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The Great Compromise: Ideas, Interests, and the. Politics of Constitution Making. Jack N. Rakove. O F all the questions that may be asked about the. Their so-called Great Compromise (or Connecticut Compromise in honor of its architects, Connecticut delegates Roger Sherman and Oliver. Connecticut Compromise, also known as Great Compromise, in United States history, the compromise offered by Connecticut delegates Roger Sherman and Oliver.
Connecticut Compromise – Wikipedia.
The Great Compromise of , also known as the Sherman Compromise, was an agreement reached during the Constitutional Convention of between delegates of the states with large and small populations that defined the structure of Congress and the number of representatives each state would have in Congress according to the United States Constitution. Perhaps the greatest debate undertaken by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in centered on how many representatives each state should have in the new government’s lawmaking branch, the U.
As is often the case in government and politics, resolving a great debate required a great compromise—in this case, the Great Compromise of Early in the Constitutional Convention, delegates envisioned a Congress consisting of only a single chamber with a certain number of representatives from each state.
Weeks before the Constitutional Convention convened on July 16, , the framers had already made several important decisions about how the Senate should be structured.
They rejected a proposal to have the House of Representatives elect senators from lists submitted by the individual state legislatures and agreed that those legislatures should elect their senators. In fact, until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in , all U. Senators were appointed by the state legislatures rather than elected by the people. By the end of its first day in session, the convention had already set the minimum age for senators at 30 and the term length at six years, as opposed to 25 for House members, with two-year terms.
However, the issue of equal representation threatened to destroy the seven-week-old convention. Delegates from the large states believed that because their states contributed proportionally more in taxes and military resources, they should enjoy proportionally greater representation in the Senate as well as in the House.
Delegates from small states argued—with similar intensity—that all states should be equally represented in both houses. When Roger Sherman proposed the Great Compromise, Benjamin Franklin agreed that each state should have an equal vote in the Senate in all matters—except those involving revenue and spending.
On July 16, the convention adopted the Great Compromise by a suspenseful margin of one vote. Many historians have noted that without that vote, there would likely have been no U.
Constitution today. The burning question was, how many representatives from each state? Delegates from smaller states supported the New Jersey Plan , under which each state would send the same number of representatives to Congress.
Delegates from the smaller states argued that, despite their lower populations, their states held equal legal status to that of the larger states, and that proportional representation would be unfair to them. Delegate Gunning Bedford, Jr.
Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman is credited with proposing the alternative of a “bicameral,” or two-chambered Congress made up of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Each state, suggested Sherman, would send an equal number of representatives to the Senate, and one representative to the House for every 30, residents of the state.
At the time, all the states except Pennsylvania had bicameral legislatures, so the delegates were familiar with the structure of Congress proposed by Sherman. The structure and powers of the new U.
Congress, as proposed by the delegates of the Constitutional Convention, were explained to the people by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in the Federalist Papers. The process of fairly determining the number of members of the House from each state is called ” apportionment. The first census in counted 4 million Americans. Based on that count, the total number of members elected to the House of Representatives grew from the original 65 to The current House membership of was set by Congress in In the case of Reynolds v.
Sims , the U. Supreme Court ruled that all of the congressional districts in each state must all have roughly the same population. Through apportionment and redistricting, high population urban areas are prevented from gaining an inequitable political advantage over less populated rural areas.
For example, if New York City were not split into several congressional districts, the vote of a single New York City resident would carry more influence on the House than all of the residents in the rest of the State of New York combined.
While the populations of the states varied in , the differences were far less pronounced than they are today. As a result, one then-unforeseen political impact of the Great Compromise is that states with smaller populations have disproportionately more power in the modern Senate. Due to this proportionate imbalance of voting power, interests in smaller states, such as coal mining in West Virginia or corn farming in Iowa, are more likely to benefit from federal funding through tax breaks and crop subsidies.
For example, in Wyoming, the state with the smallest population, each of its three electors represents a far smaller group of people than each of the 55 electoral votes cast by California, the most populous state. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies.
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Share Flipboard Email. Issues The U. Legal System U. Foreign Policy U. Liberal Politics U. By Robert Longley Robert Longley. Robert Longley is a U. Learn about our Editorial Process. Congress and the number of representatives each state would have in Congress under the U. The Great Compromise was brokered as an agreement between the large and small states during the Constitutional Convention of by Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman.
Under the Great Compromise, each state would get two representatives in the Senate and a variable number of representatives in the House in proportion to its population according to the decennial U. Cite this Article Format. Longley, Robert. The Great Compromise of About the Legislative Branch of U.
Have One? What Is a Caucus? Definition and Examples. What Is Majoritarianism? Why No Term Limits for Congress? The Constitution. Tips for Writing Effective Letters to Congress. Republic vs. Democracy: What Is the Difference? Qualifications to be a US Representative.
– Great compromise
The Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise, is one of the most influential and intense debates that arose during the Constitutional Convention in the summer of What was the Great Compromise, and what did it do? Who proposed the Great Compromise? And how did the Great Compromise resolve the dispute about representation? Keep reading for a definition of the Great Compromise, the result, and more. Created a bicameral system in which the lower House of Representatives would be elected at large, and representation was proportional to a state’s population.
The Upper House, the Senate, would be elected by state legislatures, and each state has proportional representation with two Senators. However, by the time the delegates assembled in Carpenters Hall, a strong nationalist movement began to influence some delegates to propose an entirely new system of government with more control over the states.
One of those delegates was James Madison. A portrait of James Madison. Source: Wikimedia Commons public domain. James Madison arrived at the Constitutional Convention prepared to present a case for an entirely new form of government. What he proposed is called the Virginia plan. Offered as a resolution on May 29, his plan was multifaceted and addressed many of the issues of representation, the structure of government, and nationalist sentiments he felt were lacking in the Articles of Confederation.
