Ends To Be Served

In order to judge of the form to be given to this institution, it will be proper to take a view of the ends to be served by it.  These were, -- first, to protect the people against their rulers, secondly, to protect the people against the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led.

-- James Madison Jr. (1751 - 1836), fourth President of the United States, co-author, with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, of the Federalist Papers, traditionally regarded as the Father of the United States Constitution, Remarks on the institution of the Senate, in debates in the Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (26 June 1787) Journal of the Federal Convention, edited by E. H. Scott (1893), pp. 241 - 242