ired the veto power amounted in
practice to the creation of a four-chambered legislature. By thus
increasing the number of bodies which it was necessary for the people to
control in order to secure the legislation which they desired, their
power to influence the policy of the state government was thereby
diminished. And when we reflect that not only was legislative authority
more widely distributed, but each branch of the state government
exercising it was also made less directly dependent on the qualified
voters, we can see that these constitutional provisions were in the
nature of checks on the numerical majority.

A consideration of the changes made in the method of amending the state
constitutions leads to the same conclusion. During the Revolutionary
period, as we have seen, the tendency was strongly toward making the
fundamental law the expression of the will of the numerical majority.
Difficulties in the way of change were reduced to a minimum. But under
the influence of the political reaction which followed, and which
produced the Constitution of the United States, the state governments
were so organized as to make it more difficult for the majority to
exercise the amending power. Georgia in 1789 changed the method of
amending the state constitution by requiring a two-thirds majority in a
constitutional convention, and made another change in 1798 by which a
two-thirds majority in each house of the legislature and a three-fourths
majority in each house of the succeeding legislature was required for
the adoption of an amendment to the constitution. South Carolina in 1790
adopted a provision guarding against mere majority amendment by making
the approval of a two-thirds majority in both branches of two
successive legislatures necessary for any changes in the constitution.
Connecticut in 1818 restricted the power of amending by requiring a
majority in the house of representatives, a two-thirds majority in both
houses of the next legislature, and final approval by a majority of the
electors. New York in 1821 adopted a plan which required that an
amendment should receive a majority in each branch of the legislature, a
two-thirds majority in each branch of the succeeding legislature, and be
approved by a majority of the voters. North Carolina in 1835 made a
three-fifths majority in each house of the legislature and a two-thirds
majority of each house of the following legislature necessary for
changes in the constitutio