But Now - Or Rather In 1860, When Secession
Commenced - The Northern States, Owing To The Increase Of Population
In The
North, sent one hundred and fifty Representatives to
Congress, having nineteen States, and thirty-eight Senators; whereas
the South, with
Fifteen States and thirty Senators, was entitled by
its population to only ninety Representatives, although by a special
rule in its favor, which I will presently explain, it was in fact
allowed a greater number of Representatives, in proportion to its
population, than the North. Had an equal balance been preserved,
the South, with its ninety Representatives in the Lower House, would
have but twenty-three Senators, instead of thirty, in the Upper.*
But these numbers indicate to us the recovery of political influence
in the North, rather than the pride of the power of the South; for
the South, in its palmy days, had much more in its favor than I have
above described as its position in 1860. Kansas had then just
become a free-soil State, after a terrible struggle, and shortly
previous to that Oregon and Minnesota, also free States, had been
added to the Union. Up to that date the slave States sent thirty
Senators to Congress, and the free States only thirty-two. In
addition to this, when Texas was annexed and converted into a State,
a clause was inserted into the act giving authority for the future
subdivision of that State into four different States as its
population should increase, thereby enabling the South to add
Senators to its own party from time to time, as the Northern States
might increase in number.
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