Elbridge Gerry

On the House of Representatives:
    Much of the debate at the convention centered on the creation of the two houses of Congress (also referred to here as the two branches of the legislature).  The delegates agreed that there should be a large lower house (the House of Representatives) and a small upper house (the Senate).  But they disagreed over how the members of each house of Congress shouldbe chosen.  For the lower house (the first branch), the big debate was whether representatives should be elected by the public or appointed by state legislatures.  As you read the debate, pay attention to how the delegates justify their reasons for wanting the house to be appointed or elected.
Mr. GERRY. (Elbridge Gerry, MA) The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The peopledo not want [lack] virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots. In Massts. it had been fully confirmed by experience that they are daily misled into the most baneful measures and opinions by the false reports circulated by designing men, and which no one on the spot can refute. One principal evil arises from the want of due provision for those employed in the administration of Governmt. Itwould seem to be a maxim of democracy to starve the public servants. He mentioned the popular clamour in Massts. for the reduction of salaries and the attack made on that of the Govr. though secured by the spirit of the Constitution itself. He had he said been too republican heretofore: he was still however republican, but had been taught by experience the danger of the levilling spirit

Mr. GERRY(Elbridge Gerry, MA) did not like the election by the people. The maxims taken from the British constitution were often fallacious when applied to our situation which was extremely different. Experience he said had shewn that the State legislatures drawn immediately from the people did not always possess their confidence. He had no objection however to an election by the people if it were soqualified that men of honor & character might not be unwilling to be joined in the appointments. He seemed to think the people might nominate a certain number out of which the State legislatures should be bound to choose.
Mr. GERRY. (Elbridge Gerry, MA) Much depends on the mode of election. In England, the people will probably lose their liberty from the smallness of the proportion having a rightof suffrage. Our danger arises from the opposite extreme: hence in Massts. the worst men get into the Legislature. Several members of that Body had lately been convicted of infamous crimes. Men of indigence, ignorance & baseness, spare no pains, however dirty to carry their point agst. men who are superior to the artifices practised. He was not disposed to run into extremes. He was as muchprincipled as ever agst. aristocracy and monarchy. It was necessary on the one hand that the people should appoint one branch of the Govt. in order to inspire them with the necessary confidence. But he wished the election on the other to be so modified as to secure more effectually a just preference of merit. His idea was that the people should nominate certain persons in certain districts, out ofwhom the State Legislatures shd. make the appointment.

On How often to Elect members of the House of Representatives:
    The debate over the terms that members of the house would serve is equally revealing about the delegates' feelings about democracy and "the people"

Mr. GERRY. (Elbridge Gerry, MA) The people of New England will never give up the point of annual elections, they know of thetransition made in England from triennial to septennial elections, and will consider such an innovation here as the prelude to a like usurpation. He considered annual elections as the only defence of the people agst. tyranny. He was as much agst. a triennial House as agst. a hereditary Executive.
Mr. GERRY (Elbridge Gerry, MA) repeated his opinion that it was necessary to consider what the...