In today's excerpt - if we were strictly following both the letter of the U.S. Constitution and the intentions of those who wrote it, we would now have 9,380 members of the House of Representatives. That is because the Constitution speaks of one representative for every thirty thousand citizens to insure a direct and personal connection between congressmen and their constituents - in order to achieve truly democratic involvement. This point was so important to George Washington that he required a change from forty thousand down to thirty thousand on the last day of the Constitutional Convention:

 

"The minimal size of a House district was reduced from 40,000 to 30,000 on the very last day of the Convention, and only then with an unprecedented direct endorsement from George Washington, speaking from the chair, who rightly foresaw that many Americans would be disturbed by the large number of constituents each member of the House would represent. No constitutional requirement limits the size of the House to 435 representatives (as set in 1911), which makes it a smaller body than the British House of Commons. (Rakove) ...

 

Author: Jack N. Rakove

Title: The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence

Publisher: Belknap Harvard

Date: Copyright 2009 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Pages: 112

 

via

 

About Us

 

Delanceyplace is a brief daily email with an excerpt or quote we view as interesting or noteworthy, offered with commentary to provide context. There is no theme, except that most excerpts will come from a non-fiction work, mainly works of history, are occasionally controversial, and we hope will have a more universal relevance than simply the subject of the book from which they came.

 

To visit our homepage or sign up for our daily email click here

To view previous daily emails click here.

To sign up for our daily email click here.

Jeesh, imagine all the new country clubs they'd have to build in the DC area...

Jeesh, imagine all the new country clubs they'd have to build in the DC area...

Jeesh, imagine all the new country clubs they'd have to build in the DC area...

They wouldn't have to build any. There are something like 40-50,000 registered lobbyists in this country. Just bring them into Congress. They're the ones writing and deciding legislation anyway.