"The Senate Of The
United States Shall Be Composed Of Two Senators From Each State,
CHOSEN BY THE LEGISLATURE THEREOF, For Six Years, And Each Senator
Shall Have One Voice." The Senate Sent To Congress Is Therefore
Elected By The State Legislatures.
Each State legislature has two
Houses and the Senators sent from that State to Congress are either
chosen by
Vote of the two Houses voting together - which is, I
believe, the mode adopted in most States, or are voted for in the
two Houses separately - in which cases, when different candidates
have been nominated, the two Houses confer by committees and settle
the matter between them. The conservative purpose of the
Constitution is here sufficiently evident. The intention has been
to take the election of the Senators away from the people, and to
confide it to that body in each State which may be regarded as
containing its best trusted citizens. It removes the Senators far
away from the democratic element, and renders them liable to the
necessity of no popular canvass. Nor am I aware that the
Constitution has failed in keeping the ground which it intended to
hold in this matter. On some points its selected rocks and chosen
standing ground have slipped from beneath its feet, owing to the
weakness of words in defining and making solid the intended
prohibitions against democracy. The wording of the Constitution has
been regarded by the people as sacred; but the people has considered
itself justified in opposing the spirit as long as it revered the
letter of the Constitution.
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