ad recommended in 1783 as the basis for future
apportionment of requisitions among the States. On this point there was
no great difference of opinion in the convention.

It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that with this obstacle to
union removed, the Constitution speedily took form. On the contrary,
every proposal bristled with controversial points. The Northern
commercial States demanded insistently that Congress should be given
power to regulate commerce. It was, indeed, the desire of the commercial
classes in all the States that Congress should be given power to pass
retaliatory acts against Great Britain, but the planters of the
Carolinas and Georgia feared--not without reason--that the power to
regulate commerce might be used to interfere with the importation of
slaves. Here, too, the spirit of compromise prevailed. The power was
granted, but the importation of such persons as the States thought
proper to admit was not to be prohibited before the year 1808.

From first to last, divergent views were held as to the constitution of
the chief executive office. After the initial question, whether the
office should be single or plural, was decided, the manner of election
remained to be considered. The early proposal to make the President
elective by the national legislature was dropped as the office assumed
greater importance in the general scheme. If the independence of the
legislature was to be maintained, some form of indirect popular choice
was favored. But if the people were to elect, the larger States would
have a decided advantage. Here was the old question in another form. The
electoral scheme finally adopted was essentially a compromise. In most
instances--Mason, of Virginia, said nineteen out of twenty times--it was
believed that the electors would so scatter their votes that no
candidate would have a majority; consequently the Senate would make a
choice from among the five candidates having the highest votes. By this
arrangement the large States would in effect nominate and the small
States elect the President. But because the Senate had already been
given extensive powers, the convention transferred the final election to
the House, with the provision that the vote there should be by States.
The eventual election of a Vice-President was left to the Senate,
whenever the electoral college failed to make a choice.

From time to time the convention resorted to committees to facilitate
its work. Most impo