Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/169

 CH. IX.] always be seen, whether the result be that, which has been aimed at, namely, the nearest practicable approach to precise justice and relative inequality. The committee, indeed, are of opinion, in this case, that the simplest, and most obvious way of proceeding, is also the true and constitutional way. To them it appears, that in carrying into effect this part of the constitution, the first thing naturally to be done is, to decide on the whole number, of which the house is to be composed; as when, under the same clause of the constitution, a tax is to be apportioned among the states, the amount of the whole tax is, in the first place, to be settled.

"When the whole number of the proposed house is thus ascertained, and fixed, it becomes the entire representative power of all the people in the Union. It is then a very simple matter to ascertain how much of this representative power each state is entitled to by its numbers. If, for example, the house is to contain 240 members, then the number 240 expresses the representative power of all the states; and a plain calculation readily shows how much of this power belongs to each state. This portion, it is true, will not always, nor often, be expressed in whole numbers, but it may always be precisely exhibited by a decimal form of expression. If the portion of any state be seldom, or never, one exact tenth, one exact fifteenth, or one exact twentieth, it will still always be capable of precise decimal expression, as one tenth and two hundredths, one twelfth and four hundredths, one fifteenth and six hundredths, and so on; and the exact portion of the state, being thus decimally expressed, will always show, to mathematical certainty, what integral number comes nearest to such exact portion. For example, in a house consisting of two hundred and forty members, the exact mathematical proportion, to which her numbers entitle the state of New-York, is 38.59; it is certain, therefore, that thirty-nine is the integral or whole number, nearest to her exact proportion of the representative power of the Union. Why, then, should she not have thirty-nine? and why should she have forty? She is not quite entitled to thirty-nine; that number is something more than her right. But, allowing her thirty-nine, from the necessity of giving her whole numbers, and because that is the nearest whole number, is not the constitution fully obeyed, when she has received the thirty-ninth number? Is not her proper number of representatives then apportioned to her, as near as may be? And is not the constitution disregarded, when the bill goes further, and gives criminal jurisdiction of the kingdom. The articles of impeachment are a kind of bill of indictment found by the commons, and tried by the lords, who are, in cases 21