3/5 Compromise Vs Great Compromise

The Three-Fifths Compromise of the Constitution was an agreement between Southern and Northern states in which three-fifths of the population of slaves would be counted for representation purposes for the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. Those who opposed slavery generally wished to count only the free inhabitants of each state. Those who supported slavery wanted to count slaves in their actual numbers. The so-called compromise of counting "all other persons" as only three-fifths was for the benefit of Southern power

“Perhaps the greatest debate undertaken by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 centered on how many representatives each state should have in the new government's lawmaking branch, the U.S. Congress. As is often the case in government and politics, resolving a great debate, required a Great Compromise.”(About) The Great Compromise that was reached by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth on July 16, 1787 incorporated the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan in parts. It formed a bicameral legislature as proposed by the Virginia Plan. It also decided that the lower house would have representatives in proportion to population of each state. These representatives would be elected by the people. However, while deciding on the representation of states in the upper house, as per the tenets of the Great Compromise, each state would have two members, irrespective of its population.

During the year 1820, the Missouri Compromise was established in the USA. Missouri was a slave state to start with but the North wanted to push it towards a free state. Although the North outnumbered the South in population and in the House of Representatives (105-81), and the ratio between states were 11:11, no new legislation could be made. If the state of Missouri became a free state, the ratio between free states and slave states would be 12:10 which would mean that the North could pass any legislation without fear of it being blocked. Vice versa with the South because it would give the South more political power. There was much controversy surrounding this issue and someone had to try and fix it. The man who first try and fix the problem was James Tallmadge who wanted to get rid of slavery in Missouri which outraged the South into blocking it. A man named Henry Clay proposed that Missouri would be a slave-holding state, Maine would now be a free state (23 state added), and there would be no slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Territory north of latitude 36°30'

The problem of each state’s number of seats in the House of Representatives became a major issue when the Constitution was being drafted in 1787. The population of slaves would be counted as three-fifths in total when apportioning Representatives, as well as Presidential electors and taxes. The Three-Fifths Compromise was proposed by James Wilson and Roger Sherman, who were both delegates for the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Initially, taxes were levied not in accordance to the population numbers, but the actual value of the land. This would provide the slaveholders to have many more seats in the House of Representatives and much more representation within the Electoral College. It was James Madison that would suggest the Three-Fifths Compromise to be made .

During that time, slavery was an issue in the United States. The Southern states wanted their population, including their slave population to be counted toward their representation in the House of Representatives, the reason for this was because the higher the population, the more representatives they would receive; on the other hand, the Southern States did not want their slave population counted toward their taxes, this was because, the higher the population, the more taxes the south would have to pay; the Northern States disagreed with the Southern States on both matters, there were fewer slave states in the north so the sum of the slaves and the ordinary people would not help the northern states earn representation. Secondly, the northern states felt that if the southern states were allowed to count slaves as part of their population for representation, they should also be counted for taxation. The solution for this confusion was the Three-Fifths Compromise, which each slave would count as three-fifths of a person for both representation and taxation

In the Great Compromise it stated that the legislative branch would be divided up into two groups. These two groups were called the senate and the house of representatives. One side would be based off of population while the other half would be based off of equality. Each side would create laws. In the great compromise each state had one senate which would later change into two. The senate wasn't based on size or population it was the same for every state. The house of representatives however this was the side that was based off of population. This resulted in some states having more representatives than others because some states had more population than

This may have balanced the slave to non-slave state count in the union but it also basically flat out divided the nation based on slavery. Instead of solving the problem it was a temporarily solution that eventually lead to struggles between the North and the South over the introduction of future western states into the union on the issue of slavery. The passing of this compromise was solely due to the people in Congress, and the president and had nothing to do with the Constitution what so ever.

There were many legal hoops that the Federal Government had to jump through to resolve the expansion of slavery. One of which was the Three Fourths Compromise, which stated that three-fourths of slaves counted towards the total state’s population so the associated state could have more seats in the House of Representatives. In theory, this was supposed to balance out the population discrepancies between the North and South so both had equal power in the House. Another cooperation between State and Federal was the Missouri

The House of Representatives uses the states' population to determine how many representatives each state receives in the House. In the southern states, they thought that everyone, including slaves, should be counted. The northern states did not think that it was fair to count the slaves in the total population, since there were a lot more slaves in the south than the north. Both sides agreed to the 3/5 Compromise. This compromise said that for every 5 slaves, they would be counted as 3 citizens. Therefore, 60% of the slave population would be used when the states' population is counted. Slavery in the United States lasted until towards the end of the Civil War and even some after the Emancipation Proclamation, since it only freed slaves in the South and not in the North.

The idea of the Virginia plan to propose representation based on population became the House of Representatives. 10. The idea of the New Jersey Plan to propose representation based on one vote per state became the House of Senate. 11. The Constitutional Convention created the Great Compromise to have a bicameral legislature, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The Solution was that congress was not allowed to mess around with slavery for a certain amount of time after the constitution was made. The 3/5's Compromise is said to have started the conflict between the North and the South. This divided the nation because the North had little slave’s due to the factories, but the South had more slaves than they did salve owners due to the plentiful of plantations. The North didn't want slaves to be counted because counting slaves would give the South an advantage to having more representative in the lower house since it is counted by population. The 3/5's Compromise called for exactly 3/5th of the slaves in a state to be counted when determining the number of the congress delegates a state would obtain.

There are big states and small states, and the small states felt that they were not being represented fairly. This is when the New Jersey Plan was made. There would be a House of Representatives which was based on population. The Constitution state in Article 1, Section 2 that “representatives… shall be apportioned… according to… (population)...” (Document D). There was also the Senate, and there would be two representatives from each state. The Constitution stated “The senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state…” (Document D). This was fight between big states and small states for equal representation and this was a fair compromise for everyone. No one state or person is able to gain too much power this way and everyone is fairly

With a final decision of five to four, the states passed the Great Compromise and it was officially adopted in July 16, 1781. The Great Compromise proposed that the United States would have a bi-cameral legislature instead of an unicameral legislature. There would be two houses: an upper house known as The Senate, and a lower house as The House of Representatives. There would be two senators per state, which favored the equality that small states were longing for. The number of House of Representatives per state would depend on how populous the state was according to the decennial census, giving citizens in large states equal power to citizens of small states. Senators were to be appointed by the State legislatures and would have six-year terms. Whereas the members of The House of Representatives are elected by the public vote and have two-year terms.

James Madison once said that, “The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” (Introduction Document) However, in more modern words tyranny can be described as “harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual- like a king or dictator.” (Introduction Document) The American colonies had just freed themselves from the tyranny of King George III, and were in search of a frame of government to rule by.

Amongst many of the compromises and laws that were created during the establishment of the United States was the Three-Fifths Compromise, which stated that each slave was worth three-fifths of a person.