Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/144

 136 profound reasoning, and mature wisdom, enabled the people to see the true path of safety. What was then prophecy and argument has now become fact. At each successive census, the number of representatives has been gradually augmented. In 1792, the ratio adopted was 33.000, which gave an aggregate of one hundred and six representatives. In 1802, the same ratio was adopted, which gave an aggregate of one hundred and forty-one members. In 1811, the ratio adopted was 35.OOO, which gave an aggregate of one hundred and eighty-one members. In 1822, the ratio adopted was 40.000, which gave an aggregate of two hundred and ten members. In 1832, the ratio adopted was 47.700, which gave an aggregate of two hundred and forty members.

§ 670. In the mean time, the house of representatives has silently acquitted vast influence and power over public opinion by its immediate connection and sympathy with the people. No complaint has been urged, or could now with truth be urged, that it did not understand, or did not represent, the interests of the people, or bring to the public councils a competent knowledge of, and devotion to, the local interests and feelings of its constituents. Nay; so little is, and so little has the force of this objection been felt, that several states have voluntarily preferred to elect their representatives by a general ticket, rather than by districts. And the electors for president and vice-president are more frequently chosen in that, than in any other manner. The representatives are not, and never have