The Great Compromise
Join a Kennedy Institute interpreter who explores the answer to, "What is the Great Compromise?"
The creation of the U.S. Constitution involved many compromises to satisfy the competing interests of the individual states. With the smaller, less populous states fearing their interests would be crushed by the larger more populous states, the issue of representation proved to be the most difficult issue to resolve. What came to be known as the “Connecticut Plan” resulted in a compromise giving equal representation for the states in the Senate and proportional representation for the states in the House of Representatives.
Compromise and Criticism
Scott Casper, Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Social Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, discusses the Great Compromise and Madison's criticism of it in this video by the Center for Civic Engagement.
The Federalist Papers
Learn more about the work to promote the then-radical ideas of the U.S. Constitution through the Federalist Papers.