The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the
Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.2
What is the main idea of this excerpt from an article in the U.S. Constitution?
A. The Constitution establishes the qualifications for congressional representatives, as well as specific rules for their election.
B. The Constitution specifies that each state will select two representatives to serve in the House of Representatives.
C. The Constitution establishes two houses of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate.
D. The Constitution identifies specific qualifications for the officials serving at all levels of the government, including the presidency.
Answer: A. The Constitution establishes the qualifications for congressional representatives, as well as specific rules for their election.
We have a two-house or "bicameral" legislature. The number of representatives in the House of Representatives are based on each state's population size. In the Senate, each states gets two Senators.
The bicameral legislature plan was devised at the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787. The large population states wanted representation in Congress to be based on a state's population size. The smaller states feared this would lead to unchecked dominance by the big states; they wanted all states to receive the same amount of representation. The "Great Compromise" (as it became known) created a bicameral (two-chamber) legislature. Representation in the House of Representatives would be based on population. In the Senate, all states would have the same amount of representation, by two Senators.
The quoted section in the Constitution (as shown here) lays out the qualifications for House of Representatives members and rules for their election.
Jefferson's most fundamental political belief was an "absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority." Stemming from his deep optimism in human reason, Jefferson believed that the will of the people, expressed through elections, provided the most appropriate guidance for directing the republic's course.
