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of the United States is, for its size, the most influential political assembly in the world. In no other assembly is the political power of each individual member so great. Yet a state like Nevada, with a population no larger than that of many an English county, has exactly the same number of votes as the great State of New York, which in wealth, population, and resources may rank with a European nation. The contrast is rendered still more striking when we consider the case of a Territory demanding admission into the Union as a State. When such a Territory-Washington, Montana, Dakota, or any other-seeks admission, New York and Pennsylvania are called upon to reckon a thousand Western settlers as equivalent to tens of thousands of their own people. In one of the Territories just mentioned, Dakota, the people not only want admission to the Union, but demand to be admitted as two States; so that in this case, so far as the Senate is concerned, New York is called upon to give twice its own share of power to a community which is out of all comparison with it in importance, and at present possesses no political power whatever.

While Congress determines the number of representatives to be allowed to each State, it leaves to the State the local distribution of that representation. The fourteenth amendment to the constitution provides that representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers; but when the right to vote in Presidential, Con

gressional, or State elections is denied to any of the male inhabitants, being of full age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, the basis of representation shall be proportionately reduced. Each State, however small, has one member of the House of Representatives. Congress has required that each State shall be divided into districts of contiguous territory, and equal as nearly as may be in numbers; but the division of the State into districts is left to the State Legislature. In the arrangement of the districts there is room for a great deal of manipulation designed to promote party purposes, and known as "gerrymandering." "Thus the noted 'shoe-string' district of Mississippi is 500 miles long and about 110 miles broad: it contains no considerable town save Vicksburg, and is almost wholy rural. Another instance is the 'dumb-bell' district of Pennsylvania, which resembles the shape of that object." * A district in South Carolina is divided at high water into two separate territories and the principle of "contiguity" is only maintained at low water. Where an additional member is allotted to a State, and the Legislature fails to make a new districting, the additional member is voted for by the whole State, and is termed a Congress-man at large.

The LOWER HOUSE is thus intended to be directly and proportionately representative of the whole people. The Senate is constituted on a wholly different principle. Senators are elected, not by the people of the

Ford's "American Citizen's Manual."

State, but by the State Legislatures. The election of a senator is often the most important business of a session, and the most exciting issue at the antecedent State elections. If a majority of each House of the State Legislature agrees on the same candidate, the matter is settled; but if this result is not attained, both Houses assemble in "joint session," and vote for candidates until a majority is obtained. Day after day fruitless votes may be taken, and in the end the Legislature: may have to adjourn without any candidate.receiving a majority vote. Occasionally it happens that a public, man acquires so great a predominance: in his own party, that members of the State Legislature are returned as much to vote his election to the United States Senate as for any other question.... Where members are not so bound, the election is not free from embarrassments, even if one of the two parties has a decided majority.

Senators hold office for six years or three Congresses, and representatives for two years: only, equivalent to one Congress. But one-third of the Senate is elected every second year. The Senate as a body is permanent, but its composition changes to the extent of onethird at every biennial election.. The President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives are thus bound together by no necessary community of political complexion. The President may be a Democrat while both Houses may be Republican, or one House may be Republican and the other Democratic... Between the Government as a whole and the prevailing public

opinion of the moment there is not that close connection which the conventions of our system tend to bring about. The virtual supremacy of the House of Commons, together with its liability to dissolution at any moment, not only ensure agreement between the Ministry and the majority, but render both highly sensitive to the apparent tendency of public opinion. The absence of this responsiveness between the Government and the people is one of the most important of the practical differences which distinguish the American system from our own.

There are two other points of some interest and importance in the constitution of Congress. Members of both Houses are paid, the senator, as becomes his superior dignity, receiving the larger salary; and both senators and representatives must belong to the State which they represent, that is, they must be inhabitants thereof at the time of their election. The payment of members, both in the State and in the Federal Legislature, is an absolute necessity of political life in America. There is as yet no large class of men of means and leisure, such as we have been accustomed to rely on for active political work, and no national centre for such a class even if it existed. Nor does a Congressional career offer the same prizes as Parliamentary life does. The local lawyer who comes up to Washington to represent his State or district takes naturally to practice in the Supreme Court, and may expect at all events to get hold of the business coming from his own part of the country.

For other members there is in general no compensation and no inducement beyond the salary. Without payment, the smaller and more remote States could not provide an adequate representation at Washington. It may be added that there appears to be no ground for believing that payment of members lowers the quality of the representatives.

So much cannot be said for the other provision that members must be selected from the inhabitants of the State. The career of a public man is thereby limited within State boundaries. A statesman rejected by one constituency has no chance of appealing to another. Such a series of changes as we have seen in the Parliamentary career of Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Goschen would be impossible in America. No public man, however eminent, can look forward to the probability of an unbroken or a lengthened Congressional career. The Congressman is at the mercy of his own party caucus; the senator is at the mercy of the State Legislature, unless he is important enough to make his election an issue at the State election. In this country a public man of any position may acquire a direct hold over his electors which no "machine" could safely disregard, and a public man of high eminence may be said to have the whole country for a constituency. The most eminent politician in the United States, the leader, if there is one, of the regular Republican party, who came near being President in 1884, and may be President in 1888, is, and has been for some time, without a seat in Congress.

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