The Great Compromise: How Roger Sherman Inspired a New Course for America’s Democracy at the 1787 Constitutional Convention

In late May 1787 shortly after the subjugation of the British Colonial Government in America, 55 American delegates including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison etc met at the state house in Philadelphia Pennsylvania to decide a constitutional framework for the new Republic. There were currently 13 States of the Republic. Part of the focal points of the Constitutional convention was to avoid the flaws of the moribund articles of confederation which had created a weak centre and too powerful component regions.

The delegates led by George Washington went into serious debate, and lots of compromises were made. Virtually all the delegates agreed that the national government must be made stronger. Many believed that with just a few changes the articles of the confederation could actually be improved upon and be made to achieve the same goal. However, delegates like James Madison, Edward Randolph and George Mason from Virginia felt that the articles must be completely discarded and an entirely new constitution should be drafted.

The Virginia delegates argue that in the new draft, congress should have more powers than the states; the national government should have an executive branch to implement laws created by the Congress and a judicial branch to interpret the laws. It was also proposed in the Virginia plan that states with larger population should have more representatives in congress than smaller states.

However, the idea that states with larger population should have more power was contested by the delegates of the small states. William Peterson of New Jersey argued that each state irrespective of the size should have the same number of representatives at the congress to avoid unequal distribution of power among the states. His argument:

‘’There is no more reason that a great individual state, contributing much, should have much votes than a small one, contributing little, than a rich individual citizen should have more votes than a poor one.’’

The debate continued until a compromise was reached. Roger Sherman of Connecticut suggested that congress should be made up of two houses; one to be called the Senate and the other to be called the House of Representatives. In the Senate, each and every state would be represented by two senators. Hence, the state would be equal in power at the senate. However, in the House of Representatives, population would determine the number of representatives each state had. Thus, large state would have more representatives than small states.

After a critical review of Roger Sherman’s proposition, the convention finally agreed to it, and it was referred to as the Great Compromise