Cato V - Insufficient Representation
In Cato V, an Anti-Federalist author completes his discussion on the presidency and moves on to criticize both houses of Congress.
Cato V
November 22, 1787
In Cato V, an Anti-Federalist author completes his discussion on the presidency and moves on to criticize both houses of Congress.
His discussion on Congress focuses closely on the frequency of elections.
Don’t Assume
Cato begins this Paper with a recounting of the problems with the presidency as he discussed in previous essays.
He then responds to the Federalist argument that Americans are by nature a free people and would never let tyranny come to the United States by demonstrating that the Constitution takes away the ability of the people to prevent it.
Furthermore, he notes that a Constitution should put measures into place so that the people will not have to take it upon themselves in times of crisis.
Elections
Cato then spends the majority of the Paper concentrating on Congress’ election process and terms of office.
He believes the most basic principle of a free government is annual elections, giving the people frequent opportunities to replace poor leaders while making politicians earn their position in government based on regular displays of their merit.
Additionally, he is troubled that the Senators are not elected at all and instead are chosen by the State Governments.
Representation
The author finishes this Paper by questioning why the total number of Representatives are so few.
The inaugural election of Representatives was set up to include fewer members in the House than just New York State’s Government had at the time. Lowering the number of Representatives in a much larger government would only take power further away from individuals, making their ability to prevent tyranny (as stated earlier) significantly more difficult.
Cato concludes the Paper by letting the reader know that this last topic was covered at much greater length by Brutus and instructs the reader to go to that Paper for a deeper discussion.
This series is only part of my regular publications, so…
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