TURNING POINTS
The Knife-Edge Vote That Shaped Congress
In Philadelphia, delegates solved a crisis of representation by giving the nation one chamber for people and another for states.
The Great Compromise ended the Constitutional Convention’s bitter fight over representation by creating a House based on population and a Senate where every state held equal power.
In July 1787, delegates at the Pennsylvania State House faced a question they could not evade: Would the proposed national legislature represent Americans as individuals, or would it represent the states as political equals?
The answer would determine who could govern the new republic. Virginia, the most populous state, resisted entering a stronger union only to have its influence reduced to the level of Delaware. Delaware and other small states saw the reverse danger. If representation followed population alone, a few large states could repeatedly outvote them.
The settlement now called the Great Compromise, or Connecticut Compromise, did not remove either side’s concern. Instead, it divided legislative power between two chambers: a House of Representatives apportioned by population and a Senate in which every state received equal representation. [1]
Two Plans, Two Views of Union
The convention had gathered to replace the Articles of Confederation, whose one-house Congress gave each state a single vote. On May 29, Edmund Randolph introduced the Virginia Plan, backed by James Madison. It proposed a national legislature with two branches, each based on population or wealth. [2]
On June 15, William Paterson of New Jersey offered an alternative: a one-house legislature that preserved equal state voting, as under the Articles. [2]
Large-state delegates feared that equal voting would allow a minority of Americans to block measures supported by most people. Small-state delegates feared that proportional representation would leave their states dependent on larger neighbors. The dispute turned on a basic question: Was the Union a compact among states, a government of the people, or both?
Connecticut’s Roger Sherman had proposed a middle course on June 11: proportional representation in one branch and equal state voting in the other. His Connecticut colleague, Oliver Ellsworth, later argued for state equality in the second branch. [1][2]
A Tie and a Committee
On July 2, a vote on Ellsworth’s motion for equal state representation in the Senate ended in a 5–5 tie, with one delegation divided. The convention responded by creating a Grand Committee, with one member from each of the eleven states then represented, to seek a settlement. [3]
Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts chaired the committee. Its report, delivered on July 5, offered linked concessions: House seats apportioned by population, equal representation for states in the Senate, and a requirement that revenue and appropriations bills begin in the House. Benjamin Franklin helped secure support for the money-bill provision. [2]
The arrangement also carried a grave injustice. House representation and direct taxation were tied to a count that included free inhabitants and three-fifths of enslaved people. Delegates adopted that formula on July 12. It increased the political weight of slaveholding states without recognizing enslaved people as citizens or granting them political rights. [2]
The fight over representation and the Constitution’s accommodation of slavery were therefore entwined in the convention’s work, rather than wholly separate matters.
The July 16 Vote
On July 16, the convention adopted the compromise by five state delegations to four, with Massachusetts divided. Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina voted yes. Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia voted no. [3]
The tally did not end the resistance. Large-state delegates met the next day to consider challenging the settlement, but chose to remain in the convention. [4]
On July 23, delegates agreed that senators would vote individually rather than as a state delegation casting one bloc vote. Equal state representation remained, but the Senate became a body of individual legislators. [4]
The completed Constitution gave House members two-year terms and senators six-year terms, creating two chambers with different constituencies and political rhythms. [1]
A Bargain Protected From Ordinary Amendment
Near the convention’s close, delegates added an extraordinary protection to Article V: no state may be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that state’s consent. [5]
That provision gives equal Senate representation unusual constitutional security. Amendments generally require broad national and state approval, but the amendment process cannot remove a state’s equal representation in the Senate without its consent. [5]
The Great Compromise did not resolve every conflict carried into the Constitution. It did establish the two-chamber Congress that endures today: one chamber built around population, the other around the states’ equal standing in the Union.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is associated with the Great Compromise?
The compromise is chiefly associated with Connecticut delegates Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth. Sherman advanced the basic two-chamber approach, while Ellsworth argued for equal state representation in the Senate. The final agreement was shaped by the Grand Committee and adopted by the convention. [1][2]
What was the vote on July 16, 1787?
The convention adopted the compromise by five state delegations to four, with Massachusetts divided. Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina supported it; Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia opposed it. [3]
TIMELINE
Key moments
Sources
- A Great Compromise - U.S. Senate — United States Senate Historical Office
- About the Senate & the U.S. Constitution | Equal State Representation — United States Senate Historical Office
- Act II: The Connecticut Compromise - Teaching American History — Ashbrook Center at Ashland University
- Day-by-Day Summary of the Convention (July 16-23, 1787) — Ashbrook Center at Ashland University
- Article V, U.S. Constitution - National Archives — U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
- The Founding Fathers: Connecticut - National Archives — U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
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