o subvert the liberties of three millions
of people, with the advantage of local governments to head their
opposition, than of two hundred thousand people who are destitute
of that advantage. And in relation to the point immediately under
consideration, they ought to convince us that it is less probable that
a predominant faction in a single State should, in order to maintain its
superiority, incline to a preference of a particular class of electors,
than that a similar spirit should take possession of the representatives
of thirteen States, spread over a vast region, and in several respects
distinguishable from each other by a diversity of local circumstances,
prejudices, and interests.

Hitherto my observations have only aimed at a vindication of the
provision in question, on the ground of theoretic propriety, on that of
the danger of placing the power elsewhere, and on that of the safety of
placing it in the manner proposed. But there remains to be mentioned a
positive advantage which will result from this disposition, and which
could not as well have been obtained from any other: I allude to the
circumstance of uniformity in the time of elections for the federal
House of Representatives. It is more than possible that this uniformity
may be found by experience to be of great importance to the public
welfare, both as a security against the perpetuation of the same spirit
in the body, and as a cure for the diseases of faction. If each State
may choose its own time of election, it is possible there may be at
least as many different periods as there are months in the year. The
times of election in the several States, as they are now established for
local purposes, vary between extremes as wide as March and November. The
consequence of this diversity would be that there could never happen a
total dissolution or renovation of the body at one time. If an improper
spirit of any kind should happen to prevail in it, that spirit would
be apt to infuse itself into the new members, as they come forward
in succession. The mass would be likely to remain nearly the same,
assimilating constantly to itself its gradual accretions. There is a
contagion in example which few men have sufficient force of mind to
resist. I am inclined to think that treble the duration in office, with
the condition of a total dissolution of the body at the same time, might
be less formidable to liberty than one third of that duration subject to
gradual and s