Qualifications for a Representative.

44. No person can be a Representative who has not attained the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States. He must also, when elected, be an inhabitant of the state in which he is chosen.

45. Three qualifications are thus required on the part of a representative:

First, He must have attained the age of twentyfive.

Secondly, He must have been seven years a citizen of the United States. A foreigner is thus eligible to the House of Representatives after a citizenship of seven years; but he is not a citizen until he has been naturalized, and to be naturalized requires a previous residence of five years. So that twelve years must elapse before he is eligible as a Representative.

46. Thirdly, He must, when elected, be an inhabitant of the state in which he shall be chosen; that is, he must really be a member of the state, subject to all the requisitions of its laws, and entitled to all the privileges and advantages which they confer. By a political fiction, however, a representative of his country at a foreign court, though residing abroad, is still regarded, as it were, as being at home. He remains under the jurisdiction and laws of his own

country, like a sailor upon the high seas, and is not subject to the laws of the country in which he resides. Hence he is not deemed, by his foreign residence, to lose his character of inhabitant of the state of which he is a citizen, and may be elected to a seat in Congress. In addition to the qualifications thus specified, the fourteenth amendment, which was declared a part of the Constitution on the 28th day of July, 1868, provides that no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and VicePresident, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. The disability, however, created by this amendment Congress may remove by a vote of two-thirds of each house.*

47. The Constitution having fixed the qualifications for a Representative, the states cannot require others. They can neither add to, nor in any manner vary the qualifications set forth in the Constitution itself.

They cannot, for example, require their

* Ohio and New Jersey withdrew their consent to this amend、 ment before its proclamation.

representatives to be freeholders or professors of any particular religious belief, or inhabitants of the particular districts from which they are chosen, in addition to being inhabitants of the state, because in this instance the affirmation of certain qualifications obviously implies a negation of all others.

Apportionment of Representatives.

48. The apportionment of representatives among the several states was a subject of great difficulty. It was generally agreed that the apportionment should be made according to their respective numbers; but how should these numbers be determined? On the one hand it was contended that slaves were property, and as representation was to be based on persons, they ought to be excluded from the enumeration equally with all other property.

49. On the other hand it was urged that in the union of independent states, the population of each should constitute the basis of its representation in the common legislature, without reference to its condition. Slaves, it was said, were the laboring, producing population of many of the states, and constituted a large portion of their aggregate numbers. Hence, it was contended, that it would be unjust to these states to exclude the slaves from the census.

Slaves regarded in the Apportionment.

50. After an exciting controversy the subject was compromised as follows: The slaveholding states were allowed a representation for three-fifths of their slaves; but it was agreed at the same time that they should pay direct taxes in the same proportion. Thus the increase in the number of their representatives was accompanied by a corresponding increase in the amount of their direct taxes.

51. That is, representatives and direct taxes are apportioned among the several states, according to their respective numbers, which are determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons, meaning thereby slaves. As, however, slavery was abolished by the thirteenth amendment, which was declared a part of the Constitution of the United States on the 18th day of December, A. D. 1865, it became necessary to apportion representatives among the several states upon a basis different from that provided in the original Constitution. Accordingly, by the terms of the fourteenth amendment, it is declared as follows: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respectivo numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when

the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

Limit as to number of Representatives.

52. The number of representatives is not to exceed one for every thirty thousand; but each state is entitled to at least one.

A Census required to be taken.

53. To ascertain the population of the respective states, and apportion representatives among them according to their relative increase of numbers, an enumeration is required to be made, every ten years, in such manner as Congress shall by law direct.

54. The first enumeration was made in 1790, and has since been made once in every ten years, as the Constitution requires.