Final answer:
The Great Compromise proposed a bicameral legislature with the Senate offering equal representation by state and the House providing representation based on population size. This balanced the interests of both large and small states, becoming a critical element of the U.S. Constitution. In addition, the Three-Fifths Compromise was introduced to address the counting of slaves for representation and taxation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise, was a pivotal agreement during the drafting of the United States Constitution. It addressed the contentious debate over federal representation by proposing a bicameral legislature consisting of two distinct entities: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The compromise suggested that in the Senate, all states would be represented equally with two senators each, thereby appeasing the smaller states concerned about being overpowered by more populous states. This aspect of the compromise aimed to maintain federalism by ensuring that state interests were directly represented at the national level. In contrast, the House of Representatives would feature proportional representation, reflecting the population size of each state, which was an essential stipulation for larger states.
The bicameral congress was devised to balance the needs of both large and small states and became a cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution. The Senate would provide equal representation for all states, thus carrying over the principle found in the New Jersey Plan. On the other hand, the House scheme, following the call of the Virginia Plan, delineated representation according to population sizes, allowing states with larger populations greater influence. However, members of the House would have shorter terms of two years, necessitating more frequent re-elections, while Senators were appointed for longer six-year terms by state legislatures, giving them a more stable tenure in office. Additionally, this federal character was encapsulated in the Constitution, assuring that the national government would maintain a system that acknowledged the individuality of each state while also recognizing the proportional influence of population size.
Alongside the Great Compromise, another critical agreement reached was the Three-Fifths Compromise, which determined that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of taxation and representation. This was a compromise between Northern states, who opposed counting slaves at all, and Southern states, who wanted slaves to be fully counted to increase their representation in Congress without contributing equivalently to taxes. Although a solution for the immediate issue of representation, the Three-Fifths Compromise proved a contentious and morally troubling point in the history of the United States.