<P> The Connecticut Compromise, forged by Roger Sherman from Connecticut, was proposed on June 11 . In a sense it blended the Virginia (large - state) and New Jersey (small - state) proposals . Ultimately, however, its main contribution was in determining the apportionment of the Senate, and thus retaining a federal character in the constitution . Sherman sided with the two - house national legislature of the Virginia Plan, but proposed "That the proportion of suffrage in the 1st . branch (house) should be according to the respective numbers of free inhabitants; and that in the second branch or Senate, each State should have one vote and no more ." This plan failed at first, but on July 23 the question was finally settled . </P> <P> What was ultimately included in the constitution was a modified form of this plan . In the Grand Committee, Benjamin Franklin successfully proposed the requirement that revenue bills originate in the house . But the final July 16 vote on the compromise still left the Senate looking like the Confederation Congress . In the preceding weeks of debate, Madison, King, and Gouverneur Morris each vigorously opposed the compromise for this reason . Then on July 23, just before most of the convention's work was referred to the Committee of Detail, Morris and King moved that state representatives in the Senate be given individual votes, rather than voting en bloc, as they had in the Confederation Congress . Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, a leading proponent of the compromise, supported their motion, and the Convention adopted it . As the personally powerful senators were to receive terms much longer than the state legislators who appointed them, they became substantially independent . The compromise nonetheless continued to serve the self - interest of small - state political leaders, who were assured of access to more seats in the Senate than they might otherwise have obtained . </P> <P> Among the most controversial issues confronting the delegates was that of slavery . Slavery was widespread in the states at the time of the Convention . At least a third of the Convention's 55 delegates owned slaves, including all of the delegates from Virginia and South Carolina . Slaves comprised approximately one - fifth of the population of the states; and apart from northernmost New England, where slavery had largely been eliminated, slaves lived throughout all regions of the country . The majority of the slaves (more than 90%), however, lived in the South, where approximately 1 in 3 families owned slaves (in the largest and wealthiest state, Virginia, that figure was nearly 1 in 2 families). The entire agrarian economy of the South was based on slave labor, and the Southern delegates to the Convention were unwilling to accept any proposals that they believed would threaten the institution . </P> <P> Whether slavery was to be regulated under the new Constitution was a matter of such intense conflict between the North and South that several Southern states refused to join the Union if slavery were not to be allowed . Delegates opposed to slavery were forced to yield in their demands that slavery practiced within the confines of the new nation be completely outlawed . However, they continued to argue that the Constitution should prohibit the states from participating in the international slave trade, including in the importation of new slaves from Africa and the export of slaves to other countries . The Convention postponed making a final decision on the international slave trade until late in the deliberations because of the contentious nature of the issue . During the Convention's late July recess, the Committee of Detail had inserted language that would prohibit the federal government from attempting to ban international slave trading and from imposing taxes on the purchase or sale of slaves . The Convention could not agree on these provisions when the subject came up again in late August, so they referred the matter to an eleven - member committee for further discussion . This committee helped work out a compromise: Congress would have the power to ban the international slave trade, but not for another twenty years (that is, not until 1808). In exchange for this concession, the federal government's power to regulate foreign commerce would be strengthened by provisions that allowed for taxation of slave trades in the international market and that reduced the requirement for passage of navigation acts from two - thirds majorities of both houses of Congress to simple majorities . </P>

During the constitutional convention discussions the doors to the building were