War Democrat (constitutionalist) de facto President Andrew Johnson (a Citizen of the confederate State of Tennessee) signs the Senate Election Act, requiring State legislatures to elect their united States Senators by an absolute majority (over 50%) rather than by a simple plurality (largest portion) as they had been since 1789.
NOTE: As a result of this act it became much harder to elect Senators, and made State legislators greater targets for bribery by moneyed interests.
[added 4/30/2022] Thanks to Thomas Di Lorenzo for this entry.
Subsequent Events:
Authority:
“Law of the Jungle”
ccc-2point0.com/preface
References:
Senate Election Act, 14 Public Statutes at Large 243 (1866).
Jay S. Bybee, “Ulysses at the Mast: Democracy, Federalism, and the Sirens’ Song of the Seventeenth Amendment.” 91 University of Nevada, Las Vegas Law Review 500, 536, 537(n238) (1997).
Current U.s. National Debt:
