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January 10, 2011

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 4

Hatched by Dafydd

We start with the Senate now... and we hit another redacted clause.

This was a very significant change of general philosophy: We changed from having the state's legislature select the state's two senators -- in essence, the U.S. senators originally represented the state's government, not its citizens -- to direct elections of senators, making the Senate almost a "superior House of Representatives." (Ponderable: Was that change wise?)

Section 3 - The Senate

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, ~~chosen by the Legislature thereof~~, (The preceding words in strikethrough superseded by 17th Amendment, section 1.) for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

[Current language from the 17th Amendment: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.]

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. (The preceding words in parentheses were superseded by the 17th Amendment, section 2.)

[Current language from the 17th Amendment: When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.]

No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

Note that in the section of Article I creating the Senate, as in the previous section on the House of Representatives, the Framers first defined how many senators we would have, who is eligible for the office, and how each senator is chosen, before discussing what the heck they're supposed to do, and how they differ from the House. Maybe I'm reading too much into that choice -- they had to organize the document somehow! -- but it has always seemed to me that they were more concerned about the quality of the person who is elected than they were with the exact duties and powers of each representative or senator.

Notice also how short this document is, considering that it's the fundamental organizing document for the entire United States of America; perhaps that is why it has endured, in the sense of still being the supreme law of the land, longer than any other foundational document of modernity (actually the Constitution slightly predates modernity, which I define as beginning at the end of the War of 1812 with the Treaty of Ghent, mostly written by John Quincy Adams). The basic document is only about 4,600 words long; even adding in the signatures and all twenty-seven amendments only bumps it up to about 8,000 words.

By contrast, the shortest state constitution in the United States is Vermont's, which clocks in at 8,295 words. The Massachusetts constitution, including amendments, is more than 42,000 words long.

All verses in the Lizardian Constitutional Collection:

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 1 (Preamble)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 2 (Congress; House, part I)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 3 (House, part II)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 4 (Senate, part I)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 5 (Senate, part II)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 6 (General congressional admin stuff)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 7 (Legislative process and enumerated powers)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 8 (Limitations)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 9 (The prez -- who does he think he is?)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 10 (What would a president do?)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 11 (Judiciary)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 12 (States, part I)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 13 (States, part 2)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 14 (Amendment; supreme law of the land)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 15 (Ratification rules and signers)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 16 (Amendments: Bill of Rights, Amendments 1-4)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 17 (Bill of Rights -- Courtroom Amendments 5-8)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 18 (Bill of Last Rights 9 and 10)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 19 (Amendments: Suing other states, president vs. vice president)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 20 (Amendments: Abolition of slavery)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 21 (Amendments: States prohibited from infringing rights)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 22 (Amendments: Racial voting rights)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 23 (Amendments: Wilsonian-Progressivism I)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 24 (Amendments: Wilsonian-Progressivism II)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 25 (Amendments: Rooseveltian amendments)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 26 (Amendments: Camelot amendments)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 27 (Amendments: Panacea amendments)

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 10, 2011, at the time of 12:00 AM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: BlueNight

After this change, my guess is Senators stopped being the reps of the state govt and started being reps of the state's political parties. Here in NM, Representative Heather Wilson (R) ran for Senator and was soundly beaten by the Democrat, who had name recognition in the state Democrat party machine.

It's an interesting question. I wonder what research on the topic had to say?

The above hissed in response by: BlueNight at January 10, 2011 9:23 AM

The following hissed in response by: MikeR

"in essence, the U.S. senators originally represented the state's government, not its citizens". That is a really interesting point. And now they're discussing a constitutional amendment, that state legislatures can get together and nullify federal laws.

It'll maybe be a while before you get to it (the Bill of Rights?), but what about the idea that restrictions on the federal government (Congress shall make no law...) also restrict the various states as well - so an individual state also can't make a state religion or restrict freedom of speech. I think it's a Supreme Court decision somewhere along the way; it's not obvious at all in the constitution itself that it is saying anything more than restrictions on the federal government.
These both seem examples of weakening and absorbing the state governments.

The above hissed in response by: MikeR at January 10, 2011 12:25 PM

The following hissed in response by: brotio

The Seventeenth Amendment is a truly hideous amendment. It basically destroyed federalism by making Senators unaccountable to their States. BlueKnight is right about why.

Imagine how much harder it would have been to use federal money to build The Robert C Byrd (Bridge, Library, Dog Pound, etc.) monuments in West Virginia, if he had to convince his colleague from Wyoming that the members of the Wyoming State House would be perfectly happy to see all of those billions of Wyoming tax dollars going to build shrines to a Senator in West Virginia?

Imagine how much more power the diffuse interests would have if special interests had to lobby in fifty state houses, instead of one federal house?

Imagine how much harder it would be for a Senator to spend fifty years as a Senator if a Democrat senator was facing reelection, and the State legislature was just won by Republicans?

The above hissed in response by: brotio at January 10, 2011 5:41 PM

The following hissed in response by: GW

I was going to comment, but I see brotio has said all that I had to say. I think the change from appointment by states to general elections was a mistake and has fundamentally altered the nature of our democracy in a negative way.

The above hissed in response by: GW at January 10, 2011 10:45 PM