I wish to preserve the line drawn by the federal Constitution between the [federal and state] governments as it stands at present, and to take every prudent means of preventing either from stepping over it.
-- Thomas Jefferson Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ed. by H. E. Bergh, 8:276 (1791)

Remarkable Remedy

Jean Carpenter

III Second Event

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The Seventeenth Amendment

"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; . . . [this is the pertinent part; the rest gives details]."

This was to replace Article 1, Section 3, of the Constitution: "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; . . . [this is the pertinent part; the rest gives details]." [Emphasis added.]

THE SECOND EVENT, occurring on May 31, was the proclamation of ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment. It is one of the most momentous of all the amendments.

Yet this amendment is remembered, if it is remembered at all, as a boring, unimportant, unremarkable "housekeeping" amendment that had something to do with the election of U.S. Senators. Most teachers don't give it five minutes of time. Few are aware that it radically changed the character of our government.

Consider this: the ratification process is time-consuming and cumbersome. If this amendment really were so unimportant, why would anyone go to so much bother?

Why did the Founding Fathers create the Senate in the first place? And how was the original Senate changed by this amendment?

The Senate was created for the States to have a voice in the federal government. For more than three quarters of a century the States, as States, have had no voice in Washington. Senators, no longer accountable to their legislatures, are responsible, not to the people who elected them, but to power brokers who put up the money for their campaigns.

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Constitution is a Compact

The United States Constitution was framed by the people in the States (ratified by state conventions), for the creation of the central government. The legislative body, the Congress, was set up in the form of two houses.

The Constitution clearly shows that the House was to represent the interest of the sovereign People (Article I, Section 2: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen ... by the People of the several States...."). The Senate was to represent the interest of the States (Section 3: "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof.... ").

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With respect to our State and Federal governments, I do not think their relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose the former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. To the State governments are reserved all legislation and administration, in affairs which concern their own citizens only, and to the federal government is given whatever concerns foreigners, or the citizens of the other States: these functions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of our government; neither having control of the other.
--Thomas Jefferson, in a Letter to Major John Cartwright, June 5, 1824

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People. (Emphasis added for clarity)
-- The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution

Of most importance is that the Tenth Amendment expressly limited the power of the federal government to that which was specifically delegated to it in the Constitution. The Tenth Amendment should be indelibly engraved on our minds, so that we use it as a standard against which to judge all legislation. It was designed specifically for our protection.

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The intent was to ensure that both of these distinct entities would have a voice in legislation. Roger Sherman made this comment during discussion, according to Madison's notes ...

If they vote by States in the 2nd branch, and each State has an equal vote, there must be always a majority of States as well as a majority of the people on the side of public measures,...

According to Madison's discussion about the Senate in The Federalist Papers (No. 62), the Framers were torn between their need for a central government to perform certain functions, and their fear of creating a monster. Therefore, they took every opportunity to make sure that the central government was strictly limited in its authority and that a check mechanism was built in.

Here is the part of the Seventeenth Amendment that is pertinent to this discussion:

"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof...."

Harmless and uninteresting as it sounds, its effects are far from harmless.

First, Senators, now elected by the people, are no longer accountable to State legislatures. For more than three quarters of a century the States, as States, have not been represented in the Senate.

(State legislatures do have some undue control over the House, at the expense of the people, through the process known as gerrymandering -- redrawing the congressional districts using political objectives as criteria. But that is not a problem to be addressed here.)

In addition, the costs of a senatorial campaign are greatly increased. Except for the President and governors of the States, most elected officials are accountable to a relatively small electorate. Thus the voters have more control, and a political campaign is comparatively inexpensive. U.S. Congressmen are elected by district and are accountable to the relatively few people in their district. Until 1913, U.S. Senators were selected by their respective State legislatures. They were accountable to the legislators -- again, a small number of people, averaging 144 per state. State legislators are generally elected from districts -- therefore, they, also, are accountable individually to a fairly small number.

