The Connecticut Compromise is Passed: July 16, 1787

This text comes from our book, From Sea to Shining Sea.

George Washington had wanted only one thing after the war—to spend the remainder of his life with his wife, Martha, on their Mount Vernon plantation. He wanted nothing more of war, and he certainly wanted nothing to do with politics. The life of a gentleman farmer was what Washington desired; but as before, if his country asked for his services, he would serve. 

The country did ask for Washington’s services. This time, he served as the president of the convention that would meet in Philadelphia to draw up a new constitution. Though as president, Washington could not participate in the convention’s decision making, he would serve a very important function. It would be his task to bring unity to a group of men who had very different opinions about how to form the new government. Only Washington could do this, for he was a man all the delegates respected. 

Except for Washington, who was 55 years old, and Benjamin Franklin, who was 80, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were younger men. They were divided pretty much into two groups. The first favored a strong national government and wanted the states to give up more of their powers. The second group feared a strong national government and wanted to make sure that the states did not lose too many of their powers. 

Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C.

Those who favored a strong national government supported what was called the “Virginia Plan,” which Edmund Randolph of Virginia introduced to the convention. According to the Virginia Plan, the new government would have a president and a supreme court. The Congress would be divided into two houses, each filled with representatives from the states. The members of the lower house would be elected by the people. The members of the upper house, called the Senate, would be appointed by the members of the lower house. 

Unlike the Articles of Confederation, which gave each state one vote in Congress, the Virginia Plan gave larger states more votes than smaller states in both houses of congress. (The larger states were those with a larger population; the smaller states, those with a smaller population.) In this way, the states would not have equal representation, and laws would be passed if most of the representatives of the people in the United States wanted them, not if most of the states wanted them. 

The White House, where the United States president lives and works

The men who supported the Virginia Plan at first controlled the convention. Those delegates who wanted to protect state power did not have a plan to match the Virginia Plan. So, most of the discussions were about how to adjust the Virginia Plan. Should there be one president, or two? Some of the delegates thought having one president was too much like having a king. Should members of Congress be elected by the people or appointed by state legislatures? James Madison of Virginia thought the people should elect members of both the lower house and the Senate, while men like Roger Sherman of Connecticut thought the people could not be trusted to elect members of the federal government. Though George Mason of Virginia agreed with Madison that the people should elect the members of the lower house of Congress, he and others thought state legislatures should appoint members of the Senate. 

If the supporters of the Virginia Plan thought no one at the convention would oppose them, they were wrong. On June 9, William Paterson spoke out in favor of the small states and of those who wanted to protect state power. His own state of New Jersey, he said, would never accept the Virginia Plan. On June 15, he surprised the delegates by offering another plan for the constitution—the New Jersey Plan. This plan stated that only small changes should be made to the Articles of Confederation. More importantly, it said that all states should continue to have equal representation in the federal government: one vote per state. 

Pennsylvania Avenue, which connects the White House and the United States Capitol

Those delegates who wanted a strong federal government thought it was unfair for smaller states to have the same power as larger states. When the New Jersey Plan was brought up for a vote on June 19, it was defeated. This did not discourage the delegates from small states like New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland; they declared they would never enter into a union that had a constitution based on the Virginia Plan. For many days both sides argued and fought, but they could come to no agreement on the chief question: should states be treated equally in Congress, or should states with more people have more representatives than states with fewer people? Unless the delegates could agree on this question, it looked as if the convention would break up without having written a constitution. 

It was Roger Sherman who saved the convention with what was called the Connecticut Compromise. Sherman had offered this compromise in June, after Paterson presented his New Jersey Plan, but no one was then interested in it. Now, in July, when it was clear that the delegates from small states and the delegates from large states could not agree, all were ready to listen to Sherman. The Connecticut Compromise said that in the lower house, larger states should have more representatives than smaller states. But in the Senate, each state should have the same number of representatives as any other state (two senators per state). The convention voted on the Connecticut Compromise and passed it on July 16.