voted down by the delegates, but its introduction made apparent yet another division within the convention that would become a source of conflict as the delegates moved toward developing the Constitution: the question of how the states should be represented in the new government envisioned by the Virginia Plan. The smaller, less heavily popu-
lated states wanted representa- tion in the legislative branch of the new government to be equal for every state, as it was under the Articles of Confederation. The Virginia Plan, however, favored the larger, more heavily populated states by providing that represen- tation in the legislative branch of the new government be propor- tionate to the states’ populations. The deadlock these competing desires produced was finally bro- ken when Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, proposed the basis for what has been called the Con- necticut Plan or the “Great Com- promise.” The “Great Compro- mise” stipulated that the legislative branch of the new government should have two houses and that representation should be equal in
Roger Sherman helped end the political impasse that arose between large and small states at the Constitutional Convention when he proposed the Connect- icut Plan, which has been called the “Great Compromise.”
one house and based on population in the other, thus giving rise to the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The other great conflict to emerge at the Constitutional Convention was between Northern states and Southern states. Namely, they disagreed over the issue of slavery. The Northern states wanted the federal government to be able to regulate the importation of slaves into the United States; the Southern states did not want this. As with the conflict that arose over the issue of representation, a compromise turned out to be the solution to this conflict. In the end, the delegates included five provisions in the Constitution that were related to slavery, the foremost of which has become known as the “slave trade clause.” This clause essentially postponed a decision on slavery and made it impossible for Congress to prohibit the importation of slaves to the United States until after 1808.
Another dispute that arose at the convention with regard to the thorny issue of slavery had to do with how slaves would be counted as part of the population for the purposes of determining direct taxes on the states and how many representatives each state would be entitled to in Congress. A compromise on this issue was eventually reached when James Wilson proposed that only three-fifths of a state’s slaves should be counted for taxation and representation
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