The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCI
ⅭⅭⅠ. John Dickinson: Letters of Fabius.[1]
There is another improvement equally deserving regard, and that is, the varied representation of sovereignties and people in the constitution now proposed.
It has been said, that this representation was a mere compromise.
It was not a mere compromise. The equal representation of each state in one branch of the legislature, was an original substantive proposition, made in convention, very soon after the draft offered by Virginia, to which last mentioned state United America is much indebted not only in other respects, but for her merit in the origination and prosecution of this momentous business.
The proposition was expressly made upon this principle, that a territory of such extent as that of United America, could not be safely and advantageously governed, but by a combination of republics, each retaining all the rights of supreme sovereignty, excepting such as ought to be contributed to the union; that for the securer preservation of these sovereignties, they ought to be represented in a body by themselves, and with equal suffrage; and that they would be annihilated, if both branches of the legislature were to be formed of representatives of the people, in proportion to the number of inhabitants in each state.
- ↑ P.L. Ford, Pamphlets on the Constitution, pp. 206–207; first printed early in 1788, this number probably appeared early in May.