Sunday, September 28, 2014

Compromises Of The Constitution

                 During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, 2 compromises where established within the states. The First compromise was the Great Compromise. This compromise was an agreement that the legislative structure and representation that each state would have according to the Constitution. On May 29th of 1787, a proposal of the creation of the bicameral legislature was stated by Virginia delegate Edmund Randolph. The bicameral legislature allowed both houses of each state to be proportional with its population.  Candidates for the higher house are nominated through the state's legislature while the candidates for the lower house are nominated by the people of each state. This proposal was also called the Virginia Plan and this allowed equality to the people. In the end, the representation of the House issue continued with an agreement for further deliberations which led to the Three-Fifths Compromise.

The Great Compromise

                       Then there was the Three-Fifths Compromise was a debate about whether slaves should be counted in the total population of a state. In article 1 of the Constitution, it says that 3 out of 5 slaves are counted as 1 non-slave person. Northern States wanted the slaves to be counted more than the Southern States did due to taxes paid to the federal government . After the Civil War ended, slavery was abolished. This set all of the slaves free which stopped the compromise. Later, there was the 14th amendment which stated that everyone in the states shall be counted for the representatives.

Three-Fifths Compromise

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