During the summer of 1787, delegates at the Constitutional Convention made several compromises to build a government that enough states would accept. Some dealt with trade, and others dealt with how the president would be chosen. Two compromises, however, were more important than the rest. The Three-Fifths Compromise and the Connecticut Compromise both dealt with the same basic issue: representation. Who would be counted? Which states would have more power in Congress? The decisions delegates made in response to these questions had a lasting impact on the United States for many years to come.
The Three-Fifths Compromise
After delegates agreed that representation in the House of Representatives would be based on population, a new conflict came up right away. Southern states wanted enslaved people to be included in their population counts. A larger population meant more seats in Congress, and more seats meant more control over national laws. Northern delegates strongly objected. Enslaved people could not vote and had no rights under the law. Counting them would give Southern states more political power, but it would do nothing for the people being counted. The two sides could not reach an agreement, and the convention came to a standstill.
The agreement that resulted became known as the Three-Fifths Compromise. For every five enslaved people in a state, three would be counted toward that state's population when deciding how many representatives it received in Congress. Southern states got more seats in the House than they would have without this agreement. The same population numbers were also used to determine the number of votes each state would have in the Electoral College, the system used to elect the president. This meant Southern states gained more influence over presidential elections as well. The word "slavery" never appeared in the Constitution, but this compromise gave enslavers real political power in the structure of the new government.
The Connecticut Compromise
Even after the Three-Fifths Compromise, large and small states remained in conflict over how Congress should operate. Large states wanted more seats because they had more people. Small states wanted every state to have an equal voice, no matter its size. Delegates Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth from Connecticut proposed a solution. Their plan, called the Connecticut Compromise, is also known as the Great Compromise. It created a two-house Congress. In the House of Representatives, each state's number of seats would be based on its population. In the Senate, every state would get exactly two senators regardless of size. The compromise was passed by just one vote on July 16, 1787.
The Connecticut Compromise ended one of the biggest standoffs of the convention. Large states gained more power in the House, while small states received equal standing in the Senate. This compromise created a situation where both houses of Congress had to agree before any law could pass. It built conflict and negotiation directly into the lawmaking process. This is a feature of American government that continues to shape how laws are made today. On September 17, 1787, thirty-eight of the remaining forty-one delegates signed the new Constitution. The compromises made throughout that summer made it possible to put a plan on paper, but the signing was only the beginning. The question of whether Americans would accept this new government was a fight that was still to come.