The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 10, September, 1836Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 10, September, 1836
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
can never act upon him, and the opinions of which can never be known
either by instructions or elections, set aside the sovereignty vested
by the constitutions? This would establish a government of petty
tyrants, under ideal responsibility to a fancied constituency. Why was
the election of Senators not given at once to the {633} people of the
states? I have no doubt one of the principal reasons was the
impossibility of instructing. I do not believe Virginia would have
adopted the constitution, with no means of instructing Senators. If
the people of the states had elected, the legislature would then have
only had power to request them, as it now has over the members of the
House of Representatives. The legislature possessed the double
advantage of facility of action, and a comparison and a discussion of
views from all quarters, in selection and instruction, neither of
which could be possessed by the people. The members of the legislature
are Senatorial electors, chosen for that purpose by the federal
government, and cannot strip themselves of the power and give it to
the people of their state—nor could a state convention take it away
from them. What right, then, has a federal Senator to say the people
of Ohio do not sanction instructions given by her legislature, any
more than to say the people of Maine or Louisiana do not sanction the
same instructions. He has as much to do with the people of one state
as of another.
Let us hear the Judge again.
“_Instruction and resignation_ are not the means proposed by Mr.
Madison to protect us from the corruption or tyranny of the Senate. He
suggests no interference, in any way, on the part of the State
Legislatures with their Senators, nor any control over them, during
their continuance in office; but finds all the safety he thought
necessary, and all that the constitution gives, in the ‘_periodical
change_ of its members.’ In addition to this, much reliance, no doubt,
was placed, and ought to be so, on the expectation that the State
Legislatures would appoint to this high and responsible office, only
men of known and tried character and patriotism, having themselves a
deep stake in the liberties of their country, and bound by all the
ties of integrity and honor to a faithful discharge of their trust.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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