As the necessity for a more substantiated form of central government materialized, state delegates convened in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention in 1787 to reform the Articles of Confederation. The fundamental issue at stake was the apportioning of legislative control under the new government. The Virginia Plan, favored by the large states, offered a bicameral legislature having representation proportional to each state’s population. The plan was repudiated by smaller states in support of the New Jersey Plan as it provided for the retention of equal membership in Congress established under the Articles. Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman, both of Connecticut, and their allies understood that “proportional representation would sharply reduce the weight their states enjoyed in national politics” (Rakove, 1987). Even though both plans included provisions for an executive and judiciary branch of government, neither side of the opposing states would yield over the issue of representation. Concessions over the institution of slavery were also sought at the Convention. In protecting their interests in the new government, the Southern …show more content…
The Virginal and New Jersey plans attempted to conform to the Convention’s objective in modifying the Articles by “granting the central government taxing powers and control over interstate and foreign commerce, and by providing as well that its laws would be the supreme law of the respective States” (Carey 2014). However, the looming stalemate over representation threatened the convention. Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman presented a compromising measure that provided for a bicameral structure to ensure both proportional and equal representation. It called for a lower body, the House of Representation, and an upper body (the Senate) to be elected according to population and by the state, respectively. This two-house legislature proposal was adopted and became known as the Great