differed in the several states.  But it happened that in the state of Connecticut the custom was peculiar.  There it had always been the custom to elect the governor and upper house by a majority vote of the whole people, while for each township there was an equality of representation In the lower house.  The Connecticut delegates in the Convention, therefore, being familiar with a legislature in which the two houses were composed on different principles, suggested a compromise.  Let the House of Representatives, they said, represent the people, and let the Senate represent the states; let all the states, great and small, be represented equally in the federal Senate.  Such was the famous “Connecticut Compromise.”  Without it the Convention would probably have broken up without accomplishing anything.  When it was adopted, half the work of making the new government was done, for the small states, having had their fears thus allayed by the assurance that they were to be equally represented in the Senate, no longer opposed the work but cooperated in it most zealously.

[Sidenote:  The Senate] Thus it came to pass that the upper house of our national legislature is composed of two senators from each state.  As they represent the state, they are chosen by its legislature and not by the people; but when they have taken their seats in the senate they do not vote by states, like the delegates in the Continental Congress.  On the contrary each senator has one vote, and the two senators from the same state may, and often do, vote on opposite sides.

In accordance with the notion that an upper house should be somewhat less democratic than a lower house, the term of office for senators was made longer than for representatives.  The tendency is to make the Senate respond more slowly to changes in popular sentiment, and this is often an advantage.  Popular opinion is often very wrong at particular moments, but with time it is apt to correct its mistakes.  We are usually in more danger of suffering from hasty legislation than from tardy legislation.  Senators are chosen for a term of six years, and one third of the number of terms expire every second year, so that, while the whole Senate may be renewed by the lapse of six years, there is never a “new Senate.”  The Senate has thus a continuous existence and a permanent organization; whereas each House of Representatives expires at the end of its two years’ term, and is succeeded by a “new House,” which requires to be organized by electing its officers, etc., before proceeding to business.  A candidate for the senatorship must have reached the age of thirty, must have been nine years a citizen of the United States, and must be an inhabitant of the state which he represents.

The constitution leaves the times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives to be prescribed in each state by its own legislature; but it gives to Congress the power to alter such regulations, except as to the place of choosing senators.