equally clear that too great frequency of elections would completely defeat the first-named object.

The reasons urged by Mr. Justice Story against too great frequency of elections are many and various. If they interfere too much with the pursuits of the people, they will give rise to a general indifference and inattention to elections. If they produce frequent changes in the public councils, they will introduce imbecility, irresolution, and the want of due information in those councils.

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Men, to act with vigour and effect, must have time to mature measures, and judgment and experience as to the best method of applying them. They must not be hurried on to their conclusions by the passions or the fears of the multitude."* "The very frequency of elections has a tendency to create agitation and dissensions in the public mind, to nourish factions and encourage restlessness, to favour rash innovations in domestic legislation and public policy, and to produce violent and sudden changes in the administration of public affairs, founded upon temporary excitements and prejudices." + 'It operates also as a great discouragement upon suitable candidates offering themselves for the public service. They can have little + § 593.

* § 592.

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opportunity to establish a solid reputation as statesmen and patriots, when their schemes are liable to be suddenly broken in upon by demagogues, who may create injurious suspicions, and even displace them from office before their measures are fairly tried. And they are apt to grow weary of continued appeals to vindicate their character and conduct at the polls, since success, however triumphant, is of such short duration, and confidence is so easily loosened.” * "It is not enough that a member comes to the task with an upright intention and sound judgment, but he must have a competent degree of knowledge of all the subjects on which he is called to legislate; and he must have skill as to the best mode of applying it. The latter can scarcely be acquired but by long experience and training in the national councils. The period of service ought therefore to bear some proportion to the variety of knowledge and practical skill which the duties of the station demand."t

Every measure that comes before the legislature is to be discussed with reference to the rights, interests, and pursuits of the whole people.

"Large and enlightened views, comprehensive information, and a just attention to local peculiarities, products, and employments, are indispensable qualifications" for a useful member of the legislative body. "Yet it is obvious, that if very short periods of service are allowed + § 603.

* § 602.

to members, the continual fluctuations in the public councils, and the perpetual changes of members, will be very unfavourable to the acquirement of the proper knowledge, and the due application of it for the public welfare. One set of men will have just mastered the necessary information, when it will be succeeded by a second set, who are to go over the same grounds, and then are to be succeeded by a third. So that inexperience, instead of practical wisdom, hasty legislation, instead of sober deliberation, and imperfect projects, instead of well-constructed systems, would characterise the national government."*

These and other considerations of obvious weight and importance, as affecting the chances of a country getting its best informed and most experienced and most trust-worthy men to serve it, are brought together by Mr. Justice Story with much care and in much detail, and lead directly to the conclusion, which indeed he does not take the trouble to disguise, that the election of members for the House of Representatives of the United States for two years only, is not well calculated to fulfil the conditions which he lays down as those under which a country is most likely "to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to dis

cern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of society." He thinks the decision, by which the period of two years was adopted instead of one, both politic and wise; but the whole scope of his argument, and his remark that, since the great increase in territory and population of the United States of late years, “a far more exact and comprehensive knowledge is now necessary to preserve the adjustments of the Government, and to carry on its daily operations, than was required, or even dreamed of, at its first institution,"+ prove that, in his opinion, a longer duration of the term for which the members of the House of Representatives are elected, would conduce more to the general interests of his country.

The inferior position which, both in the public estimation and in actual power, the House of Representatives holds in the system of the United States Government, as compared with the Senate, will be adverted to hereafter.

The questions relating to the qualifications † § 605.

* § 611.

for members of the House of Representatives, -their age, religious opinions, and citizenship, may be passed by, as not being likely to be regarded as very applicable to any of the matters of controversy in this country.

The apportionment of the representatives among the States was, by the Constitution, fixed at one for every 30,000 inhabitants; each State to have at least one representative; and an arrangement was introduced applicable to the slave-holding States, declaring that the number in those should 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, threefifths of all other persons.

Much difference of opinion existed at the time upon the question of how the apportionment ought to be made. One principle, much urged, tended to preserve an exact equality of power between all the States, as under the Confederation. Another aimed at making property the basis of representation. The maxim under which this view was sought to be