The Litchfield County post., 1827-06-14
State Legislature.

OIuIO AAN$o ASA~tAhSs
 The following IS the continuation of the debate on the subject of Districting, which was omitted last week.
 Friday 4 tternoon, May %.
 MT. Ryder moved to amend the amend ced to be out of order.
 MT. Lyon said he was in favor of the a. mendment offered in the morning; he believ- ed that was generally acceptable to its con- stituents. a
 Mr. Burref observed that the present a. mendment was just like the amendment on the table in the morning-that this was sor ry mode of managing business, and that it was not fair to withdraw an amendment and then to tack it on to another. The princi pal feature in the original amendment is, that it provides as many districts as senator's; to the objections to it have carefully attended, and have not understood enough to discover only two ; one is that the senators are to be chosen by a plurality ofvotes and the other and g eat objection appears to be, ,thatin asmall one there cannot be that choice oftalent That large districts do not bring candidates home to the knowledge of the constituents cannot be denied. It will take six or seven towns to form district, and it can hardly be sup posed that there will be any difficulty in find ing a man of talents in some of them. com petent for this office. Lawyers may know the character and qualifications of candidates within the county, but it is impossible for the greater part of the people, such as farmers and mechanics, to know the qualifications of men in remote part of the country. In or der, therefore, that people may judge discreet ly, the districts must be restricted to small limits.
 MT. Lathrop was understood to express a strong opinion against division of counties, and also against the proposed amendment. His concluding remarks only, were heard by the reporter.
 MT. Williams observed that the question was, whether we should leave it to future legislature to say what the number of dstrcts should be between and 24. There are con- fiicting opinions upon the subject, and the question seems to occur whether those, who seriously wish to legislate upon the subject, init to a future legislature to. say what towns shall compose district, it cannot be unsafe to submit it to them to determine how many districts there shall be. No constitution can go into detail; in our present constitution provision is made for superior and inferior courts, but the legislature is vested with considerable discretionary power upon the subject. 1.-the gentleman from Canaan (Mr. BnrreD is right, and it is all important that a senator should come from each district, the representative next year will be chosen for that purpose. Why then, embarrass the bill with provisions of this kind, SO that, one way or the other, it will lose many of its friends.
 MT. Shepard observed that he wnS opposed to the proposed amendment to the amend Ment.
 MT. Gurley said that about 6ve-sixths of the members of this house were the firm and cordial supporters of districting; this being the case. the question simply is what course, We will take to carry into effect this darling measure. We ought to leave it so that fii- ture legislature shall have the power to dis trict, and then the principle will be obtained 1; and our children and those who come after us will have the benefit of this provision. The difficulty consists in this, that we will not only amend the constitution, SO that the state shall be districted, but we want to dis trict ourselves. If we place the puwer SO that districting can take effect it is all we want. There are certain great principle, on which we are agreed. Qneis as suggested by his Excelency, that the district should be com posed of contiguous territories another is, that no town should be divided and third the iatirety of the counties. What necessity is there of going further? Some would have it as nnalterable as the laws of the Medes and Persians, that there should be as many dis tricts as senators; but the legislature, that will come after us, will be endowed with wisdom and talents,and better know the wish es of the people. Suppose the people should get sick of the great number of districts, the mode of choosing could not be altered without