nctly enumerated, the salient
question as to the basis of representation in the Congress at once
pressed for determination. Upon the question of provision for a
chief executive, and his investment with the powers necessarily
incident to the great office, there was after much debate a practical
consensus of opinion. And practical unanimity in the end prevailed
regarding the judicial department, with its great court without
a prototype at its creation, and even yet without a counterpart in
foreign Governments.

The rock upon which the Convention barely escaped early dissolution,
was the basis of representation in the Congress created under
the great co-ordinate legislative department. The model for our
Senate and House of Representatives was unquestionably the British
Parliament. This statement is to be taken with weighty qualifications;
for hereditary or ecclesiastical representation, as in the House
of Lords, is wholly unknown in our system of government. The
significant resemblance is that of our Lower House to the
British Commons. In these respective chambers, the people, as
such, have representation.

The earnest, at times violent, contention of the smaller States,
in our historic Convention, was for equal representation in both
branches of the proposed national legislature. This was strenuously
resisted by the larger States under the powerful leadership of
Madison of Virginia, and Wilson of Pennsylvania. Their equally
earnest, and by no means illogical contention was for popular
representation in each House, as outlined in the Virginia plan
which had been taken as the framework of the proposed Constitution.
The opposing views appeared wholly irreconcilable, and for a time the
parting of the ways seemed to have been reached. Threats of
dissolution were not uncommon in the Chamber, and for many days
the spirit of despair brooded over the Convention. A delegate from
Maryland vehemently declared: "The Convention is on the verge
of dissolution, scarcely held together by the strength of a hair."
Well has it been said: "In even the contemplation of the fearful
consequence of such a calamity, the imagination stands aghast."

At the crucial moment mentioned, Sherman and Ellsworth presented
upon behalf of Connecticut the first and most far-reaching of
the great compromises of the Constitution. The Connecticut plan
was in brief to the effect that in fixing the ratio of representation
there should be recogniti