No argument can be drawn on this subject, from
the case of the delegates to the existing Congress. They are elected
annually, it is true; but their re-election is considered by the
legislative assemblies almost as a matter of course. The election of the
representatives by the people would not be governed by the same
principle.
A few of the members, as happens in all such assemblies, will possess
superior talents; will, by frequent reelections, become members of long
standing; will be thoroughly masters of the public business, and perhaps
not unwilling to avail themselves of those advantages. The greater the
proportion of new members, and the less the information of the bulk of
the members the more apt will they be to fall into the snares that may
be laid for them. This remark is no less applicable to the relation
which will subsist between the House of Representatives and the Senate.
It is an inconvenience mingled with the advantages of our frequent
elections even in single States, where they are large, and hold but one
legislative session in a year, that spurious elections cannot be
investigated and annulled in time for the decision to have its due
effect.
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