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Show Constitution preserves freedom proclaimed on July 4 compromise was reported to the Convention as a who it got mixed reviews. That is the nature of comprom' But without that concession to the smaller states v likely we would not have the Constitution as we kn'cn 'S today. Wlt During that 11th Independence Day anniversa steps were taken that were erudal to the preservatin the freedom being celebrated outside the room wh the committee members worked out the compromise8 During the traditional Fourth of July revelry th parades, parties and fireworks this weekend, take som f time to think about the deeds of our founding fathers 6 who 211 years ago stated their intention to be free fro tyranny with the Declaration of Independence, foJ! and died to preserve that freedom in the War of I dependence and then, 200 years ago, pooled their creative genius and love of liberty to develop th framework that has kept us free. Two hundred years ago this weekend, the city of Pennsylvania was celebrating the 11th signing of the Declaration of Indepence in gala fashion. The city was full of music, bell ringing and revelry. Many of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention Con-vention participated in the merry-making, and the main orator of the day, James Campbell, a local laywer, told the Convention delegates he envisioned "the stately fabric 'of a free and vigorous government rising out of the Convention." Campbell predicted that 100 years after that date he could see "millions of free men covering the shores of our rivers and lakes with all the arts and enjoyment of civilized life." But while the city celebrated and sweated in the summer heat, 11 men continued working, sweating and creating a compromise that would prove to be crucial to the adoption of the Constitution. The Grand Convention had come to a standstill on the issue of how to determine representation in Congress. While larger state's favored proportional representation, represen-tation, based on the number of voters in the state, smaller states argued for equal representation, with each state receiving the same number of elected representatives. On July 2, a Compromise Committee, consisting of one representative from each state was selected to try and solve the issue. They were to return a recommendation recom-mendation on July 5. Benjamin Franklin, the most notable of the committee com-mittee members, made the motion that eventually solved the problem: the first branch of government would have proportional representation (the House of Representatives); in the second branch (the Senate), each state would have an equal vote. Other inducements were added to make the compromise com-promise attractive to the larger states, and when the |