Article The First Totally Explained

Everything about Article The First totally explained

Article The First (also referred to as "The Congressional Apportionment Amendment") was and is the very first proposed amendment to the United States Constitution though it hasn't yet been ratified. It was the first of twelve amendments produced by the 1st Congress on September 25, 1789, and submitted to the state legislatures for ratification pursuant to Article V of the Constitution.

Text

Article the first...After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shan't be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.(emphasis added)

Purpose

This amendment was proposed as a means to ensure a minimum representation for the common people in the new government defined by United States Constitution.

In the very first Congress, amendments properly addressing the issue were produced by both the House and the Senate, each providing for a minimum representation based on the expanding population of the nation. But a joint House-Senate committee, assigned the duty of compromising between the two versions, substituted the word 'more' (as emphasized in the text of the Amendment above) for the word 'less,' perhaps crippling, if not reversing the intent of the amendment after the membership of the House would have increased to a level of 200

Background and history

The original drive for this amendment was aimed at controlling the size of electoral districts. It was correctly predicted that an oligarchy would form as overly large electoral districts gave too much favor to aristocrats and demagogues. The Federalists attempted and largely succeeded in defusing the issue through their acquiescence to amendments concerning the matter beginning with the Massachusetts ratification convention. A version of Article the First was prominently among the very first of over twenty amendments that were defined by the various ratifying conventions - #Amendments Requested. And the assurance that these amendments would be addressed in the very first congress was essential to the ratification of the new Constitutional government.

"By January 9, 1788, five states of the nine necessary for ratification had approved the Constitution--Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut. But the eventual outcome remained uncertain in pivotal states such as Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia. On February 6, with Federalists agreeing to recommend a list of amendments amounting to a bill of rights, Massachusetts ratified by a vote of 187 to 168

....

In the next 2 months, thanks largely to the efforts of Madison and Hamilton in their own states, Virginia and New York both ratified while adding their own amendments. The margin for the Federalists in both states, however, was extremely close. Hamilton figured that the majority of the people in New York actually opposed the Constitution, and it's probable that a majority of people in the entire country opposed it. Only the promise of amendments had ensured a Federalist victory. .

The original object of broader representation was compromised in the ratifying conventions in order to set forth a more concise request for amendment and, perhaps at the same time, to weaken it -#Amendments Requested. Article the First was requested even ahead of a demand for what ultimately became the Bill of Rights. The people were quite concerned about both the size of electoral districts and the term of office in their House of Representatives. They wanted these districts to remain small and the term of office to remain brief, to better enable them to quickly remove representatives that didn't act in such a way as the people desired #Madison on Constituency Size. The people of the nation were already averse to constituencies (representative districts) as large as thirty thousand and there was much controversy over the issue during the ratification process. What would become Article the First and other amendments were called for by James Madison in the House on June 8, 1789. Madison's proposed text of the amendment was as follows:

"After the first actual enumeration, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number amounts to [firstblank], after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that the number shall be not less than [secondblank], nor more than [thirdblank], but each state shall after the first enumeration, have at least two representatives ."

What emerged as the final House version of the amendment was as follows:

"After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shan't be less than two hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons" .

Such language if interpreted as an algorithm would have created a membership in today's House of 1600 members. If interpreted as a static minimum number of representatives the language would create a House of 6000 members with today's population. That text (with the word “LESS”) stands as the official house version of the amendment before the alteration by the joint committee.
The Senate took up the measure on September 2, 1789 and were resolved as to the following:

“After the first enumeration, required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, to which number one representative shall be added for every subsequent increase of forty thousand, until representatives shall amount to two hundred, to which one representative shall be added for every subsequent increase of sixty thousand"

This language would have set the membership of today's House at either 800 (if the amendment was interpreted to define and algorithm) or 5000 if the amendment was interpreted as a static minimum.
There is much speculation as to why the amendment was altered as it was when neither the House or Senate versions of the amendment had any such a limitation..Further Information

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