PUBLIUS
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FEDERALIST No. 59
Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of Members
From the New York Packet.
Friday, February 22, 1788.
HAMILTON
To the People of the State of New York:
THE natural order of the subject leads us to consider, in this place,
that provision of the Constitution which authorizes the national
legislature to regulate, in the last resort, the election of its own
members. It is in these words: "The TIMES, PLACES, and MANNER of holding
elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each
State by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by
law, make or alter SUCH REGULATIONS, except as to the PLACES of choosing
senators."[1] This provision has not only been declaimed against by
those who condemn the Constitution in the gross, but it has been
censured by those who have objected with less latitude and greater
moderation; and, in one instance it has been thought exceptionable by a
gentleman who has declared himself the advocate of every other part of
the system.
I am greatly mistaken, notwithstanding, if there be any article in the
whole plan more completely defensible than this.
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