[Teacher317]

The 16th and 17th were passed when the Socialist party had a decent influence in American politics. Their quickly growing numbers (from 13,000 registered voters in 1901 to 118,000 in 1912) made them an occasional player on the stage. The 17th was a Eugene Debs creation. (Debs got 400,000 votes for President in 1904)

[Publius]

An interesting note:

In his first State of the Union message in December 1829, Andrew Jackson asked Congress to send 3 constitutional amendments to the states for ratification.

1. The word "republic" was to be replaced by the word "democracy".
2. The Electoral College was to be abolished, and the president was to be elected by direct popular vote.
3. The practice of selecting senators by state legislature was to be replaced by the direct election of senators.

None of Jackson's proposed amendments made it through Congress.

It should be noted that these ideas were percolating within government long before Debs.

[Freedom4US]

Debs was in prison when he got those 400k votes it should be pointed out.