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to, 233 (the number of members composing the lower house of Congress) is made the common divisor, and the quotient is the state representation. According to Table C, there are 139 members produced by the divisor, leaving a total of 1,230,609 as the fractional remainder. Dividing the representative population of the southern states (Table D) by the common divisor, 233, the quotient will be 77; leaving a fractional remainder, 894,487. Adding together the two quotients, we only have 216; leaving a deficiency of 17. This deficit is supplied by taking from the fractional remainders, the seventeen highest numbers, to each of which we have added a star. In the column of the number of representatives we have added the plus members.

On examining the slave population, it will be seen, that of the 3,949,557, there are two-fifths, or 1,579,823, not represented in Congress. Here, then, is a very large number of people excluded from representation: if counted, the south would be entitled to six more members. The northern states would have 143 instead of 149 representatives, as under the present apportionment. But, according to the constitution, the entire slaves cannot be represented; and we are unable to find any evidence to prove, that either the north or the south has sought for a representation of those disfranchised slaves. It seems to us, however, that all the slaves of the south are as much entitled to be represented as many thousands of other persons who are, both in the north and in the south.

The reader may doubt the propriety of counting the slaves as persons, while they cannot, by the laws of the

slaveholding states, enjoy the right of suffrage. The question may be answered by reference to the constitutional sanction for the representation of three-fifths of the slaves, who have no suffrage: and we need but refer to the fact, that, of the thirty-four states of the Union, there are only five of them that permit free negroes to vote; and some of the five require special qualifications. In all the other northern states they have no suffrage. Besides the free negroes, there are a large number of white paupers, released felons, and others, disfranchised: yet, in the apportionment, every man, woman, and child is counted, whether white or black; and no class of people is excluded, except the two-fifths of the slaves. But this was the contract when the constitution was adopted: the south, however, has never proposed any change in the premises.

It will be observed, that the constitutional provision, authorising three-fifths of the slaves to be counted in the representative apportionment of a state, does not limit the slaves to any particular place of habitation. If all the slaves were taken from Virginia, and located in Texas, the representation of Virginia would be less, and that of Texas would be more. The 3,949,557 slaves are in the fifteen southern states. If other slaveholding states were added to the Union, the slave representation in Congress would be precisely the same as it is at the present time. The southern states would not gain a single member of Congress, nor would the northern states lose one.

CHAPTER XI.

Presidential, Congressional, and State Elections; the Effects of the General Election System in the States of the Union; the Popular Elections of the Ancient Republics.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.

WE propose, in this chapter, to describe the formalities observed in the national and state elections. We have already shown that the United States' government is not a republic of the people; but that it is mixed-composed of state sovereignties in part, and of the people in part. The sovereignties elect the president and the senate; the people elect the lower branch of Congress; the judiciary is appointed by the president, and confirmed by the senate. The only officers, therefore, of the United States' government elected by the people, are the members of the House of Representatives-a branch of one of the three divisions of the government. The framers of the constitution wisely placed the selection of all the officials of the government, except the representatives, beyond the people. The electors were, in nearly all the states, originally chosen by the legislatures. In November, 1788, the legislature of Virginia divided the state into electoral districts, and each division elected its own presidential elector. From time to time the other states placed the selection of the electors with the people, either by districts or by the

aggregate vote of the state; South Carolina being the only exception at the present time.

The existing practice affords an opportunity for the people to vote for the president in imagination; and with many thousands the deception is complete. It is usual for the respective political parties to nominate their electors, who, in each state, are equal in number to the representatives sent to both branches of Congress by the state. For example, let us take the state of Delaware, which has two senators, and one representative in Congress; it would have three presidential lectors. The democratic, whig, Union, republican, or other parties, each through a convention, nominate three candidates; or three persons may announce themselves as independent candidates, only promising to vote for president as they may in their wisdom consider best. The party electoral candidates are considered as pledged to vote for the presidential candidate of those nominating them. These nominations are sometimes made six months before the election, which takes place in November. A national convention of delegates from each state assembles at some convenient place, and nominates the candidates for president and vice-president; and the convention announce a code of principles, which is called a "platform." The state conventions nominate the electoral candidates, generally before the presidential candidates are selected; but it is understood that the electors will vote for the presidential nominee of the national convention. In the meantime the electoral candidates travel over the state, and discuss the national issues, advocating their respective party doctrines. These

are exciting times. Whisky is an important auxiliary. In some sections the parties have regular places where they have whisky free to their own voters. A man enters the saloon, announces his intention to vote for a certain party, and he is invited to drink. Now there are many thousands to whom the grog is an object; and the return of the presidential election is anxiously looked for as a jubilee time. We must admit that this is a species of corruption, and one of the most serious character. Had the legislatures retained the election of the electors, the nation might not have been in its present disruptive condition. It is proper to state, however, that the whisky system is not universal: for example, in some of the eastern states, where the Maine liquor law has been enforced, not even the quiet citizen can purchase liquor without an order from a physician.

In some of the states the balloting is very formal. In Virginia and Kentucky the vote is taken viva voce. In Maryland, and many other states, it is by an open ticket, which may be folded, so as to prevent the judges from seeing the names voted for. In Massachusetts, the ballots are iuclosed in envelopes furnished by the state, in order to secure a system of secret voting; but, according to our observation in this state, the system has proved, practically, a farce. The opponents of secret voting cry aloud that it is cowardly to cast a secret ballot, and no man wishes to be ashamed of his choice. If he did not tell who he voted for, he would be subjected to the insinuation that he was not a freeman; and that is a delicate question with an American! In 1840, the Whig party swept the

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