Representatives to know circumstances and will of constituents
5/31 Mr. MASON argued strongly for an election of the larger branch by the people. It was to be the grand
depository of the democratic principle of the government. It was, so to speak, to be our House of Commons. It
ought to know and sympathize with every part of the community; and ought therefore to be taken, not only from
different parts of the whole republic, but also from different districts of the larger members of it; which had in
several instances, particularly in Virginia, different interests and views arising from difference of produce, of
habits, &c. &c. He admitted that we had been too democratic, but was afraid we should incautiously run into the
opposite extreme. We ought to attend to the rights of every class of the people. He had often wondered at the
indifference of the superior classes of society to this dictate of humanity and policy; considering, that, however
affluent their circumstances, or elevated their situations, might be, the course of a few years not only might, but
certainly would, distribute their posterity throughout the lowest classes of society. Every selfish motive,
therefore, every family attachment, ought to recommend such a system of policy as would provide no less
carefully for the rights and happiness of the lowest, than of the highest, order of citizens.
Mr. WILSON contended strenuously for drawing the most numerous branch of the Legislature immediately from
the people. He was for raising the federal pyramid to a considerable altitude, and for that reason wished to give
it as broad a basis as possible. No government could long subsist without the confidence of the people. In a
republican government, this confidence was peculiarly essential. He also thought it wrong to increase the weight
of the State Legislatures by making them the electors of the National Legislature. All interference between the
general and local governments should be obviated as much as possible. On examination it would be found that
the opposition of States to Federal measures had proceeded much more from the officers of the States than
from the people at large.
Mr. MADISON considered the popular election of one branch of the National Legislature as essential to every
plan of free government. He observed, that in some of the States one branch of the Legislature was composed
of men already removed from the people by an intervening body of electors. That if the first branch of the
General Legislature should be elected by the State Legislatures, the second branch elected by the first, the
Executive by the second together with the first, and other appointments again made for subordinate purposes
by the Executive, the people would be lost sight of altogether; and the necessary sympathy between them and
their rulers and officers too little felt. He was an advocate for the policy of refining the popular appointments by
successive filtrations, but thought it might be pushed too far. He wished the expedient to be resorted to only in
the appointment of the second branch of the Legislature, and in the Executive and Judiciary branches of the
government. He thought, too, that the great fabric to be raised would be more stable and durable, if it should
rest on the solid foundation of the people themselves, than if it should stand merely on the pillars of the
Legislatures.
6/6 Col. MASON: Under the existing Confederacy, Congress represent the States, and not the People of the
States; their acts operate on the States, not on the individuals. The case will be changed in the new plan of
government. The people will be represented; they ought therefore to choose the Representatives. The
requisites in actual representation are, that the representatives should sympathize with their constituents; should
think as they think, and feel as they feel; and that for these purposes they should be residents among them.
Much, he said, had been alleged against democratic elections. He admitted that much might be said; but it was
to be considered that no government was free from imperfections and evils; and that improper elections in
many instances were inseparable from republican governments. But compare these with the advantage of this
form, in favor of the rights of the people, in favor of human nature! He was persuaded there was a better chance
for proper elections by the people, if divided into large districts, than by the State Legislatures.
6/21 Mr. SHERMAN thought the Representatives ought to return home and mix with the people. By remaining at
the seat of government, they would acquire the habits of the place, which might differ from those of their
constituents.
7/26 Colonel MASON: Having for his primary object -- for the polar star of his political conduct -- the
preservation of the rights of the people, he held it as an essential point, as the very palladium of civil liberty, that
the great officers of state, and particularly the Executive, should at fixed periods return to that mass from which
they were at first taken, in order that they may feel and respect those rights and interests which are again to be
personally valuable to them.