FEDERALIST No. 53

The Same Subject Continued(The House of Representatives)
From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 12, 1788.

HAMILTON OR MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:
I SHALL here, perhaps, be reminded of a current observation,
``that where annual elections end, tyranny begins. '' If it be
true, as has often been remarked, that sayings which become
proverbial are generally founded in reason, it is not less true,
that when once established, they are often applied to cases to
which the reason of them does not extend. I need not look for a
proof beyond the case before us. What is the reason on which this
proverbial observation is founded? No man will subject himself to
the ridicule of pretending that any natural connection subsists
between the sun or the seasons, and the period within which human
virtue can bear the temptations of power. Happily for mankind,
liberty is not, in this respect, confined to any single point of
time; but lies within extremes, which afford sufficient latitude
for all the variations which may be required by the various
situations and circumstances of civil society. The election of
magistrates might be, if it were found expedient, as in some
instances it actually has been, daily, weekly, or monthly, as
well as annual; and if circumstances may require a deviation from
the rule on one side, why not also on the other side? Turning our
attention to the periods established among ourselves, for the
election of the most numerous branches of the State legislatures,
we find them by no means coinciding any more in this instance,
than in the elections of other civil magistrates. In Connecticut
and Rhode Island, the periods are half-yearly. In the other
States, South Carolina excepted, they are annual. In South
Carolina they are biennialças is proposed in the federal
government. Here is a difference, as four to one, between the
longest and shortest periods; and yet it would be not easy to
show, that Connecticut or Rhode Island is better governed, or
enjoys a greater share of rational liberty, than South Carolina;
or that either the one or the other of these States is
distinguished in these respects, and by these causes, from the
States whose elections are different from both. In searching for
the grounds of this doctrine, I can discover but one, and that is
wholly inapplicable to our case. The important distinction so
well understood in America, between a Constitution established by
the people and unalterable by the government, and a law
established by the government and alterable by the government,
seems to have been little understood and less observed in any
other country. Wherever the supreme power of legislation has
resided, has been supposed to reside also a full power to change
the form of the government. Even in Great Britain, where the
principles of political and civil liberty have been most
discussed, and where we hear most of the rights of the
Constitution, it is maintained that the authority of the
Parliament is transcendent and uncontrollable, as well with
regard to the Constitution, as the ordinary objects of
legislative provision. They have accordingly, in several
instances, actually changed, by legislative acts, some of the
most fundamental articles of the government. They have in
particular, on several occasions, changed the period of election;
and, on the last occasion, not only introduced septennial in
place of triennial elections, but by the same act, continued
themselves in place four years beyond the term for which they
were elected by the people. An attention to these dangerous
practices has produced a very natural alarm in the votaries of
free government, of which frequency of elections is the
corner-stone; and has led them to seek for some security to
liberty, against the danger to which it is exposed. Where no
Constitution, paramount to the government, either existed or
could be obtained, no constitutional security, similar to that
established in the United States, was to be attempted. Some
other security, therefore, was to be sought for; and what better
security would the case admit, than that of selecting and
appealing to some simple and familiar portion of time, as a
standard for measuring the danger of innovations, for fixing the
national sentiment, and for uniting the patriotic exertions? The
most simple and familiar portion of time, applicable to the
subject was that of a year; and hence the doctrine has been
inculcated by a laudable zeal, to erect some barrier against the
gradual innovations of an unlimited government, that the advance
towards tyranny was to be calculated by the distance of departure
from the fixed point of annual elections. But what necessity can
there be of applying this expedient to a government limited, as
the federal government will be, by the authority of a paramount
Constitution? Or who will pretend that the liberties of the
people of America will not be more secure under biennial
elections, unalterably fixed by such a Constitution, than those
of any other nation would be, where elections were annual, or
even more frequent, but subject to alterations by the ordinary
power of the government? The second question stated is, whether
biennial elections be necessary or useful. The propriety of
answering this question in the affirmative will appear from
several very obvious considerations.
                                         No man can be a
competent legislator who does not add to an upright intention and
a sound judgment a certain degree of knowledge of the subjects on
which he is to legislate. A part of this knowledge may be
acquired by means of information which lie within the compass of
men in private as well as public stations. Another part can only
be attained, or at least thoroughly attained, by actual
experience in the station which requires the use of it. The
period of service, ought, therefore, in all such cases, to bear
some proportion to the extent of practical knowledge requisite to
the due performance of the service. The period of legislative
service established in most of the States for the more numerous
branch is, as we have seen, one year. The question then may be
put into this simple form: does the period of two years bear no
greater proportion to the knowledge requisite for federal
legislation than one year does to the knowledge requisite for
State legislation? The very statement of the question, in this
form, suggests the answer that ought to be given to it. In a
single State, the requisite knowledge relates to the existing
laws which are uniform throughout the State, and with which all
the citizens are more or less conversant; and to the general
affairs of the State, which lie within a small compass, are not
very diversified, and occupy much of the attention and
conversation of every class of people. The great theatre of the
United States presents a very different scene. The laws are so
far from being uniform, that they vary in every State; whilst the
public affairs of the Union are spread throughout a very
extensive region, and are extremely diversified by t e local
affairs connected with them, and can with difficulty be correctly
learnt in any other place than in the central councils to which a
knowledge of them will be brought by the representatives of every
part of the empire. Yet some knowledge of the affairs, and even
of the laws, of all the States, ought to be possessed by the
members from each of the States. How can foreign trade be
properly regulated by uniform laws, without some acquaintance
with the commerce, the ports, the usages, and the regulatious of
the different States? How can the trade between the different
States be duly regulated, without some knowledge of their
relative situations in these and other respects? How can taxes
be judiciously imposed and effectually collected, if they be not
accommodated to the different laws and local circumstances
relating to these objects in the different States? How can
uniform regulations for the militia be duly provided, without a
similar knowledge of many internal circumstances by which the
States are distinguished from each other? These are the
principal objects of federal legislation, and suggest most
forcibly the extensive information which the representatives
ought to acquire. The other interior objects will require a
proportional degree of information with regard to them. It is
true that all these difficulties will, by degrees, be very much
diminished. The most laborious task will be the proper
inauguration of the government and the primeval formation of a
federal code. Improvements on the first draughts will every year
become both easier and fewer. Past transactions of the
government will be a ready and accurate source of information to
new members. The affairs of the Union will become more and more
objects of curiosity and conversation among the citizens at
large. And the increased intercourse among those of different
States will contribute not a little to diffuse a mutual knowledge
of their affairs, as this again will contribute to a general
assimilation of their manners and laws. But with all these
abatements, the business of federal legislation must continue so
far to exceed, both in novelty and difficulty, the legislative
business of a single State, as to justify the longer period of
service assigned to those who are to transact it. A branch of
knowledge which belongs to the acquirements of a federal
representative, and which has not been mentioned is that of
foreign affairs. In regulating our own commerce he ought to be
not only acquainted with the treaties between the United States
and other nations, but also with the commercial policy and laws
of other nations. He ought not to be altogether ignorant of the
law of nations; for that, as far as it is a proper object of
municipal legislation, is submitted to the federal government.
And although the House of Representatives is not immediately to
participate in foreign negotiations and arrangements, yet from
the necessary connection between the several branches of public
affairs, those particular branches will frequently deserve
attention in the ordinary course of legislation, and will
sometimes demand particular legislative sanction and
co-operation. Some portion of this knowledge may, no doubt, be
acquired in a man's closet; but some of it also can only be
derived from the public sources of information; and all of it
will be acquired to best effect by a practical attention to the
subject during the period of actual service in the legislature.
There are other considerations, of less importance, perhaps, but
which are not unworthy of notice. The distance which many of the
representatives will be obliged to travel, and the arrangements
rendered necessary by that circumstance, might be much more
serious objections with fit men to this service, if limited to a
single year, than if extended to two years. No argument can be
drawn on this subject, from the case of the delegates to the
existing Congress. They are elected annually, it is true; but
their re-election is considered by the legislative assemblies
almost as a matter of course. The election of the representatives
by the people would not be governed by the same principle. A few
of the members, as happens in all such assemblies, will possess
superior talents; will, by frequent reelections, become members
of long standing; will be thoroughly masters of the public
business, and perhaps not unwilling to avail themselves of those
advantages. The greater the proportion of new members, and the
less the information of the bulk of the members the more apt will
they be to fall into the snares that may be laid for them. This
remark is no less applicable to the relation which will subsist
between the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is an
inconvenience mingled with the advantages of our frequent
elections even in single States, where they are large, and hold
but one legislative session in a year, that spurious elections
cannot be investigated and annulled in time for the decision to
have its due effect. If a return can be obtained, no matter by
what unlawful means, the irregular member, who takes his seat of
course, is sure of holding it a sufficient time to answer his
purposes. Hence, a very pernicious encouragement is given to the
use of unlawful means, for obtaining irregular returns. Were
elections for the federal legislature to be annual, this practice
might become a very serious abuse, particularly in the more
distant States. Each house is, as it necessarily must be, the
judge of the elections, qualifications, and returns of its
members; and whatever improvements may be suggested by
experience, for simplifying and accelerating the process in
disputed cases, so great a portion of a year would unavoidably
elapse, before an illegitimate member could be dispossessed of
his seat, that the prospect of such an event would be little
check to unfair and illicit means of obtaining a seat. All these
considerations taken together warrant us in affirming, that
biennial elections will be as useful to the affairs of the public
as we have seen that they will be safe to the liberty of the
people. PUBLIUS.


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FEDERALIST No. 54

The Apportionment of Members Among the States

From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 12, 1788.

