The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison
8. "To provide for amendments to be ratified by three fourths of the
172 words | Chapter 28
States under two exceptions only."
That useful alterations will be suggested by experience, could not but
be foreseen. It was requisite, therefore, that a mode for introducing
them should be provided. The mode preferred by the convention seems to
be stamped with every mark of propriety. It guards equally against that
extreme facility, which would render the Constitution too mutable; and
that extreme difficulty, which might perpetuate its discovered faults.
It, moreover, equally enables the general and the State governments to
originate the amendment of errors, as they may be pointed out by the
experience on one side, or on the other. The exception in favor of the
equality of suffrage in the Senate, was probably meant as a palladium
to the residuary sovereignty of the States, implied and secured by that
principle of representation in one branch of the legislature; and
was probably insisted on by the States particularly attached to that
equality. The other exception must have been admitted on the same
considerations which produced the privilege defended by it.
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