, 1872-11-21

1
sentation: as applied to the election Of Repre-
sentati1cs in the General Assembly, took place
at our recent State election. Tic results are
before US. In round numbers, the strength Of
the majority and minority parties in the State
was in the proportion Of $50, 900 to 100000. The
whole number Of Senators is 81, and Of Repre-
scntatiyes 1853. OF the Senators who we're
chosen in tho old style the Republicans have
SO and the Liberals IS, when, bad they been
chosen under the system Of giving the minority
their proportiouate number, the Republicans
would have had Is and tho Liberals %.
In the election Of Representatives, the Republ-
cans carried SO districts, and under the ordinary
system would have elected SO Representatives,
| leaving to the Liberals Is Senators and 81 Rep
resentatiyes. The actual result is IS Repubi-
| can and 68 Liberal Representatives. Tic result
is precisely fair representation Of the two par
ties according to their proport,onate votes. Tho
| primary object of the Constitutional provision
| has been attained, with almost mathematical
accuracy. Another object OF the provision was
to give the voters tie opportunity Of discriIni~
doubling their votes for an opposing candidate.
! The voters have aya11el themselves Of this priv
| i1ege to large extent, md the effect is
seen in various districts. As rule,
the Senators have been chosen BY the party
polling the larger vote for President in the sew
eral districts, and, rule, the party electing
! the Senator has also elected two Of the three
Representatives. But there are several cxcep-
tions to this general result
In the Ninth Senatorial District, composed Of
Boone and Winncbago Counties. the Rcpubli-
cans elected al three Representatives, that being
the only district in the State where there was
such result. In the Third Senatorial District,
! the Liberals elected their Senator by q small
majority The Republicans nominated only one
candidate for representative but the vote shows
that, had they run two Representatives. aud
divided their vote equally between them, they
| could have elected both.
In the Fifteenth District, tho Liberals elect
| the Senator, while the Republicans elect two
Representatives and, in the Thirty-seventh and
Forty-11th Districts, the Republicans elect tho
Senators. while the Liberals elect two Represen-
| tatiyes in each district. In these districts the
result On Senator vas due to the personal popu-
larity Of the persons elected, who got more votes
than their party.
In tho Twenty sixth, Thirty fifth, and Forty
second DISTRICTS the Liberals elected Senators,
and the Republicans in each district elected two
Representatives while i'll the Forty first, Forty
third, and Forty-fourth Districts, the Republi-
cans elected the Senators, and tho Liberals got
| the two members in each district. In these six
| districts the minority parties lost the second
member, because Of tho zeal Of the friends
Of candidates in making an unequal di-
vision of the votes. Had the voters Of
each party given to the candidates one and 8
half votes each, the party taat elected the Sen
| ator would have elected two Representatives in
! that district. But, owing to the anxiety Of one
candidate to secure his own election beyond all
doubt, and to the discrimination Of the voters,
the minority party POLITICALLY in each Of these
six districts elected two Of the three Representa-
tiyes In the Forty-nnth (st. Clair) District, the
result is peculiar The district gives NE jorties
for Grant, Koerner, Black, for tho Republican
State ticket, and Congressman, and elects Lib
eral Senator and two Representatives.
But, after MI these exceptional results, the
next House Of Representatives will be divided
politically in the proportion Of their respective
votes of the two parties polled throughout the
State.
There are I great many persons IN the State
who are dissustcd with the result Of minority
representation. Nor are these confined to any
one party. There arc Republicans who refuse
to understand why, in district with clear Re-
publican majority, the minority should have any
representation at all. On the other hand, there
aro Democrats who are disgusted with the
thought that Democratic county should be
represented in the Legislature By one Demo-
cratic and two Republican members, es is the
case in sangamon. There arc number of de-
feated candidates Who declare minority repre-