themselves in which the interests of the people are at variance with
their inclinations, it is the duty of persons whom they have appointed
to be the guardians of those interests to withstand the temporary
delusion, in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and
sedate reflection. Instances might be cited in which a conduct of this
kind has saved the people from very fatal consequences of their own
mistakes, and has procured lasting monuments of their gratitude to the
men who had courage and magnanimity enough to serve them at the peril of
their displeasure."]

The greater number of the Constitutions of the States assign one year
for the duration of the House of Representatives, and two years for that
of the Senate; so that members of the legislative body are constantly
and narrowly tied down by the slightest desires of their constituents.
The legislators of the Union were of opinion that this excessive
dependence of the Legislature tended to alter the nature of the main
consequences of the representative system, since it vested the source,
not only of authority, but of government, in the people. They increased
the length of the time for which the representatives were returned, in
order to give them freer scope for the exercise of their own judgment.

The Federal Constitution, as well as the Constitutions of the different
States, divided the legislative body into two branches. But in the
States these two branches were composed of the same elements, and
elected in the same manner. The consequence was that the passions
and inclinations of the populace were as rapidly and as energetically
represented in one chamber as in the other, and that laws were made with
all the characteristics of violence and precipitation. By the Federal
Constitution the two houses originate in like manner in the choice of
the people; but the conditions of eligibility and the mode of election
were changed, to the end that, if, as is the case in certain nations,
one branch of the Legislature represents the same interests as the
other, it may at least represent a superior degree of intelligence
and discretion. A mature age was made one of the conditions of the
senatorial dignity, and the Upper House was chosen by an elected
assembly of a limited number of members.

To concentrate the whole social force in the hands of the legislative
body is the natural tendency of democracies; for as this is the
power which emanates the most directly