Page:Works of John C. Calhoun, v1.djvu/168

 as forming one people or nation? To give color to the assertion, it affirms, that the people will be represented on the same principle, and in the same proportion, as they are in the legislature of each particular State. Are either of these propositions true? On the contrary, is it not universally known and admitted, that they are represented in the legislature of every State of the Union, as mere individuals — and, by election districts, entirely subordinate to the government of the State — while the members of the House of Representatives are elected — be the mode of election what it may — as delegates of the several States, in their distinct, independent, and sovereign character, as members of the Union — and not as delegates from the States, considered as mere election districts? It was on this ground, as has been stated, that President Washington vetoed the act to apportion the members, under the first census, among the several States; and his opinion has, ever since, been acquiesced in.

Neither is it true that the people of each State are represented in the House of Representatives in the same proportion as in their respective legislatures. On the contrary, they are represented in the former according to one uniform ratio proportion among the several States, fixed by the constitution itself; while in each State legislature, the ratio, fixed by its separate State constitution, is different in different States — and in scarcely any are they represented in the same proportion in the legislature, as in the House of Representatives. The only point of uniformity in this respect is, that "the electors of the House of Representatives shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures;"