Directly Electing the Senate

Students of American Constitutional Law know that members of the United States Senate were originally selected by the individual state legislatures. In class, I usually present this selection system as part of a compromise between large and small states. However, over at the blog Constitution Daily a slightly different take on this is offered:

"At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the Founders were guided by, among other powerful ideas, the fear of the potentially tyrannical, harmful powers of a democratic majority. The proposal that United States Senators should be elected by state legislatures, rather than democratic majorities, was inspired by this fear. . . ."

To understand why the U.S. Senate was originally select by state legislatures and why this changed with the passage of the 17th Amendment, you cannot go wrong reading the rest of the blog post.