Article 1, Section 2, Clause 1

Document 16

A Native of Virginia, Observations upon the Proposed Plan of Federal Government

It will be asked by some,--Why should the Representatives to Congress be elected for two years, when in Virginia and the other States, the State Delegates are annually chosen? In answer to this question a variety of reasons occur; such as that they will have a great distance to go: That the purposes of their Legislation being purely federal, it will take them some time to become acquainted with the situation and interests of the respective States, as well as the relative situation and interest of the whole Union. That it would be difficult to get men of abilities to serve in an office, the re-election to which would be so frequent. If the election had been once in three years, it would perhaps have been an improvement. The unstable councils, the feeble laws, the relaxation of government which afflict this, and almost every State in the Union, may justly be attributed to the frequent changes which take place among the rulers in all the American governments.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 2, Article 1, Section 2, Clause 1, Document 16
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_2_1s16.html
The University of Chicago Press

The Writings of James Monroe. Edited by Stanislaus Murray Hamilton. 7 vols. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1898--1903.