deemed
requisite to their equalization. Between communities this difficulty is
less considerable, and although the rule of relative numbers would not
accurately measure the relative wealth of nations, in States in the
circumstances of the United States, whose institutions, laws, and
employments are so much alike, the rule of numbers is probably as near
equal as any other simple and practical rule can be expected to be
(though between the old and new States its equity is defective),--these
considerations, added to the approbation which had already been given to
the rule, by a majority of the States, induced the convention to agree
that direct taxes should be apportioned among the States, according to
the whole number of free persons, and three-fifths of the slaves which
they might respectively contain.

The rule for apportionment of taxes is not necessarily the most
equitable rule for the apportionment of representatives among the
States; property must not be disregarded in the composition of the first
rule, but frequently is overlooked in the establishment of the second.
A rule which might be approved in respect to taxes, would be disapproved
in respect to representatives; one individual possessing twice as much
property as another, might be required to pay double the taxes of such
other; but no man has two votes to another's one; rich or poor, each has
but a single vote in the choice of representatives.

In the dispute between England and the colonies, the latter denied the
right of the former to tax them, because they were not represented in
the English Parliament. They contended that, according to the law of the
land, taxation and representation were inseparable. The rule of taxation
being agreed upon by the convention, it is possible that the maxim
with which we successfully opposed the claim of England may have had
an influence in procuring the adoption of the same rule for the
apportionment of representatives; the true meaning, however, of this
principle of the English constitution is, that a colony or district
is not to be taxed which is not represented; not that its number
of representatives shall be ascertained by its quota of taxes. If
three-fifths of the slaves are virtually represented, or their owners
obtain a disproportionate power in legislation, and in the appointment
of the President of the United States, why should not other property
be virtually represented, and its owners obtain a like power in
le