Political Party ~ Two Party System Failed?
Government Based on the Original United States Constitution
~ Proposed and Submitted by Johnnie Johnson
July 11, 2011
SHRINK CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS TO EXERT THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE.
Today we are vastly under represented in the U. S. House of Representatives. This lack of representation in the House, diminishes the power of the people over their government. The Founders wanted “ the people” to control their government, and this is how they exerted that power, with a little history!
CONGRESS INTENTIONALLY SHRINKS CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS.
For the Nation’s 1St Congress (1789-1791), the people’s representation in the U.S. House of Representatives was set by the Constitution at 65. The states were notified and each state elected and sent the required number of Representatives. Then the Constitutionally required first census was taken in 1790. From this first census, Congress discovered the population to be 3,929,214. With 65 Representatives in the House, this required that each Congressional District (I will use this term to represent the block of citizens and their society that a Representative was responsible to) had to be large enough to cover an average of 60,449 citizens for each Representative. This, Congress decided was too large a group for one man to faithfully represent and notified the States, to elect and send a total of 41 additional Representatives for the 3Rd Congress (1791-1793), bringing the total to 106. This action resulted in reducing each Congressional District to a size covering an average of 37,068 citizens for each Representative. The result of this action, increased the Representative’s intimacy with the citizens and their society. This acquaintance and familiarity would assist the Representative in how he fulfills his responsibilities towards the people; to know better how to care for and what burdens the citizens are capable and desirous of carrying. The smallness of the districts also makes it easier for the people to come together to act in a unified way to inform and hold their representatives accountable, and places more people in the House of Representatives, to spread throughout the existing States, to keep an eye on people\government relationships.
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS BEGIN TO SLOWLY GROW AND CONGRESS LOSES SIGHT
The smallness of the Congressional Districts worked fine for the first two Census, or first 20 years, but then with the addition of new states to the Union and the natural growth of the population, Congress felt that soon there would be too many people on the floor of the House to efficiently conduct business, so they started to increase the size of each Congressional District. By the 1840 Census, the Congressional District had swollen to surpass the size rejected by the 1St Congress and was now to include 74,856 people. Though accepted in congress as necessary, this move seriously strained the association of the citizens and their society from their Representatives, as well as diminished the number of Representatives available to keep a watchful eye on our national government.
THE NUMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES IN THE HOUSE IS LOCKED
The size of Congressional Districts slowly continued to grow until the 1910 Census, when the Congress of 1913 had Congressional Districts with an average of 212,019 people in each District. This same Congress also had a House of Representatives which had now grown to a size consisting of 435 Representatives, which most members of the House felt was on the verge of being un-wieldy, or not an easily managed group to conduct the House’s business. The House, with Senate approval decided to not increase the number of Representatives any further with each succeeding Census, but to leave the number of Representatives frozen at 435 forever more. (See attached copy of bill from 62nd Congress Session I. Chapter 5 and reference this with71st Congress Session I Chapter28 Sec. 21-22 on the Internet.) It does not appear that anyone even thought of sending representatives out into the expanse of America to perform their other responsibilities of oversight. They all wanted to be in the House.
SPEED OF ENLARGING CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS INCREASES
This freeze in the House of Representatives has caused the size of the Congressional Districts to just balloon. It was previously mentioned that the 1910 Census brought about Congressional Districts of 212,019. Now, one hundred years later with the 2010 Census, we have an average Congressional District of 709,760. (Resident population of 308,745,538 / House of Representatives 435 = 709,760 people) Remember this is just the average; some Districts are well over 900,000 people. This is a far cry from the 37,068 people, per Congressional District, that congress made happen for the 3rd Congressional Session of 1791-1793, mentioned above.
THE PEOPLE’S POLICING POWER OVER GOVERNMENT IS UNDERMINED.
No longer would there be additional Representatives added to the House of Representatives. Each member of the House would just have to represent more and more and more people. Separating us further and further from our voice in and our power over our government. This means that each new American will not have the same privilege as their forefathers to have the same representation in government, including their representation to control the purse and to over see all civil officers for proper conduct. This diminishing control has continued to be watered down as the population has grown.
To demonstrate this -- Everyone should recognize the importance of enlarging the police force as society grows. To say that we will no longer enlarge our police force no matter how large our society grows is just foolishness. The ability of the police to respond and perform their duty in a growing society diminishes, increasing risks for society as it grows. As calls to the police begin to increase, the police must start selecting the most critical calls and start letting the rest of the calls go for lag time, if it comes, thus allowing the quality of society to suffer. Yet this is what has happened to Americans with the freezing of the House of Representatives. Our control and influence over our national government has dwindled as our population has greatly enlarged, while at the same time our number of Representatives in the House has remained constant. Under such a process, the people’s power to oversee and control government has continued to diminish. The House of Representatives is the people’s policing force over our national government, and must be sufficiently large to keep it under the people’s control at all times, and in all things.
This Police Force certainly extends over Judges, which are Civil officers.
Judges of the Supreme and inferior courts, remain in service only upon good behavior (article III Sec 1.) Let us remember that the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the land, but not the supreme power. A greater power is the united voice of the people. It is this power that created and does allow the constitution to be the supreme law of the land.
The constitution allows the judge’s position to be created and authorizes the exercise of limited power. On a Federal level, the Constitutional power to make ‘Exceptions’ and such necessary ‘Regulations’ upon Judges, is in congress. The people through congress, can prevent the appeal of or process on any chosen subject matter from going into Federal court, from a State court, as stated in Article III Sec 2 Par. 2. Through this process, the sovereignty of a state can be better protected.
The free peoples of America must recognize and protect their sovereign will above the Constitution and not let it be trampled upon. Judges cannot ignore the sovereign will of the people of one state without the power to ignore the sovereign will of every other state. It is this sovereign will that created and empowers our U. S. constitution, and how can a thing created be greater than that which created it? The Representatives of the People should all be at any judges chambers upon the slightest hint of challenging or diminishing the united and sovereign will of the people of this Nation, or any State there of.
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