The Same Subject Continued(The House of Representatives)

From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 12, 1788.

To the People of the State of New York:

I SHALL here, perhaps, be reminded of a current observation,

``that where annual elections end, tyranny begins. '' If it be

true, as has often been remarked, that sayings which become

proverbial are generally founded in reason, it is not less true,

that when once established, they are often applied to cases to

which the reason of them does not extend. I need not look for a

proof beyond the case before us. What is the reason on which this

proverbial observation is founded? No man will subject himself to

the ridicule of pretending that any natural connection subsists

between the sun or the seasons, and the period within which human

virtue can bear the temptations of power. Happily for mankind,

liberty is not, in this respect, confined to any single point of

time; but lies within extremes, which afford sufficient latitude

for all the variations which may be required by the various

situations and circumstances of civil society. The election of

magistrates might be, if it were found expedient, as in some

instances it actually has been, daily, weekly, or monthly, as

well as annual; and if circumstances may require a deviation from

the rule on one side, why not also on the other side? Turning our

attention to the periods established among ourselves, for the

election of the most numerous branches of the State legislatures,

we find them by no means coinciding any more in this instance,

than in the elections of other civil magistrates. In Connecticut

and Rhode Island, the periods are half-yearly. In the other

States, South Carolina excepted, they are annual. In South

Carolina they are biennialgas is proposed in the federal

government. Here is a difference, as four to one, between the

longest and shortest periods; and yet it would be not easy to

show, that Connecticut or Rhode Island is better governed, or

enjoys a greater share of rational liberty, than South Carolina;

or that either the one or the other of these States is

distinguished in these respects, and by these causes, from the

States whose elections are different from both. In searching for

the grounds of this doctrine, I can discover but one, and that is

wholly inapplicable to our case. The important distinction so

well understood in America, between a Constitution established by

the people and unalterable by the government, and a law

established by the government and alterable by the government,

seems to have been little understood and less observed in any

other country. Wherever the supreme power of legislation has

resided, has been supposed to reside also a full power to change

the form of the government. Even in Great Britain, where the

principles of political and civil liberty have been most

discussed, and where we hear most of the rights of the

Constitution, it is maintained that the authority of the

Parliament is transcendent and uncontrollable, as well with

regard to the Constitution, as the ordinary objects of

legislative provision. They have accordingly, in several

instances, actually changed, by legislative acts, some of the

most fundamental articles of the government. They have in

particular, on several occasions, changed the period of election;

and, on the last occasion, not only introduced septennial in

place of triennial elections, but by the same act, continued

themselves in place four years beyond the term for which they

were elected by the people. An attention to these dangerous

practices has produced a very natural alarm in the votaries of

free government, of which frequency of elections is the

corner-stone; and has led them to seek for some security to

liberty, against the danger to which it is exposed. Where no

Constitution, paramount to the government, either existed or

could be obtained, no constitutional security, similar to that

established in the United States, was to be attempted. Some

other security, therefore, was to be sought for; and what better

security would the case admit, than that of selecting and

appealing to some simple and familiar portion of time, as a

standard for measuring the danger of innovations, for fixing the

national sentiment, and for uniting the patriotic exertions? The

most simple and familiar portion of time, applicable to the

subject was that of a year; and hence the doctrine has been

inculcated by a laudable zeal, to erect some barrier against the

gradual innovations of an unlimited government, that the advance

towards tyranny was to be calculated by the distance of departure

from the fixed point of annual elections. But what necessity can

there be of applying this expedient to a government limited, as

the federal government will be, by the authority of a paramount

Constitution? Or who will pretend that the liberties of the

people of America will not be more secure under biennial

elections, unalterably fixed by such a Constitution, than those

of any other nation would be, where elections were annual, or

even more frequent, but subject to alterations by the ordinary

power of the government? The second question stated is, whether

biennial elections be necessary or useful. The propriety of

answering this question in the affirmative will appear from

several very obvious considerations.

