FEDERALIST No. 55

The Total Number of the House of Representatives

For the Independent Journal. Wednesday, February 13, 1788.

MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:

THE number of which the House of Representatives is to consist, forms
another and a very interesting point of view, under which this branch of
the federal legislature may be contemplated. Scarce any article, indeed,
in the whole Constitution seems to be rendered more worthy of attention,
by the weight of character and the apparent force of argument with which
it has been assailed. The charges exhibited against it are, first, that
so small a number of representatives will be an unsafe depositary of
the public interests; secondly, that they will not possess a proper
knowledge of the local circumstances of their numerous constituents;
thirdly, that they will be taken from that class of citizens which will
sympathize least with the feelings of the mass of the people, and be
most likely to aim at a permanent elevation of the few on the depression
of the many; fourthly, that defective as the number will be in the first
instance, it will be more and more disproportionate, by the increase
of the people, and the obstacles which will prevent a correspondent
increase of the representatives.

In general it may be remarked on this subject, that no political problem
is less susceptible of a precise solution than that which relates to the
number most convenient for a representative legislature; nor is there
any point on which the policy of the several States is more at variance,
whether we compare their legislative assemblies directly with each
other, or consider the proportions which they respectively bear to the
number of their constituents. Passing over the difference between the
smallest and largest States, as Delaware, whose most numerous branch
consists of twenty-one representatives, and Massachusetts, where
it amounts to between three and four hundred, a very considerable
difference is observable among States nearly equal in population. The
number of representatives in Pennsylvania is not more than one fifth of
that in the State last mentioned. New York, whose population is to that
of South Carolina as six to five, has little more than one third of the
number of representatives. As great a disparity prevails between the
States of Georgia and Delaware or Rhode Island. In Pennsylvania, the
representatives do not bear a greater proportion to their c