In the sweltering summer of 1787, as America teetered on the edge of political collapse, a group of revolutionary minds convened in Philadelphia to do something unprecedented: replace their dysfunctional government with a new national framework.
The result was the United States Constitution, yet its creation was anything but straightforward. Central to this historic achievement was a bitter and deeply divisive debate over how states should be represented in Congress. If the conflict hadn’t been resolved, America as we know it today would look very different.
What solution was eventually reached? And how did it save the existence of the United States? Click through this gallery to find out.