The Benefits of Compromise
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the new union, the Senate would therefore consist of only 26 senators—
two from each state.
In the lower house (what is now the House of Representatives), the
number of members for the first Congress was specified for each of the
States. Thereafter, apportionment would be made by the Congress itself
on the basis of population, with three-fifths of the slaves being counted
in each State for purposes of representation. In other words, the upper
house (the Senate) would treat all States as equal, thus giving the small
States a strong voice in that body. Membership in the lower house (the
House of Representatives) would be based on population, thus giving an
obvious advantage to the more populous States.
Many other important details remained to be settled by the Convention. The Virginia Plan had become the basis of the Convention’s work,
but much of that plan needed to be modified or clarified.
Of the many complicated issues confronting the members of the Philadelphia Convention, the nature of the presidency proved to be almost as
troublesome as the basis of representation in the legislature. In fact, in
some respects the creation of the executive office was more difficult, and
not until the closing days of the Convention were the delegates able to
come to a complete agreement. The Virginia Plan offered little more than
a general recommendation that ‘‘a national executive . . . chosen by the
national legislature be instituted,’’ with the power to exercise ‘‘the executive rights’’ that had been vested in Congress under the Articles of Confederation. The Plan was silent on other specifics. Was the president to be
one person or a collecti