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representing the thirty states of the Union.

In this part of

the constitution we readily perceive the features of the old confederation. Each state has its equal voice and equal weight in the Senate, without any regard to disparity of population, wealth or dimensions. This arrangement must have been the result of that spirit of amity and mutual concession, which was rendered indispensable by the peculiarity of our political condition. It is grounded on the idea of sovereignty in the states; and every independent community, as we have already seen, is equal by the law of nations, and has a perfect right to dictate its own terms, before it enters into a social compact. On the principle of consolidation of the states, this organization would have been inadmissible, for in that case each state would have been merged in one single and entire government. At the time the articles of confederation were preparing, it was attempted to allow the states an influence and power in congress in a ratio to their numbers and wealth; but the idea of separate and independent states was at that day so strongly cherished, that the proposition met with no

success.b

The election of the Senate by the state legislatures, is also a recognition of their separate and independent existence, and renders them absolutely essential to the operation of the national government. There were difficulties some years ago, as to the true construction of the constitution in the choice of senators. They were to be chosen by the legislatures, and the legislature was to prescribe the times, places and manner of holding elections for senators, and congress are authorized to make and alter such regulations, except as to the place. the legislature may prescribe the manner, it has been considered and settled, in New-York, that the legislature may prescribe that they shall be chosen *by joint vote *226

As

* In 1840 it was enlarged from 48 to 52 members, by the admission of Michigan and Arkansas as states into the Union, in 1836, vide infra, p. 384, and subsequently to 60 members, by the admission of Iowa, Florida, Wisconsin and Texas as states into the Union, vide infra, p. 384. The members of the English House of Lords are about 460 in number.

Journals of Congress, vol. iii. p. 416.

It gives to the state governments, says the Federalist, No. 62, such an agency in the formation of the federal government, as must secure their authority.

d Art. 1. sec. 4.

or ballot of the two houses, in case the two houses cannot separately concur in a choice, and then the weight of the Senate is dissipated and lost in the more numerous vote of the assembly. This construction has become too convenient, and has been too long settled by the recognition of senators so elected, to be now disturbed; though I should think, if the question was a new one, that when the constitution directed that the senators should be chosen by the legislature, it meant not the members of the legislature per capita, but the legisla ture in the true technical sense, being the two houses acting in their separate and organized capacities, with the ordinary constitutional right of negative on each other's proceedings. This was a contemporary exposition of the clause in question, and was particularly maintained in the well-known letters of the Federal Farmer, who surveyed the constitution with a jealous and scrutinizing eye.

The small number, and long duration of the Senate, were intended to render them a safeguard against the influence of those paroxysms of heat and passion, which prevail occasionally in the most enlightened communities, and enter into the deliberation of popular assemblies. In this point of view, a firm and independent Senate is justly regarded as an anchor of safety amidst the storms of political faction; and for want of such a stable body, the republics of Athens and Florence were overturned, by the fury of commotions, which the senates of Sparta, Carthage and Rome might have been able to withstand. The characteristical qualities of the Senate, in the intendment of the constitution, are wisdom and stability. The legal presumption is, that the Senate will entertain more enlarged views of public policy, will feel a higher and juster sense of national character, and a greater regard for stability in the administration of the government. These qualities, it

is true, may, in most cases, be equally found in the *227 other branch of the legislature, but *the constitutional

structure of the house is not equally calculated to produce them; for, as the House of Representatives comes more immediately from the people, and the members hold their seats for a much shorter time, they are presumed to partake,

a Letter 12.

with a quicker sensibility, of the prevailing temper and irritable disposition of the times, and to be in much more danger of adopting measures with precipitation, and of changing them with levity. A mutable legislation is attended with a formidable train of mischiefs to the community. It weakens the force, and increases the intricacy of the laws, hurts credit, lessens the value of property, and it is an infirmity very incident to republican establishments, and has been a constant source of anxiety and concern to their most enlightened admirers. A disposition to multiply and change laws, upon the spur of the occasion, and to be making constant and restless experiments with the statute code, seems to be the natural disease of popular assemblies. In order, therefore, to counteract such a dangerous propensity, and to maintain a due portion of confidence in the government, and to insure its safety and character at home and abroad, it is requisite that another body of men, coming likewise from the people, and equally responsible for their conduct, but resting on a more permanent basis, and constituted with stronger inducements to moderation in debate, and to tenacity of purpose, should be placed as a check upon the intemperance of the more popular department.b

The Senate has been, from the first formation of the government, divided into three classes; and the rotation of the classes was originally determined by lot, and the seats of one class are vacated at the expiration of the second year, and one third of the Senate are chosen every second year. This provision was borrowed from a similar one in some of the state constitutions, of which Virginia gave the first example; and it is admirably calculated, on the one hand, to infuse *into the Senate, biennially, renewed public *228

Federalist, vol. ii. No. 62.

