The fluctuating and, taking its future increase into the
account, the multitudinous composition of that body, forbid us to expect
in it those qualities which are essential to the proper execution of
such a trust. Accurate and comprehensive knowledge of foreign politics;
a steady and systematic adherence to the same views; a nice and uniform
sensibility to national character; decision, secrecy, and despatch, are
incompatible with the genius of a body so variable and so numerous. The
very complication of the business, by introducing a necessity of the
concurrence of so many different bodies, would of itself afford a
solid objection. The greater frequency of the calls upon the House of
Representatives, and the greater length of time which it would often be
necessary to keep them together when convened, to obtain their sanction
in the progressive stages of a treaty, would be a source of so great
inconvenience and expense as alone ought to condemn the project.

The only objection which remains to be canvassed, is that which would
substitute the proportion of two thirds of all the members composing the
senatorial body, to that of two thirds of the members present. It has
been shown, under the second head of our inquiries, that all provisions
which require more than the majority of any body to its resolutions,
have a direct tendency to embarrass the operations of the government,
and an indirect one to subject the sense of the majority to that of the
minority. This consideration seems sufficient to determine our opinion,
that the convention have gone as far in the endeavor to secure the
advantage of numbers in the formation of treaties as could have been
reconciled either with the activity of the public councils or with a
reasonable regard to the major sense of the community. If two thirds of
the whole number of members had been required, it would, in many cases,
from the non-attendance of a part, amount in practice to a necessity
of unanimity. And the history of every political establishment in which
this principle has prevailed, is a history of impotence, perplexity, and
disorder. Proofs of this position might be adduced from the examples of
the Roman Tribuneship, the Polish Diet, and the States-General of
the Netherlands, did not an example at home render foreign precedents
unnecessary.

To require a fixed proportion of the whole body would not, in all
probability, contribute to the advantages of a numerous agency, better