HAMILTON OR MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:
THE next view which I shall take of the House of Representatives
relates to the appointment of its members to the several States
which is to be determined by the same rule with that of direct
taxes.
           It is not contended that the number of people in each
State ought not to be the standard for regulating the proportion
of those who are to represent the people of each State. The
establishment of the same rule for the appointment of taxes, will
probably be as little contested; though the rule itself in this
case, is by no means founded on the same principle. In the former
case, the rule is understood to refer to the personal rights of
the people, with which it has a natural and universal connection.
In the latter, it has reference to the proportion of wealth, of
which it is in no case a precise measure, and in ordinary cases a
very unfit one. But notwithstanding the imperfection of the rule
as applied to the relative wealth and contributions of the
States, it is evidently the least objectionable among the
practicable rules, and had too recently obtained the general
sanction of America, not to have found a ready preference with
the convention. All this is admitted, it will perhaps be said;
but does it follow, from an admission of numbers for the measure
of representation, or of slaves combined with free citizens as a
ratio of taxation, that slaves ought to be included in the
numerical rule of representation? Slaves are considered as
property, not as persons. They ought therefore to be comprehended
in estimates of taxation which are founded on property, and to be
excluded from representation which is regulated by a census of
persons. This is the objection, as I understand it, stated in its
full force. I shall be equally candid in stating the reasoning
which may be offered on the opposite side. ``We subscribe to the
doctrine,'' might one of our Southern brethren observe, ``that
representation relates more immediately to persons, and taxation
more immediately to property, and we join in the application of
this distinction to the case of our slaves. But we must deny the
fact, that slaves are considered merely as property, and in no
respect whatever as persons. The true state of the case is, that
they partake of both these qualities: being considered by our
laws, in some respects, as persons, and in other respects as
property. In being compelled to labor, not for himself, but for
a master; in being vendible by one master to another master; and
in being subject at all times to be restrained in his liberty and
chastised in his body, by the capricious will of another,çthe
slave may appear to be degraded from the human rank, and classed
with those irrational animals which fall under the legal
denomination of property. In being protected, on the other hand,
in his life and in his limbs, against the violence of all
others, even the master of his labor and his liberty; and in
being punishable himself for all violence committed against
others,çthe slave is no less evidently regarded by the law as a
member of the society, not as a part of the irrational creation;
as a moral person, not as a mere article of property. The
federal Constitution, therefore, decides with great propriety on
the case of our slaves, when it views them in the mixed character
of persons and of property. This is in fact their true
character. It is the character bestowed on them by the laws
under which they live; and it will not be denied, that these are
the proper criterion; because it is only under the pretext that
the laws have transformed the negroes into subjects of property,
that a place is disputed them in the computation of numbers; and
it is admitted, that if the laws were to restore the rights which
have been taken away, the negroes could no longer be refused an
equal share of representation with the other inhabitants. ``This
question may be placed in another light. It is agreed on all
sides, that numbers are the best scale of wealth and taxation, as
they are the only proper scale of representation. Would the
convention have been impartial or consistent, if they had
rejected the slaves from the list of inhabitants, when the shares
of representation were to be calculated, and inserted them on the
lists when the tariff of contributions was to be adjusted? Could
it be reasonably expected, that the Southern States would concur
in a system, which considered their slaves in some degree as men,
when burdens were to be imposed, but refused to consider them in
the same light, when advantages were to be conferred? Might not
some surprise also be expressed, that those who reproach the
Southern States with the barbarous policy of considering as
property a part of their human brethren, should themselves
contend, that the government to which all the States are to be
parties, ought to consider this unfortunate race more completely
in the unnatural light of property, than the very laws of which
they complain? ``It may be replied, perhaps, that slaves are not
included in the estimate of representatives in any of the States
possessing them. They neither vote themselves nor increase the
votes of their masters. Upon what principle, then, ought they to
be taken into the federal estimate of representation? In
rejecting them altogether, the Constitution would, in this
respect, have followed the very laws which have been appealed to
as the proper guide. ``This objection is repelled by a single
abservation. It is a fundamental principle of the proposed
Constitution, that as the aggregate number of representatives
allotted to the several States is to be determined by a federal
rule, founded on the aggregate number of inhabitants, so the
right of choosing this allotted number in each State is to be
exercised by such part of the inhabitants as the State itself may
designate. The qualifications on which the right of suffrage
depend are not, perhaps, the same in any two States. In some of
the States the difference is very material. In every State, a
certain proportion of inhabitants are deprived of this right by
the constitution of the State, who will be included in the census
by which the federal Constitution apportions the representatives.
In this point of view the Southern States might retort the
complaint, by insisting that the principle laid down by the
convention required that no regard should be had to the policy of
particular States towards their own inhabitants; and
consequently, that the slaves, as inhabitants, should have been
admitted into the census according to their full number, in like
manner with other inhabitants, who, by the policy of other
States, are not admitted to all the rights of citizens. A
rigorous adherence, however, to this principle, is waived by
those who would be gainers by it. All that they ask is that
equal moderation be shown on the other side. Let the case of the
slaves be considered, as it is in truth, a peculiar one. Let the
compromising expedient of the Constitution be mutually adopted,
which regards them as inhabitants, but as debased by servitude
below the equal level of free inhabitants, which regards the
SLAVE as divested of two fifths of the MAN. ``After all, may not
another ground be taken on which this article of the
Constitution will admit of a still more ready defense? We have
hitherto proceeded on the idea that representation related to
persons only, and not at all to property. But is it a just idea?
Government is instituted no less for protection of the property,
than of the persons, of individuals. The one as well as the
other, therefore, may be considered as represented by those who
are charged with the government. Upon this principle it is, that
in several of the States, and particularly in the State of New
York, one branch of the government is intended more especially to
be the guardian of property, and is accordingly elected by that
part of the society which is most interested in this object of
government. In the federal Constitution, this policy does not
prevail. The rights of property are committed into the same hands
with the personal rights. Some attention ought, therefore, to be
paid to property in the choice of those hands. ``For another
reason, the votes allowed in the federal legislature to the
people of each State, ought to bear some proportion to the
comparative wealth of the States. States have not, like
individuals, an influence over each other, arising from superior
advantages of fortune. If the law allows an opulent citizen but a
single vote in the choice of his representative, the respect and
consequence which he derives from his fortunate situation very
frequently guide the votes of others to the objects of his
choice; and through this imperceptible channel the rights of
property are conveyed into the public representation. A State
possesses no such influence over other States. It is not probable
that the richest State in the Confederacy will ever influence the
choice of a single representative in any other State. Nor will
the representatives of the larger and richer States possess any
other advantage in the federal legislature, over the
representatives of other States, than what may result from their
superior number alone. As far, therefore, as their superior
wealth and weight may justly entitle them to any advantage, it
ought to be secured to them by a superior share of
representation. The new Constitution is, in this respect,
materially different from the existing Confederation, as well as
from that of the United Netherlands, and other similar
confederacies. In each of the latter, the efficacy of the
federal resolutions depends on the subsequent and voluntary
resolutions of the states composing the union. Hence the states,
though possessing an equal vote in the public councils, have an
unequal influence, corresponding with the unequal importance of
these subsequent and voluntary resolutions. Under the proposed
Constitution, the federal acts will take effect without the
necessary intervention of the individual States. They will depend
merely on the majority of votes in the federal legislature, and
consequently each vote, whether proceeding from a larger or
smaller State, or a State more or less wealthy or powerful, will
have an equal weight and efficacy: in the same manner as the
votes individually given in a State legislature, by the
representatives of unequal counties or other districts, have
each a precise equality of value and effect; or if there be any
difference in the case, it proceeds from the difference in the
personal character of the individual representative, rather than
from any regard to the extent of the district from which he
comes. ''Such is the reasoning which an advocate for the
Southern interests might employ on this subject; and although it
may appear to be a little strained in some points, yet, on the
whole, I must confess that it fully reconciles me to the scale of
representation which the convention have established. In one
respect, the establishment of a common measure for representation
and taxation will have a very salutary effect. As the accuracy
of the census to be obtained by the Congress will necessarily
depend, in a considerable degree on the disposition, if not on
the co-operation, of the States, it is of great importance that
the States should feel as little bias as possible, to swell or to
reduce the amount of their numbers. Were their share of
representation alone to be governed by this rule, they would have
an interest in exaggerating their inhabitants. Were the rule to
decide their share of taxation alone, a contrary temptation would
prevail. By extending the rule to both objects, the States will
have opposite interests, which will control and balance each
other, and produce the requisite impartiality. PUBLIUS.




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FEDERALIST No. 55

The Total Number of the House of Representatives
From the New York Packet. Friday, February 15, 1788.

HAMILTON OR MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:
THE number of which the House of Representatives is to consist,
forms another and a very interesting point of view, under which
this branch of the federal legislature may be contemplated.
Scarce any article, indeed, in the whole Constitution seems to be
rendered more worthy of attention, by the weight of character and
the apparent force of argument with which it has been assailed.
The charges exhibited against it are, first, that so small a
number of representatives will be an unsafe depositary of the
public interests; secondly, that they will not possess a proper
knowledge of the local circumstances of their numerous
constituents; thirdly, that they will be taken from that class of
citizens which will sympathize least with the feelings of the
mass of the people, and be most likely to aim at a permanent
elevation of the few on the depression of the many; fourthly,
that defective as the number will be in the first instance, it
will be more and more disproportionate, by the increase of the
people, and the obstacles which will prevent a correspondent
increase of the representatives. In general it may be remarked on
this subject, that no political problem is less susceptible of a
precise solution than that which relates to the number most
convenient for a representative legislature; nor is there any
point on which the policy of the several States is more at
variance, whether we compare their legislative assemblies
directly with each other, or consider the proportions which they
respectively bear to the number of their constituents. Passing
over the difference between the smallest and largest States, as
Delaware, whose most numerous branch consists of twenty-one
representatives, and Massachusetts, where it amounts to between
three and four hundred, a very considerable difference is
observable among States nearly equal in population. The number of
representatives in Pennsylvania is not more than one fifth of
that in the State last mentioned. New York, whose population is
to that of South Carolina as six to five, has little more than
one third of the number of representatives. As great a disparity
prevails between the States of Georgia and Delaware or Rhode
Island. In Pennsylvania, the representatives do not bear a
greater proportion to their constituents than of one for every
four or five thousand. In Rhode Island, they bear a proportion of
at least one for every thousand. And according to the
constitution of Georgia, the proportion may be carried to one to
every ten electors; and must unavoidably far exceed the
proportion in any of the other States. Another general remark to
be made is, that the ratio between the representatives and the
people ought not to be the same where the latter are very
numerous as where they are very few. Were the representatives in
Virginia to be regulated by the standard in Rhode Island, they
would, at this time, amount to between four and five hundred; and
twenty or thirty years hence, to a thousand. On the other hand,
the ratio of Pennsylvania, if applied to the State of Delaware,
would reduce the representative assembly of the latter to seven
or eight members. Nothing can be more fallacious than to found
our political calculations on arithmetical principles. Sixty or
seventy men may be more properly trusted with a given degree of
power than six or seven. But it does not follow that six or seven
hundred would be proportionably a better depositary. And if we
carry on the supposition to six or seven thousand, the whole
reasoning ought to be reversed. The truth is, that in all cases a
certain number at least seems to be necessary to secure the
benefits of free consultation and discussion, and to guard
against too easy a combination for improper purposes; as, on the
other hand, the number ought at most to be kept within a certain
limit, in order to avoid the confusion and intemperance of a
multitude. In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character
composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason.
Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian
assembly would still have been a mob.
                                          It is necessary also to
recollect here the observations which were applied to the case of
biennial elections. For the same reason that the limited powers
of the Congress, and the control of the State legislatures,
justify less frequent elections than the public safely might
otherwise require, the members of the Congress need be less
numerous than if they possessed the whole power of legislation,
and were under no other than the ordinary restraints of other
legislative bodies. With these general ideas in our mind, let us
weigh the objections which have been stated against the number of
members proposed for the House of Representatives. It is said, in
the first place, that so small a number cannot be safely trusted
with so much power. The number of which this branch of the
legislature is to consist, at the outset of the government, will
be sixtyfive. Within three years a census is to be taken, when
the number may be augmented to one for every thirty thousand
inhabitants; and within every successive period of ten years the
census is to be renewed, and augmentations may continue to be
made under the above limitation. It will not be thought an
extravagant conjecture that the first census will, at the rate of
one for every thirty thousand, raise the number of
representatives to at least one hundred. Estimating the negroes
in the proportion of three fifths, it can scarcely be doubted
that the population of the United States will by that time, if it
does not already, amount to three millions. At the expiration of
twenty-five years, according to the computed rate of increase,
the number of representatives will amount to two hundred, and of
fifty years, to four hundred. This is a number which, I presume,
will put an end to all fears arising from the smallness of the
body. I take for granted here what I shall, in answering the
fourth objection, hereafter show, that the number of
representatives will be augmented from time to time in the
manner provided by the Constitution. On a contrary supposition, I
should admit the objection to have very great weight indeed. The
true question to be decided then is, whether the smallness of the
number, as a temporary regulation, be dangerous to the public
liberty? Whether sixty-five members for a few years, and a
hundred or two hundred for a few more, be a safe depositary for a
limited and well-guarded power of legislating for the United
States? I must own that I could not give a negative answer to
this question, without first obliterating every impression which
I have received with regard to the present genius of the people
of America, the spirit which actuates the State legislatures, and
the principles which are incorporated with the political
character of every class of citizens I am unable to conceive that
the people of America, in their present temper, or under any
circumstances which can speedily happen, will choose, and every
second year repeat the choice of, sixty-five or a hundred men who
would be disposed to form and pursue a scheme of tyranny or
treachery. I am unable to conceive that the State legislatures,
which must feel so many motives to watch, and which possess so
many means of counteracting, the federal legislature, would fail
either to detect or to defeat a conspiracy of the latter against
the liberties of their common constituents. I am equally unable
to conceive that there are at this time, or can be in any short
time, in the United States, any sixty-five or a hundred men
capable of recommending themselves to the choice of the people at
large, who would either desire or dare, within the short space of
two years, to betray the solemn trust committed to them. What
change of circumstances, time, and a fuller population of our
country may produce, requires a prophetic spirit to declare,
which makes no part of my pretensions. But judging from the
circumstances now before us, and from the probable state of them
within a moderate period of time, I must pronounce that the
liberties of America cannot be unsafe in the number of hands
proposed by the federal Constitution. From what quarter can the
danger proceed? Are we afraid of foreign gold? If foreign gold
could so easily corrupt our federal rulers and enable them to
ensnare and betray their constituents, how has it happened that
we are at this time a free and independent nation? The Congress
which conducted us through the Revolution was a less numerous
body than their successors will be; they were not chosen by, nor
responsible to, their fellowcitizens at large; though appointed
from year to year, and recallable at pleasure, they were
generally continued for three years, and prior to the
ratification of the federal articles, for a still longer term.
They held their consultations always under the veil of secrecy;
they had the sole transaction of our affairs with foreign
nations; through the whole course of the war they had the fate of
their country more in their hands than it is to be hoped will
ever be the case with our future representatives; and from the
greatness of the prize at stake, and the eagerness of the party
which lost it, it may well be supposed that the use of other
means than force would not have been scrupled. Yet we know by
happy experience that the public trust was not betrayed; nor has
the purity of our public councils in this particular ever
suffered, even from the whispers of calumny. Is the danger
apprehended from the other branches of the federal government?
But where are the means to be found by the President, or the
Senate, or both? Their emoluments of office, it is to be
presumed, will not, and without a previous corruption of the
House of Representatives cannot, more than suffice for very
different purposes; their private fortunes, as they must allbe
American citizens, cannot possibly be sources of danger. The
only means, then, which they can possess, will be in the
dispensation of appointments. Is it here that suspicion rests
her charge? Sometimes we are told that this fund of corruption
is to be exhausted by the President in subduing the virtue of the
Senate. Now, the fidelity of the other House is to be the
victim. The improbability of such a mercenary and perfidious
combination of the several members of government, standing on as
different foundations as republican principles will well admit,
and at the same time accountable to the society over which they
are placed, ought alone to quiet this apprehension. But,
fortunately, the Constitution has provided a still further
safeguard. The members of the Congress are rendered ineligible
to any civil offices that may be created, or of which the
emoluments may be increased, during the term of their election.
No offices therefore can be dealt out to the existing members but
such as may become vacant by ordinary casualties: and to suppose
that these would be sufficient to purchase the guardians of the
people, selected by the people themselves, is to renounce every
rule by which events ought to be calculated, and to substitute an
indiscriminate and unbounded jealousy, with which all reasoning
must be vain. The sincere friends of liberty, who give
themselves up to the extravagancies of this passion, are not
aware of the injury they do their own cause. As there is a
degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of
circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in
human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and
confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of
these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the
pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some
among us faithful likenesses of the human character, the
inference would be, that there is not sufficient virtue among men
for self-government; and that nothing less than the chains of
despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one
another. PUBLIUS.




