History of the United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper legislative chamber of the United States Congress, the federal legislature of the United States government. The Senate sits in the north wing of the United States Capitol.

The origins of The Senate can be traced back to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where James Madison proposed the establishment of a bicameral national legislature in his Virginia Plan.

The Senate was conceived as a check on the House of Representatives, where congressional districts are allocated to each state on the basis of population. By contrast, each state, regardless of size or population, is equally represented in the Senate through two senators, with each elected for a six-year term, "originally chosen by state legislature, however the 17th Amendment (1913) mandated direct popular election".

The final structure of the Senate emerged from the Connecticut Compromise, a closely contested 5–4 vote, which granted smaller states equal representation in the Senate.

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