agreed "that the power of the national judiciary should extend to all cases of national revenue, impeachment of national officers, and questions which involve the national peace or harmony." * The Virginia plan intrusted the appointment of the judges to the legislature; Wilson proposed to transfer it to the executive; Madison to the senate; and on the thirteenth the last mode was accepted without dissent. All agreed that their tenure of office should be good behavior, and that their compensation should be safe from diminution during the period of their service. On the sixth of June, Charles Pinckney, supported by Rutledge, made once more a most earnest effort in favor of electing the first branch of the legislature by the legislatures of the states, and not by the people. "Vigorous authority," insisted Wilson, "should flow immediately from the legitimate source of all authority, the people. Representation ought to be the exact transcript of the whole society; it is made necessary only because it is impossible for the people to act collectively." "If it is in view," said Sherman, "to abolish the state governments, the elections ought to be by the people. If they are to be continued, the elections to the national government should be made by them. I am for giving the general government power to legislate and execute within a defined province. The objects of the union are few: defence against foreign danger, internal disputes, and a resort to force; treaties with foreign nations; the regulation of foreign commerce and drawing revenue from it. These, and perhaps a few lesser objects, alone rendered a confederation of the states necessary. All other matters, civil and criminal, will be much better in the hands of the states." + "Under the existing confederacy," said Mason, "congress represent the states, and not the people of the states; their acts operate on the states, not on individuals. In the new plan of government the people will be represented; they ought, therefore, to choose the representatives. # Improper elections in many cases are inseparable from republican governments. * Gilpin, 855; Elliot, 188; Yates in Elliot, i., 409. Gilpin, 792, 793, 855; Elliot, 155, 156, 188. Gilpin, 801, 802, 803; Elliot, 160, 161. #Gilpin, 803; Elliot, 161. But compare these with the advantage of this form, in favor of the rights of the people, in favor of human nature!" Approving the objects of union which Sherman had enumerated, "I combine with them," said Madison, "the necessity of providing more effectually for the security of private rights and the steady dispensation of justice." * And he explained at great length that the safety of a republic requires for its jurisdiction a large extent of territory, with interests so many and so various that the majority could never unite in the pursuit of any one of them. "It is incumbent on us," he said, "to try this remedy, and to frame a republican system on such a scale and in such a form as will control all the evils which have been experienced." + "It is essential," said Dickinson, "that one branch of the legislature should be drawn immediately from the people; and it is expedient that the other should be chosen by the legisla tures of the states. This combination of the state governments with the national government is as politic as it is unavoidable." Pierce spoke for an election of the first branch by the people, of the second by the states; so that the citizens of the states will be represented both individually and collectively. ‡ When on the twenty-first the same question was revived in the convention, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, seconded by Luther Martin of Maryland, adopting a milder form, proposed "that the first branch, instead of being elected by the people, should be elected in such manner as the legislature of each state should direct." # "It is essential to the democratic rights of the community," said Hamilton, enouncing a principle which he upheld with unswerving consistency, "that the first branch be directly elected by the people." "The democratic principle," Mason repeated, "must actuate one part of the government. It is the only security for the rights of the people." "An election by the legislature," pleaded Rutledge, "would be a more refining process." "The election of the first branch by the people," said Wilson, "is not the corner-stone only, but the foundation * Gilpin, 804; Elliot, 162. Gilpin, 807; Elliot, 163. * of the fabric." South Carolina, finding herself feebly supported, gave up the struggle. On the seventh of June, Dickinson moved that the members of the second branch, or, as it is now called, the senate, ought to be chosen by the individual legislatures. The motion, without waiving the claim to perfect equality, clearly implied that each state should elect at least one senator. "If each of the small states should be allowed one senator," said Cotesworth Pinckney, "there will be eighty at least." "I have no objection to eighty or twice eighty of them," rejoined Dickinson. "The legislature of a numerous people ought to be a numerous body. I wish the senate to bear as strong a likeness as possible to the British house of lords, and to consist of men distinguished for their rank in life and their weight of property. Such characters are more likely to be selected by the state legislatures than in any other mode." "To depart from the proportional representation in the senate,” said Madi"is inadmissible, being evidently unjust. The use of the senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, system, and