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FEDERALIST No. 56

The Same Subject Continued(The Total Number of the House of
Representatives)
From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 19, 1788.

HAMILTON OR MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:
THE SECOND charge against the House of Representatives is, that
it will be too small to possess a due knowledge of the interests
of its constituents. As this objection evidently proceeds from a
comparison of the proposed number of representatives with the
great extent of the United States, the number of their
inhabitants, and the diversity of their interests, without taking
into view at the same time the circumstances which will
distinguish the Congress from other legislative bodies, the best
answer that can be given to it will be a brief explanation of
these peculiarities. It is a sound and important principle that
the representative ought to be acquainted with the interests and
circumstances of his constituents. But this principle can extend
no further than to those circumstances and interests to which the
authority and care of the representative relate. An ignorance of
a variety of minute and particular objects, which do not lie
within the compass of legislation, is consistent with every
attribute necessary to a due performance of the legislative
trust. In determining the extent of information required in the
exercise of a particular authority, recourse then must be had to
the objects within the purview of that authority. What are to be
the objects of federal legislation? Those which are of most
importance, and which seem most to require local knowledge, are
commerce, taxation, and the militia. A proper regulation of
commerce requires much information, as has been elsewhere
remarked; but as far as this information relates to the laws and
local situation of each individual State, a very few
representatives would be very sufficient vehicles of it to the
federal councils. Taxation will consist, in a great measure, of
duties which will be involved in the regulation of commerce. So
far the preceding remark is applicable to this object. As far as
it may consist of internal collections, a more diffusive
knowledge of the circumstances of the State may be necessary. But
will not this also be possessed in sufficient degree by a very
few intelligent men, diffusively elected within the State? Divide
the largest State into ten or twelve districts, and it will be
found that there will be no peculiar local interests in either,
which will not be within the knowledge of the representative of
the district. Besides this source of information, the laws of the
State, framed by representatives from every part of it, will be
almost of themselves a sufficient guide. In every State there
have been made, and must continue to be made, regulations on this
subject which will, in many cases, leave little more to be done
by the federal legislature, than to review the different laws,
and reduce them in one general act. A skillful individual in his
closet with all the local codes before him, might compile a law
on some subjects of taxation for the whole union, without any aid
from oral information, and it may be expected that whenever
internal taxes may be necessary, and particularly in cases
requiring uniformity throughout the States, the more simple
objects will be preferred. To be fully sensible of the facility
which will be given to this branch of federal legislation by the
assistance of the State codes, we need only suppose for a moment
that this or any other State were divided into a number of parts,
each having and exercising within itself a power of local
legislation. Is it not evident that a degree of local information
and preparatory labor would be found in the several volumes of
their proceedings, which would very much shorten the labors of
the general legislature, and render a much smaller number of
members sufficient for it? The federal councils will derive great
advantage from another circumstance. The representatives of each
State will not only bring with them a considerable knowledge of
its laws, and a local knowledge of their respective districts,
but will probably in all cases have been members, and may even at
the very time be members, of the State legislature, where all the
local information and interests of the State are assembled, and
from whence they may easily be conveyed by a very few hands into
the legislature of the United States. The observations made on
the subject of taxation apply with greater force to the case of
the militia. For however different the rules of discipline may be
in different States, they are the same throughout each particular
State; and depend on circumstances which can differ but little in
different parts of the same State. The attentive reader will
discern that the reasoning here used, to prove the sufficiency of
a moderate number of representatives, does not in any respect
contradict what was urged on another occasion with regard to the
extensive information which the representatives ought to possess,
and the time that might be necessary for acquiring it. This
information, so far as it may relate to local objects, is
rendered necessary and difficult, not by a difference of laws and
local circumstances within a single State, but of those among
different States. Taking each State by itself, its laws are the
same, and its interests but little diversified. A few men,
therefore, will possess all the knowledge requisite for a proper
representation of them. Were the interests and affairs of each
individual State perfectly simple and uniform, a knowledge of
them in one part would involve a knowledge of them in every
other, and the whole State might be competently represented by a
single member taken from any part of it. On a comparison of the
different States together, we find a great dissimilarity in their
laws, and in many other circumstances connected with the objects
of federal legislation, with all of which the federal
representatives ought to have some acquaintance. Whilst a few
representatives, therefore, from each State, may bring with them
a due knowledge of their own State, every representative will
have much information to acquire concerning all the other States.
The changes of time, as was formerly remarked, on the comparative
situation of the different States, will have an assimilating
effect. The effect of time on the internal affairs of the States,
taken singly, will be just the contrary. At present some of the
States are little more than a society of husbandmen. Few of them
have made much progress in those branches of industry which give
a variety and complexity to the affairs of a nation. These,
however, will in all of them be the fruits of a more advanced
population, and will require, on the part of each State, a fuller
representation. The foresight of the convention has accordingly
taken care that the progress of population may be accompanied
with a proper increase of the representative branch of the
government. The experience of Great Britain, which presents to
mankind so many political lessons, both of the monitory and
exemplary kind, and which has been frequently consulted in the
course of these inquiries, corroborates the result of the
reflections which we have just made. The number of inhabitants in
the two kingdoms of England and Scotland cannot be stated at less
than eight millions. The representatives of these eight millions
in the House of Commons amount to five hundred and fifty-eight.
Of this number, one ninth are elected by three hundred and
sixty-four persons, and one half, by five thousand seven hundred
and twenty-three persons. 1 It cannot be supposed that the half
thus elected, and who do not even reside among the people at
large, can add any thing either to the security of the people
against the government, or to the knowledge of their
circumstances and interests in the legislative councils. On the
contrary, it is notorious, that they are more frequently the
representatives and instruments of the executive magistrate, than
the guardians and advocates of the popular rights. They might
therefore, with great propriety, be considered as something more
than a mere deduction from the real representatives of the
nation. We will, however, consider them in this light alone, and
will not extend the deduction to a considerable number of
others, who do not reside among their constitutents, are very
faintly connected with them, and have very little particular
knowledge of their affairs. With all these concessions, two
hundred and seventy-nine persons only will be the depository of
the safety, interest, and happiness of eight millionsçthat is to
say, there will be one representative only to maintain the rights
and explain the situation OF TWENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED
AND SEVENTY constitutents, in an assembly exposed to the whole
force of executive influence, and extending its authority to
every object of legislation within a nation whose affairs are in
the highest degree diversified and complicated. Yet it is very
certain, not only that a valuable portion of freedom has been
preserved under all these circumstances, but that the defects in
the British code are chargeable, in a very small proportion, on
the ignorance of the legislature concerning the circumstances of
the people. Allowing to this case the weight which is due to it,
and comparing it with that of the House of Representatives as
above explained it seems to give the fullest assurance, that a
representative for every THIRTY THOUSAND INHABITANTS will render
the latter both a safe and competent guardian of the interests
which will be confided to it. PUBLIUS. Burgh's ``Political
Disquisitions. ''





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FEDERALIST No. 57

The Alleged Tendency of the New Plan to Elevate the Few at the
Expense of the Many Considered in Connection with Representation
From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 19, 1788.

