Litchfield enquirer., 1872-11-14
i, consT,TuT,onALconyEnTlo

IsfA ~QMo bss ssOisONAk-S0WNEM ItOns One reason of our presenting the tables of the city vote of our State, in another
 column, is to show our Republican read
 CTS how little the Republican party has tt
 fear from measure that justice now
 unites with party expediency in demand ing-a Constitutional Convention. Here
 tofore, when the town of New Haven -ss, WIS
 giving Democratic majorities of-over two thousaand, and the county of near thre
 thousand, Republicans naturally shralk
 from what seemed the suicidal step of gv-
 ing these majorities their propsr-
 tional.. representation . in our Stats legislature. The great political a. rev
 olutions, of the past few years in New Haven has removed the only party reason thatrequired Republcaa facqaiesence in
 an antiqnated 9appo ortto,inment of Senators and Representatiyes, grown by lapse of time, to be most fagrantly unjust. 1t will be seen by the tablesIreferYed tothatg the
 Democratic preponderance that formerly made the city of New Haven bear nearly
 the same relation tofhe State DfsdC dCennecs ticut that the eftyof New York does to the State of IN " York gf H been sdueed to 2 point that leaves it np longerdaneer- sous. Much of this 2pnpon onderance was originally owing to the fear witt with which capital invested iR nanpfaetufing ala a and trade viewed Repubicanisin. .fsThis fear nearly gave the stsbe to the Democracy just, just before the breaking out of the war. iOf late, however, capital has learned to favor Republicansm and fear Dem mocracy. Hence the current of feeling in m mnaanlnfac- turing. and trading communities has, dur ! ing the past campaign run strongly against MT. Greeley For these reasons we be- lieve that the political change in New Ha- ven will will prove not temporary but 2 per manent ones vazzfo5p-s5sYF s~5ul3I siiA For those reasons, also, we believe that the Republican party. would gain rather than lose by districting the State for Representatives, and redistricting the Senate. The nine large towns whose vote we have compiled, give net Democratic majority of less than four hundred-too smalla numbert to be reasonably viewed with fear. In the apportiontmento of cities, moreover, Republicans always have an advantage from the fact that their vote is more scattered, whereas the heavy dem ocratic vote is usually huddled into few wards, wasting its force on enormous ma- jorities in comparatively few legislative districts. The party apportioning the representation of a State, too, always gain a certain temporary advantage by doing 80, which, if not quite fair, is practically unavoidable. d isA a9sop4 lad t-sF sls-4l
 If from the low ground of party expedi- ency we rise to the standpoint of justice there is really but one side to the case. The nine cities referred to cast more than a third of the vote of the state while they are not given one fifteenth of the House of Representatives. The inequalities of Senatorial representation, though not quite so fagrant, ,are very great. Were any party to make such an apportionment as now exists in any state that has ever known what a fair apportionment is. it would al most arouse a rebellion Though not quite so absurd as the old English rotten borough system, it is by far the most un- equal tolerated ino any of the United States. f r *il-'E --zl ,' -
 But, aside from the system of mlis representation that prevails in both Hous- es of the Legislature, there are other con- stitutional troubles that press for amend ment. The Capitol nuisance. which wastes the time of our representatives, every year, is very like to result, in the end, in worst waste of the peoples money. We trust that a constitutional convention would make our executive something more than the mere figure head he now is. The pardoning power, judi cial appointments, real veto, the ap- pointment of commissions, should be given to the governor, and half the petty bargaining that 1engthens and weakens our legislative sessions would be ended for ever. The only consideration that at all reconciles us to postponment of reform is the fear that the time has not yet come for the adoption of any adequate plan of minority representation and that infinite ly greater, juster reform to which Repub- icanism must soon Woman Suf- frage.