as soon as such rules should be adopted. The several states were credited for their supplies, and charged for the advances made to them by congress; but no settlement of their accounts could be made for the want of a rule of appointment, until the establishment of the constitution.
When the general convention that formed the
constitution took this subject into their consideration, the whole
question was once more examined, and while it was agreed that all
contributions to the common treasury should be made according to the
ability of the several states, to furnish the same, the old difficulty
recurred in agreeing upon a rule whereby such ability should be
ascertained, there being no simple standard by which the ability of
individuals to pay taxes, can be ascertained. A diversity in the
selection of taxes has been 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 number is probably as nearly 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 present House of Representatives
consists of 181 members, which are apportioned among the states in a
ratio of one representative for every thirty-five thousand federal
numbers, which are ascertained by adding to the whole number of free
persons, three-fifths of the slaves. … Thus while 35,000 free
persons are requisite to elect one representative in a state where
slavery is prohibited, 25,559 free persons in Virginia may and do elect
a representative—so that five free persons in Virginia have as much
power in the choice of representatives to Congress, and in the
appointment of presidential electors, as seven free persons in any of
the states in which slavery does not exist.
This inequality in the appointment of representatives was not misunderstood at the adoption of the constitution; but as no one anticipated the fact that the whole of the revenue of the United States would be derived from indirect taxes (which cannot be supposed to spread themselves over the several states according to the rule for the apportionment of direct taxes), but it was believed that
