ntation in the House of Representatives. _McMaster_,
167.]

[Sidenote: Representation in the Senate.]

183. The Compromise as to Representation.--The discussion now
turned on the question of representation in the two houses of Congress.
After a long debate and a good deal of excitement Benjamin Franklin
and Roger Sherman proposed a compromise. This was, that members of the
House of Representatives should be apportioned among the states
according to their population and should be elected directly by the
people. In the Senate they proposed that each state, regardless of size,
population, or wealth, should have two members. The Senators,
representing the states, would fittingly be chosen by the state
legislatures. It was agreed that the states should be equally
represented in the Senate. But it was difficult to reach a conclusion as
to the apportionment of representatives in the House.

[Sidenote: The federal ratio.]

184. Compromise as to Apportionment.--Should the members of the
House of Representatives be distributed among the states according to
population? At first sight the answer seemed to be perfectly clear. But
the real question was, should slaves who had no vote be counted as a
part of the population? It was finally agreed that the slaves should be
counted at three-fifths of their real number. This rule was called the
"federal ratio." The result of this rule was to give the Southern slave
states representation in Congress out of all proportion to their voting
population.

[Sidenote: Power of Congress over commerce.]

[Sidenote: Restriction as to slave-trade.]

185. Compromise as to the Slave-Trade.--When the subject of the
powers to be given to Congress came to be discussed, there was even
greater excitement. The Northerners wanted Congress to have power to
regulate commerce. But the Southerners opposed it because they feared
Congress would use this power to put an end to the slave-trade. John
Rutledge of South Carolina even went so far as to say that unless this
question was settled in favor of the slaveholders, the slave states
would "not be parties to the Union." In the end this matter also was
compromised by providing that Congress could not prohibit the
slave-trade until 1808. These were the three great compromises. But
there were compromises on so many smaller points that we cannot even
mention them here.

[Illustration: SIGNING OF THE CONSTITUTION, SEPTEMBER 17, 1787. From an
early unfinished pi