
The 17th Amendment, passed in 1913, struck at the heart of the Gilded Age machines by mandating the direct election of senators, a move that prevented individuals from buying their way into the Senate so easily. Beginning less than two years after the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention and before all thirteen states had ratified that document, the First Congress was charged with creating a new government almost from scratch. Had the First Federal Congress failed in its work, the United States as we know it today would not exist.

Bowling, “Politics in the First Congress, 1789–1791”, chap.

It is because of dangerous and unfit nominees, such as Lynch, that the Founders designed the appointment clause the way they did. But I liked that example because it was a vivid one and useful in. The choices aren't always so stark where a simple design shift can make all the difference between a good balance and a bad one.

The creation of the United States Constitution-John Adams described the Constitutional Convention as "the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever. Congress was designed by the founders in ways that almost inevitably m.
