The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-10-28
The Vermont House of Rep
resentatiyes.

The Vermont House of Rep
resentatiyes.
The constituencies of the members of
our Vermont House of Representative
present strong contrasts. The towns of
Baltimore and st. George, with less
than one hundred inhabitants each,
have each their representative, and
Burlington and Rutland with, say fif-
teen thousand inhabitants each, have
each their representative the same as,
and no more, than Baltimore and St.
George. 1t is abominable shouts the
Rutland Herald, in remarkable arti-
Gle, which / confess puts me to thinking
of the old English ways of Furnishing
common scolds-by the ducking-stool,
in which to cool them off with cold
water; and by the later and better and
Scriptural "scolds' bridle,' which is
still to be seen in the church of Walton
onThames, in Surrey, with this inscrip-
ton:
Chester presents Walton with bride,
To curb women's tongues that talk so idle.
Brother Bigelow would appear very
ridiculous in either position, and we
have not the heart to put him there.
His first mistake was in setting himself
up as a foil to the great legislative re-
union, picking flaws in Vermont legis-
lation when everybody else was praising
it.; and his next was his narrow point
of view. Looking at population only
as needing legislative care, we might
concur with him, as does the Burling-
ton Free Press in a moderate way.
But that is too limited view. Taking
that view of constituencies in the
quite as great contrasts as in our house
of representatives Delaware, with a
population of 147 900, has the same
representation as Pennsylvania, with
over 4 1000, 900; Rhode Island, with
$50 900, the same as New York, with
over 5,000,000; Vermont, with 332 900,
the same as Ohio, with over 5000, 900:
Oregon, with $4,000, the same as Hi
nois with over 10000 900; and Nevada,
with 81 ,226, the same as Missouri, with
over 1900, 900. Would our friends of
the Herald and Free Press have repre-
sentation in the United States Senate
based upon population? Population
has the house; give it the senate also,
and the small states would 90 to the
wall as sure as it is that the big fish
always eat the small ones at will
There was a long struggle on this
question in the convention which
framed the Federal Constitution, and
the bitterness engendered in the large
states, because they were forced to
make this concession, has lasted even
till now. 1t was manifested in injus-
tice to the small states in the first APP
pOrtionment of representatives in the
house in 1880, and repeated in nearly
every apportionment since, for the OBJ
/. vious reason that the appointments
, have usually been made by the house;
that is, the representatives of popula-
ton. Vermont saved her third mem
: Der in the pportionments under the
/ censuses of 1860 and 1870 by amend
+ ments of the senate to the house bills.
But | will not enlarge upon this point,
, which was so admirably yet tersely
treated in the late speech of Senator
Edmunds at the reunion.
Our fathers found the territory OF
Vermont divided into towns of sub
stantally equal size and acreage, equal
in rights, equally entitled to self-gov-
eminent, equally hopeful of future de-
velopment, but all sparse inpopulation
, They adopted a constitution, which
4 provided that for seven years each town
t having eighty taxable inhabitants might
A choose two representatives, and every
$ other town one, to represent them il
+ general assembly. And after that
d, each inhabited town may, in like man
: ner, hold such election, and choose one
representative, forever thereafter
: Here, then, was compromise, the
= largest towns taking the largest repre-
sentation for seven years, and cOnced
ing equality among the several towns
fOrerer thereafter. Who will be bolC
u enough to break this compact, which
y has been respected for more than {
Il century? What good reason can be
e given for it? Inequality of population
y wealth, interests and talents? Wha
g will these weigh against the equality Q
y rights, which equal representation wa
?. intended to secure? 1t is conceded
Il that the large towns have greater inter
o ests in magnitude than the small towns
/; but not in kind; or if all that can b,
q claimed for the large towns be con
q coded, still let us remember that p0p,t
IL ldtiOn is as well represented in the Yer
! mont government as in any other. Unde
~ our original constitution, population hal
:, the governor and council and stat
70 treasurer; the towns the house of rep
70 resentatives, with the supremacy il
9 legislation; but now population is ia
s. vored very much more: IT has the gov
u ernor, acknowledgements, treasurer
secretary of state, state auditor, tn
senate, withco-ordinate powers in legis
le lation, and the county officers and jus
"a tees of the peace, while the to,onS re
p, tain nothing but an equal share witt
' the senate in legislation In principl
lie and effect the Vermont system of gov
a eminent is precisely like the nationa