remainder of the counties to elect by general ticket; or if you depart from that you must go into the interior and sparsely settled counties of the State and divide them up. Manifestly this amendment would be most absurd. Mr. BARTHOLOMEW. Will the gentleman from Columbia permit an interruption? Mr. BUCKALEW. Certainly. developed and understood by the delegates here. Again. I am opposed to the immediate pending amendment. I submit that if we are to have single districts, it is just as fair to give them to Schuylkill and Luzerne, where one party is in the majority, as it is to force them on Allegheny and Pittsburg, where the majority happens to be the other way. If we are to have Mr. BARTHOLOMEW. Did not the gen- single districts anywhere, let us go the tleman vote for it yesterday? Mr. BUCKALEW. For his amendment? Mr. BARTHOLOMEW. Yes, sir. whole hog or nothing. Do not let us say that in a county with above two hundred and fifty thousand the people shall have Mr. BUCKALEW. The vote was not taken separate districts, and when they come a on it yesterday. Mr. BUCKALEW. No, sir. Mr. BARTHOLOMEW. As I understood it, the gentleman accepted it. Mr. BUCKALEW. No, sir. Mr. BARTHOLOMEW. That is the way I understood it. Mr. BUCKALEW. The gentleman interrupted me while I was speaking, and desired me to accept it, and I said that he could submit it when I was done, and take the sense of the Convention upon it. At all events it is manifestly improper to include this in the section. I want to leave the general subject where it now stands in the Constitution. Mr. NILES. I have paid some attention to the phraseology of this section. An old saying tells us that "an honest confes sion is good for the soul," and I suppose that I might as well make the confession that I am unable to see what the Committee on Suffrage, Election and Representation means by saying that representative districts shall be so formed as to secure a full proportionate representation to each division of the electors. I would be very glad to have some gentleman who is championing this proposition tell us just exactly what it means. It looks to me as if there was something covered up in that proposition which has not been brought to the surface. If it means limited voting, or anything of that sort, I am utterly opposed to it. It must mean something, because the learned gentleman who has put in this language would never have put it there unless he meant something; and I believe there is something in this proposition which has not been properly 45-Vol. V. vote below that figure they shall elect as heretofore. Is that right? Why stop upon that number? Why not put here, in the organic law, if we are to have gerrymandering; if we are to tie up in the Constitution for all time to come an ap portionment bill; why not say that when counties shall be entitled to two or more Representatives they shall elect by separate districts, and then we shall all know exactly where we are? Why not apply this same thing to Berks and Lancaster, that you are applying to Philadelphia and Allegheny? I am opposed to this whole scheme of putting in the Constitution an apportionment bill; I believe that we should leave it to the Legislature. We have seen here, during the past week, the difficulty of harmonizing anything. Delegates cannot agree upon any proposition. You have, by a solemn vote of this Convention not five minutes ago, voted in division three of the amendment of the delegate from Columbia, by five majority, and in less than three minutes afterward voted it out by a majority of eight. That is what we are doing here. I am opposed to the amendment. If we are to have single districts I propose to stand by the delegates from Luzerne and Schuylkill. Mr. ELLIS. I was not here yesterday when the vote was taken on the amendment inserting Luzerne and Schuylkill counties in the exception to this section. I do not think that any section of the State should be mentioned especially. The amendment, as I understand it, reads: "The Representatives assigned to the counties of Philadelphia and Allegheny, Schuylkill and Luzerne shall be chosen by single districts." We are here establishing a fundamental law for this Commonwealth. To-day Schuylkill is the fifth county in the State in population. In three years she may be the fifth or sixth or seventh, or she may be the third. Allegheny is a large county this year. Next year she may fall off or increase. When you name counties to be divided into districts, you adopt an arbitrary and unfair standard; whereas our true purpose is to establish a law based upon principle, and not upon any mere geographical distinction of this kind. Now, the amendment offered by the gentleman from Columbia is most proper; it is uniform and it is just. I care not whether you apply the principle of single districts to counties of two hundred and fifty thousand, three hundred thousand or one hundred thousand population. If you choose to say it shall be applied to counties with one hundred thousand population, I will not ask to have Schuylkill excepted, but will, perhaps, vote for it. But when Schuylkill is named and Lancaster is not named-Lancaster with a population of one hundred and twenty-one thousand, and Schuylkill with a population of only about one hundred and sixteen thousand-when you provide that Schuylkill shall be dismembered and Lancaster not, it is special legislation of the most vicious character; and surely when we have laid our hand upon special legislation in the Legislature, we should not establish a monument of folly here by doing our selves the very thing which we consider vicious in others. I care not specially for Schuylkill on this question. As I said, if the principle is made uniform and applied to every