Litchfield enquirer., 1873-01-09
MINORITY MISREPRESENTATION.

Under our present system of State and national representation very large pro- portion of the voters are partially or en- tirely disfrauchised There are proDably men living in Vermont who have voted regularly for twenty years without any of the votes thus cast ayailing towards the election of any national, state or town of fcer. Nor are these voters few in num- Der, eccentric in character, or practically disfranchised from any faults of. .theiroWn. They have often been in sympathy with national administration they could never help to elect. In afew towns they have been strong enough to elect municipal officers, representatives. and an occasion al senator; but, taken as class, a decree of perpetual disfranchisement would make no practical change in the political 'condi- ton of the Vermont Democrat. Although no such extreme case occurs in Connecti- cut, there are probably Democrats in Windham and New London counties who for twenty years have had no represents ton in either Congress or the legislature, whose only efectual votes have been, in ] few instances, for state officers. Re- publicans cannot present quite such case of extreme injustice, yet in this part of Connecticut matters are not altogether lovely Republicans in the Seventeenth Senatorial District, excepting in Norfolk, have no representation on town boards, 1 in either branch of the legislature, nor in the national House of Representatives. In the eastern protons of the county the l situation is equally severe on the Demo l crats. There are towns in the Fifteenth Senatorial District in which this genera ton of Democrats have scarcely eyer,if at all, cast an effectual vote for town officers, representatives, or senators. The last ef- fectual vote east by any Connecticut Democrat, for presidential electors. was in 1852. - es # <tsts -f4as E.3as
 The most obvious evils worked by the present unequal system is in the election of town officers, and of representatives in the legislature. That since the organiza- ton of Morris, of Roxbury, and of Bridge water, the Republicans of those towns have scarcely been allowed to elect a sin gle member of the annual boards of se- lectmen, assessors, grand jurors, and jus tices, is great blunder as we'll as g fla grant injustice The extravagance, the ineficiency, and the petty tyranny that too often characterize our town admins trations is owing to the fact that they are so entirely partisan in their constitution. A member ofthe majority has an unfair advantage over member of the minority with local officials, for the very sufficient reason that those officials owe their pres ent positions and hope for further ad- vancement from the one, while they have nothing but opposition to expect from the other. So, too, members of partisan boards screen each others extravaganza and ineficiency to an extent that would be altogether impracticable were the mi nority represented on those boards. at
 When we come to legislative represents tion the case is very bad one. Republicans can hardly expect more successful election than that of last fall; yet they were in minority in fifteen out of twenty-five towns of Litcbfeld county, casting in the former, ,2142; in the remainder, 242S votes. And this minority of nearly half the Re- -.s-- ys..., ulseu d1eacade after decade. in House of near two hundred and fif- ty members In New Haven county mat ters are still worse. 7.796 out of total Republican vote of 11,350 comes from towns in which they are in a minority. In Hartford county, west of the river, the un- represented Repnhlien.. ..ssinorttles exceed rne represented Republican maiorities by over two thousand. In Fairfield county the unrepresented Republican vote is in an excess of soO Footing up the Repub- lican votes in towns in which they are in Q minority. west of the Connecticut riv- CT, and the votes in towns in which they are in majority, and we find that the former exceeds the latter by over five thousand East of the river the injustice is all at Democratic expense. Wind ham county shows but one Republican minority townS New London county, but four; Holland county, but seven -so ..
 The Republican party east of theGon- necticut practically legislates for the Republican party of the State; tic Re publican party of the eastern half of Litchfeld county lsgislates for the whole county. The Litchfeld Republi- can is told, indeed, to console himself with the fact that the Plymouth Demo crat also goes unrepresented;L the four thousand Administrationists of New Ha-' l ven must find what comfort they can, in the practical disfranchisement of the Windham county Democracy; but the more widespread theiniustice the greater the need, it seems to us, of a remedy. That the remedy is easy any one who has even cprsorily examined the different plans for | minority representation, some of which we intend soon to lay before our readers, will readily admit With the adoption of some reasonable measure of this kind we may hope to see House of Represen- tatiEes that represents not towns, nor ma I jorities, but the people. Then each eiti- zen will have his representative, and will not be compelled, as ia now the case. to take his advice, or his grievance. to an opponent he did his best to defeat, or to k isAisan from some majority town who wiL treat him with even greater indifer-. I enoe. alt8wa4 ss8s anlgss taaTs3 T.
 Fhereis one important boIs in which Republican minorities even no x.have rep. resentation--in our State eouvsntions.