The framers of the Constitution had a set image they wanted to put forth in America, and to get the document ratified they were forced to make compromises. Two of the most important compromises are the 3/5 clause and “Great Compromise”. During, the Constitutional Convention there was a deadlock about representation. Arguments from both sides seem valid, big states argue representation should be based on population while, small states argue it should be equal representation. In need for a solution, a few men proposed a bicameral legislature. Which, allows for both population based representation, and equal presentation by having a House of Representatives and a Senate. The Senate has equal representation that allows 2 senators from each state, …show more content…
Obviously, that would be greatly unfair to the northern states because the south would have more seats in the House of Representatives meaning unfair representation. As a result, many northern states refused to allow this happen so both regions came to an agreement that allowed slaves to be counted as 3/5 of a person, when doing a census for determining seats in the House of Representatives. Finally, Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 was put into the Constitution making the compromise official. The whole Convention was deadlocked on the slave representation issue which almost completely fell apart if nothing was to be done, but lucky the compromise kept the Constitutional Convention together. Moreover, the men who opposed slavery, but accepted the 3/5 clause did so knowing the Constitution had more good to give than some of the evils written in it. They could have thought the Constitution had provisions written down that could eventually outlaw slavery or maybe they realized this new government was greatly beneficial to all Americans. Although, we can now all agree that even though the 3/5th clause is wrong, it gave America a chance to become a great
The idea of the Virginia plan to propose representation based on population became the House of Representatives. 10. The idea of the New Jersey Plan to propose representation based on one vote per state became the House of Senate. 11. The Constitutional Convention created the Great Compromise to have a bicameral legislature, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The problem of each state’s number of seats in the House of Representatives became a major issue when the Constitution was being drafted in 1787. The population of slaves would be counted as three-fifths in total when apportioning Representatives, as well as Presidential electors and taxes. The Three-Fifths Compromise was proposed by James Wilson and Roger Sherman, who were both delegates for the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Initially, taxes were levied not in accordance to the population numbers, but the actual value of the land. This would provide the slaveholders to have many more seats in the House of Representatives and much more representation within the Electoral College. It was James Madison that would suggest the Three-Fifths Compromise to be made .
There are big states and small states, and the small states felt that they were not being represented fairly. This is when the New Jersey Plan was made. There would be a House of Representatives which was based on population. The Constitution state in Article 1, Section 2 that “representatives… shall be apportioned… according to… (population)...” (Document D). There was also the Senate, and there would be two representatives from each state. The Constitution stated “The senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state…” (Document D). This was fight between big states and small states for equal representation and this was a fair compromise for everyone. No one state or person is able to gain too much power this way and everyone is fairly
“Perhaps the greatest debate undertaken by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 centered on how many representatives each state should have in the new government's lawmaking branch, the U.S. Congress. As is often the case in government and politics, resolving a great debate, required a Great Compromise.”(About) The Great Compromise that was reached by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth on July 16, 1787 incorporated the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan in parts. It formed a bicameral legislature as proposed by the Virginia Plan. It also decided that the lower house would have representatives in proportion to population of each state. These representatives would be elected by the people. However, while deciding on the representation of states in the upper house, as per the tenets of the Great Compromise, each state would have two members, irrespective of its population.
During that time, slavery was an issue in the United States. The Southern states wanted their population, including their slave population to be counted toward their representation in the House of Representatives, the reason for this was because the higher the population, the more representatives they would receive; on the other hand, the Southern States did not want their slave population counted toward their taxes, this was because, the higher the population, the more taxes the south would have to pay; the Northern States disagreed with the Southern States on both matters, there were fewer slave states in the north so the sum of the slaves and the ordinary people would not help the northern states earn representation. Secondly, the northern states felt that if the southern states were allowed to count slaves as part of their population for representation, they should also be counted for taxation. The solution for this confusion was the Three-Fifths Compromise, which each slave would count as three-fifths of a person for both representation and taxation
This solution was to become known as the Great Compromise. In this plan, designed to be acceptable to both large and small states, the people would be represented proportionally in one branch of the legislature, called the House of Representatives (the lower legislative house). The states would be represented in another house called the Senate (the upper house). In the lower house, each state had a representative for everyone delegate. In the upper house, each state was guaranteed two senators, regardless of its
This may have balanced the slave to non-slave state count in the union but it also basically flat out divided the nation based on slavery. Instead of solving the problem it was a temporarily solution that eventually lead to struggles between the North and the South over the introduction of future western states into the union on the issue of slavery. The passing of this compromise was solely due to the people in Congress, and the president and had nothing to do with the Constitution what so ever.
