The Congressional Globe: Twenty-Seventh Congress, Second Session, Appendix Page: 471

                                
MUy, 184®.
APPfiNOlX f 0 Tfirfil CONGRESSIONAL GLOBfi.
4ft
27th Cong"**2d Sess.
Apportionment Bill—Mr. Wright.
Senate.
only, of those thirty-four members." These districts,
therefore, should be made as nearly equal in popu-
lation as might consist with the reasonable divis-
ions of the territory of the State into election dis-
tricts. The elections in the State were held by
to~wns and wards, and the counties were composed
of a great variety of numbers of the one or the
other, or both.
He had looked rapidly over the late census, to
see how far it would be possible to constitute these
thirty-four congressional districts from the fifty-
eight counties of the State, without breaking down
the county divisions, and ihus deranging its present
established election system. The result had even
surprised him, and he had been prepared to sup-
E'ose that the clerangementandinconveniencewould
e very great. He would give it to the Senate in a
very brief analysis.
The ratio of population for a single Repiesenta-
tive, fixed upon by the Senate, was 70,6.-f0. Two
counties only in the whole State contained a popu-
lation equal to, or exceeding, this ratio. The city
and county of New York was one of these, which
presented a population of 312,710. This would en-
title that county to four Represtn'atives, and leave
it a fraction of 29,990—almost hall equal to the ratio
for another member. Under the established sy.-iem
of the State, this county would be constituted, as
now, a single congressional district, entitled to elect
four members. But, under this law, it must be di-
vided into four separate districts, each entitled to
elect, a single member; and then, perhaps, one of
iis wards set off to some adjoining county, to distri-
bute more equally this large fraction.
Here was one of his strongest objections to the
practical application of this single district system to
his own State. Ii was to requite the formation of
four independent congressional districts within a
territory over which a man could travel, on foot, in
two hours. The public sense of the whole connay
had been deeply shocked by the chaiges ofirauds
upon the ballot-boxes, alleged to have been perpe-
trated, within the last four or five years, in various
States, and most usually in the large cities and
towns of those States. "So fixed bad become the
charges, and so specific the various systems for the
perpetration of these frauds, that certain technical
terms, defining their various classifications, had be-
come established as a part of the language of these
cases, and were as clearly defined and universally
undeistood thionghout the country, as any terms of
general use in tne common concerns ot life.
Among these, " colonization " and " pipe-laying"
were the mot significant. So far as he was in-
formed, the practice of Ci>loni?ing had its origin, us
connected with the elec ions of the people m our
country, in the city of New York, growing out of
the fact that the members ot the common council of
the city were elected by wards; bat, inasmuch as
the city had never been districted tor any purpose
of State and congressional elections, the system did
not have, and could not have, application to any
other than the city elections for charter officers.
Not so, according to his information and belief,
did the system of pipe laying originate. The city
and county of Philadelphia has been, by the Legis-
lature of Pennsylvania, divided lor the purpose of
holding the congressional elections; and three sev-
eral congressional districts have been_ organized
within the city and county. Here, and connected
with the election of Representatives in Congress,
the pipe-laying system of frauds was invented and
put in successful practice; and from this point it
was disseminated over the country, and especially
to the other large towns. He must not be under-
stood as making this statement to cast a reproach
upon the city and county of Philadelphia, upon the
proud Statcof which that city war sojnstlythe pride
and ornament, or upon the citizens of either, as a
body. The fact was stated, because lie supposed it
to be historically true; and time had abundantly
shown that there were not wanting men in the
laro-e and densely populated towns of other States,.
his*own included, as willing to practise these base
frauds against the freedom of elections, as v. ere the^
inventors of the system in the city and county of
Philadelphia. ,
He had referied to this fact, further to show that
the system of districting a closely-buih city, tor the
purpose of State and congressional elections, as the
- city and eountv of Philadelphia was districted, nad
presented the inducements which had brought into
practice this new*and refined system of cheating
the people through the instrumentality ot then
pwn~t>aliot-boxes, And could it eyen be hoped,
while the street of a compact city should be made
the boundary between congressional districts, that
"colonization"and "pipe-laying" would be effectu-
ally prevented'! He did not believe it was in the
power of human laws to do it, when the temptations
were so direct and powerful, the practice of the
frauds so easy, and the chances of detection so
slight.