county with like population, I shall not raise my voice against it; but to dot over the Commonwealth and say this county shall have a dismembered representation in the Legislature and one adjoining it with a larger population shall not-such patch-work is unbecoming the dignity of a Constitutional Convention. I had hoped to have a direct and naked vote on this question of Schuylkill, inasmuch as I do not desire personally to urge upon the Convention any other question, because it is so manifestly absurd that Schuylkill should be here inserted; but I entirely coincide with the gentleman from Columbia that we should not name territory at all. If we do fix a basis on which counties shall be districted, let it be population. Population is the basis upon which we have fixed representation; population is the basis in every respect on which we are making representation; and let population be the rule throughout. What ever other defect there may be in this amendment, so far as it will go to ex clude Schuylkill from the exception made yesterday, it is certainly not only eminently proper, but the converse is absolutely absurd. Mr. TURRELL. Mr. President: I hope that this Convention will not at this stage or any other adopt a rule for localities different from that which is applied to the whole State. If there is any reason for making an exception to this general provision it applies as well to the country as to the cities; and I am in favor of the single district system, because it comes nearer to the principles upon which our government was founded. It brings the Representative nearer to the people who elect him; and when you have a small district every man in that district knows his Representative, and can meet him face to face and call him to account for his conduct. Take a large county, like Luzerne, for instance, with six members. Some of the people may know the Representatives; but of necessity most of them can know very little about them. Here and there you will find a man who knows something about some of the Representatives, but very few who know them all. But when you divide that county into six districts, the people in each district will know the man whom they elect. They will know what kind of a man he is, and all about him. The people follow him and feel a direct interest in him, and look after his conduct; and if he goes wrong the people have an opportunity to call him to account. It is a principle, as I have said, which lies at the foundation of our government, that all power shall be kept as much as possible in the hands of the people consistently with the efficient and harmonious working of the government; and the Representative should be kept as near to the people as possible, so that he may be kept to a strict account for his conduct. In view of this principle, I am in favor of the single district system, and that is contained in the twentieth section of the article which the committee of the whole adopted, presented originally by the gentleman from Allegheny (Mr. D. N. White.) Now I hope the gentlemen from Schuylkill and other counties which are attempted to be made an exception here, with the mass of the Representatives of the State, will vote down this proposition and then adopt the section which follows, and which provides the single district system, which I believe is the true one, and will be found to work well in prao tice. Mr. BARTHOLOMEW. Mr. President: The motive which induced me to offer the amendment yesterday was simply the conviction which I have had in my mind from the very beginning of this question that the Legislature in its lower branch should be a representative of the population, or should be based on the population of the Commonwealth; that the lower branch being the popular branch and the expression of the popular will, should be brought as closely to the citizen as possible. Therefore, so far as the lower branch is concerned, I have always been in favor of the single district system, and I am in favor of it now. Hence, yesterday when this proposition was moved, which conferred upon Philadelphia and Allegheny the single district system, actuated by the convictions which I have held, I was anxious to have it applied to that part of the State in which I am directly interested, and therefore I moved to insert the county of Schuylkill. I believe it to be the true system. I am utterly opposed to this corporate representation, either as to counties or as tc boroughs, or anything based upon a system of communities. I was surprised at the argument of the learned gentleman from Philadelphia (Mr. Woodward) this morning, because I agreed with him upon the main proposition of his opposition to a division of counties; but it seems to me that he utterly mistook the argument, and mistated that which is a necessary result from the position which he assumed. He says we should allow a representative from each county, and thereby prevent new and sinall counties from being formed. Why, sir, in four cases out five the very object for which new counties are formed is to multiply offices for men who seek positions. They go to work and form a ring in an old county for the very purpose of organizing a new court house ring, and fixing a new seat of justite in connection with some man who has a town plat. That is the very thing which begets new counties, and when you add to that the additional inducement of thereby securing a member of the Legislature, it is an inducement overwhelming. It is an inducement to the division of old counties three times greater than the inducement that has heretofore existed. I am in favor of a general proposition that the lower branch of the Legislature shall be selected by district representation, by single districts throughout