1787 · Proposal
Madison and the Virginia Plan
The revised June 13 plan would base representation in both legislative branches on population. That arrangement differs from the final Constitution.
Ideas & beliefs · follow the evidence
From an idea to a nation.
Discover what people proposed, what they argued and which words became constitutional text. Each route connects a question to surviving records.
Route 01
Who should have a voice?
The Constitution emerged from competing answers about the people, the states and national power. Follow a proposal into the adopted text.
1787 · Negotiation
Sherman and the Connecticut Compromise
Sherman helped advance a compromise combining a population-based House with equal state representation in the Senate. It was the work of multiple delegates.
1787 · Adopted wording
Two chambers of Congress
Article I establishes the House and Senate. Read their different structures, then follow the Seventeenth Amendment’s later change to Senate elections.
The words and the outcome
An argument is not an adopted rule.
Franklin’s prayer motion, the first seal designs and the Virginia Plan are revealing records. Following each one to its outcome lets us see both the founders’ intentions and the differences between their ideas.
Explore the source collection