Was it expedient, then, for Congress to attempt
to force upon the States a mode of districting these
large cities for our congressional elections, which
would be most eminently calculated to perpetuate
these and other frauds against the ballot-box, which
could not fail to multiply the temptations to commit
them, and which must as necessarily increase the
difficulties of detection and punishment1? Every in-
crease of the subdivisions must have these tenden-
cies; and while, under the ratio fixed by the Senate,
the city of New York would constitute but four
subdivisions, if the ratio fixed by the Hon^e should
be finally adopted, (which seemed to him most like-
lv,) that'eity must constitute six independent con-
gressional districts That the elections in districts
so constituted would cease to be any evidence of
the will and choice of the legal voters of each,
should be an evil of sufficient magnitude to dis-
suade the Senate from this action;'but it was by
no means tne only, or even the most serious, evil
to be apprehended from the prevalence of these
frauds. The entire pros'ration of public morc.ls
to which they invariably and rapidly lead, the
perjuries and'climes they engender, are much
more fatal to the welfare of a free people, and to
the perpetuity of free institutions, than the mere
loss of a popular election.
Was it, then—he was compelled to repeat the in-
quiry—was it expedient for Congress, at this time,
when the public alarm was bioad and deep in rela-
tion to these 1 r a uds—when numerous portions of the
people, if not the whole people of the nation, wete
smarting under the conviction of mjurv, injustice,
and misrepresentation, as the fiuitot them—to put
forth its strong arm to force into being a system
which must foster and perpetuate them1 He could
not think so; but he would proceed further in his
examination as to the expediency of this measure,
in its local bearing upon his own State.
A single eountv, other than the city and county
of New York, would have population sufficient,
under the ratio established by the Senate, to consti-
tute a congressional district. He referred to the
county of Oneida, whose population would entitle it
to one Repiesentative, and leave it a fraction of
14,630. These two counties aside, there would re-
main fifv-six counties in the Stale to be divided
intone ty-i:ine congressional districts; and of those
counties he would give a very brief analysis, as
follows:
Of those which have a population between 70,000
and 05,000, there are two. These would so nearly
approximate the ratio, as to be made reasonably to
constitute single distiicts.
Ofthosr which have a population between 65,000
and 00,000, there are four. Admit, for the sake^
of this action, that these counties too make asufti-
eiently near approximation to the ratio, as they can-
not vary from it more than about 10 000; and there
will be eight counties of the State disposed of.
Fifty will remain, standing in a classification ot
five thousands, as follows:
Between a population of 00,000 and 5-xl)00 two counties*,
u « f \000 " (W' 000 three "
u " 50,no) « 4j,000 s'x 51
i- " 'J",000 " 40,000 >tinc "
K i 40 GM " :j5.(KJ0 five "
•< " 3"5,IK)0 " 30,0; 9 live "
L-Iere were thirty more of the counties of the State
presented, the last ten of which might, by being
coupled, constitute districts under the ratio of he
Senate without making a wider departuie fiomt.iat
ratio than had been assumed to be permissible for
the eight counties first noticed, were it not mat each
district must be constituted ot contiguous territory—
a qualification which may in many, and must ot
course in some cases, render the arrangement of
counling these counties an impossibility, btnt
there would be twenty counties in this group, from
which single cowsrvcssional districts could riot be
constituted, without a division of the counties, or
an emire disregard to the proper and constitutional
relation between population and representation.
