Definition
The Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan left the delegates deadlocked over representation, and on July 2, 1787, they split five states to five over giving each state an equal vote in the Senate. A committee then worked out a deal based on a plan from the Connecticut delegates, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth. On July 16, 1787, the Great Compromise passed by a single state, five states to four: population would decide seats in the House of Representatives, tax bills would start in the House, and every state would get two senators. State legislatures chose senators until the Seventeenth Amendment of 1913 gave that power to voters.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The compromise explains why Congress has two houses with different bases of representation, and it is the usual answer to how the Convention resolved the dispute between large and small states. Questions ask students to explain the conflict between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan and how the final structure blended both. Seats in the House based on population also forced the delegates to decide how to count enslaved people, which led to the Three-Fifths Compromise.
In the sources
“We are now at a full stop.”
Connections
- Virginia Plan: the large-state plan that based seats in both houses on population
- New Jersey Plan: the small-state plan that kept one vote per state
- Three-Fifths Compromise: the second major bargain, which decided how enslaved people counted for House seats
Study it in context
Topic 3.8: The Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification Watch this part