About the Senate & the U.S. Constitution | Two Senators per State

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State. [U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 3, clause 1]

Once delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed on equal state representation in the Senate on July 16, they needed to determine how many senators would represent each state. Most delegates agreed that the Senate was to be a smaller body than the House, but there was disagreement as to how small. When John Dickinson of Delaware observed that he could accept a large Senate, James Madison of Virginia countered that “the use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with more system, & with more wisdom, than the popular branch,” a task better suited to a smaller body.

Delegates also agreed that one senator per state would not be enough, as absence of a single senator due to illness or death would leave states without representation and make it difficult for the Senate to achieve a quorum.

On July 23, Gouvernuer Morris of New York proposed that each state have three senators, but George Mason of Virginia and others worried that as new states entered the union this would lead to an overly large Senate.

The Convention approved two senators per state by unanimous vote.

At the same time, the delegates provided that senators would vote as individuals rather than having one vote per state, abandoning the practice used in Congress under the Articles of Confederation and in the Constitutional Convention. Luther Martin of Maryland objected, stating that voting as individuals departed “from the idea of the States being represented” in the Senate, but Maryland was the only state to oppose the motion.