44

1

a problem, of trying to find out how we got where we are

2

or, if you want to put it, "How we got into the mess that

3

we is in. " And, having done that, it seems to me that as

4

rational human beings we are in a little better position

5

to figure out what we ought to do next, where we go from

6

here.

7

I start this little survey with the observation

8

that it seems to me that in this whole controversy over

9

unicameralism and bicameralism that there has been a mini-

10

mum amount of research and of talk; in other words, there

11

has been a whole lot more heat than there has been light.

12

The beginning of this goes back, of course,

13

to the colonial times. We had bicameral legislatures.

14

In the latter colonial period, we began to get a few

15

unicameral ones which lasted for a relatively short period,

16

but it seems to me interesting that the people in these

17

several colonies at that time were much more venturesome,

18

much more willing to try new ideas and experiment than have

19

been the people that lived during our lifetimes.

20

These unicamerals existed in Georgia, Pennsyl-

21

vania, Vermont. Georgia changed to a bicameral in 1789 or