enabled to write out my daily notes during the session or within a few
finishing days after its close, in the extent and form preserved in my
own hand on my files."

The changes made from day to day in the drafts of the Constitution,
as recorded in the minutes, are cleared up by the light of Madison's
notes and become a series of compromises. They were concessions made
by superior to inferior factions, or sacrifices made by one section
to satisfy and quiet another. That the equal State representation in
the Continental Congress, for instance, had been one of the most
pernicious parts of the Confederation machinery no one doubted. The
practice had been inaugurated in the first Continental Congress, as
the minutes under Sept. 6, 1774, explain, because the relative
importance of the colonies represented could not be determined at the
time. It was continued by default. But the arrangement bore no respect
to proportional representation. New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey,
Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia could combine and make
a majority of the States and yet contain not one-third of the people.
New York and Connecticut might be added, making nine of the thirteen
States, but representing less than one-half the total population.

Notwithstanding this inconsistency in the old method, so strong was
the fear of the smaller States that their large neighbours would absorb
or oppress them, that they took a decided stand in the convention
against all propositions to change to proportional representation. The
Delaware representatives were authorised to withdraw rather than submit
to any arrangement depriving the State of an equal vote with the other
States. On the other hand, the large States, especially Virginia, New
York, and Massachusetts, insisted upon changing to representation based
on wealth or population. As a way out of the deadlock, after weeks of