§1. The legislature of every state in the union is composed of two
houses--a senate and a house of representatives. The latter, or, as it
is sometimes called, the lower house, in the states of New York,
Wisconsin, and California, is called the assembly; in Maryland and
Virginia, the house of delegates; in North Carolina, the house of
commons; and in New Jersey, the general assembly. In most of the
states, the two houses together are called _general assembly_.

§2. The senate, as well as the other house, is a representative body;
its members being elected by the people to represent them. Why, then, is
only one of the two branches called the house of representatives?
Perhaps for this reason: Under the governments of the colonies, while
yet subject to Great Britian, there was but one representative assembly.
The other branch of the legislature was called a _council_, consisting
of a small number of men who were appointed by the king. After the
colonies became free and independent states, a senate was substituted
for the old council, and although it is an elective body, the other
house, being much more numerous, is called, by way of distinction, the
_house of representatives_.

§3. Senators are chosen annually in the six New England states, namely,
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut. In the other states they are elected for terms of two,
three, or four years. In most of the states in which senators are
elected for longer terms than one year, they are not all elected at the
same time. They are divided into classes; and those of one class go out
of office one year, and those of another class another year; so that
only a part of the senators are elected every year, or every two, or