This week in history:
The 17th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified on April 8th of 1913. The development of this amendment might seem dull, like watching ink dry on paper, but the story behind its creation is a twisted, complex affair wrapped in bribes, corruption, and charges of treason.
Keep in mind that the constitution is like a manual for how to set up, operate, and repair a country. The people who wrote the constitution recognized they couldn’t troubleshoot situations that hadn’t yet happened, so they planned for the future by including instructions in the constitution for making repairs and upgrades to it. There are always people looking for loopholes to get an advantage, and that’s how we got the 17th Amendment.
“Treason is a strong word, but not too strong to characterize the situation in which the Senate is the eager, resourceful, and indefatigable agent of interests as hostile to the American people as any invading army could be.” This indictment launched a nine-part series of articles published in 1906, in Cosmopolitan magazine: entitled “Treason of the Senate.” Cosmopolitan magazine was very, very different in the early 1900s from the grocery-store glossy version you can buy today.
The “Treason” series showed the Senate at that time was influenced by large corporations and other financial interests. Progressive Era reformers of the early 1900s aimed to reduce how big money could change government policy. Direct, popular election of senators worked perfectly with their goal to bring government closer to the people.
The Constitution had originally directed that senators would be elected by each state’s legislatures (house of representatives). After the Civil War, bribery, fraud, and deadlock left a corrupt and barely functional senate. The USA continued to grow, and Congress took on a greater role as the nation become more industrialized. Major business developers wanted to influence the U.S. Senate to make laws that were good for their businesses. They offered financial incentives (bribes) to the state legislators who selected senators.
For several decades, some southern senators blocked the direct election amendment, fearing how African Americans would vote. Many southern states enacted “Jim Crow” laws to discourage and prevent African Americans from voting. In 1906 two senators were convicted on corruption charges, for taking bribes to get federal agencies to help particular businesses. This inspired William R. Hearst, then a U.S. House member and owner of Cosmopolitan magazine, to commission a series of investigative articles.
The “Treason” series showed how wealthy corporations and corrupt state legislators chose senators. The articles leaned into exaggeration, and the term “Muckraking” was coined to describe this tactic. The “Treason” series helped break resistance and open the way for the Seventeenth Amendment’s ratification in 1913. Along the journey, many of the members of the US Senate and House of Representatives had retired, died, or lost re-election. A new generation of Congress was ready to begin.
The 17 Amendment changed wording in the set-up portion of the constitution: Article I, Section 3, paragraph 1, to state that “two Senators from each State” should be “elected by the people thereof” rather than “chosen by the Legislature thereof.” It also updated paragraph 2 of Section 3 to allow the state executive (like governor) to fill unexpected vacancies in the Senate with temporary appointees to serve until new elections could be held.
By the time the Seventeenth Amendment was adopted, many states had crafted work-arounds, for voters to choose the senators from their state. The amendment was still needed to keep big business and special interests from running a shadow governing system, and prevent vacancies and frequent turnover of Senators. Near the end of the 20th century some conservative politicians tried to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment, claiming it didn’t fit their view of balance of power between federal and state government (see also states’ rights).
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