The framers of the Constitution anticipated that the Senate would be an equal arm of the government. The House of Representatives is a representational arm of government.
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it would keep congress from overpowering the other branches
The Framers of the Constitution directed that Constitutional conventions be elected by the people of the various states for the express purpose of voting for or against ratification and that 9 of the thirteen original states had toratify it.. They chose this method rather than simply having the state legislatures ratify it, because they wanted the Constitution to be chosen by the people through delegates elected by them for that specific purpose. That way it truly would be a government by "We the People." In addition, they recognized that the Constitution was a totally new form of government that would replace the Articles of Confederation. The Framers had been delegated to reform the Articles, not make a new Constitution. This also made it important for the people themselves to have a say in its ratification.
No. Gridlock doesn't really matter because this concept of divided government is something that the Framers of the Constitution would be happy with. This is because divided government passes better laws.
It combined the ideas of both the Virginia plan and the New Jersey plan to form the structure of the Constitution. It would have three branches and the legislature would have two houses the senate and the house of representatives. In the senate each state had equal votes, but in the house of representatives the amount of votes depended on population.
The framers of the Constitution, though unified in purpose, were not one in political philosophy. Many feared the rule of the "mob" hence the election of the President by way of the electoral college and representative democracy. These men would have more faith in the executive branch (albeit a weakend one). Others were much more democratic. Those, like Jefferson, believed that power came from the consent of the governed. He also advocated the rural over the national. Because of this, he would have felt that Congress, with its connection to the people (constituencies) and balance of power, would make it the least dangerous, though it signs the checks.