Amongst many of the compromises and laws that were created during the establishment of the United States was the Three-Fifths Compromise, which stated that each slave was worth three-fifths of a person.
With a final decision of five to four, the states passed the Great Compromise and it was officially adopted in July 16, 1781. The Great Compromise proposed that the United States would have a bi-cameral legislature instead of an unicameral legislature. There would be two houses: an upper house known as The Senate, and a lower house as The House of Representatives. There would be two senators per state, which favored the equality that small states were longing for. The number of House of Representatives per state would depend on how populous the state was according to the decennial census, giving citizens in large states equal power to citizens of small states. Senators were to be appointed by the State legislatures and would have six-year terms. Whereas the members of The House of Representatives are elected by the public vote and have two-year terms.
The Solution was that congress was not allowed to mess around with slavery for a certain amount of time after the constitution was made. The 3/5's Compromise is said to have started the conflict between the North and the South. This divided the nation because the North had little slave’s due to the factories, but the South had more slaves than they did salve owners due to the plentiful of plantations. The North didn't want slaves to be counted because counting slaves would give the South an advantage to having more representative in the lower house since it is counted by population. The 3/5's Compromise called for exactly 3/5th of the slaves in a state to be counted when determining the number of the congress delegates a state would obtain.
James Madison once said that, “The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” (Introduction Document) However, in more modern words tyranny can be described as “harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual- like a king or dictator.” (Introduction Document) The American colonies had just freed themselves from the tyranny of King George III, and were in search of a frame of government to rule by.
The Three-Fifths Compromise of the Constitution was an agreement between Southern and Northern states in which three-fifths of the population of slaves would be counted for representation purposes for the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. Those who opposed slavery generally wished to count only the free inhabitants of each state. Those who supported slavery wanted to count slaves in their actual numbers. The so-called compromise of counting "all other persons" as only three-fifths was for the benefit of Southern power
The House of Representatives uses the states' population to determine how many representatives each state receives in the House. In the southern states, they thought that everyone, including slaves, should be counted. The northern states did not think that it was fair to count the slaves in the total population, since there were a lot more slaves in the south than the north. Both sides agreed to the 3/5 Compromise. This compromise said that for every 5 slaves, they would be counted as 3 citizens. Therefore, 60% of the slave population would be used when the states' population is counted. Slavery in the United States lasted until towards the end of the Civil War and even some after the Emancipation Proclamation, since it only freed slaves in the South and not in the North.
The Establishing Ancestors of the U.S. preferred a bicameral legislature. The impression was to have the Senate be richer and intelligent. The Senate was fashioned to be a steadying force, selected not via mass voters, but nominated through the State legislators. A forum agency is allotted once the two boardrooms cannot decide on the same phrasing of a plan, and comprises a minor amount of politicians from each boardroom. National legislators elected the Senate and senators had to have an important total of property organized to be considered commendable and levelheaded enough for the situation. A chunk of the Great Compromise, the Establishing Fathers established a form of bicameralism in which the superior house would have states exemplified
The next, more vital to the future of America, was the Three Fifths clause. The Three Fifths clause was set in place so that the southern states, which had significantly less people, get more say in the House of Representatives than their free, white population warranted. The Three Fifths clause added three fifths of the total slave population to the free population of the state in order to be more equal to the northern states whose population of free men was overwhelming to the amount in the southern states.