>FEDERALIST No. 56 (Hamilton or Madison)                       .



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 millionsgthat 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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