Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/176

162 grants to Maryland, Pennſylvania, and the two Carolinas, were ratified.

This conſtitution was formed when we were new and unexperienced, in the ſcience of government. It was the firſt too which was formed in the whole United States. No wonder then that time and trial have diſcovered very capital defects in it.

1. The majority of the men in the ſtate, who pay and fight for its ſupport, are unrepreſented in the legiſlature, the roll of freeholders entitled to vote, not including generally the half of thoſe on the roll of the militia, or of the tax-gatherers.

2. Among thoſe who ſhare the repreſentation, the ſhares are very unequal. Thus the county of Warwick, with only 100 fighting men, has an equal repreſentation with the county of Loudon, which has 1746. So that every mam in Warwick has as much influence in the government as 17 me in Loudon. But leſt it ſhould be thought that an equal interſperſion of ſmall among large counties, through the whole ſtate, may prevent any danger of injury to particular parts of it, we will divide it into diſtricts, and ſhow the proportions of land, of fighting men, and of repreſentation in each.