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Roger Sherman Dbq Analysis

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In an attempt to address concerns dealing with representation of the states in Congress, delegates chosen from the states: Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut, and Georgia met in Philadelphia on July 16, 1787 in a meeting called, The Constitutional Convention. Among these delegates was Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Sherman was seen as awkward and unmeaning, giving off the air of a sub-conscious farmer when seated quietly. Although Sherman’s posture and physical appearance was not up to par of other politicians, and gave insight on his background as a Yeoman farmer, his superior intelligence was often recognized and spoken about on a grand level by those …show more content…

Along with this, the New Jersey plan was once again part of a continued debated even after its rejection, in fact the rejection made it more questionable than ever before. The two plans had both flaws and strengths of their own, yet neither were able to equally pleased the large and small states, which resulted in a final decision not being made. On June 11, 1787, after a period of debate, Roger Sherman went to the Convention of 1787 with his proposal of representation. His first suggestion was that the lower house be appointed based on population and the upper house be by equal vote to each state, this went unsuccessful. However, on July 16, his proposal was deemed acceptable once the representation of houses was changed. There would still be a bicameral legislature in congress, but instead the upper house, the House of Representatives, be provided proportional representation with every thirty thousand peoples equaling up to one representative. This suggestion was adopted from the Virginia plan, which pleased the large states. In the lower house, the Senate, the compromise was two representatives per state, despite population. This equal representation reflected the New Jersey plan, which pleased the smaller states. The Great Compromise fulfilled some of the requests from both proposed plans and was accepted …show more content…

In the beginning of July 11 the delegates had begun arguing over the method of census and who would be counted. Slavery became a spotlight issue in the Great Compromise when the south and north’s different views on how slaves should be counted in representation was made apparent. On one hand, the south wanted slaves to be accounted for when deciding representation. Because the southern states had a large population of slaves they wanted to have more representation in the House of Representatives. However, the north had a different view, they thought that slaves should not be counted as the population for representation. Instead, they countered back with the concept of slaves being counted for taxation purposes. Along with this, the north wanted to end the slave trade. South rejected this proposition, because slaves were essential to their economy. Delegates wanted a compromise to end the issue without discussing slavery in the Constitution. This led to the three-fifths compromise which delegates eventually agreed to. Through this slaves were counted as three-fifths of the population for both the representation in the House of Representatives and taxation as well. Every five slaves equaled three people counted for population and taxation. The north was pleased because the slave states were being taxed for their large population and the south states were

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203 Words | 1 Pages

The Lower house would be elected by the people, but the Upper house would be elected by the Lower house. The New Jersey Plan explained that the Executive Branch would be chosen by Congress, and the elected individuals would only serve a single term. Some people were subject to recall on request of state governors.

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433 Words | 2 Pages

As mentioned in the module, "Lecture Notes for Chapter 2 The Constitution", the Three-Fifths Compromise or "the three-fifths rule", was put into motion as a way to appease Northern delegates while also preventing the Southern delegates from leaving the convention. The compromise ultimately states, "The three-fifths meant that the House of Representatives and the electoral college would be apportioned in part of the basis of property--specifically, property in slaves" (Bardes, Shelley, Schmidt 42-43). In other words, this referred to slaves in that each one would be counted as three fifths of a person, which benefited slave owners the most as that meant they would have more people from the South when it came to determining the representation in Congress. which is how the interests of Southern states were addressed.

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370 Words | 2 Pages

I believe that the Virginia plan is much wiser than the New Jersey plan because it was proportional, or corresponding in size, to the population in state. The best plan is this one because it has two legislative houses (Bicameral), the Senate and the House of Representatives. We each get to vote for the representatives we want. The New Jersey plan only has one Legislative house (unicameral) and it only gets one vote for each state this is what deprived the smaller states from equality. The New Jersey Plan had so many disagreements that it had to appoint a “grand committee” and then it was known as the Great Compromise (An agreement between two or more sides in which each side gives up what some of what it wants).

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367 Words | 2 Pages

Much of the disagreement between the north and south was caused by the status of slavery, particularly what would happen in expansion states. The northern states wanted to eliminate slavery from new states, and ideally they wanted no slavery in the country in general. On the other hand, southern states believed that slavery should expand with the country. For example, a man from Georgia argued that new territory should be able to have the choice as to whether or not they will have slavery. But the north, however, “insists that while the territory was partly acquired by Southern men, is partly owned by Southern men, that they shall be excluded from its soil”(Document B).

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174 Words | 1 Pages

Roger Sherman proposed the Connecticut Plan as a compromise to the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. This plan is also known as the Great Compromise. As a result of this plan, the legislature would be bicameral with the lower house (the House) based off of population proportional and the upper house (the Senate) equally represented with two delegates for each state. Slaves would count as 3/5th of a person for population reasons. The house had the power to create legislation that would affect the budget of the nation.

