The Constitutional Convention: The Great Compromise.

The Constitutional Convention: The Constitutional Convention: The Great CompromiseThe Great Compromise

The Constitutional Convention was intended to amend the Articles of Confederation. Instead, those in

attendance set out to found a republic (the likes of which had never been seen),

which is still going strong well over 200 years later. To accomplish this task,

compromises had to be made. The Great Compromise designed the bicameral

congress the U.S. has today.

The Constitutional Convention: The Great Compromise

It's 1787. The ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION have proven to be too weak to create a workable

government. At the Philadelphia State House, now called Independence Hall, the same place

where the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE had

been signed 11 years before, for four months 55 delegates from 12 of the 13 states met to frame a

Constitution for a federal republic that would

last to today and beyond.

Even before Shays' Rebellion, people had been talking about the need to

strengthen the American government. When meeting at

Mount Vernon - George Washington's home - he, James

Madison, and others came up with the idea of convening a meeting of delegates from the states to amend

the Articles of Confederation.

This meeting happened in Annapolis, Maryland, but only five states sent delegates. It was at this

meeting that Alexander Hamilton's recommendation to convene another

reform meeting in Philadelphia in the spring of 1787 was forwarded to

the Continental Congress.

The states decided who they would send to the

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION as delegates. Several prominent

figures did not attend. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and

Patrick Henry were among those who were not in attendance.

Henry, who once said, 'Give me liberty or give me death,' now

said, 'I smell a rat.'

Of those who did attend, George Washington, who was noted for his patience and fairness, was

selected as the presiding officer. 55 delegates attended.

Today, they are usually regarded as great sages, but the delegates were

mostly lawyers, merchants, and planters who were there to represent

their personal and/or regional interests. It is amazing how the

group on several occasions was able to look past those personal interests and make amazing compromises.

The original purpose of the meeting - to amend the Articles of Confederation - was almost

instantly scrapped, and the decision to start from scratch on

a new document was made.

This decision proved to Patrick Henry all of his fears, and he

fought tooth and nail against the ratification of the Constitution

because the delegates had overstepped their purpose.

The Big QuestionHow should the new government be formed? There were two main plans. The New Jersey Plan is the

plan for the little guys. New Jersey isn't the smallest state, but

it certainly isn't big.

They came up with a plan that the little guys thought was fair:

all states get an equal number of representatives in the new

government regardless of state size.

The Virginia Plan is the plan for the big guys. Virginia is a big state with lots of people. The

Virginia Plan said that each state should gain representation based

on population. This would of course mean that Virginia would get far more representation than

New Jersey.

The Great CompromiseSince both plans had a bicameral legislature, the answer was really

quite simple.

Two separate houses would be established - one by population, as wanted for big states in the

Virginia Plan, and one where all states get equal representation, as wanted by the little states in the

New Jersey Plan.

This compromise is why today we have the Senate with two

senators for each state (we could call it the New Jersey Plan

Senator House) and the House of Representatives, which has each

state's representatives decided by population (we could call this the

Virginia Plan House).

Of course, today Virginia has 11 representatives - it doesn't seem that big next to California's 53.

Of course, there were many more sticking points at the convention.

One dark stain on the Constitution that has to be

mentioned is the three-fifths compromise.

Although the South did not want any rights for their slaves and

wanted slaves treated as property, they did want their slaves to count as population

when deciding their representation in the

government.

Since the Southern delegates would not move forward without

the slaves being counted, a compromise was reached. 3/5 of the slave population would be

counted towards the overall state population.