HAMILTON OR MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:
THE THIRD charge against the House of Representatives is, that it
will be taken from that class of citizens which will have least
sympathy with the mass of the people, and be most likely to aim
at an ambitious sacrifice of the many to the aggrandizement of
the few. Of all the objections which have been framed against the
federal Constitution, this is perhaps the most extraordinary.
Whilst the objection itself is levelled against a pretended
oligarchy, the principle of it strikes at the very root of
republican government. The aim of every political constitution
is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess
most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common
good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most
effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they
continue to hold their public trust. The elective mode of
obtaining rulers is the characteristic policy of republican
government. The means relied on in this form of government for
preventing their degeneracy are numerous and various. The most
effectual one, is such a limitation of the term of appointments
as will maintain a proper responsibility to the people. Let me
now ask what circumstance there is in the constitution of the
House of Representatives that violates the principles of
republican government, or favors the elevation of the few on the
ruins of the many? Let me ask whether every circumstance is not,
on the contrary, strictly conformable to these principles, and
scrupulously impartial to the rights and pretensions of every
class and description of citizens? Who are to be the electors of
the federal representatives? Not the rich, more than the poor;
not the learned, more than the ignorant; not the haughty heirs of
distinguished names, more than the humble sons of obscurity and
unpropitious fortune. The electors are to be the great body of
the people of the United States. They are to be the same who
exercise the right in every State of electing the corresponding
branch of the legislature of the State. Who are to be the objects
of popular choice? Every citizen whose merit may recommend him to
the esteem and confidence of his country. No qualification of
wealth, of birth, of religious faith, or of civil profession is
permitted to fetter the judgement or disappoint the inclination
of the people. If we consider the situation of the men on whom
the free suffrages of their fellow-citizens may confer the
representative trust, we shall find it involving every security
which can be devised or desired for their fidelity to their
constituents. In the first place, as they will have been
distinguished by the preference of their fellow-citizens, we are
to presume that in general they will be somewhat distinguished
also by those qualities which entitle them to it, and which
promise a sincere and scrupulous regard to the nature of their
engagements. In the second place, they will enter into the public
service under circumstances which cannot fail to produce a
temporary affection at least to their constituents. There is in
every breast a sensibility to marks of honor, of favor, of
esteem, and of confidence, which, apart from all considerations
of interest, is some pledge for grateful and benevolent returns.
Ingratitude is a common topic of declamation against human
nature; and it must be confessed that instances of it are but too
frequent and flagrant, both in public and in private life. But
the universal and extreme indignation which it inspires is itself
a proof of the energy and prevalence of the contrary sentiment.
In the third place, those ties which bind the representative to
his constituents are strengthened by motives of a more selfish
nature. His pride and vanity attach him to a form of government
which favors his pretensions and gives him a share in its honors
and distinctions. Whatever hopes or projects might be entertained
by a few aspiring characters, it must generally happen that a
great proportion of the men deriving their advancement from their
influence with the people, would have more to hope from a
preservation of the favor, than from innovations in the
government subversive of the authority of the people. All these
securities, however, would be found very insufficient without the
restraint of frequent elections. Hence, in the fourth place, the
House of Representatives is so constituted as to support in the
members an habitual recollection of their dependence on the
people. Before the sentiments impressed on their minds by the
mode of their elevation can be effaced by the exercise of power,
they will be compelled to anticipate the moment when their power
is to cease, when their exercise of it is to be reviewed, and
when they must descend to the level from which they were raised;
there forever to remain unless a faithful discharge of their
trust shall have established their title to a renewal of it. I
will add, as a fifth circumstance in the situation of the House
of Representatives, restraining them from oppressive measures,
that they can make no law which will not have its full operation
on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of
the society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest
bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people
together. It creates between them that communion of interests and
sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished
examples; but without which every government degenerates into
tyranny. If it be asked, what is to restrain the House of
Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of
themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer: the
genius of the whole system; the nature of just and constitutional
laws; and above all, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates
the people of America ç a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in
return is nourished by it. If this spirit shall ever be so far
debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature,
as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate
any thing but liberty. Such will be the relation between the
House of Representatives and their constituents. Duty, gratitude,
interest, ambition itself, are the chords by which they will be
bound to fidelity and sympathy with the great mass of the people.
It is possible that these may all be insufficient to control the
caprice and wickedness of man. But are they not all that
government will admit, and that human prudence can devise? Are
they not the genuine and the characteristic means by which
republican government provides for the liberty and happiness of
the people? Are they not the identical means on which every State
government in the Union relies for the attainment of these
important ends? What then are we to understand by the objection
which this paper has combated? What are we to say to the men who
profess the most flaming zeal for republican government, yet
boldly impeach the fundamental principle of it; who pretend to be
champions for the right and the capacity of the people to choose
their own rulers, yet maintain that they will prefer those only
who will immediately and infallibly betray the trust committed to
them? Were the objection to be read by one who had not seen the
mode prescribed by the Constitution for the choice of
representatives, he could suppose nothing less than that some
unreasonable qualification of property was annexed to the right
of suffrage; or that the right of eligibility was limited to
persons of particular families or fortunes; or at least that the
mode prescribed by the State constitutions was in some respect or
other, very grossly departed from. We have seen how far such a
supposition would err, as to the two first points. Nor would it,
in fact, be less erroneous as to the last. The only difference
discoverable between the two cases is, that each representative
of the United States will be elected by five or six thousand
citizens; whilst in the individual States, the election of a
representative is left to about as many hundreds. Will it be
pretended that this difference is sufficient to justify an
attachment to the State governments, and an abhorrence to the
federal government? If this be the point on which the objection
turns, it deserves to be examined. Is it supported by REASON?
This cannot be said, without maintaining that five or six
thousand citizens are less capable of choosing a fit
representative, or more liable to be corrupted by an unfit one,
than five or six hundred. Reason, on the contrary, assures us,
that as in so great a number a fit representative would be most
likely to be found, so the choice would be less likely to be
diverted from him by the intrigues of the ambitious or the
ambitious or the bribes of the rich. Is the CONSEQUENCE from
this doctrine admissible? If we say that five or six hundred
citizens are as many as can jointly exercise their right of
suffrage, must we not deprive the people of the immediate choice
of their public servants, in every instance where the
administration of the government does not require as many of them
as will amount to one for that number of citizens? Is the
doctrine warranted by FACTS? It was shown in the last paper, that
the real representation in the British House of Commons very
little exceeds the proportion of one for every thirty thousand
inhabitants. Besides a variety of powerful causes not existing
here, and which favor in that country the pretensions of rank and
wealth, no person is eligible as a representative of a county,
unless he possess real estate of the clear value of six hundred
pounds sterling per year; nor of a city or borough, unless he
possess a like estate of half that annual value. To this
qualification on the part of the county representatives is added
another on the part of the county electors, which restrains the
right of suffrage to persons having a freehold estate of the
annual value of more than twenty pounds sterling, according to
the present rate of money. Notwithstanding these unfavorable
circumstances, and notwithstanding some very unequal laws in the
British code, it cannot be said that the representatives of the
nation have elevated the few on the ruins of the many. But we
need not resort to foreign experience on this subject. Our own
is explicit and decisive. The districts in New Hampshire in
which the senators are chosen immediately by the people, are
nearly as large as will be necessary for her representatives in
the Congress. Those of Massachusetts are larger than will be
necessary for that purpose; and those of New York still more so.
In the last State the members of Assembly for the cities and
counties of New York and Albany are elected by very nearly as
many voters as will be entitled to a representative in the
Congress, calculating on the number of sixty-five representatives
only. It makes no difference that in these senatorial districts
and counties a number of representatives are voted for by each
elector at the same time. If the same electors at the same time
are capable of choosing four or five representatives, they cannot
be incapable of choosing one. Pennsylvania is an additional
example. Some of her counties, which elect her State
representatives, are almost as large as her districts will be by
which her federal representatives will be elected. The city of
Philadelphia is supposed to contain between fifty and sixty
thousand souls. It will therefore form nearly two districts for
the choice of federal representatives. It forms, however, but
one county, in which every elector votes for each of its
representatives in the State legislature. And what may appear to
be still more directly to our purpose, the whole city actually
elects a SINGLE MEMBER for the executive council. This is the
case in all the other counties of the State. Are not these facts
the most satisfactory proofs of the fallacy which has been
employed against the branch of the federal government under
consideration? Has it appeared on trial that the senators of New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York, or the executive council
of Pennsylvania, or the members of the Assembly in the two last
States, have betrayed any peculiar disposition to sacrifice the
many to the few, or are in any respect less worthy of their
places than the representatives and magistrates appointed in
other States by very small divisions of the people? But there are
cases of a stronger complexion than any which I have yet quoted.
One branch of the legislature of Connecticut is so constituted
that each member of it is elected by the whole State. So is the
governor of that State, of Massachusetts, and of this State, and
the president of New Hampshire. I leave every man to decide
whether the result of any one of these experiments can be said to
countenance a suspicion, that a diffusive mode of choosing
representatives of the people tends to elevate traitors and to
undermine the public liberty. PUBLIUS.



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FEDERALIST No. 58
Objection That The Number of Members Will Not Be Augmented as the
Progress of Population Demands Considered

MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:
THE remaining charge against the House of Representatives, which
I am to examine, is grounded on a supposition that the number of
members will not be augmented from time to time, as the progress
of population may demand. It has been admitted, that this
objection, if well supported, would have great weight. The
following observations will show that, like most other objections
against the Constitution, it can only proceed from a partial view
of the subject, or from a jealousy which discolors and disfigures
every object which is beheld. 1. Those who urge the objection
seem not to have recollected that the federal Constitution will
not suffer by a comparison with the State constitutions, in the
security provided for a gradual augmentation of the number of
representatives. The number which is to prevail in the first
instance is declared to be temporary. Its duration is limited to
the short term of three years. Within every successive term of
ten years a census of inhabitants is to be repeated. The
unequivocal objects of these regulations are, first, to readjust,
from time to time, the apportionment of representatives to the
number of inhabitants, under the single exception that each State
shall have one representative at least; secondly, to augment the
number of representatives at the same periods, under the sole
limitation that the whole number shall not exceed one for every
thirty thousand inhabitants. If we review the constitutions of
the several States, we shall find that some of them contain no
determinate regulations on this subject, that others correspond
pretty much on this point with the federal Constitution, and that
the most effectual security in any of them is resolvable into a
mere directory provision. 2. As far as experience has taken place
on this subject, a gradual increase of representatives under the
State constitutions has at least kept pace with that of the
constituents, and it appears that the former have been as ready
to concur in such measures as the latter have been to call for
them. 3. There is a peculiarity in the federal Constitution which
insures a watchful attention in a majority both of the people and
of their representatives to a constitutional augmentation of the
latter. The peculiarity lies in this, that one branch of the
legislature is a representation of citizens, the other of the
States: in the former, consequently, the larger States will have
most weight; in the latter, the advantage will be in favor of the
smaller States. From this circumstance it may with certainty be
inferred that the larger States will be strenuous advocates for
increasing the number and weight of that part of the legislature
in which their influence predominates. And it so happens that
four only of the largest will have a majority of the whole votes
in the House of Representatives. Should the representatives or
people, therefore, of the smaller States oppose at any time a
reasonable addition of members, a coalition of a very few States
will be sufficient to overrule the opposition; a coalition which,
notwithstanding the rivalship and local prejudices which might
prevent it on ordinary occasions, would not fail to take place,
when not merely prompted by common interest, but justified by
equity and the principles of the Constitution. It may be
alleged, perhaps, that the Senate would be prompted by like
motives to an adverse coalition; and as their concurrence would
be indispensable, the just and constitutional views of the other
branch might be defeated. This is the difficulty which has
probably created the most serious apprehensions in the jealous
friends of a numerous representation. Fortunately it is among
the difficulties which, existing only in appearance, vanish on a
close and accurate inspection. The following reflections will,
if I mistake not, be admitted to be conclusive and satisfactory
on this point. Notwithstanding the equal authority which will
subsist between the two houses on all legislative subjects,
except the originating of money bills, it cannot be doubted that
the House, composed of the greater number of members, when
supported by the more powerful States, and speaking the known and
determined sense of a majority of the people, will have no small
advantage in a question depending on the comparative firmness of
the two houses. This advantage must be increased by the
consciousness, felt by the same side of being supported in its
demands by right, by reason, and by the Constitution; and the
consciousness, on the opposite side, of contending against the
force of all these solemn considerations. It is farther to be
considered, that in the gradation between the smallest and
largest States, there are several, which, though most likely in
general to arrange themselves among the former are too little
removed in extent and population from the latter, to second an
opposition to their just and legitimate pretensions. Hence it is
by no means certain that a majority of votes, even in the
Senate, would be unfriendly to proper augmentations in the number
of representatives. It will not be looking too far to add, that
the senators from all the new States may be gained over to the
just views of the House of Representatives, by an expedient too
obvious to be overlooked. As these States will, for a great
length of time, advance in population with peculiar rapidity,
they will be interested in frequent reapportionments of the
representatives to the number of inhabitants. The large States,
therefore, who will prevail in the House of Representatives, will
have nothing to do but to make reapportionments and augmentations
mutually conditions of each other; and the senators from all the
most growing States will be bound to contend for the latter, by
the interest which their States will feel in the former. These
considerations seem to afford ample security on this subject, and
ought alone to satisfy all the doubts and fears which have been
indulged with regard to it. Admitting, however, that they should
all be insufficient to subdue the unjust policy of the smaller
States, or their predominant influence in the councils of the
Senate, a constitutional and infallible resource still remains
with the larger States, by which they will be able at all times
to accomplish their just purposes. The House of Representatives
cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose, the supplies
requisite for the support of government. They, in a word, hold
the purseçthat powerful instrument by which we behold, in the
history of the British Constitution, an infant and humble
representation of the people gradually enlarging the sphere of
its activity and importance, and finally reducing, as far as it
seems to have wished, all the overgrown prerogatives of the other
branches of the government. This power over the purse may, in
fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with
which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of
the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for
carrying into effect every just and salutary measure. But will
not the House of Representatives be as much interested as the
Senate in maintaining the government in its proper functions, and
will they not therefore be unwilling to stake its existence or
its reputation on the pliancy of the Senate? Or, if such a trial
of firmness between the two branches were hazarded, would not the
one be as likely first to yield as the other? These questions
will create no difficulty with those who reflect that in all
cases the smaller the number, and the more permanent and
conspicuous the station, of men in power, the stronger must be
the interest which they will individually feel in whatever
concerns the government. Those who represent the dignity of their
country in the eyes of other nations, will be particularly
sensible to every prospect of public danger, or of dishonorable
stagnation in public affairs. To those causes we are to ascribe
the continual triumph of the British House of Commons over the
other branches of the government, whenever the engine of a money
bill has been employed. An absolute inflexibility on the side of
the latter, although it could not have failed to involve every
department of the state in the general confusion, has neither
been apprehended nor experienced. The utmost degree of firmness
that can be displayed by the federal Senate or President, will
not be more than equal to a resistance in which they will be
supported by constitutional and patriotic principles. In this
review of the Constitution of the House of Representatives, I
have passed over the circumstances of economy, which, in the
present state of affairs, might have had some effect in lessening
the temporary number of representatives, and a disregard of which
would probably have been as rich a theme of declamation against
the Constitution as has been shown by the smallness of the number
proposed. I omit also any remarks on the difficulty which might
be found, under present circumstances, in engaging in the federal
service a large number of such characters as the people will
probably elect. One observation, however, I must be permitted to
add on this subject as claiming, in my judgment, a very serious
attention. It is, that in all legislative assemblies the greater
the number composing them may be, the fewer will be the men who
will in fact direct their proceedings. In the first place, the
more numerous an assembly may be, of whatever characters
composed, the greater is known to be the ascendency of passion
over reason. In the next place, the larger the number, the
greater will be the proportion of members of limited information
and of weak capacities. Now, it is precisely on characters of
this description that the eloquence and address of the few are
known to act with all their force. In the ancient republics,
where the whole body of the people assembled in person, a single
orator, or an artful statesman, was generally seen to rule with
as complete a sway as if a sceptre had been placed in his single
hand. On the same principle, the more multitudinous a
representative assembly may be rendered, the more it will partake
of the infirmities incident to collective meetings of the people.
Ignorance will be the dupe of cunning, and passion the slave of
sophistry and declamation. The people can never err more than in
supposing that by multiplying their representatives beyond a
certain limit, they strengthen the barrier against the government
of a few. Experience will forever admonish them that, on the
contrary, AFTER SECURING A SUFFICIENT NUMBER FOR THE PURPOSES OF
SAFETY, OF LOCAL INFORMATION, AND OF DIFFUSIVE SYMPATHY WITH THE
WHOLE SOCIETY, they will counteract their own views by every
addition to their representatives. The countenance of the
government may become more democratic, but the soul that animates
it will be more oligarchic. The machine will be enlarged, but the
fewer, and often the more secret, will be the springs by which
its motions are directed. As connected with the objection against
the number of representatives, may properly be here noticed, that
which has been suggested against the number made competent for
legislative business. It has been said that more than a majority
ought to have been required for a quorum; and in particular
cases, if not in all, more than a majority of a quorum for a
decision. That some advantages might have resulted from such a
precaution, cannot be denied. It might have been an additional
shield to some particular interests, and another obstacle
generally to hasty and partial measures. But these considerations
are outweighed by the inconveniences in the opposite scale. In
all cases where justice or the general good might require new
laws to be passed, or active measures to be pursued, the
fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It
would be no longer the majority that would rule: the power would
be transferred to the minority. Were the defensive privilege
limited to particular cases, an interested minority might take
advantage of it to screen themselves from equitable sacrifices to
the general weal, or, in particular emergencies, to extort
unreasonable indulgences. Lastly, it would facilitate and foster
the baneful practice of secessions; a practice which has shown
itself even in States where a majority only is required; a
practice subversive of all the principles of order and regular
government; a practice which leads more directly to public
convulsions, and the ruin of popular governments, than any other
which has yet been displayed among us. PUBLIUS.



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FEDERALIST No. 59

Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of
Members
From the New York Packet. Friday, February 22, 1788.

HAMILTON

To the People of the State of New York:
THE natural order of the subject leads us to consider, in this
place, that provision of the Constitution which authorizes the
national legislature to regulate, in the last resort, the
election of its own members. It is in these words: ``The TIMES,
PLACES, and MANNER of holding elections for senators and
representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the
legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law,
make or alter SUCH REGULATIONS, except as to the PLACES of
choosing senators. ''1 This provision has not only been declaimed
against by those who condemn the Constitution in the gross, but
it has been censured by those who have objected with less
latitude and greater moderation; and, in one instance it has been
thought exceptionable by a gentleman who has declared himself the
advocate of every other part of the system. I am greatly
mistaken, notwithstanding, if there be any article in the whole
plan more completely defensible than this. Its propriety rests
upon the evidence of this plain proposition, that EVERY
GOVERNMENT OUGHT TO CONTAIN IN ITSELF THE MEANS OF ITS OWN
PRESERVATION. Every just reasoner will, at first sight, approve
an adherence to this rule, in the work of the convention; and
will disapprove every deviation from it which may not appear to
have been dictated by the necessity of incorporating into the
work some particular ingredient, with which a rigid conformity to
the rule was incompatible. Even in this case, though he may
acquiesce in the necessity, yet he will not cease to regard and
to regret a departure from so fundamental a principle, as a
portion of imperfection in the system which may prove the seed of
future weakness, and perhaps anarchy. It will not be alleged,
that an election law could have been framed and inserted in the
Constitution, which would have been always applicable to every
probable change in the situation of the country; and it will
therefore not be denied, that a discretionary power over
elections ought to exist somewhere. It will, I presume, be as
readily conceded, that there were only three ways in which this
power could have been reasonably modified and disposed: that it
must either have been lodged wholly in the national legislature,
or wholly in the State legislatures, or primarily in the latter
and ultimately in the former. The last mode has, with reason,
been preferred by the convention. They have submitted the
regulation of elections for the federal government, in the first
instance, to the local administrations; which, in ordinary
cases, and when no improper views prevail, may be both more
convenient and more satisfactory; but they have reserved to the
national authority a right to interpose, whenever extraordinary
circumstances might render that interposition necessary to its
safety. Nothing can be more evident, than that an exclusive
power of regulating elections for the national government, in the
hands of the State legislatures, would leave the existence of the
Union entirely at their mercy. They could at any moment
annihilate it, by neglecting to provide for the choice of persons
to administer its affairs. It is to little purpose to say, that
a neglect or omission of this kind would not be likely to take
place. The constitutional possibility of the thing, without an
equivalent for the risk, is an unanswerable objection. Nor has
any satisfactory reason been yet assigned for incurring that
risk. The extravagant surmises of a distempered jealousy can
never be dignified with that character. If we are in a humor to
presume abuses of power, it is as fair to presume them on the
part of the State governments as on the part of the general
government. And as it is more consonant to the rules of a just
theory, to trust the Union with the care of its own existence,
than to transfer that care to any other hands, if abuses of power
are to be hazarded on the one side or on the other, it is more
rational to hazard them where the power would naturally be
placed, than where it would unnaturally be placed. Suppose an
article had been introduced into the Constitution, empowering the
United States to regulate the elections for the particular
States, would any man have hesitated to condemn it, both as an
unwarrantable transposition of power, and as a premeditated
engine for the destruction of the State governments? The
violation of principle, in this case, would have required no
comment; and, to an unbiased observer, it will not be less
apparent in the project of subjecting the existence of the
national government, in a similar respect, to the pleasure of the
State governments. An impartial view of the matter cannot fail
to result in a conviction, that each, as far as possible, ought
to depend on itself for its own preservation. As an objection to
this position, it may be remarked that the constitution of the
national Senate would involve, in its full extent, the danger
which it is suggested might flow from an exclusive power in the
State legislatures to regulate the federal elections. It may be
alleged, that by declining the appointment of Senators, they
might at any time give a fatal blow to the Union; and from this
it may be inferred, that as its existence would be thus rendered
dependent upon them in so essential a point, there can be no
objection to intrusting them with it in the particular case under
consideration. The interest of each State, it may be added, to
maintain its representation in the national councils, would be a
complete security against an abuse of the trust. This argument,
though specious, will not, upon examination, be found solid. It
is certainly true that the State legislatures, by forbearing the
appointment of senators, may destroy the national government. But
it will not follow that, because they have a power to do this in
one instance, they ought to have it in every other. There are
cases in which the pernicious tendency of such a power may be far
more decisive, without any motive equally cogent with that which
must have regulated the conduct of the convention in respect to
the formation of the Senate, to recommend their admission into
the system. So far as that construction may expose the Union to
the possibility of injury from the State legislatures, it is an
evil; but it is an evil which could not have been avoided without
excluding the States, in their political capacities, wholly from
a place in the organization of the national government. If this
had been done, it would doubtless have been interpreted into an
entire dereliction of the federal principle; and would certainly
have deprived the State governments of that absolute safeguard
which they will enjoy under this provision. But however wise it
may have been to have submitted in this instance to an
inconvenience, for the attainment of a necessary advantage or a
greater good, no inference can be drawn from thence to favor an
accumulation of the evil, where no necessity urges, nor any
greater good invites. It may be easily discerned also that the
national government would run a much greater risk from a power in
the State legislatures over the elections of its House of
Representatives, than from their power of appointing the members
of its Senate. The senators are to be chosen for the period of
six years; there is to be a rotation, by which the seats of a
third part of them are to be vacated and replenished every two
years; and no State is to be entitled to more than two senators;
a quorum of the body is to consist of sixteen members. The joint
result of these circumstances would be, that a temporary
combination of a few States to intermit the appointment of
senators, could neither annul the existence nor impair the
activity of the body; and it is not from a general and permanent
combination of the States that we can have any thing to fear. The
first might proceed from sinister designs in the leading members
of a few of the State legislatures; the last would suppose a
fixed and rooted disaffection in the great body of the people,
which will either never exist at all, or will, in all
probability, proceed from an experience of the inaptitude of the
general government to the advancement of their happinessçin which
event no good citizen could desire its continuance. But with
regard to the federal House of Representatives, there is intended
to be a general election of members once in two years. If the
State legislatures were to be invested with an exclusive power of
regulating these elections, every period of making them would be
a delicate crisis in the national situation, which might issue in
a dissolution of the Union, if the leaders of a few of the most
important States should have entered into a previous conspiracy
to prevent an election. I shall not deny, that there is a degree
of weight in the observation, that the interests of each State,
to be represented in the federal councils, will be a security
against the abuse of a power over its elections in the hands of
the State legislatures. But the security will not be considered
as complete, by those who attend to the force of an obvious
distinction between the interest of the people in the public
felicity, and the interest of their local rulers in the power and
consequence of their offices. The people of America may be
warmly attached to the government of the Union, at times when the
particular rulers of particular States, stimulated by the natural
rivalship of power, and by the hopes of personal aggrandizement,
and supported by a strong faction in each of those States, may be
in a very opposite temper. This diversity of sentiment between a
majority of the people, and the individuals who have the
greatest credit in their councils, is exemplified in some of the
States at the present moment, on the present question. The
scheme of separate confederacies, which will always nultiply the
chances of ambition, will be a never failing bait to all such
influential characters in the State administrations as are
capable of preferring their own emolument and advancement to the
public weal. With so effectual a weapon in their hands as the
exclusive power of regulating elections for the national
government, a combination of a few such men, in a few of the most
considerable States, where the temptation will always be the
strongest, might accomplish the destruction of the Union, by
seizing the opportunity of some casual dissatisfaction among the
people (and which perhaps they may themselves have excited), to
discontinue the choice of members for the federal House of
Representatives. It ought never to be forgotten, that a firm
union of this country, under an efficient government, will
probably be an increasing object of jealousy to more than one
nation of Europe; and that enterprises to subvert it will
sometimes originate in the intrigues of foreign powers, and will
seldom fail to be patronized and abetted by some of them. Its
preservation, therefore ought in no case that can be avoided, to
be committed to the guardianship of any but those whose situation
will uniformly beget an immediate interest in the faithful and
vigilant performance of the trust. PUBLIUS. Ist clause, 4th
section, of the Ist article.



