However, the power rests with the legislature to change or adjust the apportionment during the interim and in 1845, the tradition in Ohio of reapportioning following the decennial census was broken.
The object of the change in the organic law was to obviate annual legislative sessions, but as a rule, up to the last decade of the century, annual sessions were held, the general assembly adjourning to a date in the second year of the biennial period to complete its unfinished business and consider other legislative matters.
From 1803 to 1812, the entire state constituted a single representative district in Congress, held by Jeremiah Morrow for all five terms.
Based on the Third Federal Census, the state was entitled to seven representatives in Congress[citation needed], but this fact was overlooked at the time the apportionment was made.
No attempt was made to rectify this error, the result being that Ohio was short five congressional seats during the decade, and one elector at each of the presidential elections in 1812, 1816 and 1820.
The legislature in 1842 contained a Democratic majority and the apportionment debate acrimonious, the Whigs denouncing the proposed redistricting as unfair and grossly partisan.
This adjustment of the congressional districts subsequently became the excuse for a number of the most notorious gerrymanders at the hands of the leaders of both parties in later years.
On 12 March 1845, the Whigs proceeded to readjust the congressional districts, the first use of the implied legislative power to redistrict at any time, not bound strictly to the federal census.
The legislature of 1852–1853, the first elected under the new Ohio constitution, was Democratic and apportioned the state into 21 congressional districts under the Seventh Federal Census.
During the first session of the Fifty-fifth general assembly, in 1862, the state was apportioned into the 19 districts based on the Eighth Federal Census.
The legislature chosen in 1871, and sitting in 1872–1873 was controlled by the Republican Party, and during the session of 1872 apportioned the state into twenty districts based on the Ninth Federal Census.
The Sixty-third general assembly, elected in 1877, was controlled by the Democratic Party, and following the precedent of the Whig legislature of 1845, at its session in 1878 it revised and recast the representative districts.
It proceeded at its first session to redistrict the state, and its effect upon the political campaign of the congressional delegation was pronounced.
With the beginning of the eighth decennial period, Ohio was entitled to an additional representative in congress following the Tenth Federal Census, and there were 21 districts to be created.