s of
the several Executive Departments, and under this conviction I present
for your consideration an amendment to the Constitution on this subject,
with the recommendation that it be submitted to the people for their
action.

Experience seems to have established the necessity of an amendment
of that clause of the Constitution which provides for the election of
Senators to Congress by the legislatures of the several States. It would
be more consistent with the genius of our form of government if the
Senators were chosen directly by the people of the several States.
The objections to the election of Senators by the legislatures are
so palpable that I deem it unnecessary to do more than submit the
proposition for such an amendment, with the recommendation that it
be opened to the people for their judgment.

It is strongly impressed on my mind that the tenure of office by
the judiciary of the United States during good behavior for life is
incompatible with the spirit of republican government, and in this
opinion I am fully sustained by the evidence of popular judgment upon
this subject in the different States of the Union.

I therefore deem it my duty to recommend an amendment to the
Constitution by which the terms of the judicial officers would be
limited to a period of years, and I herewith present it in the hope that
Congress will submit it to the people for their decision.

The foregoing views have long been entertained by me. In 1845, in the
House of Representatives, and afterwards, in 1860, in the Senate of the
United States, I submitted substantially the same propositions as those
to which the attention of Congress is herein invited. Time, observation,
and experience have confirmed these convictions; and, as a matter of
public duty and a deep sense of my constitutional obligation "to
recommend to the consideration of Congress such measures as I deem
necessary and expedient," I submit the accompanying propositions, and
urge their adoption and submission to the judgment of the people.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

JOINT RESOLUTION proposing amendments to the Constitution of the
United States.

Whereas the fifth article of the Constitution of the United States
provides for amendments thereto in the manner following, viz:

"The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the
application of the legislatures of two-thirds of th