Constitutional Compromises: The Great Compromise

Section One
On May 17th of 1787, fifty-five men secretly met in Philadelphia to discuss a complete overhaul of the Federal government. With the exception of Rhode Island, these men came from all over the states: large and small, north and south. This diversity in delegates helped create a balance of ideas that would become known as constitutional compromises. Without these integral ideas coming together, we would not have the government we know today.
The delegates of Virginia were the first and most voiced of the crowd. They came straight in with a clear idea of what they wanted to achieve. Edmund Randolph, governor of Virginia, opened the debate with a long speech about the evils of the Articles of Confederation. He emphasized the importance
He suggested a plan that would take both large and small states into account. It proposed a bicameral legislature set up similarly to the Virginia Plan, however each house set its number of representatives differently. The House of Representatives would be based on the population of each state. On the other hand, the senate would always have two representatives per state, regardless of the its size. Although some were still not happy with its provisions, the proposal eventually passed. It became known as The Great
The southern states wanted to include slaves as a part of their population to determine representatives. The northern states argued that they were not free, tax paying individuals and should therefore not count. James Wilson, a delegate from Pennsylvania, offered a solution that would garner support of southern states, while continuing to appeal to the north. It stated that each enslaved individual count as three fifths of a person. This would allow them to account for slaves when determining representation under the provision that they paid three fifths of taxes per enslaved person counted. This was called the Three Fifths