The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-10-30
fntorntatto,,.
Constitutiona

8UtuCuIA1tuW. af g.
Constitutions a ri
The near apprcack Of the tine for snendiug
The Ceustitutiou of this stste, naturally draws
considerable attention to that subject. All &C
knowledge that our present written constitution
does not answer its purpose well. and upou scru-
tiny. it il seea that Tie two features of it which
are most Objectionable are. that 1t places unrea-
sonable limitations upon the Legislative power of
the people, sad fails to efficiently guard, protect
and defend the rights of minorrtses. ~.
have loag believed, thst this last object saght
to be the chief end Of written constitution. l
insisted upon it near thirty yesrs ago, when it.
was insisted apon by NO man else among nay &C
Quaintsnoe, and thirty years observation and re-
Fiction haze strengthened the conviction that,
on this question, I am right. Kajorities can al
ways take care of tAemsslves bat what man of
thought and observation is there who does not
know that the constant tendency is for nsiorities
to deal anjSstiy and unfairly with the rights
and political interests Of the ninorities whom
they have overcome2 r,rE
In New York and in England this subject has
attracted profound attention. The evil has been
fully Recognized, and various plans have been
proposed for mitigating it-fsr mitigation is all,
undoubtedly, that can be attained-ne thought
ful man has ever dreamed that any scheme could
be invented that could give the vote of every
elector its fall, just and proper weight as COM
pared with that ofevery other electpr. 1sTif
The FIRST step in the direction of giving its
just weight 30 every vote lie, that all electsnsto
all magistrates. including such as composed
of plurality Of persons, should be by single dis
Aicts. This was not universally recognized
twenty years ago as q necessary and universal
principle Of American constitutional law, rs our
present constitution attests, and the present in
convenience and injustice we are experimenting
IN this Legislative district proves the evil aud err
TOR Of the dual system. f nj 4
While, therefore, / am sati6ed that the single
'destriet system is the most effective prstection
Of the rights of minori6es that any single meas
ure can afford, have thoughtthat another meth
cd in addition, as e9ectual and less objection
able thsa either the New York oe English meth
DDS might be adopted to still further enable mi
noritias r. be represented sLis 4sas ~ no
,s%t,tp ~ t'uustancS as A0AIoWs- A@S< AZ - PRIV
NadedE7i s1smo sna yol yabsr hHn 80 l.9fs
LIST That every eleetor shall have the right to
vote for Que representative only.
Cd That the house of representatives shall be
composed Of [one hundred persons, to be elected
in one hundred single districts, into which the
state shall be divided for that purpose. n i'Is
3D.. That it shall also be comp osed of such mum.
Der Of persons, not exceeding lffteenl as shall
receive over -four thousand] votes each, of the
qualified electors of any part Of the state '4'"'
This plan is perfectly simple in its structure
and working, and its principal effect would be
tospable any minority Of -four thousand] and
upwards, to elect one representative Of their dis
tinctive political opinions. 1t would be scarce
ly possible for the party holding the plurality
of votes to elect single member under the pro-
vision of the third clause and barely possible for
q minority holding from sixty to seventy-iye
per cent OF the number of votes required to elect
more than one member. e.,t + t,,,te5 "
s, If the number Of votes required to elect one
of the floating members is fixed at four thousand
it would probably require from nine to ten thous-
and voters to elect a second representative and
the ratio Of voters over four thousand] required
to-alect one of the [ffteenl would rapidly in
crease with the minority vote. ,oe'q
To illustrate There are now two distinctive
political organizations in this state, the Labor
Union party, aud the Temperance party, neither
OF which has votes enough in single district TO
elect member of the house Of representatives,
Butiif hll the voters they can respectively col
leOt throughout the state were aggregated to-
gether, they might very possibly elect ono MEM
Der each, of the floating 6fteen]
1.-The principle upon which 1 conceive the num-
Der enclosed in brackets should be composed il,
that tho number of votes required to elect q
floating represen tative should be ever half, and
less than the whole number of voters contained
ina representative district sad that the num-
her of floating representatives eleotable should
be from one tenth to one fifth the number elected
by idistrictsrhdo biqa7 adt iriW gB gniqss1 bHa
There ia not space in this article to explain
tho benefits Of, or answer the objections to, this
plan; but it is suggested with the belief that the
more closely it is scrutinzed, the more tmauifest
disadvantages will appear, and the objections
that may be suggested proportionately vanish
Still it is manifest that Que serious objection