this Commonwealth. I believe it to be the true principle. I do not believe in a principle that is to disfranchise fractions throughout the Common wealth. I do not believe in districts that are to be bounded by county lines. I believe the basis of such a proposition as that is wrong and pernicious. I believe that legislative districts should be made without regard to county lines. They should be made with relation to population, and population alone. County boundaries should have nothing to do with it. The State should be made up into legislative districts so that the whole population should be represented, and choose Representatives by single districts. This is the true basis of a popular government and the popular branch of its Legislature. I hold to-day that the error is in the departure from this principle in our Commonwealth. One of the evils that we are laboring under is a departure from the principle which gives in the lower branch a representation based upon population; and then we should adopt the other principle, which I take it is the best and the truest that has been announced in this Convention, of representation in the Senate of the whole Commonwealth-a true system, such as is consistent with the organization of our government; not one that is based upon mere districts, making the Senate simply a like body to the lower House, making a representative body of districts with all the local passions and prejudices and feelings of the respective districts, but making it something that is a true check to legislation; something that will elevate its character something that will place in that body men who have a State reputation, men who will control the legislation of the State; something that will be to us a credit; something that will inaugurate a principle new to legislation, but which will be adopted throughout the length and breadth of this Union. I offered the amendment which I presented yesterday, so as to try to be consistent with my preconceived ideas. I stood by it then, and I say here that if this report is to be adopted, I ask that this principle may at least be carried out in the county of Schuylkill, so that the Representative shall be brought home to the people. It is the true principle; and if there are those in this Convention who disapprove of it so far as their localities are concerned, I ask them at least to let us have it in the county of Schuylkill. Mr. DALLAS. Mr. President: I agree with much that the gentleman from Schuylkill county (Mr. Bartholomew) has said; but I cannot concur in his conclusion. I do agree with him in thinking that this Convention has made a mistake in determining that in the House of Rep resentatives each county in the State should have a Representative; but I believe that that is a question that has been decided. I am satisfied that the views of this Convention are determined against those of the gentleman from Schuylkill and myself upon that subject; and I am not surprised that a body of gentlemenwho have found themselves able to say that an elector who lives in the largest county in the Commonwealth should therefore be entitled only to a vote of less representative power than his fellow-citizens in all other portions of the State, should find it also possible to declare that a man living in the smallest county in the Commonwealth should be entitled to a greater rep resentative power by his vote than the voters of any other part of the Commonwealth. I am not surprised that the same body which came to the one conclusion should have come to the other. I have, I think, rightly observed the temper of the Convention in this matter, and I am satisfied that it is finally determined that representation in the lower House is to be to some extent based upon counties and county lines. I am willing, therefore, to accept, as we all must accept it, as the final fiat of this body, that we are to look for county representation without regard to population in our House of Representatives, if our work shall be approved. Now, sir, accepting that disposes of much of the argument of the gentleman from Schuylkill, because when county representation is concluded upon it follows, if we are to be consistent with our entire course upon all other subjects, that no exception by name of particular counties should be made in this section. It would be simply special legislation of that character to which we have been continually objecting and against which we have constantly protested. Every delegate on this floor who happens to enter tain the views upon this subject which animate the gentleman from Schuylkill, who last addressed the body, and myself, would seek to make their county an exception, in order that in their county their views might prevail against the general views of the Representatives of the Commonwealth here assembled. Though I am one that holds those views, I do not favor making these exceptions to partially carry them out. If this Convention shall determine that the rule shall be as they have, then make no exception by county name. A special objection to such a course occurs to me. It is a practical objection which I have not heard mentioned, or I should not have taken the floor. It is this: You name Schuylkill and you name Luzerne; next we shall have, upon certainly equally good grounds, some gentleman from Lancaster asking that Lancaster shall be excepted, and next you will have another and another and still another. But we have not made it impossible under this Constitution that county lines may be changed. The county of Schuylkill, of which you make an exception to-day, may be reduced in its territory. Then the question will be, which is Schuylkill, the old or the new. Probably that portion of the territory which had been