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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 349
together for common defense; (2) to abolish the various state legislatures
and to form a National Government with legislative power lodged in a
Congress, Assembly or Parliament; and (3) to retain the various state
legislatures and to enlarge the powers of the central Government, giv
ing Congress the right to revise laws made by the state and so adjusting
state and Federal relations as to avoid friction.* Substantially, it was
the last of these propositions which the convention adopted.
Before there could be any agreement among the delegates, three
great compromises were essential.
1. First, the Connecticut Compromise. This was a compromise be
tween the large and the small states. It was adopted as a substitute for
Virginia's plan of government. The Virginia delegates favored a bi
cameral Legislature, consisting of a Lower House to be elected by the
people and an Upper House to be elected by the Lower House. To this
proposal most of the smaller states objected, since it gave them no
weight of influence in either branch. Thereupon the Connecticut Com
promise was offered. In substance, this compromise provided for a
Lower House to be elected by the people, and for an Upper. House in
which all of the states should be equally represented. The larger states
made a successful fight for representation in the Lower House based
upon population, and it was largely to appease the smaller states that
representation in the Upper House was made equal.
Strange to say, Georgia, though the most sparsely settled of all the
states, favored for the popular branch of Congress, a system of repre
sentation based entirely upon population. Throughout the entire debate
on this question she sided with the stronger states, as if in fact she were
one of them, and seemingly at variance with her own interests.! This
meant at least a temporary surrender of her equal voice in the Federal
councils. It implied a willingness on her part, for the present at least,
to accept disparagement at the hands of other states. But Georgia was
looking to the future. She possessed a territory vast in extent, destined
in time to become an empire within itself. The adoption of this prin
ciple might involve some loss of prestige for a few years but in the end
it would make Georgia the dominant member of an imperial sisterhood.
This was a far-sighted policy. If Georgia had not in after years re
linquished a part of her territory to form the states of Alabama and
Mississippi, she would today be entitled to twenty-nine representatives
in Congress, which would put her in the lead of Texas by thirteen
members. Luther Martin, in a letter addressed to the speaker of the
Maryland House of Delegates, thus explained Georgia's action in the
Constitutional Convention of 1787. Said he:
"It may be thought surprising, sir, that Georgia, a State now small
and comparatively trifling in the Union, should advocate this system
of unequal representation, giving up her present equality in the Federal
Government and sinking herself almost to total insignificance in the
scale; but, sir, it must be considered that Georgia has the most extensive
territory in the Union, being as large as the whole island of Great
* Georgia State Gazette or Independeut Register, July 21, 1787, published at
Augusta, Georgia.
t "Georgia and State Eights," IT. B. Phillips, p. 18.