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DID JEFFERSON FAVOR A UNICAMERAL LEGISLATURE?
> Although I have read many books on Jefferson, I have not been > able to find one topic in particular. Did Jefferson believe the US Senate was > undemocratic,and did he have any thoughts on unicameralism? I thought I had > read a letter in his later years to John Taylor critizing the Senate as > undemocratic,but I'm not sure. Also, do you know of any writings on > Unicameralism? I don't believe Jefferson ever supported the idea of a unicameral legislature. He wrote: "The first principle of a good government is certainly a distribution of its powers into executive, judiciary, and legislative, and a subdivision of the latter into two or three branches." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1787. ME 6:321 "I find my countrymen... think their own experience has so decidedly proved the necessity of two Houses to prevent the tyranny of one that they fear that this single error will shipwreck [a nation's] new constitution." --Thomas Jefferson to Rouchefoucauld, 1790. As to the Senate being undemocratic, I don't know of any passages expressing that idea. The only real criticism Jefferson had of the Senate was: "The term of office to our Senate... like that of the judges, [is] too long for my approbation." --Thomas Jefferson James Martin, 1813. ME 13:381