The Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States establishes the direct election of the United States Senate by popular vote. The amendment replaces Article I, Section 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which the Senate was elected by state legislatures. It also alters the method of replacing vacancies in the Senate, because it is consistent with the method of choice. The amendment was adopted in April 1913.
Thomas Jefferson used the philosophies of John Locke for the Declaration of Independence. The words "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" was an idea first stated by Lock in the Two Treatises on Government.
