equality of
suffrage in that branch; but it was said that this feature was only
federal in appearance."

The Senate, the second house as it was called in the convention, was in
part created, it is needless to say, to meet, or rather in obedience to,
reasoning like this. There was almost nobody who would have been willing
to abandon the state governments, as there was next to nobody who wanted
a monarchy. "We were eternally troubled," Martin said, "with arguments
and precedents from the British government." He could not get beyond the
fixed notion that those whom he opposed were determined to establish
"one general government over this extensive continent, of a monarchical
nature." If he, and those who agreed with him, sincerely believed this
to be true, it was natural enough that the frequent allusions to British
precedents, as wise rules for American guidance in constructing a
government, should be looked upon as an unmistakable hankering after
lost flesh-pots. Should the state governments be swept away, it might be
that, in time of danger from without or of peril from internal
dissensions, the country, under "a government of a monarchical nature,"
might drift back to its old allegiance. If those who feared, or said
they feared, this were not quite sincere, the temptation was almost
irresistible to use such arguments to arouse popular prejudice against
political opponents. It is curious that Madison seemed quite unconscious
of how much the frequent allusions in his articles in "The Federalist"
to the British Constitution might strengthen these accusations of the
opposition; while he half believed that the same thing in others showed
in them a leaning toward England, from which he knew that he himself was
quite free.

The Luther Martin protestants were too radical to remain in the
convention to the end, when they saw that such a confederacy as they
wanted was impossible. But there were not many who went the length they
did in believing that a strong central government was necessarily the
destruction of the state governments. Still fewer were those who would
have brought this about if they could. That the rights of the States
must be preserved was the general opinion and determination, and it was
not difficult to do this by limiting the powers of the higher
government, or federal as it soon came to be called, and by the
organization of the second house, the Senate, in which all the States
had an equal representation.