Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/173

 CH. IX.] for the same district; and, in some again, as New-Hampshire, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-Jersey, and Georgia, the whole representation of the state is exerted, as a joint, undivided representation. In these last-mentioned states, every member of the house of representatives has for his constituents all the people of the state; and all the people of those states are consequently represented in that branch of congress. If the bill before the senate should pass into a law, in its present form, whatever injustice it might do to any of those states, it would not be correct to say of them, nevertheless, that any portion of their people was unrepresented. The well-founded objection would be, as to some of them at least, that they were not adequately, competently, fairly represented; that they had not as many voices and as many votes in the house of representatives, as they were entitled to. This would be the objection. There would be no unrepresented fractions; but the state, as a state, as a whole, would be deprived of some part of its just rights.

"On the other hand, if the bill should pass, as it is now proposed to be amended, there would be no representation of fractions in any state; for a fraction supposes a division and a remainder. All, that could justly be said, would be, that some of these states, as states, possessed a portion of legislative power, a little larger than their exact right; as it must be admitted, that, should the bill pass unamended, they would possess, of that power, much less than that exact right. The same remarks are substantially true, if applied to those states, which adopt the district system, as most of them do. In Missouri, for example, there will be no fraction unrepresented, should the bill become a law in its present form; nor any member for a fraction, should the amendment prevail; because the mode of apportionment, which assigns to each state that number, which is nearest to its exact right, applies no assumed ratios, makes no subdivisions, and, of course, produces no fractions. In the one case, or in the other, the state, as a state, will have something more, or something less, than its exact proportion of representative power; but she will part out this power among her own people, in either case, in such mode, as she may choose, or exercise it altogether, as an entire representation of the people of the state.

"Whether the subdivision of the representative power within any state, if there be a subdivision, be equal or unequal, or fairly or unfairly made, congress cannot know, and has no authority to inquire. It is enough, that the state presents her own representation on the floor of congress in the mode she chooses to present it. If a state were to give States, the house of representatives exercises the functions of the house of commons in regard to impeachments; and the senate (as we shall hereafter see) the