

The Articles of Confederation created the first national congress to represent the interests of the states: each state would appoint between two and seven delegates to the congress, and each state delegation would have one vote. Thus, they rallied behind the now familiar motto: “No taxation without representation!”Īfter the war, the founders struggled to design a system of government to better represent the inhabitants of the new country than did the British model which once governed them. American colonists, who were used to controlling their local affairs in the directly-elected colonial legislatures, lacked a voice in Parliament and resented the British policies imposed on them. In this sense, most people living in areas under British rule-including North America-were only “virtually represented” in Parliament. In England, the House of Commons represented every British subject regardless of whether the subject could actually vote for its membership. The American Revolution was, in part, a contest about the very definition of representation. Representation based on population in the House was one of the most important components of the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787.

House of Representatives and the seats in the House are apportioned based on state population according to the constitutionally mandated Census. The Constitution provides for proportional representation in the U.S. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.” “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. Constitution, Article I, section 2, clause 3 The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative…” The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.
#Least populous state free
“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall 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, three fifths of all other Persons.
