The 17th amendment

The 17th Amendment
The process of searching for appropriate articles to comply with the requirements of the research begun with actually trying to simply type in the terms ‘ 17th Amendment’. Using the Chicago Tribune (1849 – 1987), doing so provided as much as 563 results. A quick glance from The New York Times using the same terms generated 1939 results; while the Los Angeles Times revealed 622 results. I tried other terms such as historical timeline and strangely, all publications have zero results. The other terms I used to seek for information on are: history of the 17th amendment, date of ratification, how senators are chosen, and 17th amendment highlights. I tried to search from about seven different articles on the subject using the various search terms identified. Finally, I chose the article entitled “ Popular Election of Senate in Force: Bryan Promulgates the Addition of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution” published in The New York Times on June 1, 1913.
From the article, the contents revealed that events on the signing of the effectivity of the 17th Amendment to the constitution, “ providing for the election of United States senators by the direct vote of the people” (Popular Election of Senate In Force: Bryan Promulgates the Addition of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, 1913, par. 1). The news article presented details of the ratification by identifying the primary attested authority, Secretary Bryan, to sign the amendment, as part of his official duties. Further, the formality of the event was signified through the use of four silver pens, each described in detail as: “ one was tied with a red ribbon, another with a white ribbon, the third with a blue ribbon, and the fourth with two white ribbons” (Popular Election of Senate In Force: Bryan Promulgates the Addition of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, 1913, par. 5). The participants in the signing were likewise identified as William W. Tucker, the Representative of Mississippi; Senator William E. Borah of Idaho; and Judge Rucker; as well as the intricate details of having identified the person who signed with the specific pen used in the signing. The date was 31st of May, 1913.
Accordingly, the signing commemorated the end of a long struggle to propose the election of Senators by the people which was clearly identified to have started as far as 87 years ago. Notably, the article was aptly concluded with stating that “ Mr. Bryan said that he regarded it as the most important reform made in a century affecting the Federal Government” (Popular Election of Senate In Force: Bryan Promulgates the Addition of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, 1913, par. 10).
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