The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, elected by the people thereof for six years; and each senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies; provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
Amendment 17 was the second of two amendments ratified in 1913:
This amendment ... changed the manner in which senators were elected. Under the original Constitution, senators were selected by their state legislators. This amendment provided for the direct election of senators by the people of each state.... One commentator notes that since this amendment the national government has grown at the expense of the states.1
Although Senators are Biblically superfluous, the Constitution's original means of appointment was more Biblical than Amendment 17's provision for elections. The Seventeenth Amendment merely grants additional provisions for Biblically unlawful elections of Biblically unlawful Senators. See Chapter Four "Article 1: Legislative Usurpation" for additional information regarding the Constitutional Republic's unlawful Senate, and Chapter Five "Article 2: Executive Usurpation" for additional information regarding the Constitutional Republic's unlawful election process.
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1. David Gibbs, Jr. & David Gibbs III, Understanding the Constitution: Ten Things Every Christian Should Know About the Supreme Law of the Land (Seminole, FL: Christian Law Association: 2006) pp. 139-40.