wisdom than the popular branch. Enlarge their number, and you communicate to them the vices which they are meant to correct. Their weight will be in an inverse ratio to their numbers." Dickinson replied: "The preservation of the states in a certain degree of agency is indispensable. The proposed national system is like the solar system, in which the states are the planets, and they ought to be left to move more freely in their proper orbits." + son, "The states," answered Wilson, "are in no danger of being devoured by the national government; I wish to keep them from devouring the national government. Their existence is made essential by the great extent of our country. I am for an election of the second branch by the people in large districts, subdividing the districts only for the accommodation of voters." Gerry and Sherman declared themselves in favor of electing the serate by the individual legislatures. From Charles Pinckney came a proposal to divide the states periodically into three * Gilpin, 926, 927; Elliot, 223, 224. Yates in Elliot, i., 432, 433. Gilpin, 813, 814, 815; Elliot, 166, 167. classes according to their comparative importance; the first class to have three members, the second two, and the third one member each; but it received no attention. Mason closed the debate: "The state legislatures ought to have some means of defending themselves against encroachments of the national government. And what better means can we provide than to make them a constituent part of the national establishment? No doubt there is danger on both sides; but we have only seen the evils arising on the side of the state governments. Those on the other side remain to be displayed; for congress had not power to carry their acts into execution, as the national government will now have." The vote was then taken, and the choice of the second branch or senate was with one consent intrusted to the individual legislatures. In this way the states as states made their lodgment in the new constitution.* The equality of the small states was next imperilled. On the ninth, David Brearley, the chief justice of New Jersey, vehemently protested against any change of the equal suffrage of the states. To the remark of Randolph, that the states ought to be one nation, Paterson replied: "The idea of a national government as contradistinguished from a federal one never entered into the mind of any of the states. If the states are as states still to continue in union, they must be considered as equals. Thirteen sovereign and independent states can never constitute one nation, and at the same time be states. If we are to be formed into a nation, the states as states must be abolished, and the whole must be thrown into hotchpot, and when an equal division is made there may be fairly an equality of representation. New Jersey will never confederate on the plan before the committee. I would rather submit to a despot than to such a fate. I will not only oppose the plan here, but on my return home will do everything in my power to defeat it there."+ When, on the eleventh, the committee of the whole was about to take the question, Franklin, ever the peace-maker, reproved the want of coolness and temper in the late debates. *Gilpin, 817, 818, 821; Elliot, 168, 169, 170; and i., 165, 399. Paterson MSS. Gilpin, 831, 832; and compare 870, 902, 903; Elliot, 176, 177, 194, 211. "We are sent here," he said, "to consult, not to contend with each other;" and, though he mingled crude proposals with wholesome precepts, he saw the danger of the pass into which they were entering. There were six states, two northern and four southern, demanding a representation in some degree proportioned to numbers-Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the two Carolinas with Georgia, whose delegates, as they contemplated her vast and most fertile territory, indulged in glowing visions of her swift advances. There were two northern with one southern state for an equal representation of statesNew York, New Jersey, and Delaware. Connecticut stood between the two. It was carried by the six national states and Connecticut against the three confederating states, Maryland being divided, that in the first branch, or house of representatives, of the national legislature, the suffrage ought to be according to some equitable ratio. In April 1783, congress had apportioned the supplies of the states for the common treasury to the whole number of their free inhabitants and three fifths of other persons; in this precedent the equitable ratio for representation in the popular branch was found.* Connecticut then took the lead; and Sherman, acting upon a principle which he had avowed more than ten years before, moved that each state should have one vote in the second branch, or senate. "Everything," he said, "depends on this; the smaller states will never agree to the plan on any other principle than an equality of suffrage in this branch." Ellsworth shored up his colleague; but they rallied only five states against the six which had demanded a proportioned representation. Finally Wilson and Hamilton proposed for the second branch the same rule of suffrage as for the first; and this, too, was carried by the phalanx of the same six states against the remaining five. So the settlement offered by Wilson, Hamilton, Madison, Rutledge, and others, to the small states, and adopted in the committee of the whole, was: The appointment of the senators among the states according to representative population, except that each state should have at least one. * Gilpin, 843; Elliot, 181. |