Excerpt from Chapter 3:10, Oligarchy
The Book of the Is (2013)
10
In Federalist 57, the charge is found in the title of the essay: The Alleged Tendency of the New Plan to Elevate the Few at the Expense of the Many Considered in Connection with Representation. This one paints a portrait of a House of Representatives from the general population. Madison asks: “Who are to be the electors of the federal representatives?” We the People is the easy answer, but he wrote it supremely:
Not the rich, more than the poor; not the learned, more than the ignorant; not the haughty heirs of distinguished names, more than the humble sons of obscurity and unpropitious fortune. The electors are to be the great body of the people of the United States.
As there would be no qualification for office (“not of wealth, of birth, of religious faith, or of civil profession”), the people would choose a local to “confer the representative trust.” In the voice of someone who believed in conferring the representative trust, Madison anticipated the relationship between the Representative and constituent to be based on: “Duty, gratitude, interest, and ambition itself.”
Again from Federalist 57:
The city of Philadelphia is supposed to contain between fifty and sixty thousand souls. It will therefore form nearly two districts for the choice of federal representatives.
Today, with an approximate population of sixty thousand souls, Dubuque, Iowa would be equal to the founders’ Philadelphia. Today with 1.5 million souls, Philadelphia would warrant more than fifty federal Representatives under Constitutional Representation.
The Book of the Is (2013)
10
In Federalist 57, the charge is found in the title of the essay: The Alleged Tendency of the New Plan to Elevate the Few at the Expense of the Many Considered in Connection with Representation. This one paints a portrait of a House of Representatives from the general population. Madison asks: “Who are to be the electors of the federal representatives?” We the People is the easy answer, but he wrote it supremely:
Not the rich, more than the poor; not the learned, more than the ignorant; not the haughty heirs of distinguished names, more than the humble sons of obscurity and unpropitious fortune. The electors are to be the great body of the people of the United States.
As there would be no qualification for office (“not of wealth, of birth, of religious faith, or of civil profession”), the people would choose a local to “confer the representative trust.” In the voice of someone who believed in conferring the representative trust, Madison anticipated the relationship between the Representative and constituent to be based on: “Duty, gratitude, interest, and ambition itself.”
Again from Federalist 57:
The city of Philadelphia is supposed to contain between fifty and sixty thousand souls. It will therefore form nearly two districts for the choice of federal representatives.
Today, with an approximate population of sixty thousand souls, Dubuque, Iowa would be equal to the founders’ Philadelphia. Today with 1.5 million souls, Philadelphia would warrant more than fifty federal Representatives under Constitutional Representation.
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