The Seventeenth Amendment enlarged the senatorial electorate to the whole State. This greatly increased the cost of campaigns, limiting candidates to those who are independently -- or dependently -- wealthy. If the latter, accountability is to the campaign contributors.

Adding "injury to injury," far from solving the problem of patronage, for which the amendment was allegedly proposed, patronage -- and accountability -- were shifted in a new direction. Power and control were quietly transferred from State legislatures to wealthy power brokers and special interest groups who have the money to get Senators elected!

The people, in spite of their new vote, were not the winners.

The success of the third event was now assured (see next chapter).

But there is something else very interesting about this amendment. The Framers made one single exception to the amending process that expressed their concern for the preservation of State representation in the Senate ...

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The states in North America ... entered into a compact (which is called the Constitution of the United States of America), by which they agreed to unite in a single government as to their relations with each other and with foreign nations, and as to certain other articles particularly specified. They retained at the same time, each to itself, the other rights in independent government, comprehending mainly their domestic interests...
-- Thomas Jefferson Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ed. by H. E. Bergh 17:442 (1825)

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Prophetic Article V

Article V of the Constitution prescribes the amendment ratification process:

... Amendments ... shall be valid ... when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States ... Provided that ... no State without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage [voting power] in the Senate. (emphasis added)

Found within the Article itself, specified by the clause in bold type, is the single and only exception to the prescribed amending process. This exception underscored the FramersÕ concern for the preservation of State representation in the Senate. (See excerpt from Federalist Papers #62 by James Madison, p. 16) But they never dreamed of its possible total loss and unfortunately inserted the limiting word "equal." Now the States have equal representation: exactly none.

Without that one word, any amendment depriving even one State legislature of its voting power and representation in the Senate would have required approval to be unanimous. Legislatures or conventions of only three-fourths of the States would not have sufficed.

Did all the States "consent" to this deprivation of their suffrage rights? The watchful legislature of the State of Utah was awake and soundly rejected this amendment. Of the eleven which did not respond: Delaware's Senate rejected it, and the legislatures of neither Maryland nor Virginia had opportunity even to consider the Resolution, let alone act upon it, because the entire period of ratification took place between their sessions. These States, at least, were deprived of suffrage in the Senate without their consent.

A special clause in Article V for the specific protection of the voice of the States in the federal government was sabotaged by one word!

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Though the experiment has not yet had a long enough course to show us from which quarter encroachments are most to be feared, yet it is easy to foresee, from the nature of things, that the encroachments of the state governments will tend to an excess of liberty, which will correct itself, ... while those of the general [federal] government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day instead of working its own cure, as all experience shows. I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

Then it is important to strengthen the state governments; and as this cannot be done by any change in the federal Constitution (for the preservation of that is all we need contend for), it must be done by the States themselves, erecting such barriers at the Constitutional line as cannot be surmounted either by themselves or by the general government. The only barrier in their power is a wise government. A weak one will lose ground in every contest.
-- Thomas Jefferson Ibid 8:276 (1791)

The true barriers of our liberty in this country are our state governments; and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by man is that of which our Revolution and present government found us possessed. Seventeen distinct states, amalgamated into one as to their foreign concerns, but single and independent as to their internal administration ....
-- Thomas Jefferson Ibid 13:19 (1811)

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But Was the 17th Ratified?

Bill Benson researched this amendment along with the 16th, and found ratification of the 17th was flawed in the same way: several proposals for modification were counted as ratification. The number of States which ratified did not total three-fourths of the States. This amendment, also, was erroneously, if not fraudulently, declared ratified.

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Effect of the Amendment

The Seventeenth amendment had a devastating effect upon the intended purpose of the Senate.

It is now far more costly to become a Senator. Possible candidates are limited to those with access to wealth -- whether their own or that of others. Senators are no longer accountable to States, but rather to special interests. The States are no longer permitted their intended role in federal legislation.

