res just specified;
otherwise every government in the United States, as well as every
other popular government that has been or can be well organized or well
executed, would be degraded from the republican character. According
to the constitution of every State in the Union, some or other of the
officers of government are appointed indirectly only by the people.
According to most of them, the chief magistrate himself is so appointed.
And according to one, this mode of appointment is extended to one of
the co-ordinate branches of the legislature. According to all the
constitutions, also, the tenure of the highest offices is extended to a
definite period, and in many instances, both within the legislative and
executive departments, to a period of years. According to the provisions
of most of the constitutions, again, as well as according to the most
respectable and received opinions on the subject, the members of the
judiciary department are to retain their offices by the firm tenure of
good behavior.

On comparing the Constitution planned by the convention with the
standard here fixed, we perceive at once that it is, in the most rigid
sense, conformable to it. The House of Representatives, like that of one
branch at least of all the State legislatures, is elected immediately by
the great body of the people. The Senate, like the present Congress,
and the Senate of Maryland, derives its appointment indirectly from
the people. The President is indirectly derived from the choice of the
people, according to the example in most of the States. Even the judges,
with all other officers of the Union, will, as in the several States,
be the choice, though a remote choice, of the people themselves, the
duration of the appointments is equally conformable to the republican
standard, and to the model of State constitutions The House of
Representatives is periodically elective, as in all the States; and for
the period of two years, as in the State of South Carolina. The Senate
is elective, for the period of six years; which is but one year more
than the period of the Senate of Maryland, and but two more than that
of the Senates of New York and Virginia. The President is to continue
in office for the period of four years; as in New York and Delaware, the
chief magistrate is elected for three years, and in South Carolina for
two years. In the other States the election is annual. In several of the
States, however, no constitutional provisio