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174
CONSTITUTION OF THE U. STATES.
[BOOK III.

the vote was by states; in the senate, each senator has a single vote. So that, though they represent states, they vote as individuals. The vote of the senate thus may, and often does, become a mixed vote, embracing a part of the senators from some of the states on one side, and another part on the other.

§ 692. It is obvious, that this arrangement could only arise from a compromise between independent states; and it must have been less the result of theory, than "of a spirit of amity, and of mutual deference and concession, which the peculiarity of the situation of the United States rendered indispensable."[1] It constituted one of the great struggles between the large and the small states, which was constantly renewed in the convention, and impeded it in every step of its progress in the formation of the constitution.[2] The struggle applied to the organization of each branch of the legislature. The small states insisted upon an equality of vote and representation in each branch; and the large states upon a vote in proportion to their relative importance and population. Upon this vital question there was so near a balance of the states, that a union in any form of government, which provided either for a perfect equality or inequality of the states in both branches of the legislature, became utterly hopeless.[3] If the basis of the senate was an equality of representation, the basis of the house must be in proportion to the relative population of the states.[4] A compromise was, therefore, in-
  1. ↑ Letter of the Convention, 17th Sept. 1787; 1 Kent. Comm. § 11, p. 210, 211.
  2. ↑ 2 Pitkin's Hist. 233, 245, 247, 248; Yates's Minutes, 4 Elliot's Debates, 68, 74, 75, 81, 89, 90, 91, 92; id. 99, 100, 101; id. 107, 108, 112 to 124; id. 125, 126, 127; 1 Elliot's Debates, 66.
  3. ↑ 2 Pitkin's Hist. 233, 245; Journal of the Convention, 112.
  4. ↑ On this subject see the Journal of the Convention, 111, 112, 153 to 158, 162, 178, 180, 235, 236, 237, 238; Yate's Minutes, 4 Elliot's Debates, from 68 to 127.
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