only assumes an
executive power. It partakes of judicial power in the trial of certain
political offences, and sometimes also in the decision of certain civil
cases. *n The number of its members is always small. The other branch of
the legislature, which is usually called the House of Representatives,
has no share whatever in the administration, and only takes a part in
the judicial power inasmuch as it impeaches public functionaries before
the Senate. The members of the two Houses are nearly everywhere subject
to the same conditions of election. They are chosen in the same manner,
and by the same citizens. The only difference which exists between them
is, that the term for which the Senate is chosen is in general longer
than that of the House of Representatives. The latter seldom remain in
office longer than a year; the former usually sit two or three years.
By granting to the senators the privilege of being chosen for several
years, and being renewed seriatim, the law takes care to preserve in the
legislative body a nucleus of men already accustomed to public business,
and capable of exercising a salutary influence upon the junior members.

[Footnote m: In Massachusetts the Senate is not invested with any
administrative functions.]

[Footnote n: As in the State of New York.]

The Americans, plainly, did not desire, by this separation of the
legislative body into two branches, to make one house hereditary and the
other elective; one aristocratic and the other democratic. It was not
their object to create in the one a bulwark to power, whilst the
other represented the interests and passions of the people. The only
advantages which result from the present constitution of the United
States are the division of the legislative power and the consequent
check upon political assemblies; with the creation of a tribunal of
appeal for the revision of the laws.

Time and experience, however, have convinced the Americans that if these
are its only advantages, the division of the legislative power is still
a principle of the greatest necessity. Pennsylvania was the only one of
the United States which at first attempted to establish a single
House of Assembly, and Franklin himself was so far carried away by the
necessary consequences of the principle of the sovereignty of the people
as to have concurred in the measure; but the Pennsylvanians were soon
obliged to change the law, and to create two Houses. Thus the principle
of the