The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CXLIV

by Max Farrand

ⅭⅩⅬⅣ. The Landholder [Oliver Ellsworth], Ⅳ.^[1]

By the proposed constitution the new Congress will consist of nearly one hundred men; when our population is equal to Great Britain of three hundred men, and when equal to France of nine hundred. Plenty of Lawgivers! why any gentlemen should wish for more is not conceivable.

…Convention foreseeing this danger, have so worded the article, that if the people should at any future time judge necessary, they may diminish the representation.

1. P.L. Ford, Essays on Constitution, p. 152, from the Connecticut Courant, of November 26, 1787.