The constitution of Rhode Island, which was organized and went into operation in 1843, has constituted the Senate of that state upon conservative principles, while the House of Representatives is constructed upon the basis of population, giving to each city and town a representation in a ratio to its number of inhabitants. The Senate is composed of only one member from each city or town, so that the legislative power cannot be wielded by overwhelming numbers in a few great manufacturing towns or cities, to the oppression of the agricultural towns. It is a salutary and provident check to the tyranny of majorities over minorities.

• Constitution of the United States, art. 1. sec. 3.

confidence and vigour; and, on the other, to retain a large portion of experienced members, duly initiated into the general principles of national policy, and the forms and course of business in the house. The Vice-President of the United States is president of the Senate, but has no vote, unless they be equally divided. It would seem to be the better opinion, that he has authority, as presiding officer, virtute officii, and without any special delegation of power by the Senate, to preserve order; but from some scruples on that subject, the Senate, in 1838, established by rule, that every question of order should be decided by the president of the Senate without debate, subject to an appeal to the Senate.b

The superior weight and delicacy of the trust confided to the Senate, and which will be shown more fully hereafter, is a reason why the constitutione requires, not only that the senators should be chosen for six years, but that each senator should be thirty years of age, and nine years a citizen of the United States, and, at the time of his election, an inhabitant of the state for which he is chosen. The same age was also requisite for a Roman senator, though in their executive offices, no qualification of age was required. Ne atas quidem distinguebatur quin prima juventa consulatum ac dictaturas inirent. It has been also deemed fit and proper, in a country which was colonized originally from several parts of Europe, and has been disposed to adopt the most liberal policy towards the rest of mankind, that a period of citizenship, sufficient to create an attachment to our government, and a knowledge of its principles, should render an emigrant eligi ble to office. The English policy is not quite so enlarged. No alien born can become a member of parliament. This disability was imposed by the act of settlement of 12 Wm. III. c. 2; and no bill of naturalization can be received in either house of parliament, without such disabling clause in it. House of (3.) The House of Representatives is composed of members Representa chosen every second year by the people of the several states, who are qualified electors of the most numerous branch of the legislature of the state to which they belong. The legislature

tives.

Art. 1. sec. 5.
Art. 1. sec. 3.

b Story's Comm. vol. ii. pp. 212, 213.

d Tac. Ann. lib. 11. 22.

of each state prescribes the times, places and manner of holding elections for representatives, but congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations. No person can be a representative until he has attained the age of twenty-five years, and has been seven years a citizen of the United States, and is, at the time of his election, an inhabitant of the state in which he is chosen.b

*The qualifications of electors of the assembly, or *229 most numerous branch of the legislature, in the several state governments, generally are, that they be of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, and free resident male citizens of the state in which they vote; and, in some of the states, they are required to possess property, and in the most of them to be white, as well as free citizens. The description is, almost everywhere, so large as to include all persons who are of competent discretion, and are interested in the welfare of the government, and liable to bear any of its duties or burdens. The House of Representatives may, therefore, very fairly be said to represent the whole body of the American people. Some of the state constitutions have prescribed the

Art. 1. sec. 4.

Art. 1. sec. 2. The question whether the individual states can superadd to, or vary the qualifications prescribed to the representative by the Constitution of the United States, is examined in Mr. Justice Story's Commentaries on the Constitution, vol. ii. pp. 99–103. But the objections to the existence of any such power appear to me to be too palpable and weighty to admit of any discussion.

• In almost all the states, no property qualification whatever, not even paying taxes, or serving in the militia, or being assessed for and working on the public highway, is requisite for the exercise of the right of suffrage. Every free male (and in a majority of the states) white citizen of the age of twenty-one years, and who shall have been a resident for some short given period, varying in those states from two years to three months, is entitled to vote. In Illinois it has been adjudged, that the word inhabitant, in the constitution of the state, means all persons who have a fixed permanent residence bona fide, and not one casual or temporary, and that a residence of six months entitles every inhabitant to vote;—that under the ordinance of 1787, and the constitution of the state, and the statutes of 1819, 1821, 1823, 1829 and 1833, aliens, being residents, are entitled to vote, though the distinction between citizens and inhabitants is sustained for various other purposes; and that it belongs to the states respectively to prescribe the qualifications of persons entitled to exercise the right of suffrage, not only as to state but to congressional elections. Spragins v. Houghton, 2 Scammon, 377. This latitudinary extension of the right of suffrage to aliens, seems to be peculiar to some of the states formed out of the Northwestern Territory, under the ordinance of the con

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