Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-29
Petition


 of Leonard Bacon and Others for Pop. ular Representation i'm the Senate. To the General Assembly of the State oi Connecticut:
 The memorial of the subscribers, electors of said State, respectfully showeth That the General Assembly of this Com monwealth, from the beginning till the yea, 1880, included in one chamber deputies o, representatives from towns, and in another chamber representatives not of towns or dis trfcts but of the whole State;
 That till since the forming of the present Constitution, in 1918, there WAS among the towns no such disparity of population or oi taxable property as now exists so that even in the House of Representatives the people oi the State were not very unequalIy represented That in the year 1929, by virtue of Con. stitutional amendment, the State was divided into districts for the election of Senator's SC | that the Senate became thenceforth another House of Representatives, with districts in stead of towns for constituencies That by neglect of duty on the part of the General Assemblies in the years next sue. ceeding each decennial census of the United States since the year 1880, the Senatorial dis tricts. which were intended to be and by a Constitutional acquisition ought to be as near. ly equal as possible, in population, have be- l come notoriously and scandalously unequal ; That by the aforesaid neglect of duty the people of Connecticut, to whom of right be. | longs the sovereignty of the State, have been deprived of their sslf-government inherited from their ancestors, as appears from statistj- cal facts, which your memorislists beg leave to submit to your consideration: l. The people of Connecticut are not rep resented in the House of Representatives so long as constituencies greatly unequal are equally powerful in that body. The House, to which one constituency Of 153 electors sends two members while anoth. CT constituency of 9,603 electors can send only two, may represent the towns of Con. necticut; but we humbly submit that it does not represent the sovereign people of Con- necticut A majority of votes in that House may represent only pitiful minority of the people.
 2 The people of Connecticut are not repre- sented in the Senate. Each Senator repre- sents his own district; and the districts are grossly unequal in population and conse- quently in the taxes which they pay to the State.
 The Senator from the Fourth District rep resents a constituency of 2154 electors, while the Senator from the Twentieth repre- sents constituency of only 2,1S1 electors.
 The Senator from the First District repre- sents 10,081 electors, while the Senator from the Twenty-first represents only 2,169 cleo tors. The Senator from the Fifth District represents 6, 130, while the Senator from the Ninth represents only 2,229.
 Eleven of thu Senatorial districts, according to the census of 1870, contained at that time an aggregate population of 18O, 463, while the remaining ten districts contained population of 356, 99I.
 The eleven Senators represent what was then little more than one third of the people, and is now probably little less than one third.
 Tho ten represent what was then only lit tie less or is now probably little more, than two thirds of the people.
 At every census the inequality of represen- tation in the Senate becomes more monstrous.
 The Constitution provides for the correction of the inequality, but hitherto the Legisla- lures have refused to perform that manifest duty.
 3. The Senate of Connecticut does not repre- sent the industries or wealth of the State The taxable property of the First district for 1877 amounted to $62, 971 932; that of the Twen- tieth district to $3, ,2s3, 12O.
 The object of the constitutional amend ment of 1928, under which we have elected Senators by districts instead of at large was to secure in the Senate fair, proportional representation of all interests and parties in the State.
 At that time, no other method of securing minority representation was known in prac- tice in this country. But since 1928, another mode, less liable to abuse and more likely to secure the best men, has been introduced, here and elsewhere, into our popular cleo tions. It is that under which our town and local officers are now generally chosen ;-by allowing no elector to vote for more than 8 certain number, constituting bare majority of those who are to be elected.
 If we were to return to our ancient mode of electing Senators from the State at large, and couple it with provision that no elector should vote for more than eleven of the twen- ty-one to be chosen, we should secure both popular and minority representation, with ab solute certainty. Your memorialists do there fore humbly pray that this General Assembly will take measures for restoring to the people of Connecticut their rightful self govern ment.
 And to this end We pray that there be pre- pared and submitted to the people for adop tion such an amendment of the Constitution as will give us Senate fairly representing the whole State. and both political parties therein, or, that the people be permitted to assemble by their delegates in convention which shall represent not only the towns but also the State, end which shall ravise the existing Con- stitution and present g new draft to the peo- pie for adoption.
 Dated this 27th day of December, 1879.