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478 Words | 2 Pages

At this time, slaves were not counted as anything for taxes or population. The South proposes that their slaves should be counted as part of their total population. Northerners object to this, obviously, because they wanted to continue having more representation and voice than the South. The Constitutional Convention decided upon the Three-Fifths Compromise. This compromise stated that every five slaves would count for three people.

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537 Words | 3 Pages

The upper house would be elected by the lower house, thus ensuring that there is always at least one representative in the upper house. The New Jersey Plan preserved an existing unicameral legislature, in which each state would have equal representation. The compromise that was made called for a bicameral legislature, like the 1 Virginia Plan. However, the lower house number of representatives was determined by the size of the state, and the upper house each state had equal representation. This was just part of the Great Compromise, the subject of slavery had divided the Northern and the Southern states.

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205 Words | 1 Pages

The Missouri Compromise was made as an attempt to deal with the debate that had been going on about slavery. It lasted thirty-four years, but never truly made the North orouth totally happy with the situation. Although the Missouri Compromise did push back the debate on slavery in Missouri, it did not solve the problem as a whole. The tension between the North and South was, in fact reduced for a period of time. Once the Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional, the tension once again grew.

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1364 Words | 6 Pages

They also “included the three-fifths clause which states that in deciding how many representatives a state could send to the house of representatives, the number would be determined by counting free persons, servants, in three-fifths of all other persons { slaves }. Congress was to use the same count for collecting taxes from the states”. Indians were excluded. Finally the framers agreed to include the fugitive slave clause which states that persons who escape from slavery to a state where slavery was prohibited “ shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due”. The compromise on slavery was designed to satisfy the demands of some of the southern states these states would not have supported the constitution without this agreement.

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1319 Words | 6 Pages

If anyone was to do even a little research about the United States in 1787, one would find that the states were not very unified and life was not easy. Men like, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington had one thing in mind, to reunite the United States. The book, A Brilliant Solution by Carol Berkin, very clearly depicts the obstacles and adversity that the men attending the constitutional convention had to overcome. Due to a plethora of factors, the men attending the constitutional convention encountered many complications during the convention, ranging from travel issues to a lack of power to even do anything necessary to change the “United” States. The book shows this by describing the story of the men as a “story of anxious

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145 Words | 1 Pages

Another major debate during the Constitutional Convention was whether or not the slaves should count towards representation in Congress. While most Northern states wanted to abolish slavery completely, the South wanted them to count towards representation, to allow them for more representatives. The North argued that if slaves could not vote, they should not count, while the South debated against this. In the end, the Three Fifths Compromise was suggested and accepted. This Compromise stated that each slave would count as three-fifths of a free white male.

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1593 Words | 7 Pages

One of the compromises made in the Constitutional Convention is the three-fifths compromise. In this compromise, the southerners wanted to add slaves to the population of the state they lived in. If slaves were included in their state’s population, that state would be able to add more representatives in the House of Representatives. Northerners did not agree with that statement because slaves did not have the right to vote. After the delegates compromised, they agreed that only three-fifths of the slave’s population would be counted into the state’s population.

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789 Words | 4 Pages

The Virginia Plan was proposed in order to settle disagreements among states over the issue of representation. Due to the extreme differences in population between the states, larger states wanted representation to be based off of population, while the smaller states wanted representation to be equal for all states regardless of population. Today the U.S. government still uses population as a way of representation in parliament. In addition to the Virginia Plan, the 3/5’s Compromise was also created as a way to settle conflicts. This compromise was reached, because southern states wanted slaves to count as part of the population and order to get more representation, while the northern states did not.

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578 Words | 3 Pages

On the other hand, the northern states did not want the enslaved African Americans to count towards representation in government because they did not have as many, making the south more powerful if the slaves were counted. The delegates reached a compromise called the Three-Fifths Compromise which counted each slave as three-fifths of a person for representation purposes. This is just one example of the many compromises that were made at the constitutional convention. Another example of a compromise that was made during this time was the Great

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307 Words | 2 Pages

During the Constitutional Convention, the issue of whether slaves should be counted as part of the population when determining the number of representatives in Congress was also addressed. The southern states, where most slaves presented at that point in time, wanted to count slaves as part of their population because they wanted to have more representatives in Congress to strengthen their power (each state was allowed to have one representative for every 30,000 residents). The northern states, on the other hand, opposed this proposal because of two reasons: slaves were treated more like a property than human since they did not own any rights and counting slaves as part of the population would strengthen the power of southern states in Congress.

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