Amendment XVII
579
thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by
election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of
any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
The Framers of the Constitution specified in Article I, Section 3 that United
States Senators should be chosen by each State legislature, two for each
State, while members of the House of Representatives should be chosen by
popular election from congressional districts. The main purpose of this
method of indirect election of Senators was to give each State, no matter
how small its population, a voice in the Congress.
In effect, each State’s two Senators thus represented the State itself,
rather than the voters in particular districts; and they represented their
State in the sense tha Ё