Question

Describe the argument that took place at the Constitutional Convention about how to count votes in the Legislative Branch (Not the 3/5 compromise). Explain both plans and what they decided to do.

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

Although there are no options attached or further reference, we can comment on the following.

The argument that took place at the Constitutional Convention about how to count votes in the Legislative Branch was that the delegates tried to come up with the best plan to have a good legislative system that allowed equity in the electoral participation of the states, knowing that some were large states with a large number of citizens, and on the other hand, there were small states with fewer citizens.

Delegates came up with two Plans. The Virginia Plan, drafted by federalist James Madison that proposed a bicameral system for the legislative branch, and the New Jersey Plan drafted by William Patterson, which proposed the unicameral system for Congress.

The plan that made things work and moved the negotiators to be approved was the so-called Connecticut Plan that accepted the idea of having two chambers in Congress as was proposed by Roger Sherman, but with the novelty of having a proportional representation in the House of Representatives. The Senate was going to have a fixed number of Senators, so states could be in equity regarding representation.