What was the Great Compromise?

The Great Compromise, also called the Connecticut Compromise, was the agreement reached at the Constitutional Convention on July 16, 1787 that resolved the most divisive question of the convention by giving each state equal representation in the Senate and proportional representation by population in the House of Representatives.

The conflict had developed over the previous six weeks. The Virginia Plan introduced by Edmund Randolph on May 29, 1787, drafted largely by James Madison, proposed a bicameral national legislature in which both chambers would be apportioned by population. Large states like Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts supported the plan because their populations would translate into power in both chambers. Small states like Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and Connecticut feared they would be permanently outvoted.

William Paterson presented the New Jersey Plan on June 15, 1787 as a counter, calling for equal representation of states in a single chamber, much as the Articles of Confederation provided. Debate raged through June and into July with no agreement, threatening to shatter the convention. On July 2, 1787 the convention deadlocked five to five with Georgia divided.

Eleven days of work followed in a Grand Committee chaired by Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and including a delegate from each state. Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Oliver Ellsworth, also of Connecticut, advanced the compromise that took the Connecticut name. They proposed that the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, be apportioned by population and given the power to originate revenue bills, satisfying large states. The upper chamber, the Senate, would have two members per state regardless of population, satisfying small states. Senators would be chosen by state legislatures (until the Seventeenth Amendment of 1913 changed selection to direct popular election) and serve six year terms staggered every two years to insulate the body from short term passions.

The Grand Committee report came back on July 5 and the convention adopted the compromise by a 5 to 4 vote on July 16, 1787 with Massachusetts split. Without the compromise the convention would almost certainly have collapsed. The agreement also set up the Three-Fifths Compromise on slavery (adopted July 12, 1787) and the eventual electoral college, both of which depended on the apportionment formula.

The Senate's structure remains the principal protection of small state interests in the federal government and a frequent target of debate over majority rule. The House of Representatives now has 435 voting members apportioned by population, while the Senate has 100, two from each of the 50 states.