THOMAS JEFFERSON ON SINGLE-CHAMBER GOVERNMENT.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—After Thomas Jefferson had spent five years in Paris as the representative of the United States Government, he returned to theUnited States in the autumn of the year 1789, and thereupon assumed the position of Secretary of State to the then President, George Washington. On April 3rd, 1790, he wrote a letter to the Duke de In Rochefoucauld at Paris, containing the following among other things :— "I find my countrymen as anxious for your success as they ought to be ; and thinking with the National Assembly in all points except that of a single House of Legislature. They think their own experience has decidedly proven the necessity of two Houses to prevent the tyranny of one, that they fear that this single error will shipwreck your new constitution. I am myself persuaded that theory and practice are not at variance in this instance, and that you will find the necessity hereafter to add another Branch."—" The Writings of Thomas Jefferson," Vol. VIII., p. 18.
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