Letter: Emotional response not correct toward flag-burning legislation

One of my favorite stories about the framers of our Constitution illustrates my point. Thomas Jefferson, who was in France when the Constitution was drafted, was surprised to see that the Congress had a House and a Senate rather then a unicameral (one house) legislature. He asked George Washington why this was so.

Washington supposedly asked Jefferson why he poured his tea in his saucer before drinking it. "To cool it," replied Jefferson. "Just so," Washington explained, "we pour House legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it." Thus our founders reasoned that the House, the people's body, supposedly would be more passionate than the cool and detached Senate.

The story illustrates the reason why our founders felt compelled to ensure that our Constitution was written with checks and balances so that legislation would be based on deliberation and not on the emotion of the moment.

Nicholas Vaskov

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