Mr. SAULSBURY. It is to be regretted, Mr. President, that there is nothing so sacred or so worthy of respect in the past legislation of the country that it is not to be subjected to the innovating spirit of the present times. From the very formation of the Federal constitution in 1787 to the present time, a period of nearly 80 years, we have found no incon venience under the present system of electing Senators to the Congress of the U.S.; or at least it has not been deemed necessaryin any past period of the history of our country to change the system which has generally been in use and practice. Each State has been left heretofore to elect its Senators to Congress in such mode and manner as each particular State should determine for itself. Now, sir, I hold it to be a sound principle of legislation that laws should not be changed, exeriments in legislation should not be made, uness there is some practical necessity for the change, unless there is some inconvenience or wrong to be remedied. Has there been any in conveniencein the ast thatealls forthis legislation? Has the legisation of the country suffered on account of the present mode of electing Sen ators to the Congress of the U.S.? Has any act passed Congress injurious to the interests of tie country owing to this system that Would not have been passed if the system now proposed had been adopted? Mr. President. I hold it to be a sound principle that the Federal Government in its legislative action should not interfere with the frac dom of action of the States in reference to a matter in which they are peculiarly interested, beyond the extent of absolute necessity. As much freedom should be lcft to the several States of the Union in selecting their Senators in Congress, or in reference to other matters' in which they have a peculiarinterest, as is possible consistent with the general good. Why, Mr. President, if there had been any great practical inconvenience experienced from the operation of the present system, if such:1. measureas this was called for by any great public exigency, do you notsupposethat the men who preceded us in these alls would have perceived it and would have remedied it? When did the inconvenience begin to be experienced? What was the commencement of it? It may be true that sometimes Legislatures have failed to. elect, but very seldom, and I do not know that that has been any very great inconvenience. If they had failed to elect a little oftener perhaps it would have been for the public good, but certainly the legislation of the country has not sulfered owing to this fact. Then, sir, you propose to declare by Federal law that the mo e of electing Senators by the States shall be by viva vocc vote; and what is the reason urged for it? That the people who elected the members of the Legislature have an interest to know how they vote. Is it possible that we can persuade ourselves that the people who send a representative to the State Legislature do not know for what particular man that representative votes, whether the vote he by ballot or viva voce? I presume there is not a State in this Union that when a Senator is elected by their Legislature the people who send the members there do not know exactly how their representative votes. There are always plenty of aspiring men in every State who wish to come to the Senate of the U.S., for now it has got to be a great thing to come to the Senate of the U.S., and men go crazy for a seat in this body; there are plenty of aspiring men who will have faithful agents watching the vote of every member of the Legislature, and who will know just as well as the member knows himself how he votes; and no wrong can be perpetrated, I apprehend, upon the constituency of a member of the Legislature because the vote is by ballot instead of viva vocc. There may be very strong reasons urged why the vote should be by ballot. In the State which I in part represent upon this floor we have no viva voce vote, either at general elections or in the Legislature, when it comes to vote for State officers or members of the Senate of the U.S. There may be members of the Legislature who are under deep obligations to particular individuals, who may be under pecuniary obligations to particular individuals. such individuals may set themselves up as candidates for a seat in the Senate of the U.S.; they hold the rod over such a member; they watch his vote. If he votes out viva voce against the particular person who has him in power, that power may.eexercised to his ruin, provided the person having the member in his power chooses to exercise it. I am speaking now in case the secret ballot could prevent die vote from being made public. Whatever advantage, therefore, there may be, I a prehend is in behalf of the mode of voting by ballot. Whatever of wrong might arise, I apprehend might arise from the sys tem of voting viva voce. But, sir, I do not consider it very material as far as the constituency of the member is concerned whether the vote is by ballot or riva case, because, as I said before, I apprehend the vote would be just as Well known y one mode as the other. But the point of my objection to this bill is that it is an attempt to legislate by the Federal Government in reference to every matter, to leave nothing to the free option of the States and to the State Legislatures. For one, sir, I have seen enough of the grasping power of the Federal Government, the attempt to swallow up every right and privilege of the States, to object on all occasions to any further attempt to extend this power practically in the legislation of the country. Believing that the States ought to be left free as to the mode and manner of s cting their representatives in this body, I am utterly opposed to this bill and shall vote against it.