SEVENTEENTH AMENDMENT RATIFIED ON THIS DAY IN 1913: Up until that point, state legislatures decided who would be a U.S. Senator. The 17^th Amendment made it a matter for popular election. Was this the death knell of state power in Washington? Did it mean that federalism was doomed? Or were democratic elections for Senators an improvement on the backroom deals that had produced the Senate in an earlier era? I report. You decide. All I can say is that it’s rather unlikely the country will ever go back.