Is Compromise Always Fair

Also regarding fair representation, members of Congress under the Articles of the Confederation were appointed by state legislatures. With the passage of The Constitution, citizens themselves were able to directly vote for their representatives. The same was true for The Senate under The Constitution actually, and it as well has been changed to a people voting for their own representatives based system.

Along with the Constitution we have the Articles of Confederation. Under these Articles congress was a single house where each state had 2 to 7 members but only one vote. They selected executive judges and military officers as well as having power to make war and peace and conduct foreign affairs. The ability to have money Congress could borrow and print money, but they could not collect taxes or enforce laws, precisely it had to rely on the states to provide and enforce. Articles of Confederation was written to be a “framework for the government of the United States, it established a firm league of friendship among the states rather than a government of the people.” (book)

I believe the Great Compromise was a smart solution to solve a problem in our government. It created checks and balances within the three branches to prevent one having too much power

In the Great Compromise it stated that the legislative branch would be divided up into two groups. These two groups were called the senate and the house of representatives. One side would be based off of population while the other half would be based off of equality. Each side would create laws. In the great compromise each state had one senate which would later change into two. The senate wasn't based on size or population it was the same for every state. The house of representatives however this was the side that was based off of population. This resulted in some states having more representatives than others because some states had more population than

That is why there were many compromises during this time. The most famous of the compromises was the Great compromise. The Great Compromise took both the Virginia and New Jersey Plans and met in the middle. This was the start of the constitution and our new government plan. The argument was between large states and small states. The large states wanted to base representatives by population while the small states wanted all representation to be equal between states. Eventually James Madison with Benjamin Franklin’s help would come up with the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan stated that we were to have a bicameral government that consisted of the House of Representatives, that was based on population (what the large sates wanted), and the Senate, where all states had the same number of representatives. (What the small wanted.) with this bicameral government and the House of Representatives there comes another problem, how do we count slaves? Because the amount of representatives a state was given was based on their population any state with slaves obviously wanted slaves to count towards their population and any state that didn’t have slaves didn’t want them to count towards the population. The two sides in this argument were the North and the South. The South were the ones that wanted to have slaves count towards the population and the

delegates from Northern and Southern states had a difference of opinion on how slaves should be

However, the most important power was that Congress had the right to obtain territory and control development of the western territories, which was previously controlled by their mother country, Great Britain. (Doc D) With the Articles of Confederation, the United States was able to break away from their mother country and become a free nation, setting up their own government. Although the articles set the United States free, it was unable to provide them with a solid government. Leaders like John Jay and James Madison criticized the Articles of Confederation because of the weak government. (Doc G) There were several problems between the states and the central government. For instance, sometimes the states refused to give the government the money it needed, and they engaged in tariff wars with one another, bringing interstate trading to a halt. The government could not pay off the debts it had incurred during the revolution, including paying soldiers who had fought in the war and citizens who had provided supplies to the cause. (Doc C) In addition, the new nation was unable to defend its borders from British and Spanish encroachment because it could not pay for an army when the states would not contribute the necessary funds. Another serious problem was that Congress could not pass needed measures because they lacked nine-state majority required to become laws. The states

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

The Great Compromise represented the interests of the people who wanted a strong national government and the interests of people who wanted a strong state government. Roger Sherman came up with the idea that took the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan into consideration. The decision that he came up with was amazing. He made the House of Representatives the house where the people had a voice because the amount of representatives each state had was based purely off of the population. Knowing that the people who wanted a strong national government would not be happy with the state having so much power he made the

When the founding fathers sat down at the table to discuss the process of the national election of the highest office of the land they had a lot of things on their minds. For starters the country as they knew it was composed of 13 states, each with a cut-throat either be in

They came up with the Great Compromise. The Great Compromise gave both the little states and big states advantages. In Document D, it says, “The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative.” This gives the advantage to the large states in the House because they have more representatives. But, if the big states had more power than the small states in legislature, it would be tyranny. So, to keep that from happening, the small states must get equal representation. Document D states “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state…” This gives the advantage to the small states because even though their population is less, there are more representatives from the small states. The Great Compromise guards against tyranny because it gives the big states the advantage in the House of Representatives, and the little states the advantage in the Senate, which balances the

During the Constitutional Convention, two plans were proposed called the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. This compromise is the combination of those two plans which helped to create the House of Representatives and the Senate. To please the larger states, the House of Representatives was based on population which was part of the Virginia Plan. (Doc. D). The Senate of the United States shall be composed by the legislatures thereof for six years; and each senator shall have one vote.” (Doc. D). Thus, it is vital that the representation of each state is equitable so that large and small states both can have a say in government. If the Constitution was not existent, some states would have total control over other states because the smaller states would not have a say. The powers the people have, also keep people who make laws from being in the government for too long because they could gain too much power. This is the last way the Constitution guards from

This worked out to satisfaction of the smaller states and for the larger states they were given a House of Representatives that would consist of a larger body of representatives for each state in proportion to the amount of the people in that state.

This essay is a review of the Decisions in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. The body of this work will highlight a few of the differences found in Collier and Collier’s Decision in Philadelphia (2007) and Middlekauff’s The Glorious Cause (2005) and paint a picture for the reason for the convention, the need for a change from the Articles of Confederation, as well as some of the key takeaways from the Constitution that impact us still today. The Decision in Philadelphia highlights well the overarching theme of compromise. Compromise was and still is the cornerstone to the government in the United States of America. This essay will showcase this theme over and over as it was critical to allow for the collective good to succeed. Webster’s dictionary defines compromise as the settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual concessions. Compromise is further defined as the blending qualities of different things, those different things were the ideals, principles, and values of the Constitution’s framers.

The Articles of Confederation, in the spirit of fairness, gave each state one vote. This vote meant that states were equal despite variations in size and population. This was also one of the emotive issues that formulators of the new constitution had to