Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/9

 THE

��GKANITE MONTHLY.

��A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, HISTORY AND STATE PROGRESS.

��VOL. II.

��JULY, 1878.

��NO. 1,

��THE SENATE AND ITS PRESIDENTS— HON DAVID H. BUFFUM.

��While the New Hampshire House of Representatives is the largest legislative body in the country, our State Senate is, with one or two exceptions, the smallest. The amendment to the Constitution re- cently adopted, which is to go into effect the coming autumn, however, makes a marked change in this regard, for, while reducing somewhat the number of Rep- resentatives, it doubles the number of Senators, placing our own upon at least an average footing with the Senates of other States throughout the Union.

Notwithstanding its comparative insig- nificance in point of numbers, the New Hampshire Senate has ever maintained an enviable reputation as an able, patri- otic and eminently conservative legisla- tive body. This is due largely, without doubt, to the fact that the office of State Senator has generally sought the man rather than the man the office. Dema- gogues and aspirants for popular favor, as well as active partisan leaders, have usually preferred seats in the House of Representatives, where as leaders of men and masters, or murderers, of rhet- oric they have greater opportunity for achieving distinction or notoriety. It is true that it has been often alleged that the Senate of our State is a dangerous

��body, being easily corrupted or control- led, on account of the small number of members. This allegation, however, is an unjustifiable or inconsiderate one. When men's favorite measures are defeat- ed, they are wont to cry out "corrup- tion," or to allege other than patriotic motives as actuating those who caused their discomfiture, and it will generally be found that those who have charged the Senate with corrupt or improper ac- tion, have failed to secure at the hands of that body the passage or the defeat of some measure particularly affecting their own interests. The truth is, there is far more danger of bad legislation at the hands of a large and unwieldly body like our House of Representatives, than from a comparatively small body like the Sen- ate. In the former a shrewd political leader or designing demagague, through his personal influence over numerous fol- lowers may readily secure the passage of an unwise act, which, in the latter, where such a thing as leadership is seldom known or attempted, and each individual member, as a general rule, acts and thinks for himself, could never have been car- ried through. The Senate, therefore, ex- ercising its conservative power, through amendment or rejection, has protected

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