American Thinker,
by
Bob Kingsley
Original Article
Posted by
Hazymac
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4/18/2026 10:57:39 AM
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The Seventeenth Amendment was ratified in 1913, during the height of the Progressive Era. Reformers argued that state legislatures had become hopelessly deadlocked and corrupt. Between 1885 and 1912, legislatures deadlocked seventy-one times over Senate selections, leaving at least seventeen seats vacant for entire sessions or longer. States went unrepresented in Washington, while lawmakers wasted months on partisan warfare.
Scandals amplified the outrage. In Montana, copper baron William A. Clark admitted to spending the equivalent of millions in today’s dollars to buy his seat; the Senate refused to seat him. In Illinois, Senator William Lorimer was expelled in 1912 after evidence showed that four state legislators