Page:Federalist, Dawson edition, 1863.djvu/587

 Before such a revolution can be effected, the Senate, it is to be observed, must in the first place corrupt itself; must next corrupt the State Legislatures; must then corrupt the House of Representatives; and must finally corrupt the People at large. It is evident that the Senate must be first corrupted, before it can attempt an establishment of tyranny. Without corrupting the State Legislatures, it cannot prosecute the attempt, because the periodical change of members would otherwise regenerate the whole body. Without exerting the means of corruption with equal success on the House of Representatives, the opposition of that coequal branch of the Government would inevitably defeat the attempt; and without corrupting the People themselves, a succession of new Representatives would speedily restore all things to their pristine order. Is there any man who can seriously persuade himself, that the proposed Senate can, by any possible means within the compass of human address, arrive at the object of a lawless ambition, through all these obstructions?

If reason condemns the suspicion, the same sentence is pronounced by experience. The Constitution of Maryland furnishes the most apposite example. The Senate of that State is elected, as the Fœderal Senate will be, indirectly by the people, and for a term less by one year only than the Fœderal Senate. It is distinguished, also, by the remarkable prerogative of filling up its own vacancies within the term of its appointment; and at the same time, is not under the control of any such rotation as is provided for the Fœderal Senate. There are some other lesser distinctions, which would expose the former to colorable objections, that do not lie against the latter. If the Fœderal Senate, therefore, really contained the danger which has been so loudly proclaimed, some symptoms at least of a like danger ought by this time to have been betrayed by the Senate