Purpose
This amendment was proposed as a means to ensure a minimum representation for the common people in the new government defined by United States Constitution. In the First Congress, amendments properly addressing the issue were produced by both the House and the Senate, each providing for a minimum representation based on the expanding population of the nation, but a scrivener and clerk error substituted the word "more" for the word "less" in the third paragraph, reversing the intent of the amendment and setting a maximum ceiling. The original copies from the Committee and Oliver Ellsworth comment files show the correct meaning of having a ceiling of one Representative for every 50,000 people.
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