Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/207

 CH. X.] of the popular opinion, and less jealous of the public rights, than it was during annual, or triennial parliaments? In Virginia, the house of delegates before the revolution, was chosen for seven years; and in some of the other colonies for three years. Were they then subservient to the crown, or faithless to the people? In the present constitutions of the states of America, there is a great diversity in the terms of office, as well as the qualifications, of the state senates. In New-York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky the senate is chosen for four years; in Delaware, Mississippi, and Alabama, for three years; in South-Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, and Louisiana, biennially; in Maryland, for five years; in the other states annually. These diversities are as striking in the constitutions, which were framed as long ago, as the times of the revolution, as in those, which are the growth, as it were, of yesterday. No one, with any show of reason or fact, can pretend, that the liberties of the people have not been quite as safe, and the legislation quite as enlightened and pure in those states, where the senate is chosen for a long, as for a short period.

§ 719. If there were any thing in the nature of the objections, which have been under consideration, or in general theory to warrant any conclusion, it would be, that the circumstances of the states being nearly equal, and the objects of legislation the same, the same duration of office ought to be applied to all. Yet this diversity has existed without any assignable inconvenience in its practical results. It is manifest,