(NOTE: all text of The Constitution and The Bill of Rights comes from The Charters Of Freedom [link under "Sites To See" on the right-side margin of this blog] which is part of The National Archives website.)
Article. I.
Section. 2.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
(Note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the 14th amendment.)
This section sets up some guidelines for The House of Representatives based on the population of the USA at inception. When it was written, there was legalized slavery in the USA and only males had the right to vote. This section also sets up the Census of the USA. The word "chuse" (sic) is verbatim from the original language. Subsequent ammendments have changed this section, including the voting age being changed to 18, both sexes being given the vote, and of course no one is counted as 3/5 of a person anymore. The overall limit of the number of citizens per Representative is set by this section, and Congress has not obeyed the "representation ratio" in Article 1 since the Second Congress began ignoring it in April 1792. The last time Congress added new representation, that is, new seats in the House, was 1911-NEW STATES HAVE BEEN ADDED SINCE THEN! Today, with only 435 Representatives for 300 million citizens, Congress is now a system of under-representation of the taxpaying citizens. Currently, the Census determines how the 435 Representative districts will be distributed throughout the various states but there are 435 total disricts no matter what, and of course none of them cross state lines. This makes the census fairly significant, as well as adding clout to the political party which is in power at the time that districts are apportioned. Think about this for a minute: If there was a Representative for every 30,000 citizens, (or even every 50,000)...how much more able would that Rep be to reflect the views of their constituents? Much, much more in my opinion. More importantly, it would be MUCH more difficult for a "special interest" to lobby for or against something, AND MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE TO BUY VOTES. I like The Constitution the way it was written.
As I stated in the Prologue to this series, I am not a legal expert. I do believe that The Framers of The Constitution had the desire that the individual citizens be able to understand their rights and responsibilities under The Constitution and therefore my commentary rests on my personal understanding of how this marvelous document should work and how it is being abridged, ignored, and destroyed by our government
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