EXAMPLE 6 The Vetoed Apportionment Bill by Hamilton’s Method

The congressional apportionment bill that President Washington vetoed involved 15 states, and the House had 120 seats. According to the 1790 census, the U.S. population was 3,615,920. The standard divisor, , represents the population of the average congressional district.

Table 14.5 displays the apportionment, as calculated by Hamilton’s method. Each quota shown in the table was calculated by dividing the state’s population by this standard divisor. Adding the lower quotas, we find that their sum, 111, leaves 9 seats to be apportioned. These go to the 9 states whose quotas had the largest fractional parts.

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