260 Arguments from other governments. Slavery. [i787 much or too little. Which of these evils afflicted the United States ? It was the latter, weakness and inefficiency. They had been sent to the Convention to find a remedy; if the motion prevailed, the country would be left fettered as before, with the further mortification of seeing the principle adopted in the first branch defeated in the second. The argument, said Ellsworth in reply, that the minority would rule the majority, if his own motion prevailed, was unsound. Power was given to the few to save them from destruction by the many. Was the idea novel ? He pointed to the British Constitution, to the negative of the House of Lords. No instance of a confederacy without equality had in fact existed. They were razing the foundations when only the roof needed repairs. No salutary measure had ever been lost for want of a majority of the States to favour it. And he appealed again to the House to remember the plighted faith under which each State, great and small, held an equal right of suffrage in the government. Madison, replying, said that it was a mistake to assert that there was no instance in which confederated States had not equality of suffrage. Passing over the German system, in which the King of Prussia had nine votes, he spoke of the Lycian Confederacy, the members of which had votes according to their importance; a government recommended by Montesquieu as the fittest model of a confederacy. To the appeal to plighted faith, he replied that those who required the keeping of faith should themselves be guiltless. Of all the States, Connecticut was per- haps least able to urge the point; by a recent vote that State had positively refused to comply with requisitions of Congress, and had sent a copy of the vote to that body. It was not enough that proportional voting governed one branch of the legislature ; the majority of the States might still injure the majority of the people, by obstructing their wishes and by extorting measures from them. He contended that the division between the States was not between great and small ; they were chiefly divided in regard to slavery. The division lay between northern and southern States; and if defensive power was necessary, it should be given accordingly. He had been so impressed with that fact, that he had been seeking a solution of the question before the Convention in that direction. The one which had occurred to him was, that representation in one branch should be according to the number of free inhabitants, and in the other according to the whole number, slaves counted as free citizens. But he would not add new difficulties to the problem. Signs of willingness to make concession in favour of the smaller States now began to appear ; but no one would go far enough. Wilson admitted that there might be trouble with the number of senators, on the Virginia plan. He made this suggestion : let there be one senator to each State for every one hundred thousand inhabitants ; States not having that number having still one senator. Franklin proposed a plan drawn from the adjustment of rights in fitting out a ship having
