It was really quite simple: Angry people in virtually every state demanded it and threatened to call a second constitutional convention. Almost 2/3 of the states had issued convention calls.
The reason the people were angered was because partisan politics in the state legislatures left senate seats unfilled while the legislators carried on with their partisan squabbling.
A constitutional convention was feared by Congress for obvious and historical reasons. The first constitutional convention, called to fix the Articles of Confederation, did no such thing, but went on to create a completely new government.
Fear of what a second convention could do, limits attached notwithstanding, prompted Congress to frame and pass an amendment and send it to the states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_ConstitutionVery dangerous having people who know little or nothing about the constitution and its history demanding that it be changed to suit their political whims.
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