The obvious intent of the Constitution was that no State should be
admitted with a less population than the ratio for a Representative at
the time of application. The limitation in the second section of the
first article of the Constitution, declaring that "each State shall have
at least one Representative," was manifestly designed to protect the
States which originally composed the Union from being deprived, in
the event of a waning population, of a voice in the popular branch of
Congress, and was never intended as a warrant to force a new State into
the Union with a representative population far below that which might at
the time be required of sister members of the Confederacy. This bill, in
view of the prohibition of the same section, which declares that "the
number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every 30,000," is at
least a violation of the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution.
It is respectfully submitted that however Congress, under the pressure
of circumstances, may have admitted two or three States with less than
a representative population at the time, there has been no instance in
which an application for admission has ever been entertained when the
population, as officially ascertained, was below 30,000.
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