Jack of Harts

Another 1913 Amendment, the Seventeenth changed the election of State Senators from being performed by the State Legislatures to being selected by popular vote of the citizens of the State, like the House of Representatives. The original Constitution had granted that power to the State Legislatures with the intention of granting the States direct control of their representatives to the Federal government. This would give them some power to keep the Federal government from growing out of their control. The combination of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments granted the Federal government the power to largely break free of this State influence to follow the path of Federal Supremacy we know today.