Nowell Francis

Apportionment is the term used in the United States Constitution to define the size and composition of the United States House of Representatives.

The Framers of the Constitution envisioned ordinary citizens in a “people’s house” that would gradually grow in size as the population of the country grew. The reader will learn how the Framers nearly placed language in the Constitution that would have guaranteed over 10,000 Representatives today and how apportionment in the 19th Century was hotly debated. Apportionment once favored slave-holding states, and the 1801 and 1876 presidential elections were decided by apportionment.

In 1912 the number of seats was set at 435, the same number of Representatives as today. Since then the number of persons in a typical congressional district has grown from an average of 211,000 persons to 710,000 persons. This has had disastrous results such as extreme gerrymandering, apathetic voter turnout, and a House that fails to properly exercise its war powers. Francis shows that apportionment is the key reason average citizens have virtually no chance at being elected while incumbents retain their seats 95 percent of the time. He powerfully makes the case that apportionment should once again be the subject of a rigorous national dialogue.

This book addresses the large issues of the Constitution past and present—such as war, finances, personal liberty, and corporate influence—as seen through the experiences of local, everyday people.

You will meet “Adam” and “Louise,” the struggling Cumberland Farms convenience store clerks whose lives stand in stark contrast to the world of Aaron Greenwood, a surveyor just before the Civil War.

Local personalities include astute Phil Howard, an attorney who would regularly set his desk on fire; savvy local selectman “Jeff” with his political antics; and the wise but pugnacious judge, Thomas Carroll.

You will also learn about the first Federal government prisoner of conscience, Herman Husband, and why the decisions by George Washington and Alexander Hamilton to crush the Whiskey rebels of western Pennsylvania and to enlarge the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution were seminal events that still shape debates today about the reach and scope of the Executive Branch and the Federal government.

Francis spotlights constitutional issues of apportionment, the role of corporations, neutrality, and the intertwining roles of protective tariffs and taxation—all issues once hotly debated by the Patriots and Framers of the Constitution—and he explains why they should once again be the focus of a renewed national dialogue.

The reader will meet Citizen Genet, who nearly overthrew the young United States then led by President George Washington. Genet’s actions were pivotal to Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality and later his Farewell Address which stressed the importance of neutrality and a friendly attitude towards all countries. The Farewell Address became the cornerstone of United States foreign policy for the next century.

In 1895, with the approval of President Grover Cleveland, Secretary of State Richard Olney created a diplomatic note that started the United States on the path to abandon neutrality. The United States declared that any assault on either North or South America was an assault on the United States and would result in military action to defend United States interests.

Francis shows the sad legacy of abandoning neutrality through military interventions that have cost millions of lives, and he makes the case that neutrality is still of great importance today. Given the real possibility of a nuclear holocaust, neutrality as envisioned by George Washington’s Farewell Address could be a key element towards achieving lasting world peace.