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The Senate and the United States Constitution

Scene at the Signing the Constitution of the United States by Howard Chandler Christy
Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

For nearly five months, the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention debated the provisions in the U.S. Constitution. Several of the Senate-related clauses were especially controversial.  What special powers and responsibilities would the Senate have in this new federal government? Would representation in the Senate be based upon a state's population, or would each state have an equal voice, regardless of size? It took the Great Compromise of 1787 to settle that issue.

 
  

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