CH. IX.]
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
139
ascendancy of passion over reason. In the next place, the larger the number, the greater will be the proportion of members of limited information and weak capacities. Now, it is precisely on characters of this description, that the eloquence and address of the few are known to act with all their force. In the ancient republics, where the whole body of the people assembled in person, a single orator, or an artful statesman, was generally seen to rule with as complete a sway, as if a sceptre had been placed in his single hand. On the same principle, the more multitudinous a representative assembly may be rendered, the more it will partake of the infirmities incident to collective meetings of the people. Ignorance will be the dupe of cunning; and passion the slave of sophistry and declamation. The people can never err more than in supposing, that in multiplying their representatives beyond a certain limit, they strengthen the barrier against the government of a few. Experience will for ever admonish them, that, on the contrary, after securing a sufficient number for the purposes of safety, of local information, and of diffusive sympathy, they will counteract their own views by every addition to their representatives. The countenance of the government may become more democratic; but the soul, that animates it, will be more oligarchic. The machine will be enlarged, but the fewer, and often the more secret, will be the springs, by which its motions are directed.[1]
- ↑ The Federalist, No. 58.—Mr. Ames, in a debate in congress, in 1789, on amending the constitution in regard to representation, observed, "By enlarging the representation, we lessen the chance of selecting men of the greatest wisdom and abilities; because small districts may be conducted by intrigue; but in large districts nothing but real dignity of character can secure an election.[a 1] Unfortunately, the experience of
- ↑ 2 Lloyd's Debates, 183.