entirely in old Schuylkill would remain Schuylkill, and old Schuylkill might become one of the small counties of the Commonwealth; and yet you would have, by your constitutional provision, rigidly fixed that that county should be divided into separate districts, though it might become one of the small counties of the State by such division as I have suggested. Neither this objection, nor any of the objections that have been urged, has any proposed by the gentleman from Columbia. He proposes not to name any county by name, but to make the title to separate districts dependent upon a uniform rule, based upon population, so that when a county has a population exceeding the very large number of two hundred and fifty thousand, it shall be separated into representative districts, but not otherwise; and the reason for separate distriets in such counties has been well assigned by the gentleman from Susquehanna. It is that counties of so great population should be divided, in order that the candidates for Representatives may be known to those who are to elect them; but in addition to that, the very varied interests that always must exist in such large populations may well be said application, however, to the amendment to be entitled to separate representation in the lower House. Mr. AINEY. Mr. President: I hope that this amendment will not be adopted. I am in favor of the principle of single districts. If the apportionment of representation be decided against by this body, the next best thing, and which will go to satisfy the demands of the people on this question for greater representation, will be that of single districts. If we are to have single districts, let us have them uniform throughout the State. I protest against singling out certain counties in the State, whether by reason of population or otherwise, and giving them single districts, and in other parts of the State compelling them to elect by counties as a whole. I simply rise to protest against any special legislation here in the Constitution so as to prevent a uniform mode of electing in districts throughout the Com monwealth. Mr. MAC CONNELL. Mr. President: The gentleman from Philadelphia (Mr. Dallas) is very strenuously opposed to excepting any districts by name; that he thinks preposterous and wrong; but he is decidedly in favor of providing specially for them according to population. He would oppose making a provision that would apply to Philadelphia and Allegheny counties by name; but he argues that it is all right to make a provision that will apply to those two counties in effect, because that is exactly what it does. If you were to mention Philadelphia and Allegheny counties by name, you could not make it more special, more specific, more applicable to them and none else, than you do by putting it in the shape that the gentleman from Columbia does. Gentlemen are opposed to special legislation by name, but in effect they are in favor of it. Now we all know that "That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet." And what the gentleman from Columbia wants to apply here is just special legislation by another name, and it is as much so as if he called it so. Now, I have a very strong suspicion that I understand why this thing is applied to Allegheny county and Philadelphia, and is not applied to some of the other counties. I think I understand it, and I think there are not many gentlemen on this floor who are green enough not to understand it. I will not attempt to explain it. But coming to the other provision that is put in here, which one gentleman asked the gentleman from Columbia to explain," but which he took very good care not to explain Mr. BUCKALEW. If the gentleman will permit me Mr. MACCONNELL. I have no doubt it was an oversight. Mr. BUCKALEW. was not heard. I rose to my feet and Mr. MACCONNELL. Still the gentleman did not explain it. This is this provision: "The said representative districts shall be so formed as to secure the full proportionate and just representation of each di vision of the electors of each of said counties, as the same shall be exhibited in the returns of popular elections." If that is not minority representation slipped in cunningly, innocently, of course, into those two counties, whilst all the rest of the State is excepted from it, then I do not know what there is in it. I am entirely at a loss to understand the meaning of the section if it does not mean that. Now, sir, I want, so far as Allegheny county is concerned, to have it put precisely on the same footing with the rest of the State. If you do not have single districts for the rest of the State, do not give them to us. If you give them to us, give them to the remainder of the State. If that system is good for us, it cannot be bad for the State generally. If it is bad for the State generally, it cannot be good for us, and so of Philadelphia. I insist, therefore, Mr. President. that this principle of equality should prevail, that the whole State should be put on an equal footing in this regard. Mr. BUCKALEW. Mr. President: I rise to explain. The point to which my attention was called by the gentleman from Allegheny is also the one of which the gentleman from Tioga spoke. This expression that the representative districts "shall be so formed as to secure the full, proportionate and just representation of each division of the electors of each of said counties according to the returns of popular elections," is as plain, I think, as human language can make it; and it has nothing more to do with the subject of reformed voting (the limited vote, or the free vote or any other) than it has to do with the laws of astronomy. I should like to see the gentleman from Allegheny point out any plan of reformed voting in |