Chapter 6
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105
hot building with no cool air, no ice, and
no fresh air?
However, the windows had to be closed
for another reason. The delegates were
making a new government to replace the
old one. It was a secret! Pennsylvania had
eight delegates at the convention, more
than any other state. Two well-known
people from Pennsylvania were
Ben
Franklin
and
GouverneurMorris
. Both
menprovided leadershipat the convention.
Morris was a lawyer from Philadelphia. He
had lost one leg in a carriage accident.
During the convention, he gave 173
speeches. That amounts to about one
speech for every day you go to school. He
certainly had a lot of homework!
During the convention, there was a
major disagreement over how each state
should be represented in the new
government. Smaller states, such as
Delaware, were afraid that larger states, like
Pennsylvania, wouldhave toomuchpower.
The smaller states wanted to be equally
represented.
Roger Sherman
from
Connecticut offered an idea that helped to
solve this problem. Each state was to be
represented by population in one part of
the new government (the House of
Representatives). Then equal representation
would be reached by having two senators
elected from each state in another part of
the new government (the Senate).
More than anyother person, Ben Franklin
helped to calm the angry outbursts of some
of the delegates. They did not always agree
on issues, such as slavery. Franklin offered
many ideas to solve the delegates’
disagreements. Many historians think that
Gouverneur Morris wrote the final plan for
our nation’s new government. However,
James Madison
of Virginia is called the