Twentv counties yet remained, oi various popu-
lations, all under 30,000, and averaging 18. ,!fo
sou's. How far these might be grouped so as to
form single districts, with a reasonable approxima-
tion to the supposed ratio, he had not attempted to
ascertain; but the facts that these twenty counties-
were scattered in the different sections of the State,
and that each district must be of contiguous terri-
tory, would show that, by themselves, they could
not be so grouped, to any considerable extent, as, at
their average population, it would require nearly
four of the counties to form a single district.
He had made this minute examination of the
practical effect of the bill upon his State, because
her whole election system was by counties; sad to
divide them for the formation of congtessional dis-
tricts, would be to bi oak up that established system,
and to introduce political classifications and asso-
ciations with which her people weie not accus-
tomed. So strong had been the attachment of that
State to elections "by counties, that the constitu'ion
of the State prohibited the Legislature from divi-
ding them lor any purposes of the State elections;
and since the adoption of that constitution, in the
year 1822, no county in the State had beer, divided
in the formation of congressional districts.
Of the practical effects of this measure upon the
election systems of other States, and upon the cus-
toms, convenience-, feelings, and interests of their
people, he had not the information which enabled
him to speak. An example, drawn from the State
which it was his da'y to rep-e ent here, and which
might be more or less (.pplic.ible to other States,
was his exclusive ob,ect in miking these refer-
ences, and, that done, lie would dismiss the topic.
And with that tonic he would dismiss the argu-
ment—for tiie present, at least, mereh again inquir-
ing whether it was expedient for Congress to press
this rction, wholly without solicit"fion—wimiiy
without complaint aer'nst the es:ablisled systems
of the St ties lor holding these elections--m ,iic free
of the fact that some of those systems must be en-
tirely broken up to carrv this out—and without any
certainty that the Legislatures of the States will
I lend their aid to carry out this mandate of Con-
gtc si Was there any sufficient inducement, hav-
Tng its foundation in 'principle, in expediency, or
in patriotism, for Congress to provoke the collision
between the Governments of the S'ates and this
common Government of the whole, which this sim-
ple and brief enactment might provokel He could
see no such inducement.
Hi'herto he had considered simply the provision
sent herefrom the House The committee of the
Senate had recommended such a modification of
that provision as to allow the States to hold these
elections by general ticket or by single districts.
For that modification he should certainly vote; for
no member of the Senate could be more reluctant
than he was to bring on a collision between the
State and National Governments; and every feature
of the proposed unwise action, which gave to his
State an additional alternative in the latitude of
choice, would certainly receive his support—not be-
cause any such modification could make the action,
in any form, acceptable to him; but because it
mi."hi render it, if forced upon them,less objection-
able to las constituents, and to the Legislature of
his State. His vote must be given against this sec-
tion of the bill, in any form which his imagination
had suggested to him; but, if it must became a part
of a law of Congress, he would, so far as might be
in his power, give it the least injurious form,
[After the debate upon this second section of the
bill had been continued for some time, the question
was taken upon the amendmpn' reportc1 '"y the
committee of the Senate, allo^-.g the States i&a
option to elect their Representatives by gpneral
ticket; and the amendment was lost. Mr. "Vv'kight
then offered an amendment, proposing si. to modtiy
the section sent up from the Hon -e, as to declare
that the Stales should be divided ir to single dis-
tricts, so far as that could bedone under their estab-
lished election systems; but that the Legislature of
no State should consider itself called upon to divide
counties, or other established election districts, for
the purpose of forming single election districts un-
der the-act. 1
Upon offering this amendment, Mr. >V. mack-
bome lemarks, the substance of most oi Tvhiefr
■was a repetition of the views and arguments befoie
given—that he felt constrained to make this otjft
more effort to give the bill such a form as would
enable the Legislature of his State, and the Legis-
latures of other States similarly situated, so far to
conform to it as to avoid the probability ot a con-
flict between the States and this Government. This
obligation had become more imperative, since the
declaration had been distinctly made, as it had been
upon a former day by the honorable Senator from