Apportionment

the distribution of representation in the Federal House of Representatives and in the houses of the different State legislatures. It is sometimes used in a fiscal sense as applied to the allotment of direct taxes on the basis of population. As far back as William Penn’s plan of general government for the colonies objection was made against equal representation of colonies. The Albany Plan of Union provided that each colony should be represented in the Grand Council by from two to seven delegates, according to the amount of taxes paid by each. In the Continental Congre the rule of equal representation prevailed, each State having one vote. This rule was retained in the Articles of Confederation, for long contentions over the matter showed that no other plan could win acceptance. In the Convention of 1787 there was long and bitter dispute over questions of representation. Finally it was settled that the Federal legislature should consist of two branches, that the States should be equally represented in the upper, or Senate, and that in the lower, or House of Representatives, each should have a number of members proportioned to the number of its free inhabitants, plus three-fifths of the slaves. A provisional apportionment was inserted in the Constitution, and in 1790 a census was taken. Direct taxes were to be apportioned in the same manner as representation. The lower house should have no more than one representative for every 30,000 inhabitants. This constitutional rule governed apportionments during seventy years, though the ratio was changed from time to time. Much debate arose over the question of fractional rep reen tat i on, In the Thirty-first Congre Vinton, of Ohio, moved to divide the representative population of the entire country by 233 and that of each State by the quotient, a igning to each State representation for each full ratio and the remaining members nece ary to make up 233 to the States having the largest fractions. This method has guided subsequent apportionments. Federal apportionments are made shortly after each decennial census, and the State apportionments are guided by the Federal. Methods of apportionment in different States vary, however, (See Gerrymander.) 47