3. America’s form of government was born out of compromise
On June 19th the delegates rejected the New Jersey Plan, and continued debate on the Virginia Plan. New York, the largest of the northern states, opposed Madison’s plan with one exception among its delegates. Alexander Hamilton favored Madison’s idea. By early July, the contentious debate had left the convention deadlocked. Five states favored the idea of a proportional lower house and equal votes in the upper house. Five states opposed the idea. Two did not vote, and Rhode Island was absent. The convention agreed to create a committee consisting of one member from each state to arrive at a solution. The committee recommended a compromise in which each state would have equal representation in the upper house and proportional representation in the lower. It also suggested that each state in the upper house would have a single vote.
Madison and Hamilton led the arguments against the arrangement, which included one representative in the lower house for every 40,000 free residents of a state. The Southern states at the time, except for Virginia, had smaller free populations, though large populations of enslaved people. The convention agreed to count enslaved people as three-fifths of the state’s total population. They also agreed that two members of each upper house delegation could vote independently of each other, rather than as a state. Madison and Hamilton agreed. Still, the debate roiled on, with the smaller states fearing a government dominated by the larger, more populous states. The final compromise created the Senate as the upper house, with equal representation among the states, and the House of Representatives with proportional representation based on population.