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FEDERALIST No. 60

The Same Subject Continued
(Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of
 Members)
From the New York Packet.
Tuesday, February 26, 1788.

HAMILTON

To the People of the State of New York:
WE HAVE seen, that an uncontrollable power over the elections to
 the federal government could not, without hazard, be committed to
 the State legislatures. Let us now see, what would be the danger on
 the other side; that is, from confiding the ultimate right of
 regulating its own elections to the Union itself. It is not
 pretended, that this right would ever be used for the exclusion of
 any State from its share in the representation. The interest of all
 would, in this respect at least, be the security of all. But it is
 alleged, that it might be employed in such a manner as to promote
 the election of some favorite class of men in exclusion of others,
 by confining the places of election to particular districts, and
 rendering it impracticable to the citizens at large to partake in
 the choice. Of all chimerical suppositions, this seems to be the
 most chimerical. On the one hand, no rational calculation of
 probabilities would lead us to imagine that the disposition which a
 conduct so violent and extraordinary would imply, could ever find
 its way into the national councils; and on the other, it may be
 concluded with certainty, that if so improper a spirit should ever
 gain admittance into them, it would display itself in a form
 altogether different and far more decisive.
The improbability of the attempt may be satisfactorily inferred
 from this single reflection, that it could never be made without
 causing an immediate revolt of the great body of the people, headed
 and directed by the State governments. It is not difficult to
 conceive that this characteristic right of freedom may, in certain
 turbulent and factious seasons, be violated, in respect to a
 particular class of citizens, by a victorious and overbearing
 majority; but that so fundamental a privilege, in a country so
 situated and enlightened, should be invaded to the prejudice of the
 great mass of the people, by the deliberate policy of the
 government, without occasioning a popular revolution, is altogether
 inconceivable and incredible.
In addition to this general reflection, there are considerations
 of a more precise nature, which forbid all apprehension on the
 subject. The dissimilarity in the ingredients which will compose
 the national government, and Õstill more in the manner in which they
 will be brought into action in its various branches, must form a
 powerful obstacle to a concert of views in any partial scheme of
 elections. There is sufficient diversity in the state of property,
 in the genius, manners, and habits of the people of the different
 parts of the Union, to occasion a material diversity of disposition
 in their representatives towards the different ranks and conditions
 in society. And though an intimate intercourse under the same
 government will promote a gradual assimilation in some of these
 respects, yet there are causes, as well physical as moral, which
 may, in a greater or less degree, permanently nourish different
 propensities and inclinations in this respect. But the circumstance
 which will be likely to have the greatest influence in the matter,
 will be the dissimilar modes of constituting the several component
 parts of the government. The House of Representatives being to be
 elected immediately by the people, the Senate by the State
 legislatures, the President by electors chosen for that purpose by
 the people, there would be little probability of a common interest
 to cement these different branches in a predilection for any
 particular class of electors.
As to the Senate, it is impossible that any regulation of ``time
 and manner,'' which is all that is proposed to be submitted to the
 national government in respect to that body, can affect the spirit
 which will direct the choice of its members. The collective sense
 of the State legislatures can never be influenced by extraneous
 circumstances of that sort; a consideration which alone ought to
 satisfy us that the discrimination apprehended would never be
 attempted. For what inducement could the Senate have to concur in a
 preference in which itself would not be included? Or to what
 purpose would it be established, in reference to one branch of the
 legislature, if it could not be extended to the other? The
 composition of the one would in this case counteract that of the
 other. And we can never suppose that it would embrace the
 appointments to the Senate, unless we can at the same time suppose
 the voluntary co-operation of the State legislatures. If we make
 the latter supposition, it then becomes immaterial where the power
 in question is placedçwhether in their hands or in those of the
 Union.
But what is to be the object of this capricious partiality in
 the national councils? Is it to be exercised in a discrimination
 between the different departments of industry, or between the
 different kinds of property, or between the different degrees of
 property? Will it lean in favor of the landed interest, or the
 moneyed interest, or the mercantile interest, or the manufacturing
 interest? Or, to speak in the fashionable language of the
 adversaries to the Constitution, will it court the elevation of
 ``the wealthy and the well-born,'' to the exclusion and debasement
 of all the rest of the society?
If this partiality is to be exerted in favor of those who are
 concerned in any particular description of industry or property, I
 presume it will readily be admitted, that the competition for it
 will lie between landed men and merchants. And I scruple not to
 affirm, that it is infinitely less likely that either of them should
 gain an ascendant in the national councils, than that the one or the
 other of them should predominate in all the local councils. The
 inference will be, that a conduct tending to give an undue
 preference to either is much less to be dreaded from the former than
 from the latter.
The several States are in various degrees addicted to
 agriculture and commerce. In most, if not all of them, agriculture
 is predominant. In a few of them, however, commerce nearly divides
 its empire, and in most of them has a considerable share of
 influence. In proportion as either prevails, it will be conveyed
 into the national representation; and for the very reason, that
 this will be an emanation from a greater variety of interests, and
 in much more various proportions, than are to be found in any single
 State, it will be much less apt to espouse either of them with a
 decided partiality, than the representation of any single State.
In a country consisting chiefly of the cultivators of land,
 where the rules of an equal representation obtain, the landed
 interest must, upon the whole, preponderate in the government. As
 long as this interest prevails in most of the State legislatures, so
 long it must maintain a correspondent superiority in the national
 Senate, which will generally be a faithful copy of the majorities of
 those assemblies. It cannot therefore be presumed, that a sacrifice
 of the landed to the mercantile class will ever be a favorite object
 of this branch of the federal legislature. In applying thus
 particularly to the Senate a general observation suggested by the
 situation of the country, I am governed by the consideration, that
 the credulous votaries of State power cannot, upon their own
 principles, suspect, that the State legislatures would be warped
 from their duty by any external influence. But in reality the same
 situation must have the same effect, in the primative composition at
 least of the federal House of Representatives: an improper bias
 towards the mercantile class is as little to be expected from this
 quarter as from the other.
In order, perhaps, to give countenance to the objection at any
 rate, it may be asked, is there not danger of an opposite bias in
 the national government, which may dispose it to endeavor to secure
 a monopoly of the federal administration to the landed class? As
 there is little likelihood that the supposition of such a bias will
 have any terrors for those who would be immediately injured by it, a
 labored answer to this question will be dispensed with. It will be
 sufficient to remark, first, that for the reasons elsewhere
 assigned, it is less likely that any decided partiality should
 prevail in the councils of the Union than in those of any of its
 members. Secondly, that there would be no temptation to violate the
 Constitution in favor of the landed class, because that class would,
 in the natural course of things, enjoy as great a preponderancy as
 itself could desire. And thirdly, that men accustomed to
 investigate the sources of public prosperity upon a large scale,
 must be too well convinced of the utility of commerce, to be
 inclined to inflict upon it so deep a wound as would result from the
 entire exclusion of those who would best understand its interest
 from a share in the management of them. The importance of commerce,
 in the view of revenue alone, must effectually guard it against the
 enmity of a body which would be continually importuned in its favor,
 by the urgent calls of public necessity.
I the rather consult brevity in discussing the probability of a
 preference founded upon a discrimination between the different kinds
 of industry and property, because, as far as I understand the
 meaning of the objectors, they contemplate a discrimination of
 another kind. They appear to have in view, as the objects of the
 preference with which they endeavor to alarm us, those whom they
 designate by the description of ``the wealthy and the well-born.''
 These, it seems, are to be exalted to an odious pre-eminence over
 the rest of their fellow-citizens. At one time, however, their
 elevation is to be a necessary consequence of the smallness of the
 representative body; at another time it is to be effected by
 depriving the people at large of the opportunity of exercising their
 right of suffrage in the choice of that body.
But upon what principle is the discrimination of the places of
 election to be made, in order to answer the purpose of the meditated
 preference? Are ``the wealthy and the well-born,'' as they are
 called, confined to particular spots in the several States? Have
 they, by some miraculous instinct or foresight, set apart in each of
 them a common place of residence? Are they only to be met with in
 the towns or cities? Or are they, on the contrary, scattered over
 the face of the country as avarice or chance may have happened to
 cast their own lot or that of their predecessors? If the latter is
 the case, (as every intelligent man knows it to be,1) is it not
 evident that the policy of confining the places of election to
 particular districts would be as subversive of its own aim as it
 would be exceptionable on every other account? The truth is, that
 there is no method of securing to the rich the preference
 apprehended, but by prescribing qualifications of property either
 for those who may elect or be elected. But this forms no part of
 the power to be conferred upon the national government. Its
 authority would be expressly restricted to the regulation of the
 TIMES, the PLACES, the MANNER of elections. The qualifications of
 the persons who may choose or be chosen, as has been remarked upon
 other occasions, are defined and fixed in the Constitution, and are
 unalterable by the legislature.
Let it, however, be admitted, for argument sake, that the
 expedient suggested might be successful; and let it at the same
 time be equally taken for granted that all the scruples which a
 sense of duty or an apprehension of the danger of the experiment
 might inspire, were overcome in the breasts of the national rulers,
 still I imagine it will hardly be pretended that they could ever
 hope to carry such an enterprise into execution without the aid of a
 military force sufficient to subdue the resistance of the great body
 of the people. The improbability of the existence of a force equal
 to that object has been discussed and demonstrated in different
 parts of these papers; but that the futility of the objection under
 consideration may appear in the strongest light, it shall be
 conceded for a moment that such a force might exist, and the
 national government shall be supposed to be in the actual possession
 of it. What will be the conclusion? With a disposition to invade
 the essential rights of the community, and with the means of
 gratifying that disposition, is it presumable that the persons who
 were actuated by it would amuse themselves in the ridiculous task of
 fabricating election laws for securing a preference to a favorite
 class of men? Would they not be likely to prefer a conduct better
 adapted to their own immediate aggrandizement? Would they not
 rather boldly resolve to perpetuate themselves in office by one
 decisive act of usurpation, than to trust to precarious expedients
 which, in spite of all the precautions that might accompany them,
 might terminate in the dismission, disgrace, and ruin of their
 authors? Would they not fear that citizens, not less tenacious than
 conscious of their rights, would flock from the remote extremes of
 their respective States to the places of election, to voerthrow
 their tyrants, and to substitute men who would be disposed to avenge
 the violated majesty of the people?
PUBLIUS.
1 Particularly in the Southern States and in this State.



