8.5 Resolution: The Great Compromise

• Articles of Confederation: The states

• James Madison: The People

The New Jersey Plan was warmly received by delegates from small states.  The majority of delegates, however, saw William Paterson's plan as offering little improvement over the Articles of Confederation and rejected it.  But they could not agree on what should replace it.

The debate over representation in Congress continued into July, with tempers rising day by day. To most delegates from large states, representation based on population seemed both logical and fair. “Can we forget for whom we are forming a Government?” asked James Wilson of Pennsylvania. “Is it for men, or for the imaginary beings called States?”

Wilson thought the answer was obvious, but his logic could not overcome the fears of small-state delegates.  

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One hot Saturday afternoon, Gunning Bedford of Delaware tore into the delegates from large states.  “They insist,” he said, “they will never hurt or injure the lesser states. ” His reply to his own concern was straightforward.  “ I do not, gentlemen, trust you! ” If the large states continued in their efforts to “crush the smaller states,” Bedford warned, “the small ones will find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith who will take them by the hand and do them justice. ”

Rufus King of Massachusetts was shocked at this reference to foreign powers, and he said that he was “grieved, that such a thought had entered his heart. ” Still, every delegate knew that Great Britain, France, and Spain were just waiting for the United States to fall apart so they could pick up the pieces.

Finally, a compromise was proposed based on a plan put forward earlier by the delegate from Connecticut, Roger Sherman. The compromise plan kept a two-house Congress.  

• The first house, the House of Representatives, would represent the people and would include a number of representatives from each state based on the state's population. 

• The second house, the Senate, would represent the states, and each state would have two senators elected by their state legislatures.

When it came time to decide, the vote was very close, but the plan, which would become known as the Great Compromise, was approved and saved the convention.