page_title: Constitutional Convention (United States)
section_title: Grand Committee
hierarchical_section_title: Constitutional Convention (United States) / Compromising on apportionment / Grand Committee
context_page_description: The Constitutional Convention took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in the old Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. Although the convention was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington of Virginia, former commanding general of the Continental Army in the late American Revolutionary War and proponent of a stronger national government, to become President of the convention. The result of the convention was the creation of the Constitution of the United States, placing the Convention among the most significant events in American history.
  At the time, the convention was not referred to as a "Constitutional" convention, nor did most of the delegates arrive intending to draft a new constitution.
context_section_description: As the convention was entering its second full month of deliberations, it was decided that further consideration of the prickly question of how to apportion representatives in the national legislature should be referred to a committee composed of one delegate from each of the eleven states present at that time at the convention. The members of this "Grand Committee," as it has come to be known, included William Paterson of New Jersey, Robert Yates of New York, Luther Martin of Maryland, Gunning Bedford, Jr. of Delaware, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, Abraham Baldwin of Georgia, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, George Mason of Virginia, William Davie of North Carolina, John Rutledge of South Carolina and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. The committee's composition heavily favored the smaller states, as even the large state delegates tended to be more moderate.
  While the Convention took a three-day recess in observance of the Fourth of July holiday, the Grand Committee began its work. Franklin proposed and the committee adopted a compromise similar to the Connecticut plan. Membership in the House would be apportioned by population, with members elected from districts of forty thousand people. Each state would have an equal vote in the Senate. To gain large state support, however, Franklin proposed that the House of Representatives have exclusive power to originate bills concerned with raising money or government salaries (this would become the Origination Clause).
caption: Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania
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