17th Amendment

Explaining the 17th Amendment

Two days ago, the Richmond Times-Dipatch printed a response to Jamie Radtke’s April 25th article "Tea Party: Right Wing or Mainstream?". In it, the author does a good job of quickly explaining why Senators were originally appointed by state legislatures and not elected by popular vote, as instituted by the 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Here's [...]

The Seventeenth Amendment: Why did Americans want to directly elect their United States Senators?

When the Constitution was ratified, state legislatures voted into office their state’s United States Senators and only members of the House of Representatives were elected to serve by popular vote. By the end of the nineteenth century farmers, shopkeepers, lawyers, and other members of America’s middle class believed that the United States Senate was a [...]

Explaining the 17th Amendment

The Seventeenth Amendment: Why did Americans want to directly elect their United States Senators?

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