Legislatures, and even for popular conventions, to instruct Senators and Representatives. Hugh L. White, Senator from Tennessee, maintained the doctrine of instruction in its extreme form; and when, in 1839, he could not conscientiously obey certain instructions that he had received from the Legislature of his State, he resigned. In recent years Legislatures have sometimes requested that a particular course be pursued by Senators and Representatives. The doctrine was defended on the ground that it is democratic. It is plainly impracticable, since there are no certain means of ascertaining what the people want without resorting to an election. Some of the States have incorporated the right of instruction into their constitutions, but no State has gone so far as to require the Representative to obey.1

1 Switzerland has carried the democratic principle, or the direct participation of the people in government, farther than any other country. Not only do the voters, under certain condition, pass upon bills that the Federal and Cantonal Legislatures have first approved, but they even initiate measures. See discussions of the Referendum and the Initiative: Vincent, State and Federal Government in Switzerland; Adams and Cunningham, The Swiss Confederation. See also The Atlantic Monthly, April, 1894, The Referendum in Switzerland and in America, and Lalor's Cyclopædia, Article, Instructions.

CHAPTER XVII.

COMPOSITION AND ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

ARTICLE I.

Section 2, Clause 1.-The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.

267. Representative's Term.-Some members of the Convention wished to limit the Representative's term to one year, and some wished to extend it to three years. The first argued that a short term would keep the Representative mindful of his dependence upon the people; the second, that a long term would tend to give the Government permanence and stability. Two years was finally agreed upon as reasonably combining both ends.1

268. Representatives Elected by the People.Except in Connecticut and Rhode Island, where they were elected by the people, the delegates to the Old Congress were appointed by the State Legislatures. But it was an essential part of the new plan that the House of Representatives should be chosen by the people of the States. Hence it is called the popular branch of Congress. The legally qualified electors of State representatives are declared legally qualified electors of National Representatives. But as no State has more than one rule of suffrage, the man who may vote for State representatives may also vote for Governor, etc. As each State makes its own rules, subject to a single limitation, a man may vote for a Representative in

1 This clause also determines the length of a Congress. It is the same as the Representative's term. The first Congress legally began March 4, 1789; the Fifty-third Congress, March 4, 1893.

one State who cannot on moving to another. The single limitation referred to is found in section 1, Article XV., of Amendments: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." By giving the electors of National Representatives the same qualifications as electors of State representatives, the Constitution provides indirectly that State representatives shall be elected by the people.1

Section 2, Clause 2.-No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

269. Original Qualifications of Representatives.Beyond providing that no man should sit more than three years in six, the Articles of Confederation did not fix the qualifications of members of Congress. All other qualifications were left to the State. But the Constitution fixes the three qualifications of age, citizenship, and inhabitancy. The ages fixed, and the period of citizenship in the case of foreign-born citizens, are short enough to qualify men to sit in either House of Congress. Obviously, too, a legislature should consist wholly of citizens of the nation or state. In a great country like the United States, it is important that members of Congress shall be inhabitants of the States that elect them. As a rule, residents of New England could not intelligently represent the people of California. It is not necessary for a Representative to live in the district that he represents, but such is the almost unvarying custom. Again, inhabitancy and residence are different things. "An inhabitant is a bona fide member of the State, subject to all the requisites of law, and entitled

1 In Great Britain it is common for members of the House of Commons not to live within the constituencies that elect them. A resident of London or Edinburgh may represent any constituency in England, Scotland, or Wales. Mr. Glaastone, who resides in Wales, has for many years sat for Midlothian, in Scotland. This rule there works well. It brings many able men into Parliament who would otherwise be shut out. A man twenty-one years of age, if otherwise qualified, can sit in Parliament. Such, too, is the rule in most of our State Legislatures.

to all privileges and advantages under the law; actual residence is not essential, as if a person be a minister resident at a foreign port."1

The question has been asked whether a State may add to these qualificatious of the Representative. The better opinion is that it cannot. The phrase "a citizen of the United States" asserts, what has often been denied, that these States are one country, a nation, and not a mere confederacy.

Section 2, Clause 3.—Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within the Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

270. Apportionment in the Federal Convention.No other clause of the Constitution gave the Convention so much trouble as this one. The principal points of controversy, more fully stated in Chapter VIII., may be again enumerated: (1) The Small-state party contended for an equal representation; the Large-state party for a proportional representation. Population was finally decided upon. (2) The rule for determining the numbers was disputed no less warmly. It was unanimously agreed that all free persons should be counted; nor was there serious objection to counting persons bound to service and all Indians except those not taxed. But what should be done with the slaves? It was finally agreed to call them

1 Desty: The Constitution of the U. S., P 45.

persons, and to count five of them as three in determining the respective numbers of the States. (3) There were also many opinions as to supplying the treasury, but it was agreed, at last, that the apportionment of direct taxes should be brought under the same rule as the apportionment of Representatives.

271. Ratios and Apportionments.-The Federal Convention at first agreed to put the minimum ratio of representation at 40,000, but reduced it to 30,000 at the very close of the session on a special plea made by Washington. This plea was that the reduction would enlarge the representation, and so tend to relieve the fears of those people who thought the new Government would be a tyranny. No maximum was or could be fixed; the ratios must be determined from time to time with reference to population and the convenient size of the House.1

272. Each State to Have One.--The Constitution wisely stipulates that each State shall have at least one Representative. In 1873 Delaware, Nebraska, Nevada, and Oregon might have been unrepresented in the House had it not been for this stipulation, and at the present time several States fall below the ratio. The Representatives of States coming into the Union after the apportionment is made, are always additional to the number named in the law. Thus, the law of 1882 fixed the size of the House at 325; the admission of six new States added seven to that number.

Congress, by law, authorizes every organized Territory to send a Delegate to the House of Representatives, who

1. The first amendment proposed in 1790, which failed to receive the requisite number of ratifications, was in these words:

"After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every 30,000, until the number shall amount to 100, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than 100 Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every 40,000 persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to 200, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress that there shall not be less than 200 Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every 50,000 persons."