Section. 2.
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.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. 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, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
I am not your lawyer. This is not legal advice, despite the parts when we bump into some legal-looking things.
This seems like a good time to bring up Amendments. There is a procedure, detailed later, to amend the Constitution. Amend is a great word, because it encompasses all three things one might need to do to a text: add, replace, or—as here—delete.
This section lays out the rules for the House of Representatives. It provides eligibility, number of representstives, what happens in case of vacancy, leadership, and tags on a power there at the end.
Representatives serve two-year terms. They need to have the qualifications of voters (here called “Electors”) of their state, as set by the State legislative body. They are elected by the people. Representatives must be at least 25, a citizen for seven years, and an “inhabitant” of their State.
The formula to determine the number of Representatives, as originally drafted, has changed. In the text, the process involved adding the number of free persons (including indentured servants as “free”) to 3/5 of enslaved persons, but not counting native persons not taxed. Because this is a straight read-through, I won’t go into the changes that were eventually made, other than to say, there’s an amendment that changes this formula.
However, the requirement still stands that the number of representatives cannot exceed one for every 30,000 people (minimum one per state) to avoid dilition of the vote. Because if there were one Representative for every thousand people, for example, there would now be about 342,000 representatives and nothing would ever get done. As it stands, each representative represents just over 750,000 people, by my math. (But note, I don’t work at a math store. Use your own calculator.)
I also won’t talk much about what’s been called “The 3/5 Compromise,” because this isn’t a history paper, but you have the Internet. You can look it up.
This section requires that Congress conduct an “Enumeration” every ten years, which we generally call the Census. This is where that comes from.
This section also has the division for the first group of representatives, to stand until the first census can be taken.
The House is then required to choose its own speaker and to have other officers as (or if) necessary.
Then, it reserves the sole power of impeachment to the house. An impeachment is only an accusation, and only the first step (or second, if you count wrongdoing as the first) in the overall Impeachment Process. If you contextualize Impeachment as a mirror of criminal law, the “Power to Impeach” is like the power to indict. And just like in the criminal process, an accusation is not a conviction.
That’s the House done. Now on to their evil twins, the Senate.