seven States with a unanimous vote, cannot deprive the little State of Delaware of her equal representation in this body. In the face of that grand tribute to the equality and sovereignty of the States, who cares for the taunts of these modern Lilliputians,superscript,1,baseline, in the science of government? Their argument springs from the cheek and not from the brain, and is made for partisan and not for patriotic purposes. The man who can go before the American people and mock at this Constitutional sovereignty of the States mocks at what our fathers made the grandest feature of the system, and the only one which the sovereign people bound themselves always to respect and never to change.

Question

seven States with a unanimous vote, cannot deprive the little State of Delaware of her equal representation in this body. In the face of that grand tribute to the equality and sovereignty of the States, who cares for the taunts of these modern Lilliputians,superscript,1,baseline, in the science of government? Their argument springs from the cheek and not from the brain, and is made for partisan and not for patriotic purposes. The man who can go before the American people and mock at this Constitutional sovereignty of the States mocks at what our fathers made the grandest feature of the system, and the only one which the sovereign people bound themselves always to respect and never to change.
But where, I repeat, does this extraordinary power lie—this power that can give a man a title to a seat in this body who was not chosen thereto by the Legislature of his State? We are told that it lies in the Senate! What a paradox is this! It lies in the Senate! Think of it! The Senate, which is the very body organized for the purpose of preserving this right of the States, organized to represent the equality of the States, has power to destroy that right and equality!
 
(from "Remarks in the U.S. Senate, May 11, 1880" by Benjamin H. Hill)
 
                         
,begin bold,,superscript,1,baseline,Lilliputians,end bold,  small-minded people
Question
These sentences are from the last paragraph of the excerpt.
 
"The Senate, which is the very body organized for the purpose of preserving this right of the States, organized to represent the equality of the States, has power to destroy that right and equality!"
 
Which statement ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, describes the role of these sentences in the excerpt?
Answer options with 4 options
1.	
They condemn the Senate's past actions as being self-interested and unpatriotic.
2.	
They state that the Senate alone has the authority to overthrow the Constitution.
3.	
They support the speaker's premise that the authors of the policy are misguided.
4.	
They explain how political power comes from the people and not the government.

GPT-4o mini · Answer

The statement that best describes the role of the sentences in the excerpt is:

They condemn the Senate's past actions as being self-interested and unpatriotic.

In this part of the excerpt, the speaker is criticizing the Senate's ability to undermine the very rights and equality of the States that it was designed to uphold, suggesting that such actions are contrary to the intentions of the Constitution and the principles of patriotism.