Lesson 2: The Great Debates (Convention Compromises)

At the Constitutional Convention, a major conflict erupted over how states should be represented in the new government. The Virginia Plan, favored by large states, proposed a legislature based on population. The New Jersey Plan, favored by small states, demanded a legislature where every state had an equal vote.

The debate nearly tore the convention apart until delegates agreed to the Great Compromise. This plan created a Bicameral Legislature (two-house Congress). The House of Representatives satisfied large states by basing representation on population, while the Senate satisfied small states by giving every state two equal votes, ensuring a balance of power.

Another bitter debate divided the convention over slavery. Southern delegates wanted to count enslaved people to increase their state’s power in Congress, while Northern delegates argued that people treated as property should not be counted for representation.

The result was the Three-Fifths Compromise. The agreement counted every five enslaved individuals as three people for the purpose of both taxation and representation. This decision artificially inflated Southern political power, giving Southern states more influence in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College than their voting population justified.

Debates over slavery also involved the economy. Southern states feared the new government would tax their agricultural exports or ban the slave trade entirely. To secure the Constitution, delegates made painful concessions.

Congress was granted the power to regulate interstate and foreign trade, but was forbidden from taxing exports. Most controversially, the delegates agreed to protect the international Slave Trade from being banned for twenty years, until 1808. This decision, along with the Fugitive Slave Clause, embedded the protection of slavery into the foundation of the new government.