatived large majority in the other houfe,
lhews the abfurdity of fuch diviIion of legifls
tive power.
10 know If any theory or petition be tr,le or
rational, in practice, the method is, to carry it
to its grcatet extent; If it be not true upon the
whole, or be abfird, 1t is 70 in all its paris how
ever fnialI. For inftance,
| 1T one fouie conftts Of two hundred members
and the other of fifty, which is about the pro-
portion they are in fome of the itates, and if
a propofed law be carried in the affirmative in
the larger houfe with only one di1enting voice,
and be negatived in the fmaicr houfe by ma
Jority of one, the event will be, thar twenty-ie-
ven controul and govern two hundred and TWEEN
lty-three, which is FOO abfuid even for argument,
ard totally inconGftent with the principles OF
representative government, which know no diff
ference IN the value and importance of its ne M
bers but what arifes from their virtues and Ia
| Tents, and not at all from the name OF the houf.
or chamber they fit in.
AS the practice of fmaller number negatiy-
ing greater, IS not founded in reafon we mutt
look for its origin in fome other caure.
/ The Americans have copied II from England,
and It was brought into England by the Norman
conqueror, and is derived from the ancient
French practice of voting by ORDERS, Of which
they counted three; the clergy Chat is, Roman
Catholic clergy the no5Lsgt (thofe who had I'll
ties) and the tiers etat, or third eftate,* which
included al! who were not of one of the two
former orders, and which in England are called
| the commons, or common people, and the houie
IN which they are Represented ia from thence
called the boaje ofeomn,on5.
! ne Gale WITH TIE cOnqueror was. that in or
derto complete and FIGURE the conqsen he had
made, and hold the country in fu5jettion, he
cautioned 1t out among the chiefs Of his army,
to whom he gave caftles and whom he dubbed
with the title of lords as is before fhewn. Thefe
beng dependent on the conqueror, and having
| united intereft with him, became the defend
ers OF his meafures, and tiIs guardians Of his af-
| iumed pregrogatve aganf the people: and
| when the houfe called the consmonJ 6ouE ofbcr-
fament began by grants and charters from the
conqueror and his fuccenors, theie lords claim.
ing to be a dftin6t ORDER from the commons,
| though fina'ler in number, held confronting.
or negativing vote over them, and from hence
aroie the Irrational practice of fmaller number
neeativing greater.
| But what are tbofe things to us, or whv (hopld
we initiate them? We have but one ORDER in
America, and that of the higheft drgree, the OR
DER OF SOVEREIGNTY, and of this ORDER eve
ry citizen IS member i'll his own perfonal right.
why then have we defended to the bafe imita-
ton OF inferior things? BY the event of the re-
Volntion we were put in condition of thinking
originally. The hiltory of paft ages thew fcarce.
" any thing to us but inRapces of tyranny and
antiquated abfurdities. We have copied fome
or them and experienced the folly of them.
The practice of voting by o'dtys in France when
ever the Rates general met, continued until the late
revolution 1t was the prefent Able Sieyes who made
the motion, in Whist afterwards called the nation
al alemby, for aboiihng the vote by o,St,s, and eff
taolied the rational Prsaiee of deciding by maio-
rty Of numbers.
| RIO be continued.
s.