Existing comment:
Empty Seats
The Founders intended for the Senate to represent the states, therefore the Constitution directed that state legislatures would elect Senators. But when both houses of a state legislature didn't agree on a candidate, the election deadlocked, and the Senate seat remained empty. This cartoon illustrated how common such deadlocks had become when Congress finally addressed this problem by proposing the 17th Amendment.
Untitled, ["Just the usual crop of senatorial deadlocks"], cartoon by Clifford Berryman, February 4, 1911
Records of the U.S. Senate |