UNITED STATES SENATORS.
I recommend the passage of a joint resolution requesting our Senators and Representatives in Congress to use their best efforts to secure the passage by Congress for submission to the Legislatures of the States for ratification an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for the election of United States Senators by the direct vote of the electors of the States. Members of the General Assembly should be chosen with reference to their capability to legislate upon the domestic affairs of the State. Under the present system of electing Senators in Congress not only is a portion of the time of the Representative, or Senator, to the General Assembly often turns solely upon the question as to whom he will, if elected, vote for for Senator in Congress. One of the principal incentives to District gerrymandering is to secure a party majority in the Legislature, and thus secure the election of a United States Senator. I can see no good reason why the people are not as capable of electing a United States Senator as Congressman, Governor and other State officers. United States Senators represent the State at large and their election should reflect the popular will, which is not always the case under the present mode.
