Collection: The Gilder Lehrman Collection, 1493-1859.

For three and a half months during a hot, muggy Philadelphia summer, the delegates debated remarkably sensitive issues: among them were whether the national government should be allowed to veto state laws and whether the states should be eliminated altogether. To encourage the delegates to speak candidly, the Constitutional Convention took extraordinary steps to insure secrecy. Sentries were posted at the doors of Independence Hall, and no copies of the journal were permitted. Delegates were urged to burn their notes. Nevertheless, some of the notes kept by delegates survive, including those of Pierce Butler of South Carolina. Here, Butler, a wealthy planter who was also a champion of backcountry interests in South Carolina calling for greater representation for western interests and moving the state capital westward, summarizes a plan for the new government presented by delegates from Virginia. The Virginia Plan, written by James Madison but presented by Edmund Randolph (1753-1813), proposed a national legislature divided into two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Voters in each state would elect members of the House of Representatives. Under the Virginia Plan, population would determine the number of representatives a state would have in the House. Under Madison's plan, the House of Representatives would select members of the Senate from candidates suggested by state legislatures. The House would also choose members of the judiciary and a President, who would serve for seven years. Congress would have the power to override state legislation. Many delegates objected to the authority over state laws that the Virginia Plan gave Congress. Delegates from small states protested that the plan would give larger states too much power in the national government. New Jersey proposed that all states have an equal number of representatives. Under the New Jersey Plan, which strongly resembled the government under the Articles of Confederation, Congress would consist of only one house, to be elected by the state legislatures, not directly by the people. Delegates rejected both the Virginia and New Jersey plans. Connecticut delegates offered a compromise proposal that became known as the Connecticut Compromise or the Great Compromise. Like the Virginia Plan, it provided for a Congress with two houses. This plan provided for equal state representation in the Senate, along with representation in proportion to population in the House of Representatives. Voters in each state would elect members of the House of Representatives to two-year terms, while state legislatures would choose senators for six-year terms. To foster rational debate and to insure that the people would elect representatives whose outlook transcended narrow local interests, the convention kept the House of Representatives small. The first House had only 65 members, fewer than many state legislatures, which meant that representatives had to win support from large constituencies.

Electronic reproduction. Marlborough, Wiltshire : AM, 2014. Digitized from a copy held by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

American history module 1

AM (Publisher), digitiser.

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, owner.