272 Fourth resolution. Election of the House. [i787 Wilson urged that the most numerous branch of the legislature should be drawn immediately from the people. No government could exist long without the confidence of the people. Further, it would be wrong to increase the weight of the State legislatures by making them electors of the national legislature; all interference between the general and State governments should be avoided so far as possible. Opposition to federal measures had proceeded more from officers of the States than from the people. Madison favoured refining the second branch by successive filtrations; but popular election of one branch was essential to free government. The resolution prevailed, six States voting for it and two against it, two being divided. New York was now with the majority, South Carolina with the minority ; the three great States voted in the affirma- tive. This was on May 31. On June 6 Charles Pinckney, upon reconsideration, moved that the election be by the State legislatures. He contended that the people were not fit judges, and further that the State legislatures would be less likely to aid the adoption of the new Constitution if they were excluded from all share in the government. Wilson wished for vigour in the government, but he would have the vigour flow immediately from the true source of all authority. The legislature ought to be an exact transcript of the whole society. Representation was necessary only because it was impossible for the people to act collectively. Sherman argued that elections by the people would be fatal to the State governments. If the State govern- ments were to be continued, it was necessary, in order to secure harmony between the general government and the States, that the former should be elected by the latter. Mason observed that, since the new legislature was to act upon the people individually, the people should choose the representatives. The people too would send sounder men to the seat of government than would the State legislatures. Madison argued, in addition to what he had urged before and now repeated, that election of one branch by the people would prevent the States from exerting too great an influence on the general government. General Pinckney considered it impracticable that either branch of the government should be elected by the people, scattered as they were in many States, particularly in South Carolina. He did not agree with those who believed that election by the people would furnish safer men than election by the State legislatures, and referred to the paper money agitation in his State; the people wanted paper money, but it had been refused by the legislature. The motion was lost, three States voting for it and eight against it ; and the resolution as originally drawn, in favour of election of the members of the first branch of the government by the people, prevailed in the committee. General Pinckney raised the question again in the House, in Convention, moving, on June 21, "that the first branch,
