e framers of the Constitution created the United States Senate to protect the rights of individual states and safeguard minority opinion in a system of government designed to give greater power to the national government. They modeled the Senate on governors' councils of the colonial era and on the state senates that had evolved since independence. The framers intended the Senate to be an independent body of responsible citizens who would share power with the president and the House of Representatives. James Madison, paraphrasing Edmund Randolph, explained in his notes that the Senate's role was "first to protect the people against their rulers [and] secondly to protect the people against the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led."
To balance power between the large and small states, the Constitution's framers agreed that states would be represented equally in the Senate and in proportion to their populations in the House. Further preserving the authority of individual states, they provided that state legislatures would elect senators. To guarantee senators' independence from short-term political pressures, the framers designed a six-year Senate term, three times as long as that of popularly elected members of the House of Representatives. Madison reasoned that longer terms would provide stability. "If it not be a firm body," he concluded, "the other branch being more numerous, and coming immediately from the people, will overwhelm it." Responding to fears that a six-year Senate term would produce an unreachable aristocracy in the Senate, the framers specified that one-third of the members' terms would expire every two years, leaving two-thirds of the members in office. This combined the principles of continuity and rotation in office.
In the early weeks of the Constitutional Convention, the participants had tentatively decided to give the Senate sole power to make treaties and to appoint federal judges and ambassadors. As the convention drew to a close, however, they moved to divide these powers between the Senate and the president, following Gouverneur Morris' reasoning that "As the president was to nominate, there would be responsibility, and as the Senate was to concur, there would be security." Due to the concern of individual states that other states might combine against them, by a simple majority vote, for commercial or economic gain, approval of a treaty would require a two-thirds vote. In dealing with nominations, the framers believed that senators—as statewide officials—would be uniquely qualified to identify suitable candidates for federal judicial posts and would confirm them along with cabinet secretaries and other key federal officials, by a simple majority vote.
Organizing the New Government, 1789–1794
The United States Senate convened for the first time on March 4, 1789, in an elegant second-floor chamber of New York City's newly remodeled Federal Hall. Only eight of the 22 eligible members (from the 11 states that had already ratified the Constitution) were present on that day. On April 6, 12 members were present to establish a quorum and the Senate got down to work. As its first item of business, the Senate elected New Hampshire's John Langdon president pro tempore and invited the House of Representatives to its Chamber to count the electoral ballots for president and vice president. On April 21 John Adams took his oath as vice president, thereby assuming his responsibility under the Constitution to serve as the Senate's president and presiding officer. Nine days later, House members again crowded into the Senate Chamber to witness George Washington's inauguration.
In its early weeks, the Senate turned to various organizational matters. Members appointed a six-member staff, including a doorkeeper, a secretary, a chaplain, and two clerks. Temporary committees were established to formulate a code of rules that would guide the Senate's proceedings, and to draft legislation to give shape to the government's judicial branch. The Senate divided its members into three equal and sectionally balanced classes, with the terms to expire at two, four, and six-year intervals. As new states entered the Union, their senators would be assigned to two of the three classes.
In its first session the Senate cautiously engaged its constitutional responsibilities, mindful of the precedent-setting nature of its every interaction with the House of Representatives and the president. Senators gave serious attention to their duty to provide advice and consent to the president's nominations and treaties. "
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