Called the “Great Compromise” or the “Connecticut Compromise,” this unique plan for congressional representation resolved the most controversial aspect of the drafting of the Constitution. ĭuring the summer of 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia established equal representation in the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State.
The Senate has changed significantly over the course of its history, but its unique role in the federal government remains anchored in the nation’s founding document. Finally, a Committee on Style and Arrangement proposed the language for the version of the Constitution signed by the delegates on September 17. Another Committee of Eleven (sometimes called the Committee on Postponed Parts) was appointed on August 31 to address questions still left unresolved by the Convention. On August 6 a Committee of Detail produced a draft Constitution that summarized the principles already agreed upon by the Convention. A Committee of Eleven (also called the Grand Committee), appointed on July 2, proposed a solution to an impasse over representation in the House and Senate. The plan for the new government, including the Senate, was developed over the course of the convention by delegates working in committees. The framers looked to precedents in the British system of government and the state constitutions. The characteristics of the Senate-the basis of representation, the number of senators per state, the qualifications for office, the terms of service, and the powers that the body exercises-were the product of fierce debate and a number of compromises at the Constitutional Convention. One house would be, in the words of Virginia’s George Mason, the “grand depository of the democratic principle of government.” To counter this popular influence in the national government, James Madison of Virginia proposed another house that would be small, deliberative, and independent from the larger, more democratic house. The delegates who gathered in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787, first to revise the existing form of government and then to frame a new Constitution, debated the idea of a Congress made up of two houses.
At the Federal Convention of 1787, now known as the Constitutional Convention, the framers of the United States Constitution established in Article I the structure and powers of Congress.
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