Connecticut Compromise

The Connecticut Compromise (also known as the Great Compromise of 1787 or Sherman's Compromise) was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that established a two-house legislature under the United States Constitution. It retained the bicameral legislature as proposed by Roger Sherman, along with proportional representation in the lower house. It required the upper house, United States Senate, to have two members from each state. The lower house, or House of Representatives, would have representation based on the population of a state.

The Virginia Plan would have created 3 branches of government and 2 houses in the legislative branch with the amount of representatives depending on the population of the state. The New Jersey Plan would have created 3 branches of government and 1 house in the legislative branch with a representative for each state. The Great Compromise (kind of a combination of the NJ Plan and VA Plan) has 2 representatives for each state, the Senate (upper house), and the House of Representatives, which depends on the population of each state.