Drew Mestas

Process Paper
The Great Compromise
Originally when I first heard of five constitutional compromises in my history class, I
became very interested in The Great Compromise. I thought it was very remarkable how during
the Constitutional Convention of 1787 how the citizens of the United States would be able to put
forth such exceptional ideas of how solve conflicts with amazing compromises. When I first
heard about the National History Day project theme “Conflict and Compromise” I immediately
thought of The Great Compromise. This is how and why I chose this topic.
I conducted my research using links from my school blackboard and some other sources
provided by my teachers. A few of these sources were primary sources, however the majority of
the sources were secondary sources. From these sources I looked up certain topics like”The
Great Compromise”,”The Constitutional Convention”,”The United States Senate”,”The House of
Representatives”, or “America in 1787”. From all of these topics I received lots of information
regarding my topic, The Great Compromise.
To select my project I went to the National History Day website and checked the
requirements of each project and the details on how to create them. I decided on making a
historical website after a long internal conflict with myself. I picked the idea of creating a
historical website because first it seemed like fun, and second this might be a skill that could be
necessary in the future. After doing this I checked out some of the previous projects to set some
expectations for myself, for when I would be creating my own.
The 2018 National History Day theme “Conflict and Compromise” is meant for students
participating and nonparticipating to get a better view and more information on events in
American history. My topic, The Great Compromise, is related to the National History Day
theme because the conflict involved was during The Constitutional Convention of 1787. The
Constitutional Convention was when the founding fathers of our country met in a large group in
the Pennsylvania state house, that was later renamed Independence Hall, to fix and rewrite the
Articles of Confederation. The members of this convention soon realized that the Articles of
Confederation could not be fixed, so they decided to draft a new binding document to The
United States of America. The Great Compromise was drafted because the large states like
Virginia, were arguing with the small states like Delaware and Rhode Island over how to be
represented in the national legislature. This was the conflict, the compromise was that there
would be two parts of the national legislature, The Senate, and the House of Representatives. The
House of Representatives would be supported by the idea that the number of representatives is
determined by the population of a state. The Senate is the opposite, in the Senate each state has
an equal number of representatives. This is how my project related to the NHD theme in 2018
“Conflict and Compromise”.