people. The work of deifying the Federal Constitution was
soon accomplished. And when the people had come to venerate it as the
most perfect embodiment of the doctrine of popular sovereignty that the
intelligence of man could devise, it was but natural that they should
acquiesce in the proposal to make the state governments conform more
closely to the general plan of that instrument. In view of the
widespread sentiment which amounted to a blind and unthinking worship of
the Constitution, it is not surprising that the political institutions
of the general government should have been largely copied by the states.
The only surprising thing in this connection is the fact that they did
not follow the Federal model more closely, since every feature of it was
the object of the most extravagant eulogy. Here we see, however, an
inconsistency between profession and practice. The people who tolerated
no criticism of the Federal Constitution showed nevertheless a distrust
of some of its more conservative features. Much as the indirect election
of President and United States senators was favored by the framers of
our Federal Constitution, there has been no tendency to apply that
principle in the selection of the corresponding state officials.

In all the states framing new constitutions during the Revolutionary
period, except Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York, the governor
was elected by the legislature. Pennsylvania abandoned indirect election
and adopted election by the qualified voters in 1790; Delaware, in 1792;
Georgia, in 1824; North Carolina, in 1835; Maryland, in 1837; New
Jersey, in 1844; Virginia, in 1850; and South Carolina, in 1865. South
Carolina and Maryland are the only states which have ever had indirect
election of the upper house. Both adopted it in 1776, the constitution
of South Carolina providing that the members of the lower house should
elect the members of the upper house, and the constitution of Maryland
requiring that members of the upper house should be chosen by an
electoral college. This was abandoned for direct election in South
Carolina in 1778 and in Maryland in 1837.

The conservative reaction was soon followed by a new movement toward
democracy. This no doubt largely explains the failure of the people to
reproduce in their state constitutions all those features which they
professed to admire in the Federal Constitution. Not only did they not
copy all the new features of that document, but