The Seventeenth Amendment has US Senators elected by popular vote, instead of by state legislatures. Wikipedia has a painfully brief overview of its opponents' arguments: something about states' rights, and something about the populace being less circumspect in their voting than the legislatures.
Who opposed the amendment, and why? Did people take their arguments seriously then? Do historians take their arguments seriously now?
...and followups - do other countries' experience shed light on this? I see the theoretical advantage of a group of elder statesmen grownups curbing the nonsense of elected officials doing whatever it takes to stay elected and raising funds to an obscene degree. Is the UK House of Lords the only close equivalent? Do other commonwealth countries have a bicameral thing with the upper house not elected? And have they moved the ball like we did with Amendment #17?