The Constitutional Convention of 1787 nearly collapsed as delegates from small states threatened to seek foreign allies rather than be dominated by their larger neighbors. This episode explains how the Great Compromise created the two-house Congress the United States still has today.

We compare the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan, follow the clashes involving James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Gunning Bedford Jr., and Elbridge Gerry, and examine the July 2 deadlock. Then we trace Roger Sherman’s hybrid model, Benjamin Franklin’s revenue clause, the Three-Fifths Compromise, the narrow 5-4 vote, and the late change that gave senators individual votes.

• Why population-based representation alarmed Delaware and New Jersey
• How Roger Sherman’s plan paired a proportional House with an equal Senate
• Why revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives
• How the Three-Fifths Compromise skewed power toward slaveholding states
• Why Article V protects equal Senate suffrage and how state populations compare today