Sec.2.  The senate, as well as the other house, is a representative body; its members being elected by the people to represent them.  Why, then, is only one of the two branches called the house of representatives?  Perhaps for this reason:  Under the governments of the colonies, while yet subject to Great Britian, there was but one representative assembly.  The other branch of the legislature was called a council, consisting of a small number of men who were appointed by the king.  After the colonies became free and independent states, a senate was substituted for the old council, and although it is an elective body, the other house, being much more numerous, is called, by way of distinction, the house of representatives.

Sec.3.  Senators are chosen annually in the six New England states, namely, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.  In the other states they are elected for terms of two, three, or four years.  In most of the states in which senators are elected for longer terms than one year, they are not all elected at the same time.  They are divided into classes; and those of one class go out of office one year, and those of another class another year; so that only a part of the senators are elected every year, or every two, or three, or four years.

Sec.4.  The senate, as distinguished from the house of representatives, is sometimes called the upper house.  It was designed to be a more select body, composed of men chosen with reference to their superior ability, or their greater experience in public affairs.

Sec.5.  Senators are differently apportioned in different states.  In some states they are apportioned among the several counties, so that the number to be elected in each county shall be in proportion to the number of its inhabitants.  In others they are elected by districts, equal in number to the number of senators to be chosen in the state, and a senator is elected in each district.  The districts are to contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of inhabitants; and sometimes they comprise several counties.

Sec.6.  Representatives are apportioned among the counties in proportion to the population in each.  In some states they are elected in districts of equal population, counties being sometimes divided in the formation of districts.  In the New England states, representatives are apportioned among the towns.  In about one-half of the states, they are elected annually; in the others, (including-most of the southern and western states,) they are elected every two years.

Sec.7.  The different modes of apportioning members of the legislature have in view the same object—­equal representation; that is, giving a member to the same number of inhabitants in one county or district as to an equal number in another.  But in some counties the population increases more rapidly than in others.  The representation then becomes unequal, being no longer in proportion to population.