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The Apportionment Act of 1792 (1 United States House of Representatives at 105, effective with the 3rd Congress on March 4, 1793, and established that a number of representatives would be allotted to each state based upon the population enumeration provided by the 1790 Census,
Earlier apportionment legislation had been approved by the House in February 1792 and the Senate in March 1792, but was [1] It was the first presidential veto of legislation in American history.[2]
Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution stipulates that the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives is to be effected on the basis of population.[3]
An Act apportioning Representatives among the several States, according to the first enumeration. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the third day of March one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, the House of Representatives shall be composed of members elected agreeably to a ratio of one member for every thirty-three thousand persons in each state, computed according to the rule prescribed by the constitution; that is to say: Within the state of New Hampshire, four; within the state of Massachusetts, fourteen; within the state of Vermont, two; within the state of Rhode Island, two; within the state of Connecticut, seven; within the state of New York, ten; within the state of New Jersey, five; within the state of Pennsylvania, thirteen; within the state of Delaware, one; within the state of Maryland, eight; within the state of Virginia, nineteen; within the state of Kentucky, two; within the state of North Carolina, ten; within the state of South Carolina, six; and within the state of Georgia, two members. APPROVED, April 14, 1792.[4]
An earlier apportionment bill was Article I Section II of the United States Constitution.[5] The next day, the House attempted to override the President's veto but failed to reach the two thirds vote required and on 10 April efforts began to revise the bill a third time.[6]
On March 26, the bill was presented to the President. There was great disagreement among Washington's advisors, and therefore he called upon Edmund Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, [1]
Contrary to Jefferson and Randolph, both Knox and Hamilton urged that he approve the bill. Knox argued on 3 April that the Constitution was unclear about "whether the numbers of representatives shall be apportioned on the aggregate number of all the people of the United States, or on the aggregate numbers of the people of each state." As the constitutionality of the bill was, Knox said, "only doubted not proved but the equity of the measure apparent, it would appear rather a delicate measure for the President to decide the question contrary to the bill as passed." Hamilton wrote Washington on the following day that, while he had not yet read the bill, it seemed to him that the bill "performs every requisition of the constitution; and it will not be denied that it performs this in the manner most consistent with equality." Like Knox, Hamilton believed that "In cases where two constructions may reasonably be adopted, and neither can be pronounced inconsistent with the public good, it seems proper that the legislative sense should prevail" and the bill should be signed into law.[1]
After considering both sides of the argument, Washington decided that Jefferson and Randolph were correct, and Washington agreed that the bill was unconstitutional. Even so, Washington feared that by vetoing it he would increase geographical tensions by siding with the south, as Jefferson and Randolph were both from Virginia. Further discussion with Randolph, Jefferson, and James Madison, however, allayed Washington's concerns, and on 5 April the president decided to return the bill to the House of Representatives with the two objections that "there is no one proportion or divisor which, applied to the respective numbers of the States will yield the number and allotment of representatives proposed by the Bill" and that "the Bill has allotted to eight of the States, more than one [representative] for thirty thousand." Congress, after receiving Washington's veto message, the first in U.S. history, threw out the original bill and decided, on 10 April 1792, to apportion representatives at "the ratio of one for every thirty-three thousand persons in the respective States".[1]
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