1. DEBATE OVER CONSTITUTION

who transfer to them their authority. There is no possible way to effect
this but by an equal, full and fair representation; this, therefore, is the
great desideratum in politics. However fair an appearance any govern-
ment may make, though it may possess a thousand plausible articles
and be decorated with ever so many ornaments, yet if it is deficient in
this essential principle of a full and just representation of the people,
it will be only like a painted sepulcher-For, without this it cannot be
a free government; let the administration of it be good or ill, it still
will be a government, not according to the will of the people, but
according to the will of a few.
To test this new constitution then, by this principle, is of the last
importance-It is to bring it to the touch-stone of national liberty, and
I hope I shall be excused, if, in this paper, I pursue the subject com-
menced in my last number,2 to wit, the necessity of an equal and full
representation in the legislature.-In that, I showed that it was not
equal, because the smallest states are to send the same number of mem-
bers to the senate as the largest, and, because the slaves, who afford
neither aid or defence to the government, are to encrease the propor-
tion of members. To prove that it was not a just or adequate represen-
tation, it was urged, that so small a number could not resemble the
people, or possess their sentiments and dispositions. That the choice
of members would commonly fall upon the rich and great, while the
middling class of the community would be excluded. That in so small
a representation there was no security against bribery and corruption.
The small number which is to compose this legislature, will not only
expose it to the danger of that kind of corruption, and undue influ-
ence, which will arise from the gift of places of honor and emolument,
or the more direct one of bribery, but it will also subject it to another
kind of influence no less fatal to the liberties of the people, though it
be not so flagrantly repugnant to the principles of rectitude. It is not
to be expected that a legislature will be found in any country that will
not have some of its members, who will pursue their private ends, and
for which they will sacrifice the public good. Men of this character are,
generally, artful and designing, and frequently possess brilliant talents
and abilities; they commonly act in concert, and agree to share the
spoils of their country among them; they will keep their object ever in
view, and follow it with constancy. To effect their purpose, they will
assume any shape, and, Proteus like, mould themselves into any
form-where they find members proof against direct bribery or gifts
of offices, they will endeavor to mislead their minds by specious and
false reasoning, to impose upon their unsuspecting honesty by an af-
fectation of zeal for the public good; they will form juntos, and hold

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