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FEDERALIST No. 61

The Same Subject Continued
(Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of
 Members)
From the New York Packet.
Tuesday, February 26, 1788.

HAMILTON

To the People of the State of New York:
THE more candid opposers of the provision respecting elections,
 contained in the plan of the convention, when pressed in argument,
 will sometimes concede the propriety of that provision; with this
 qualification, however, that it ought to have been accompanied with
 a declaration, that all elections should be had in the counties
 where the electors resided. This, say they, was a necessary
 precaution against an abuse of the power. A declaration of this
 nature would certainly have been harmless; so far as it would have
 had the effect of quieting apprehensions, it might not have been
 undesirable. But it would, in fact, have afforded little or no
 additional security against the danger apprehended; and the want of
 it will never be considered, by an impartial and judicious examiner,
 as a serious, still less as an insuperable, objection to the plan.
 The different views taken of the subject in the two preceding
 papers must be sufficient to satisfy all dispassionate and
 discerning men, that if the public liberty should ever be the victim
 of the ambition of the national rulers, the power under examination,
 at least, will be guiltless of the sacrifice.
If those who are inclined to consult their jealousy only, would
 exercise it in a careful inspection of the several State
 constitutions, they would find little less room for disquietude and
 alarm, from the latitude which most of them allow in respect to
 elections, than from the latitude which is proposed to be allowed to
 the national government in the same respect. A review of their
 situation, in this particular, would tend greatly to remove any ill
 impressions which may remain in regard to this matter. But as that
 view would lead into long and tedious details, I shall content
 myself with the single example of the State in which I write. The
 constitution of New York makes no other provision for LOCALITY of
 elections, than that the members of the Assembly shall be elected in
 the COUNTIES; those of the Senate, in the great districts into
 which the State is or may be divided: these at present are four in
 number, and comprehend each from two to six counties. It may
 readily be perceived that it would not be more difficult to the
 legislature of New York to defeat the suffrages of the citizens of
 New York, by confining elections to particular places, than for the
 legislature of the United States to defeat the suffrages of the
 citizens of the Union, by the like expedient. Suppose, for
 instance, the city of Albany was to be appointed the sole place of
 election for the county and district of which it is a part, would
 not the inhabitants of that city speedily become the only electors
 of the members both of the Senate and Assembly for that county and
 district? Can we imagine that the electors who reside in the remote
 subdivisions of the counties of Albany, Saratoga, Cambridge, etc.,
 or in any part of the county of Montgomery, would take the trouble
 to come to the city of Albany, to give their votes for members of
 the Assembly or Senate, sooner than they would repair to the city of
 New York, to participate in the choice of the members of the federal
 House of Representatives? The alarming indifference discoverable in
 the exercise of so invaluable a privilege under the existing laws,
 which afford every facility to it, furnishes a ready answer to this
 question. And, abstracted from any experience on the subject, we
 can be at no loss to determine, that when the place of election is
 at an INCONVENIENT DISTANCE from the elector, the effect upon his
 conduct will be the same whether that distance be twenty miles or
 twenty thousand miles. Hence it must appear, that objections to the
 particular modification of the federal power of regulating elections
 will, in substance, apply with equal force to the modification of
 the like power in the constitution of this State; and for this
 reason it will be impossible to acquit the one, and to condemn the
 other. A similar comparison would lead to the same conclusion in
 respect to the constitutions of most of the other States.
If it should be said that defects in the State constitutions
 furnish no apology for those which are to be found in the plan
 proposed, I answer, that as the former have never been thought
 chargeable with inattention to the security of liberty, where the
 imputations thrown on the latter can be shown to be applicable to
 them also, the presumption is that they are rather the cavilling
 refinements of a predetermined opposition, than the well-founded
 inferences of a candid research after truth. To those who are
 disposed to consider, as innocent omissions in the State
 constitutions, what they regard as unpardonable blemishes in the
 plan of the convention, nothing can be said; or at most, they can
 only be asked to assign some substantial reason why the
 representatives of the people in a single State should be more
 impregnable to the lust of power, or other sinister motives, than
 the representatives of the people of the United States? If they
 cannot do this, they ought at least to prove to us that it is easier
 to subvert the liberties of three millions of people, with the
 advantage of local governments to head their opposition, than of two
 hundred thousand people who are destitute of that advantage. And in
 relation to the point immediately under consideration, they ought to
 convince us that it is less probable that a predominant faction in a
 single State should, in order to maintain its superiority, incline
 to a preference of a particular class of electors, than that a
 similar spirit should take possession of the representatives of
 thirteen States, spread over a vast region, and in several respects
 distinguishable from each other by a diversity of local
 circumstances, prejudices, and interests.
Hitherto my observations have only aimed at a vindication of the
 provision in question, on the ground of theoretic propriety, on that
 of the danger of placing the power elsewhere, and on that of the
 safety of placing it in the manner proposed. But there remains to
 be mentioned a positive advantage which will result from this
 disposition, and which could not as well have been obtained from any
 other: I allude to the circumstance of uniformity in the time of
 elections for the federal House of Representatives. It is more than
 possible that this uniformity may be found by experience to be of
 great importance to the public welfare, both as a security against
 the perpetuation of the same spirit in the body, and as a cure for
 the diseases of faction. If each State may choose its own time of
 election, it is possible there may be at least as many different
 periods as there are months in the year. The times of election in
 the several States, as they are now established for local purposes,
 vary between extremes as wide as March and November. The
 consequence of this diversity would be that there could never happen
 a total dissolution or renovation of the body at one time. If an
 improper spirit of any kind should happen to prevail in it, that
 spirit would be apt to infuse itself into the new members, as they
 come forward in succession. The mass would be likely to remain
 nearly the same, assimilating constantly to itself its gradual
 accretions. There is a contagion in example which few men have
 sufficient force of mind to resist. I am inclined to think that
 treble the duration in office, with the condition of a total
 dissolution of the body at the same time, might be less formidable
 to liberty than one third of that duration subject to gradual and
 successive alterations.
Uniformity in the time of elections seems not less requisite for
 executing the idea of a regular rotation in the Senate, and for
 conveniently assembling the legislature at a stated period in each
 year.
It may be asked, Why, then, could not a time have been fixed in
 the Constitution? As the most zealous adversaries of the plan of
 the convention in this State are, in general, not less zealous
 admirers of the constitution of the State, the question may be
 retorted, and it may be asked, Why was not a time for the like
 purpose fixed in the constitution of this State? No better answer
 can be given than that it was a matter which might safely be
 entrusted to legislative discretion; and that if a time had been
 appointed, it might, upon experiment, have been found less
 convenient than some other time. The same answer may be given to
 the question put on the other side. And it may be added that the
 supposed danger of a gradual change being merely speculative, it
 would have been hardly advisable upon that speculation to establish,
 as a fundamental point, what would deprive several States of the
 convenience of having the elections for their own governments and
 for the national government at the same epochs.
PUBLIUS.




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FEDERALIST No. 62

The Senate
For the Independent Journal.

