4614. LEGISLATURES, Two chambers.—
The purpose of establishing different houses of legislation is to introduce the influence of
different interests or different principles.
Thus in Great Britain, it is said, their constitution
relies on the House of Commons for
honesty, and the Lords for wisdom; which
would be a rational reliance, if honesty were
to be bought with money, and if wisdom were
hereditary. In some of the American States,
the delegates and senators are so chosen, as
that the first represent the persons, and the
second the property of the State. But with
us, wealth and wisdom have equal chance for
admission into both houses. We do not,
therefore, derive from the separation of our
legislature into two houses, those benefits
which a proper complication of principles is
capable of producing, and those which alone
can compensate the evils which may be produced
by their dissensions.—
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. viii, 301.
Ford ed., iii, 223.
(1782)
