thirty-thousand.org

i've been trying to read the constitution and have stumbled across Article I, Section 2...

The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of new Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, and Georgia three. --(Article I, Section 2)

here is commentary by the author ...
The Constitution says that the total number of representatives shall not be greater than one for every 30,000 citizens. During the ratification debates over the Constitution, opponents argued that such a ration was inadequate to properly represent the country. But even using the original ratio in the constitution, the House of Representatives would have consisted of about 9,400 members after the 2000 census. Faced with the ever increasing size of the House, Congress voted in 1929 to limit the number of representatives to 435. Based on the 2000 census, the population ratio per representative is about 1 for every 646,000 citizens. (commentary by Linda R. Monk)

when i shared this on the "we surround them site" i got a reply that just opened a whole new can of worms for me...someone pointed out to me that there is a site:
http://www.thirty-thousand.org/ that addresses this very concern of mine, which is we may have a "representation" problem in our fed govt.

something that stood out to me particularly was this quote by James Madison, written in 1789...
(you can find more info here)
"Numerous bodies are undoubtedly liable to some objections, but they have their advantages also; if they are more exposed to passion and fermentation, they are less subject to venality and corruption; and in a Government like this, where the House of Representatives is connected with a smaller body, it might be good policy to guard them in a particular manner against such abuse."