158 CONNECTICUT’S INFLUENCE 
The bitterness and fierceness of the controversy 
was extreme. ‘Gunning Bedford of Delaware ex- 
claimed to the men of whom James Madison was the 
leader: “Gentlemen, I do not trust you. If you 
possess the power, the abuse of it could not be 
checked; and what then would prevent you from 
exercising it to our destruction? Sooner than be 
ruined, there are foreign powers who will take us by 
the hand.” When talk of this sort could be indulged 
in, it was clear that the situation had become danger- 
ous. The convention was on the verge of breaking 
up, and the members were thinking of going home, 
their minds clouded and their hearts rent at the immi- 
nency of civil strife, when a compromise was suggested 
by Oliver Ellsworth of Windsor, Roger Sherman of 
New Haven, and William Samuel Johnson of Strat- 
ford, — three immortal names. These men represented 
Connecticut, the state which for a hundred and fifty 
years had been familiar with the harmonious codper- 
ation of the federal and national principles. In the 
election of her governor Connecticut was a little 
nation; in the election of her assembly she was a little 
confederation. However the case may stand under 
the altered conditions of the present time, Connecticut 
had in those days no reason to be dissatisfied with the 
working of her government. Her delegates suggested 
that the same twofold principle should be applied on a 
continental scale in the new constitution: let the 
national principle prevail in the House of Representa- 
tives and the federal principle in the Senate. 
This happy thought was greeted with approval by 
the wise old head of Franklin, but the delegates 
obstinately wrangled over it until, when the question 