HAMILTON OR MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:
HAVING examined the constitution of the House of
 Representatives, and answered such of the objections against it as
 seemed to merit notice, I enter next on the examination of the
 Senate.
The heads into which this member of the government may be
 considered are: I. The qualification of senators; II. The
 appointment of them by the State legislatures; III. The equality of
 representation in the Senate; IV. The number of senators, and the
 term for which they are to be elected; V. The powers vested in the
 Senate.
I. The qualifications proposed for senators, as distinguished
 from those of representatives, consist in a more advanced age and a
 longer period of citizenship. A senator must be thirty years of age
 at least; as a representative must be twenty-five. And the former
 must have been a citizen nine years; as seven years are required
 for the latter. The propriety of these distinctions is explained by
 the nature of the senatorial trust, which, requiring greater extent
 of information and tability of character, requires at the same time
 that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to
 supply these advantages; and which, participating immediately in
 transactions with foreign nations, ought to be exercised by none who
 are not thoroughly weaned from the prepossessions and habits
 incident to foreign birth and education. The term of nine years
 appears to be a prudent mediocrity between a total exclusion of
 adopted citizens, whose merits and talents may claim a share in the
 public confidence, and an indiscriminate and hasty admission of
 them, which might create a channel for foreign influence on the
 national councils.
II. It is equally unnecessary to dilate on the appointment of
 senators by the State legislatures. Among the various modes which
 might have been devised for constituting this branch of the
 government, that which has been proposed by the convention is
 probably the most congenial with the public opinion. It is
 recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select
 appointment, and of giving to the State governments such an agency
 in the formation of the federal government as must secure the
 authority of the former, and may form a convenient link between the
 two systems.
III. The equality of representation in the Senate is another
 point, which, being evidently the result of compromise between the
 opposite pretensions of the large and the small States, does not
 call for much discussion. If indeed it be right, that among a
 people thoroughly incorporated into one nation, every district ought
 to have a PROPORTIONAL share in the government, and that among
 independent and sovereign States, bound together by a simple league,
 the parties, however unequal in size, ought to have an EQUAL share
 in the common councils, it does not appear to be without some reason
 that in a compound republic, partaking both of the national and
 federal character, the government ought to be founded on a mixture
 of the principles of proportional and equal representation. But it
 is superfluous to try, by the standard of theory, a part of the
 Constitution which is allowed on all hands to be the result, not of
 theory, but ``of a spirit of amity, and that mutual deference and
 concession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered
 indispensable.'' A common government, with powers equal to its
 objects, is called for by the voice, and still more loudly by the
 political situation, of America. A government founded on principles
 more consonant to the wishes of the larger States, is not likely to
 be obtained from the smaller States. The only option, then, for the
 former, lies between the proposed government and a government still
 more objectionable. Under this alternative, the advice of prudence
 must be to embrace the lesser evil; and, instead of indulging a
 fruitless anticipation of the possible mischiefs which may ensue, to
 contemplate rather the advantageous consequences which may qualify
 the sacrifice.
In this spirit it may be remarked, that the equal vote allowed
 to each State is at once a constitutional recognition of the portion
 of sovereignty remaining in the individual States, and an instrument
 for preserving that residuary sovereignty. So far the equality
 ought to be no less acceptable to the large than to the small
 States; since they are not less solicitous to guard, by every
 possible expedient, against an improper consolidation of the States
 into one simple republic.
Another advantage accruing from this ingredient in the
 constitution of the Senate is, the additional impediment it must
 prove against improper acts of legislation. No law or resolution
 can now be passed without the concurrence, first, of a majority of
 the people, and then, of a majority of the States. It must be
 acknowledged that this complicated check on legislation may in some
 instances be injurious as well as beneficial; and that the peculiar
 defense which it involves in favor of the smaller States, would be
 more rational, if any interests common to them, and distinct from
 those of the other States, would otherwise be exposed to peculiar
 danger. But as the larger States will always be able, by their
 power over the supplies, to defeat unreasonable exertions of this
 prerogative of the lesser States, and as the faculty and excess of
 law-making seem to be the diseases to which our governments are most
 liable, it is not impossible that this part of the Constitution may
 be more convenient in practice than it appears to many in
 contemplation.
IV. The number of senators, and the duration of their
 appointment, come next to be considered. In order to form an
 accurate judgment on both of these points, it will be proper to
 inquire into the purposes which are to be answered by a senate; and
 in order to ascertain these, it will be necessary to review the
 inconveniences which a republic must suffer from the want of such an
 institution.
First. It is a misfortune incident to republican
 government, though in a less degree than to other governments, that
 those who administer it may forget their obligations to their
 constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust. In
 this point of view, a senate, as a second branch of the legislative
 assembly, distinct from, and dividing the power with, a first, must
 be in all cases a salutary check on the government. It doubles the
 security to the people, by requiring the concurrence of two distinct
 bodies in schemes of usurpation or perfidy, where the ambition or
 corruption of one would otherwise be sufficient. This is a
 precaution founded on such clear principles, and now so well
 understood in the United States, that it would be more than
 superfluous to enlarge on it. I will barely remark, that as the
 improbability of sinister combinations will be in proportion to the
 dissimilarity in the genius of the two bodies, it must be politic to
 distinguish them from each other by every circumstance which will
 consist with a due harmony in all proper measures, and with the
 genuine principles of republican government.
Secondly. The necessity of a senate is not less indicated
 by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies to yield to
 the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by
 factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions.
 Examples on this subject might be cited without number; and from
 proceedings within the United States, as well as from the history of
 other nations. But a position that will not be contradicted, need
 not be proved. All that need be remarked is, that a body which is
 to correct this infirmity ought itself to be free from it, and
 consequently ought to be less numerous. It ought, moreover, to
 possess great firmness, and consequently ought to hold its authority
 by a tenure of considerable duration.
Thirdly. Another defect to be supplied by a senate lies in
 a want of due acquaintance with the objects and principles of
 legislation. It is not possible that an assembly of men called for
 the most part from pursuits of a private nature, continued in
 appointment for a short time, and led by no permanent motive to
 devote the intervals of public occupation to a study of the laws,
 the affairs, and the comprehensive interests of their country,
 should, if left wholly to themselves, escape a variety of important
 errors in the exercise of their legislative trust. It may be
 affirmed, on the best grounds, that no small share of the present
 embarrassments of America is to be charged on the blunders of our
 governments; and that these have proceeded from the heads rather
 than the hearts of most of the authors of them. What indeed are all
 the repealing, explaining, and amending laws, which fill and
 disgrace our voluminous codes, but so many monuments of deficient
 wisdom; so many impeachments exhibited by each succeeding against
 each preceding session; so many admonitions to the people, of the
 value of those aids which may be expected from a well-constituted
 senate?
A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the
 object of government, which is the happiness of the people;
 secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best
 attained. Some governments are deficient in both these qualities;
 most governments are deficient in the first. I scruple not to
 assert, that in American governments too little attention has been
 paid to the last. The federal Constitution avoids this error; and
 what merits particular notice, it provides for the last in a mode
 which increases the security for the first.
Fourthly. The mutability in the public councils arising
 from a rapid succession of new members, however qualified they may
 be, points out, in the strongest manner, the necessity of some
 stable institution in the government. Every new election in the
 States is found to change one half of the representatives. From
 this change of men must proceed a change of opinions; and from a
 change of opinions, a change of measures. But a continual change
 even of good measures is inconsistent with every rule of prudence
 and every prospect of success. The remark is verified in private
 life, and becomes more just, as well as more important, in national
 transactions.
To trace the mischievous effects of a mutable government would
 fill a volume. I will hint a few only, each of which will be
 perceived to be a source of innumerable others.
In the first place, it forfeits the respect and confidence of
 other nations, and all the advantages connected with national
 character. An individual who is observed to be inconstant to his
 plans, or perhaps to carry on his affairs without any plan at all,
 is marked at once, by all prudent people, as a speedy victim to his
 own unsteadiness and folly. His more friendly neighbors may pity
 him, but all will decline to connect their fortunes with his; and
 not a few will seize the opportunity of making their fortunes out of
 his. One nation is to another what one individual is to another;
 with this melancholy distinction perhaps, that the former, with
 fewer of the benevolent emotions than the latter, are under fewer
 restraints also from taking undue advantage from the indiscretions
 of each other. Every nation, consequently, whose affairs betray a
 want of wisdom and stability, may calculate on every loss which can
 be sustained from the more systematic policy of their wiser
 neighbors. But the best instruction on this subject is unhappily
 conveyed to America by the example of her own situation. She finds
 that she is held in no respect by her friends; that she is the
 derision of her enemies; and that she is a prey to every nation
 which has an interest in speculating on her fluctuating councils and
 embarrassed affairs.
The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more
 calamitous. It poisons the blessing of liberty itself. It will be
 of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of
 their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be
 read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be
 repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such
 incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can
 guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of
 action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less
 fixed?
Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable
 advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising, and the
 moneyed few over the industrious and uniformed mass of the people.
 Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue, or in any way
 affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a
 new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its
 consequences; a harvest, reared not by themselves, but by the toils
 and cares of the great body of their fellow-citizens. This is a
 state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws
 are made for the FEW, not for the MANY.
In another point of view, great injury results from an unstable
 government. The want of confidence in the public councils damps
 every useful undertaking, the success and profit of which may depend
 on a continuance of existing arrangements. What prudent merchant
 will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows
 not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be
 executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the
 encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment,
 when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and
 advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government?
 In a word, no great improvement or laudable enterprise can go
 forward which requires the auspices of a steady system of national
 policy.
But the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of
 attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people,
 towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity,
 and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government,
 any more than an individual, will long be respected without being
 truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a
 certain portion of order and stability.
PUBLIUS.



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FEDERALIST. No. 63

The Senate Continued
For the Independent Journal.

HAMILTON OR MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:
A FIFTH desideratum, illustrating the utility of a senate, is
 the want of a due sense of national character. Without a select and
 stable member of the government, the esteem of foreign powers will
 not only be forfeited by an unenlightened and variable policy,
 proceeding from the causes already mentioned, but the national
 councils will not possess that sensibility to the opinion of the
 world, which is perhaps not less necessary in order to merit, than
 it is to obtain, its respect and confidence.
An attention to the judgment of other nations is important to
 every government for two reasons: the one is, that, independently
 of the merits of any particular plan or measure, it is desirable, on
 various accounts, that it should appear to other nations as the
 offspring of a wise and honorable policy; the second is, that in
 doubtful cases, particularly where the national councils may be
 warped by some strong passion or momentary interest, the presumed or
 known opinion of the impartial world may be the best guide that can
 be followed. What has not America lost by her want of character
 with foreign nations; and how many errors and follies would she not
 have avoided, if the justice and propriety of her measures had, in
 every instance, been previously tried by the light in which they
 would probably appear to the unbiased part of mankind?
Yet however requisite a sense of national character may be, it
 is evident that it can never be sufficiently possessed by a numerous
 and changeable body. It can only be found in a number so small that
 a sensible degree of the praise and blame of public measures may be
 the portion of each individual; or in an assembly so durably
 invested with public trust, that the pride and consequence of its
 members may be sensibly incorporated with the reputation and
 prosperity of the community. The half-yearly representatives of
 Rhode Island would probably have been little affected in their
 deliberations on the iniquitous measures of that State, by arguments
 drawn from the light in which such measures would be viewed by
 foreign nations, or even by the sister States; whilst it can
 scarcely be doubted that if the concurrence of a select and stable
 body had been necessary, a regard to national character alone would
 have prevented the calamities under which that misguided people is
 now laboring.
I add, as a SIXTH defect the want, in some important cases, of a
 due responsibility in the government to the people, arising from
 that frequency of elections which in other cases produces this
 responsibility. This remark will, perhaps, appear not only new, but
 paradoxical. It must nevertheless be acknowledged, when explained,
 to be as undeniable as it is important.
Responsibility, in order to be reasonable, must be limited to
 objects within the power of the responsible party, and in order to
 be effectual, must relate to operations of that power, of which a
 ready and proper judgment can be formed by the constituents. The
 objects of government may be divided into two general classes: the
 one depending on measures which have singly an immediate and
 sensible operation; the other depending on a succession of
 well-chosen and well-connected measures, which have a gradual and
 perhaps unobserved operation. The importance of the latter
 description to the collective and permanent welfare of every
 country, needs no explanation. And yet it is evident that an
 assembly elected for so short a term as to be unable to provide more
 than one or two links in a chain of measures, on which the general
 welfare may essentially depend, ought not to be answerable for the
 final result, any more than a steward or tenant, engaged for one
 year, could be justly made to answer for places or improvements
 which could not be accomplished in less than half a dozen years.
 Nor is it possible for the people to estimate the SHARE of
 influence which their annual assemblies may respectively have on
 events resulting from the mixed transactions of several years. It
 is sufficiently difficult to preserve a personal responsibility in
 the members of a NUMEROUS body, for such acts of the body as have an
 immediate, detached, and palpable operation on its constituents.
The proper remedy for this defect must be an additional body in
 the legislative department, which, having sufficient permanency to
 provide for such objects as require a continued attention, and a
 train of measures, may be justly and effectually answerable for the
 attainment of those objects.
Thus far I have considered the circumstances which point out the
 necessity of a well-constructed Senate only as they relate to the
 representatives of the people. To a people as little blinded by
 prejudice or corrupted by flattery as those whom I address, I shall
 not scruple to add, that such an institution may be sometimes
 necessary as a defense to the people against their own temporary
 errors and delusions. As the cool and deliberate sense of the
 community ought, in all governments, and actually will, in all free
 governments, ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so
 there are particular moments in public affairs when the people,
 stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or
 misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call
 for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready
 to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will
 be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of
 citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the
 blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason,
 justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind?
 What bitter anguish would not the people of Athens have often
 escaped if their government had contained so provident a safeguard
 against the tyranny of their own passions? Popular liberty might
 then have escaped the indelible reproach of decreeing to the