evidence: It turns out that shielding the Senate from politics was a taller order than the Founding Fathers anticipated. The electoral relationship between state legislatures and the Senate lasted just over a century, but by the early 1900s, it was starting to come into question. The Gilded Age was rife with political corruption, and positions in both civil service and elected office became no more than bartering chips among the wealthy and entrenched politicians. Growing political tension was taking its toll on state legislatures—Senate vacancies sat empty for months, even years, while state legislatures were deadlocked in selecting a candidate. Re-enter our friend Williams Jennings Bryan, whom we met in last week’s Scopes Monkey Trial newsletter. As a former presidential candidate and leader of the burgeoning Progressive Party, Bryan had kept the popular election of Senators on his wish list for decades. He and fellow Progressives deemed the Senate a "millionaires’ club" that served only private interests. Early attempts at reform adopted the "Oregon System." Candidates for state legislature endorsed U.S. Senate candidates in their parties’ primaries and were bound to those candidates if elected. This allowed primary voters a chance to have somewhat of a say in who their U.S. Senators would be. [...] "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.