THE QUALIFICATIONS OF SENATORS AS PRESCRIBED BY THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS, 1776-1800.—Continued.

44

1778 30 5 years in £2000 set- Protestant 1 yr.

Chosen by the Assembly from

its Own body, and

called the Legislative Council.

hold estate.

Senatorial Qualifications

THE QUALIFICATIONS OF SENATORS AS PRESCRIBED BY THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS, 1776-1800.-Concluded.

The compensation of members of the two Houses was usually the same; but the Speaker of the House received more than any other member of it,

* In Tennessee the qualifications for Senators and Representatives were the same until 1834.

and the President of the Senate received the same as the Speaker of the House. Thus, in 1797, the Speaker and the Vice-President of the Council, in New Jersey, received 20 shillings a day; the councillors and members, 17 shillings; in Pennsylvania, 1777, the members received 15 shillings, the Speaker, 20 shillings. In 1791, in Pennsylvania, the two presiding officers, 22 shillings and 6 pence; the Senators and Representatives, 15 shillings and 9 pence, mileage. In Virginia, in 1779, each Assembly. man was paid 50 lbs. of tobacco daily, and 2 lbs. additional as mileage; by the act of 1780, the grand jury was required, at each of the four sessions of the general court, to estimate the money value of tobacco as a basis for the wages of members of Assembly.

Senatorial apportionment differed from that for the House. It was by groups or masses of population rather than by single towns or counties.* The basis was property; that of the House, though varying, was persons, or persons and property. The district came into existence in the attempt to establish a basis for Senatorial apportionment. To secure all the benefits of the Senatorial device, the retiring clause was worked out by which democracy secured a changing body and a permanent one at the same time. The State thus established the precedent for the nation. The Senate was a smaller body than the House, chosen for a longer term, and the qualifications for its members were a little more exacting. The Senator was an older, and in some States a richer, man. A body as conventional in origin would be expected to illustrate temporary expedients or schemes of election. Of these, most noticeable was the Electoral College, the prototype, if not the precedent, for the Presi

* Virginia, New Jersey, 1776; Massachusetts, 1780; Georgia, 1789; Pennsylvania, 1790; New Hampshire, 1793.

+ New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, 1776; New York, 1777; Massachusetts, 1780.

Plutocratic Characteristics of the Senate

dential Electors. The States speedily abandoned the College-Maryland, in which it originated, and Kentucky, which took it from Maryland and the Constitution of the United States. The idea early took root that each county should have one Senator. But the theory of equal representation compelled a recognition of the more populous counties and increased the difficulties of apportionment. Various devices were tried to keep the membership of the Senate in ratio with population, but none gave full satisfaction. The functions of the Senate were in part copied from those of the House of Lords, as that of a court of impeachment or a court of law, but in part conventional, as that of electing the Governor.* In some States the House participated in this election.† The first led to confusion of legislative and judicial functions; the second was soon recognized as undemocratic. Gradually, before the century closed, the Senate came to be recognized as representing the property, the House the persons, in the State. But the idea was at best conventional. For this reason democracy set about destroying the first basis and strengthening the second, and the functions of the Senate were viewed in a new light. It gradually became a democratic body. The old distinction was for half a century a political issue. But the democratic character of

* Georgia, 1789.

As a court, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island.

In the Southern States usually by joint ballot. In Georgia, 1777, the House alone elected him.

the Senate was not established until after 1820. Together, House and Senate comprised a working Legislature whose methods of procedure remain essentially as when they were first established. The constitution held the two branches together. As a device, the Senate was almost a discovery in politics. It illustrates how democracy utilized political mechanics in working out a substitute for an ancient branch of the Legislature which hitherto had consisted of a landholding class-lawmakers by accident of birth. There was nothing accidental in the substitute. Every quality and function was fixed by the logic of the political situation. It is in this sense only that the State Senate is one of the natural flowers of democracy.

QUALIFICATIONS OF GOVERNORS. STATE CONSTITUTIONS, 1776–1800.*

STATE CONST. AGE RESIDENCE

N. H. 1776

PROPERTY RELIGION TERM REMARKS

1784 30 7 years in £500, one- Protes- 1 yr. Styled the

State.

half in tant.
freehold.

President.

cut.

The Governor of Rhode Island was a freeholder, and elected annually; so of ConnectiIn New York, act of March 27, 1778, the elector voted viva voce for Senators and Assemblymen, but by ballot for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. In New Jersey the Governor's salary, by act of December 23, 1784, was £550; November 7, 1797, £750; November 7, 1798, £700; November 11, 1799, $1866.67. In Virginia, his salary, act of May, 1779, was £4500. In Kentucky, act of January 22, 1798, £400, also fuel, stationery, and postage. In Tennessee, October 23, 1796, $750. In all the States, no man other than a freeholder was chosen Governor; nor any man who had not long been a resident of the State. In States whose constitutions did not specify the age qualification, it may be put at thirty years. A person not professing the Christian religion was not likely to be mentioned as candidate for Governor; exceptions will occur-as that of Jefferson in Virginia.