OT: senatorial saucer

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/10/2008 08:17 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>Washington, with his long
>finger, pointed at it and said, "You have answered the question by
>pouring that hot tea from the cup into the saucer. Let the House of
>Representatives pass a bill in its haste, and pour it into the Senate
>to cool it."

This is exactly the view that colonial governors would have had 50
years before Washington became captain general of the United
States.  Thomas Hutchinson, when he was not reelected a
Representative from Boston (around 1770, I think) remarked that it
was too bad that voting was by numbers rather than by weight.  Later,
when he held office in only two instead of all three of the branches
of government, he would have thought that bills passed by the "mob"
in the House were cooled by the (by then royally-appointed, rather
than elected) Council.

Joel

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