When delegates to the Federal Constitutional Convention became frustrated and angry over the controversial issue of proportional representation in the new national legislature, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) urged “a lot of composure and temperament.” James Wilson (1742-1798) of Pennsylvania, who read Franklin`s speech, told the delegates, “We are sent here to consult, not to argue.” As the longest-serving delegate to Congress, Franklin acted repeatedly to restore harmony and good humor to the process. In the weeks leading up to July 16, 1787, the authors had made several important decisions concerning the structure of the Senate. They rejected a proposal for the House of Representatives to elect senators from lists submitted by individual state legislators and agreed that those lawmakers should elect their own senators. The executive exists only to ensure that the will of the legislator is implemented and therefore chosen by the legislator. One of the most pressing issues during the first debate was the election of the President. Few people agreed with Madison that the executive branch should be elected by the legislature. Direct elections were largely concerned because information was spreading so slowly in the late eighteenth century and because they feared that people would only vote for candidates from their state or region. A vocal minority wanted the national executive to be elected by state governors. The Federalist Papers, a series of eighty-five anonymously published newspaper essays, were actually written to defend the Constitution by James Madison (1751–1836), John Jay (1745–1829), and Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804). In this essay, Hamilton opens his argument for strong executive power with: “The election of the president is fairly well guarded.
I dare to go a little further; and hesitate to confirm that if the path is not perfect, it is at least excellent. It combines all the benefits to an excellent extent; whose union was left to be desired. This collected volume belonged to and was annotated by James Madison. After the Grand Compromise, there would be two national legislatures in a bicameral congress. The members of the House of Representatives would be distributed according to the population of each State and elected by the people. This agreement made it possible to continue discussions and thus resulted in the three-fifths compromise, which further complicated the issue of the representation of the people in parliament. In mid-July, the issue of representation brought the Constitutional Convention to the brink of dissolution. Finally, delegates made a “grand compromise” to create a bicameral legislature in which states are also represented in the upper house or senate, and people are proportionally represented in the lower house, where all monetary bills should be made.