No man can be a

competent legislator who does not add to an upright intention and

a sound judgment a certain degree of knowledge of the subjects on

which he is to legislate. A part of this knowledge may be

acquired by means of information which lie within the compass of

men in private as well as public stations. Another part can only

be attained, or at least thoroughly attained, by actual

experience in the station which requires the use of it. The

period of service, ought, therefore, in all such cases, to bear

some proportion to the extent of practical knowledge requisite to

the due performance of the service. The period of legislative

service established in most of the States for the more numerous

branch is, as we have seen, one year. The question then may be

put into this simple form: does the period of two years bear no

greater proportion to the knowledge requisite for federal

legislation than one year does to the knowledge requisite for

State legislation? The very statement of the question, in this

form, suggests the answer that ought to be given to it. In a

single State, the requisite knowledge relates to the existing

laws which are uniform throughout the State, and with which all

the citizens are more or less conversant; and to the general

affairs of the State, which lie within a small compass, are not

very diversified, and occupy much of the attention and

conversation of every class of people. The great theatre of the

United States presents a very different scene. The laws are so

far from being uniform, that they vary in every State; whilst the

public affairs of the Union are spread throughout a very

extensive region, and are extremely diversified by t e local

affairs connected with them, and can with difficulty be correctly

learnt in any other place than in the central councils to which a

knowledge of them will be brought by the representatives of every

part of the empire. Yet some knowledge of the affairs, and even

of the laws, of all the States, ought to be possessed by the

members from each of the States. How can foreign trade be

properly regulated by uniform laws, without some acquaintance

with the commerce, the ports, the usages, and the regulatious of

the different States? How can the trade between the different

States be duly regulated, without some knowledge of their

relative situations in these and other respects? How can taxes

be judiciously imposed and effectually collected, if they be not

accommodated to the different laws and local circumstances

relating to these objects in the different States? How can

uniform regulations for the militia be duly provided, without a

similar knowledge of many internal circumstances by which the

States are distinguished from each other? These are the

principal objects of federal legislation, and suggest most

forcibly the extensive information which the representatives

ought to acquire. The other interior objects will require a

proportional degree of information with regard to them. It is

true that all these difficulties will, by degrees, be very much

diminished. The most laborious task will be the proper

inauguration of the government and the primeval formation of a

federal code. Improvements on the first draughts will every year

become both easier and fewer. Past transactions of the

government will be a ready and accurate source of information to

new members. The affairs of the Union will become more and more

objects of curiosity and conversation among the citizens at

large. And the increased intercourse among those of different

States will contribute not a little to diffuse a mutual knowledge

of their affairs, as this again will contribute to a general

assimilation of their manners and laws. But with all these

abatements, the business of federal legislation must continue so

far to exceed, both in novelty and difficulty, the legislative

business of a single State, as to justify the longer period of

service assigned to those who are to transact it. A branch of

knowledge which belongs to the acquirements of a federal

representative, and which has not been mentioned is that of

foreign affairs. In regulating our own commerce he ought to be

not only acquainted with the treaties between the United States

and other nations, but also with the commercial policy and laws

of other nations. He ought not to be altogether ignorant of the

law of nations; for that, as far as it is a proper object of

municipal legislation, is submitted to the federal government.

And although the House of Representatives is not immediately to

participate in foreign negotiations and arrangements, yet from

the necessary connection between the several branches of public

affairs, those particular branches will frequently deserve

attention in the ordinary course of legislation, and will

sometimes demand particular legislative sanction and

co-operation. Some portion of this knowledge may, no doubt, be

acquired in a man's closet; but some of it also can only be

derived from the public sources of information; and all of it

will be acquired to best effect by a practical attention to the

subject during the period of actual service in the legislature.

There are other considerations, of less importance, perhaps, but

which are not unworthy of notice. The distance which many of the

representatives will be obliged to travel, and the arrangements

rendered necessary by that circumstance, might be much more

serious objections with fit men to this service, if limited to a

single year, than if extended to two years. No argument can be

drawn on this subject, from the case of the delegates to the

existing Congress. They are elected annually, it is true; but

their re-election is considered by the legislative assemblies

almost as a matter of course. The election of the representatives

by the people would not be governed by the same principle. A few

of the members, as happens in all such assemblies, will possess

superior talents; will, by frequent reelections, become members

of long standing; will be thoroughly masters of the public

business, and perhaps not unwilling to avail themselves of those

advantages. The greater the proportion of new members, and the

less the information of the bulk of the members the more apt will

they be to fall into the snares that may be laid for them. This

remark is no less applicable to the relation which will subsist

between the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is an

inconvenience mingled with the advantages of our frequent

elections even in single States, where they are large, and hold

but one legislative session in a year, that spurious elections

cannot be investigated and annulled in time for the decision to

have its due effect. If a return can be obtained, no matter by

what unlawful means, the irregular member, who takes his seat of

course, is sure of holding it a sufficient time to answer his

purposes. Hence, a very pernicious encouragement is given to the

use of unlawful means, for obtaining irregular returns. Were

elections for the federal legislature to be annual, this practice

might become a very serious abuse, particularly in the more

distant States. Each house is, as it necessarily must be, the

judge of the elections, qualifications, and returns of its

members; and whatever improvements may be suggested by

experience, for simplifying and accelerating the process in

disputed cases, so great a portion of a year would unavoidably

elapse, before an illegitimate member could be dispossessed of

his seat, that the prospect of such an event would be little

check to unfair and illicit means of obtaining a seat. All these

considerations taken together warrant us in affirming, that

biennial elections will be as useful to the affairs of the public

as we have seen that they will be safe to the liberty of the