The Virginia plan presented three critical points of debate and a solution for each. The plan rejected state sovereignty in favor of a superior national government, including the power to override state laws. Second, the people would establish the federal government, not the states that established the Articles of Confederation, and national laws would operate directly on the citizens of the varying states. Ordinary voters would elect only the lower house of the national legislature, naming the upper house members.
Then both houses would choose the executive and judicial branches. Proposed by William Paterson, held onto the structure of the Articles of Confederation. It also guaranteed state equality in the federal government by maintaining that each state would have one vote in a unicameral legislature. Madison’s plan had two major flaws for those delegates not yet convinced of the nationalist agenda. First, the notion that the federal government could veto state laws was aberrant to most state politicians and citizens.
Second, the Virginia plan would give most federal power to the populous states because representation in the lower house depended on the state’s population. Had the Virginia Plan been adopted, it would have created a government where national authority reigned unchallenged and state power greatly diminished.
This debate over representation between large and small states became the most critical discussion of the convention. Many delegates realized that no other compromises could be made over any additional questions without resolving this issue.
The debate over representation lasted two months. The debate quickly focused on three key questions involving representation. Should there be proportional representation in both houses of the national legislature? The New Jersey Plan supporters made this question more prominent by agreeing to a bicameral legislature.
They saw it as another means of gaining representation for smaller states in the government. What should representation in either or both houses be proportional to; people, property, or a combination of both? Additionally, how should the representatives of each house be elected? The three questions were intertwined since a decision on one could determine the answers to others. Matters were considerably more complex, with more than two opinions on each issue.
A Portrait of Roger Sherman. As the delegates debated over two months, they only came to agree on a few matters. The debate continued over proportional representation in the Senate and the power of state governments. In mid-summer, the delegates from Connecticut proposed a resolution authored by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth.
The upper house, the Senate, would comprise two representatives from each state, elected by the state legislatures, maintaining the equality in the legislative branch demanded by the smaller states. The lower chamber, the House of Representatives, is apportioned by state population- through a national census every ten years. One aspect of a compromise is that all involved feel they have gained something they wanted while also feeling they could have more. In the Great Compromise, the delegates of the large and small states felt this way.
A legislative branch in which the larger states did not have the control and power in the national legislature they thought they thoroughly deserved. Their more significant populations meant they should have a greater influence on national issues. The smaller states gained some centralized control through the senate but had to give up the prospect of fully equal representation with the larger states on the national level.
The final result of the Great Compromise was a two-house legislative branch. The Lower House would be the House of Representatives, elected at large by the people, and each state in the House has proportional representation based on population. The Upper House would be the Senate, and each state would have two Senators elected by the state legislatures. This system gives the states with larger populations more representation in the Lower House, while the Upper House would have equal representation and give some sovereignty back to the states.
The delegates debated and concluded on the powers of each legislative body, such as giving the power of appropriation- monetary policy and taxation, to the Lower House and giving the authority to approve appointments to the Upper House, and giving each House the power to veto bills from the other. The results of the Great Compromise created the foundations for the U. Constitution’s legislative branch, but it led to one more crucial debate about representation. Who should be counted in a state population?
And should slaves be a part of a state’s population? These debates would continue for weeks and eventually lead to the infamous Three-Fifths Compromise. Created a bicameral system in which the House of Representatives lower house will be elected at large, and representation was proportional to a state’s population. The Great Compromise resolved the issue of representation in the legislative branch between the proposed Virginia and New Jersey Plans.
Select your language. Suggested languages for you:. Deutsch US. Americas English US. StudySmarter – The all-in-one study app. Link copied! Rate Get App Share. Sign up to use all features for free. Sign up now. The Virginia Plan v. Source: Wikimedia Commons public domain James Madison arrived at the Constitutional Convention prepared to present a case for an entirely new form of government.
Solving Representation: The Virginia Plan v. Source: Wikimedia Commons public domain As the delegates debated over two months, they only came to agree on a few matters. The Great Compromise – Key takeaways The debate over representation between large and small states became the most critical discussion of the convention. James Madison proposed the Virginia Plan as a solution to representation in the legislative branch, supported by the delegates of states with large populations William Paterson proposed the New Jersey Plan, supported by the delegates of states with smaller populations.
Roger Sherman of Connecticut proposed a compromising plan that combined the two other plans, called the Great Compromise. The Great Compromise c reated a bicameral system in which the House of Representatives’ lower house will be elected at large, and representation was proportional to a state’s population. References Klarman, M. What did the Great Compromise do? Who proposed The Great Compromise? Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut.
How did The Great Compromise resolve the dispute about representation? What did The Great Compromise decide?
Final The Great Compromise Quiz. Question The Delegation from what state proposed the Great Compromise? Show answer. Answer Connecticut. Show question. Question Who authored the proposal of the Great Compromise? Question What proposal became the foundational structure of the legislative branch? Answer The Virginia Plan. Question Who proposed the Virginia Plan? Answer James Madison. Question What was the plan for representation supported by delegates of small states? Answer The New Jersey Plan.
Question According to the Virginia plan, how were Senators elected? Answer They would be elected by the state delegations to the House of Representatives. Question Through the Great Compromise, how would Senators be elected? Answer By State Legislatures. Question How would delegates to the House of Representatives be elected?
Great compromise.The Great Compromise of 1787
The Connecticut Compromise (also known as the Great Compromise of or Sherman Compromise) was an agreement reached during the Constitutional Convention of. The Great Compromise was forged in a heated dispute during the Constitutional Convention: States with larger populations wanted.
