Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/305

1787] Fifth resolution. Election of the Senate. 273 instead of being elected by the people, should be elected in such manner as the legislature of each State should direct." That would give more satisfaction, since the legislatures could accommodate the mode to the convenience and opinions of the people; it would also provide a way of avoiding the undue influence of large counties. The motion was lost, four States voting aye, six no, with one divided; and then it was voted by the Convention, nine States to one. with one State divided, that election to the first branch of the national legislature should be by the people. So the result went to the committee of detail and then passed into the draft Constitution of August 6, and finally into the Constitution, as the first part of Article I, section 2. (5) ELECTION OF THE SECOND BRANCH. The fifth of the Randolph Resolutions had provided that the members of the second branch of the legislature should be elected by those of the first, out of the proper number of persons nominated by the State legislatures. Randolph observed, when the subject first came before the committee of the whole House, that the general object of the Senate was to provide a cure for the evils under which the country laboured; that in tracing these evils home every one had found that they came of the turbulence and follies of democracy; that some check was to be found; and that a good Senate seemed most likely to answer the purpose. Wilson was of opinion that both nomination by the State legislatures and election by the first branch of the national legislature were wrong, because the second branch ought to be independent. Both branches ought to be chosen by the people, though he was not prepared to say by what method ; but he referred to the mode of choosing senators in New York, where several districts of election for the first branch were united into one. Later, Wilson said that dissension would arise between the two branches if one were chosen by the people and the other by the State legislatures. Madison thought that election by districts would destroy the influence of the smaller States associated with the larger in the same district; the latter would choose from themselves, though better men might be found in the former. They had had such experience in Virginia (in elections to the State legislature). The Randolph resolution was now rejected ; three States voting for and seven against it. A week later (June 7) Dickinson, in the interest of the smaller States, moved in the committee that the members of the second branch be chosen by the State legislatures. He had two reasons ; first, the sense of the States would be better collected through their legislatures than from the people ; secondly, he wished the Senate o. M. H. vn. CH. vni. 18