r the popular
election of Senators, usually associated with it, swept forward to
victory. Under the original Constitution, it had been expressly provided
that Senators should be chosen by the legislatures of the states. In
practice this rule transferred the selection of Senators to secret
caucuses of party members in the state legislatures. In connection with
these caucuses there had been many scandals, some direct proofs of
brazen bribery and corruption, and dark hints besides. The Senate was
called by its detractors "a millionaires' club" and it was looked upon
as the "citadel of conservatism." The prescription in this case was
likewise "more democracy"--direct election of Senators by popular vote.

This reform was not a new idea. It had been proposed in Congress as
early as 1826. President Johnson, an ardent advocate, made it the
subject of a special message in 1868 Not long afterward it appeared in
Congress. At last in 1893, the year after the great Populist upheaval,
the House of Representatives by the requisite two-thirds vote
incorporated it in an amendment to the federal Constitution. Again and
again it passed the House; but the Senate itself was obdurate. Able
Senators leveled their batteries against it. Mr. Hoar of Massachusetts
declared that it would transfer the seat of power to the "great cities
and masses of population"; that it would "overthrow the whole scheme of
the Senate and in the end the whole scheme of the national Constitution
as designed and established by the framers of the Constitution and the
people who adopted it."

Failing in the Senate, advocates of popular election made a rear assault
through the states. They induced state legislatures to enact laws
requiring the nomination of candidates for the Senate by the direct
primary, and then they bound the legislatures to abide by the popular
choice. Nevada took the lead in 1899. Shortly afterward Oregon, by the
use of the initiative and referendum, practically bound legislators to
accept the popular nominee and the country witnessed the spectacle of a
Republican legislature "electing" a Democrat to represent the state in
the Senate at Washington. By 1910 three-fourths of the states had
applied the direct primary in some form to the choice of Senators. Men
selected by that method began to pour in upon the floors of Congress;
finally in 1912 the two-thirds majority was secured for an amendment to
the federal Constitution providing for the popular