Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-01-27
THE RUTLAND HERALD,
WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 90. 1870,


The Question Of Re-apportfonmeu
HON. CHARLES w. wILLARD's SPEECH I
MR. PAINE's APPORTIoNMENT BILL
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENT
ATIvEs, JANUARY 10, 1870.
Mr.. Speaker, l rise to call the attentic
OF the House to one or two points col
nected with this bill. I may be excuses
perhaps, for having an interest for M
State In delaying the new apportionmen
since the State which represent here !
part will certainly have no increase of r
presentation under the next apportio,
ment. In my judgement, if q House
two hundred and seventy-fiye membe,
should be determined on, it would lol
one representative, as would some othe
New England States, while it might hol
Its representation if House of thre
hundred members wasagreed upon.
The number of the members of thi
House and the appointment Of tina
o number among the several States of tb
Unit a Is certainty one of the most impol
@ tant matters which this House can consi
or, and II there is any question whicl
this House is called upon in self-respec
and to maintain its own dignity, to kee,
q in its own hands, it is the question O
a how many members this House shall con
sist, and to what States those member.
shall be appoitioned. Yesterday, in max
ing sonso inquiries of the gentleman from
! Iowa, (Mr. McCrary,) who was addressing
the House in support of this measure,
took occasion Cto call his attention to the
particular phraseolgy of the Constitution
and l think that his answer at that time
did not meet fully that point which de.
sired to present to the House; that is.
that the apportionment among the several
States of the Representatives in this
House shall be made by Congress itself.
and not bya secretary or clerk. This
point Mr.. Willard elaborated at some
length.
am not opposed to an increase of the
number of Representatives on this floor.
In fact, although we call ourselves pop-
ular government, and call this branch of
Congress the popular branch of our ma
tional legislature, it is, in the ordinary
acoeptation of that term, less popular, less
democratic than similar branches of leo.
islative bodies in any country that has
representative legislature. l have taken
some pains to examine statistics of the
population and number of square miles
which are entitled to representation in
the popular branch of the legislatures of
different countries in the popular branch,
L repeat, if that expression is proper one
TO be used when speaking of the various
legislative bodies in England and on the
continent of Europe. -...
The House of Commons consists of 661
members. The population of England
and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, is some-
where In the neighborhood of thirty
millions, and the voting population Of
Great Britain is much less in proportion
TO the entire population than is the yot- ,
1g population of the United States. And (
still England has to-day in the popular
branches of its Legislature in the House !,
OF commons, a representative for every
4o'OO0 OF its population, and representa-
tiveSfor every 115 square miles of the ter /
ltory OF England and Wales. Scotland :
has representative for every $1,000 of =
ts population and for every 600 square :,
piles OF its territory. Ireland has rem o
'essentative for every $1,000 of its popu. o
atloSand0for every 800 square miles of S
to territory.
In. the United States, under the pro.
,osed bill fixing the number of represent n
Ftiyes aD3OO, there will be one represent 5
tive to about 10000 population, and one d
o something over 10000 square miles Of b
et'itory in the States represented and =
ven In the most densely populated States r
sCs representation will not be larger than &c
ne member to 500 square miles of terri "a
ory. az
As was saying, in respect to the re- Fl
resentation in the House of Commons. it
lust be borne in mind that the voting. 90
opulation in Great Britain is very nncR.
'ss in proportion to the actual population oil
ran the voting population. of this IN
5untry. Thus we see that the English M
louise OF Commons, if we look upon it as ~
popular branch of the British govern 80
ent, is very much more popular branch, OIL
mes more directly from the people, and gu
presents more Immediately the interests hi
the people than does this House of Rep bo
sentatives; because, sir, with 10000 ~,
70 at population-the number which we u'
I'd under the old census--and with an trs
ga which gives in thee densest popula-
on, 600 squaredmiles for every Repre-. MI
NATIVE, we bave but 242 Representa- leo
PES on this floor, and no one has vet pro.
sed to increase this number beyond 800 LII
would sooner6o-day vote to increase wa
o number OF representatives to six hun un
ed than t., cut it down by the reduction sec
a single memher. rio
Why, sir, only little while ago saw a. oio
discussion in respect to the representa- hio
IN in the State Legislatures of New Die
,rk and Illinois, and it was urged-I for
lnstgith great force-that the popular COZ
dy, the House of Representatives in lor
CD OF those States, was quite too small
represent properly the wide and diver.
led interests of their people; that the mo
personalities were not near enough to pro
g people who elected them to be proper fin,
personalities OF those people that there g
'uld probably be much less corruption -, -
d much clearer and more solemn In
,se OF responsibility on the part of the gal
preventative if he knew that on going acc
ok TO his constituents be would go back mo-.
a narrow circle, who would not only r.
ow more thoroughly what he had doce, SER
t from their more familiar acquaintance lors
tn him, as would be the case in a maj
aller constituency, would be more tor
nth a,SI fa;tbf,,Irosa pp -oo us pea
y. believe that the nearer we keer HOO
8 house In numbers up to tho increas- -
, growth and population of the country, tim
more nearly it will be representa-. E;s,
. body representing the interests of the ~
ole country MRS
But, sir, was calling the attention of test
9douse moment ago to the size of dete
representative bodies on the continent bott
Europe. France has 37G meraber of hor,
largest Legislative body, Being one to - -
200 OF its population and one to SOL he
are miles of territory. Prussia has and
lsls5ive body numbering 432, OF one to cate
)OU of its population and one to 317 ute
are miles. Austria, which we are e.
letimes made to believe is the type of 'n0.
espotic form of government, has pop wh''
r bTofSh of 203 members, or one to on
900 of its population and one to 500 here
are miles. lilly has representative part
y Numbering 493, or one to 10000 -
ulation and one to 200 squsrs miles.
pain has 394 Hiemb arS in it's popular feia'