Bicameral Legislature

[Keith Broaders]

In the our first Costitution tof the united States under he Articles of Comfederation the legislative branch of the government consisted a senate where each of the states had one vote.

When the Constitutional Convention was held the most hotly contested debate was between the delegates of the large and small states.

Virginia, Massachusetts and Pensylvania had much larger populations and beleived tht they should more votess in  Congress than the smaller states.

When the Virgina Plan to provide state with proportional representation the small states strenously the proposal as they insisted that all of the states should be equally representred.

The stalemate was broken when Connrctecticut's delegate Roger Sherman proposed the establishment of a bicameral legislatire with a Senate to represent the states equally and a House of Representatives torepreset the people.

This bicameral model provided for the state legislatures to choose their senators and a direct democratic election by the people  in the House.

This model created a chcck and a balance that prevented the people living in the large states from completely dominating the will of the peopleliving in the small states, 

In order to guarantee that the small states would have he power to block the potential tyranny of the majority, an amendment protrction clause provision added to the Constitution that guaranteed that the states would never lose their suffrage in the senate without their consent.

When the 17th Amendment was fraudulently ratified and the states lost their suffrage the bicameral legislatire became a unicameral legislatue with two legislative bodies representing just one constituncy while robbing the state legislatures of their voice,

With the ratification of the 17th Amendment the Senate became a second version of the House of Representatives turned our Republic into a Democracy..