The case in which election by two stages answers well in practice is
when the electors are not chosen solely as electors, but have other
important functions to discharge, which precludes their being selected
solely as delegates to give a particular vote. This combination of
circumstances exemplifies itself in another American institution,
the Senate of the United States. That assembly, the Upper House, as it
were, of Congress, is considered to represent not the people directly,
but the States as such, and to be the guardian of that portion of
their sovereign rights which they have not alienated. As the
internal sovereignty of each State is, by the nature of an equal
federation, equally sacred whatever be the size or importance of the
State, each returns to the Senate the same number of members (two),
whether it be little Delaware or the "Empire State" of New York. These
members are not chosen by the population, but by the State
Legislatures, themselves elected by the people of each State; but as
the whole ordinary business of a legislative assembly, internal
legislation and the control of the executive, devolves upon these
bodies, they are elected with a view to those objects more than to the
other; and in naming two persons to represent the State in the Federal
Senate they for the most part exercise their own judgment, with only
that general reference to public opinion necessary in all acts of
the government of a democracy.
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