Amendment+XVII

Amendment XVII: Direct Election of Senators

By: Chloe P. and Matthew C.



The seventeenth amendment was proposed in 1910. Congress excepted it on May 13th 1912. It was ratified 330 days later on April 8th, 1913. The purpose of the seventeenth ammendment was that it allowed for direct election of senators. Direct election is when voters directly cast ballets for a governmental position. This method of electing senators replaced the one described in Article I of the Constitution. three quarteres of the states had to approve this ammendment (36 at that time) before it could be ratified. Thirty-eight of the states ended up ratifying it.

Many things happened in our country and world at the time the seventeenth ammendment came into place. The NAACP (National Associaton for the Advancement of Colored People) formed in 1909. It demanded all rights for colored people. William Howard Taft became president in 1909 and began to use the Dollar Diplomacy. This added to American trade and brought more money into the United States. The bill creating United States federal reserve sytems becam law in 1913. It was and still is the central banking system of the United States. The Federal Trade Act went into play in 1914. It prohibited unfair methods, acts, and paractices of interstate commerce. In 1917, the United States entered World War I because Germans sunk neutral American ships.

In the world at that time, two major things were happening. The Union of South Africa formed in 1910. They wanted unite South Africa. Also, the Chinese Revolution occured 1911 to gain dominance over the Chinese Communist Party.

Senate Committee

Sources: Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge, volume one, Copyright MCMXCV by Grolier Incorporated, Danbury CT, America Is, Copyright 1995 by the Glence Division of Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Publishing Company, [|www.outsidethebeltway.com/an-historical-note-on-the-17th-amendment], enotes.com, bigstock.com, classroomclipart.com