Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/183

 CH. X.], or the convention must be dissolved. The small states at length yielded the point, as to an equality of representation in the house, and acceded to a representation proportionate to the federal numbers. But they insisted upon an equality in the senate. To this the large states were unwilling to assent; and for a time the states were, on this point, equally divided. Finally, the subject was referred to a committee, who reported a scheme, which became, with some amendments, the basis of the representation, as it now stands.

§ 693. The reasoning, by which each party in the convention supported its own project, naturally grew out of the relative situation and interests of their respective states. On the side of the small states, it was urged, that the general government ought to be partly federal, and partly national, in order to secure a just balance of power and sovereignty, and influence among the states. This is the only means to preserve small communities, when associating with larger, from being overwhelmed, and annihilated. The large states, under other circumstances, would naturally pursue their own interests, and by combinations usurp the prerogatives, or disregard the rights of the smaller. Hitherto, all the states had held a footing of equality; and no one would now be willing to surrender it. The course now proposed would allay jealousies, and produce tranquility. Any other would only perpetuate discontents, and lead to disunion. There never was a confederacy formed, where an equality of voice was not a fundamental principle. It would be a novel thing in politics, in such