Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/293

 CH. XI.] the pleasure of the national government. Why does not the same reasoning apply to the national government? What reason is there to suppose, that the slate governments will be more true to the Union, than the national government will be to the state governments?

§ 818. If, then, there is no peculiar fitness in delegating such a power to the state legislatures; if it might be hazardous and inconvenient; let us see, whether there are any solid dangers from confiding the superintending and ultimate power over elections to the national government. There is no pretence to say, that the power in the national government can be used, so as to exclude any state from its share in the representation in congress. Nor can it be said, with correctness, that congress can, in any way, alter the rights, or qualifications of voters. The most, that can be urged, with any show of argument, is, that the power might, in a given case, be employed in such a manner, as to promote the election of some favourite candidate, or favourite class of men, in exclusion of others, by confining the places of election to particular districts, and rendering it impracticable for the citizens at large to partake in the choice. The whole argument proceeds upon a supposition the most chimerical. There are no rational calculations, on which it can rest, and every probability is against it. Who are to pass the laws for regulating elections? The congress of the United States, composed of a senate chosen by the state legislatures, and of representatives chosen by the people of the states. Can it be imagined, that these persons will combine to defraud their constituents of their lights, or to overthrow the state authorities, or the state influence? The very attempt would rouse universal indignation, and produce an immediate revolt among the great mass of the