According to the Constitution, without the consent of the Senate...

¥ no ambassadors are appointed
¥ no treaty is ratified
¥ no Justices are appointed to the Supreme Court
¥ no bill becomes law

If the Seventeenth Amendment is invalid, so are the Senators thus elected. The reader is invited to ponder for himself the legal effect of an unlawful and invalid Senate.... That subject will not be addressed in this book.

With the Seventeenth Amendment the second link in the chain of debt and oppression was in place. The Senators who were to preside as midwives over the third and by far most devastating event, were no longer accountable to the States. Elected now by the people, they could not be told by their legislature how to vote. The states were powerless to prevent it, and the general populace had no idea what was happening.

Nevertheless, the State legislatures have not been left totally powerless. They still have an ace up their sleeve. They were given power, authority, and responsibility by the Constitution to stand guard over one thing vitally essential to a free people (see next chapter). The States still have a "silver bullet" with which to undo the third event!

Because of its nature, the third event required extensive planning and careful preparation. Like measures had been defeated several times previously through the efforts of statesmen like Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Even in 1913 there were men of vision who opposed such a measure. So its proponents waited for an opportune time, which they knew would present itself in December ...

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The decline and fall of the fifty state governments will be completed within our lifetime. The movement of political power from state capitals to Washington, D.C., is inevitable and unstoppable, whether we like it or not.(BR) -- attributed to a well known news commentator

He is said to have contended that the States "do not have enough money" to do what needs to be done. But the Federal Government has no money of its own -- it gets its money from (the people in) the States. (The name is withheld because we have been unable to verify the authenticity of the quote. Nevertheless, we include it because it accurately describes the trend.)

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More Wisdom Regarding Vertical Balance of Power

It is equally unnecessary to dilate on the appointment of senators by the State legislatures. Among the various modes which might have been devised for constituting this branch of the government, that which has been proposed by the convention is probably the most congenial with the public opinion. It is recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select appointment, and of giving to the State governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government as must secure the authority of the former, and may form a convenient link between the two systems.
-- James Madison, Federalist Papers #62, p. 377

I see with great pleasure every testimony to the principles of pure republicanism, and every effort to preserve untouched that partition of the sovereignty which our excellent Constitution has made between the [federal and state] governments.
-- Thomas Jefferson, Works of Thomas Jefferson, Ford 5:369 (1791)

I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore, to see maintained that wholesome distribution of powers established by the Constitution for the limitation of both; and never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold as at market.
-- Thomas Jefferson, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, H. E. Bergh 15:450 (1823)

Our citizens have wisely formed themselves into one nation as to others, and several states as among themselves. To the united nation belong our external and mutual relations; to each state severally the care of our persons, our property, our reputation and religious freedom. This wise distribution, if carefully preserved, will prove, I trust from example, that while smaller governments are better adapted to the ordinary objects of society, larger confederations more effectually secure independence and the preservation of republican government. (Emphasis added.)
-- Thomas Jefferson, Ibid 10:263 (1801)

... The several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, ... they constituted a General Government for special purposes, -- delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void and of no force: ...
-- Thomas Jefferson, in theÒKentucky Resolutions Relative to the Alien and Sedition Laws, 1798-99

I wish to preserve the line drawn by the federal Constitution between the [federal and state] governments as it stands at present, and to take every prudent means of preventing either from stepping over it.
-- Thomas Jefferson, in a Letter to Archibald Stuart, Dec. 23, 1791

When we consider that this government is charged with the external and mutual relations only of these states; that the states themselves have principal care of our persons, our property, and our reputation, constituting the great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whether our organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether offices and officers have not been multiplied unnecessarily, and sometimes injuriously to the the service they were meant to promote.
-- Thomas Jefferson, in his First Annual Message to Congress

To continue: IVa Third Event: The Federal Reserve Act

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