Federalist Paper 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.
(Continue to Page 56)
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