The New Jersey Plan Was Presented At The Constitutional Convention

The Virginia Plan was a plan drafted by James Madison and was presented by Edmund Randolf. It was presented to the Constitutional Convention on May 29, 1787. According to the plan, a strong central government had three branches: legislative, judicial, and executive. The plan also proposed two houses: the first one had members elected by the people for three-year terms; the second one had older leaders elected by the state legislatures for seven-year terms. The role of the plan was important for “setting the stage for the convention.”

I believe that the Virginia plan is much wiser than the New Jersey plan because it was proportional, or corresponding in size, to the population in state. The best plan is this one because it has two legislative houses (Bicameral), the Senate and the House of Representatives. We each get to vote for the representatives we want. The New Jersey plan only has one Legislative house (unicameral) and it only gets one vote for each state this is what deprived the smaller states from equality. The New Jersey Plan had so many disagreements that it had to appoint a “grand committee” and then it was known as the Great Compromise (An agreement between two or more sides in which each side gives up what some of what it wants).

There were two major plans for government submitted by the states: the Virginia plan- A.K.A the Large States plan, and the New Jersey Plan- A.K.A the Small States Plan. The Virginia Plan was made to specifically benefit the large, slave-holding, southern states. It called for a bicameral legislature which would take a state’s population into account when selecting the number of senators and representatives for a state. This would have given massive power to the southern states which had large populations due to slaves as opposed to the free, northern states. In reply to this was the New Jersey Plan, which was unicameral and gave equal representation to each state regardless of population.

Constitutional Convention(1787)- Twelve states participated in the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia the summer of 1787. The first thing accomplished at the Convention was the election of George Washington as Convention president. The delegates agreed upon a structure for their government consisting of a Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branch. The next topic tackled was how would the states be represented with the smaller states on one side of the argument and the larger states on the other side. This argument led James Madison to propose the Virginia Plan.

How the Virginia Plan and New Jersey Plan Effected Representation The idea of equal representation has been debated many times throughout the history of mankind. But equal representation is often not feasible without compromise which is exactly what happened in Philadelphia in the year 1787. The representation that was being questioned was how the small and large states could both be represented equally, and it is not shocked that both the small and large states had a plan of how the representation should work. “The one plan was federal, the other national,” (105)

The Constitutional Convention resulted in many different plans and ideas. The Virginia Plan was proposed by Edmund Randolph, but written by James Madison. The plan stated that people should have representation based on how many people are in their state. Essentially, this boils down to representation based on population. The New Jersey plan was proposed by William Patterson.

Lora Reed Ontiveros P. Sci 180 01 July, 2017 The Constitutional Convention In February of 1787, Congress decided that a convention should assemble to amend the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention was held by a small body of well-respected delegates in the Assembly Room of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, to inaugurate a new union. This convention ultimately impelled three crucial proposals, the Virginia and New Jersey Plan, and the Connecticut Compromise, which led to the nation’s fist Constitution.

In 1787, delegates met in Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia to come up with varied views that spearheaded the formation of the Constitution of the USA that came into existence allowing the powers of the federal government to exceed those of the federal states. Several issues were proposed by different individuals to be adopted into the constitution of the country. They include, The Annapolis Conference, Paterson and the New Jersey Plan. The question of power, Madison and the Virginia Plan; Empowering a president plan among many others (Vile, 2006). The Virginia plan was the mother of the US constitution as it proposed several issues that are present in the constitution of America.

At the of general laws of government Convention 1, there were 2 main proposals to answer the question. one proposal, called the Virginia map called for a stronger of the nation government because the people did not see beforehand the many problems they would have under the a, an, the of group united by agreement (medical man 4). Small states feared this map because they thought that the of the nation government and greatly sized states would have too much power. Another statement called the New Jersey map called for an of the nation government that would only have a few more powers than it did under the a, an, the of group united by agreement. This statement was immediately put back (not desired) because the delegates were meeting because they wanted a stronger of the nation government.

1. The Constitution of 1787 attempted to resolve agreements on regulating trade, taxing, protecting private property, and several other weaknesses the Articles of Confederation did not fixate on. Another controversial topic in the Constitutional Convention was the question on representation. Two different plans were presented: the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan wanted representation to depend on the population within a state, a national government with three branches, and one house that would elect the people in a second house.

James Madison proposed a plan called the Virginia Plan, where there would be 2 Houses both of which is based on population. This plan was supported by the larger states. Then, William Patterson made the New Jersey Plan which would

New Jersey responded with the New Jersey Plan this set everyone back to square one. The constitution was being met with a lot of criticism. In response to this, Madison teamed up with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton to write the Federalist

The Great Compromise which was founded at the Constitutional Convention wasn't formed without trouble. Many of the delegates that participated in the convention were wealthy landowners and lawyers, who owned many slaves. They failed to notice the diversity that excited within the nation. As they talked how to repair the Articles of Confederation, issues would arise that would create continuous debates amongst each other. One of the issues that would arise would be the nature of the new government.

After deciding to write a new constitution, the delegates could not decide what new form the government should take. One of the options was the Virginia Plan created by Edmund Randolph and James Madison. The plan included a strong government with three branches (the legislative branch, The judicial branch, and the executive branch). In the Virginia Plan, the legislator would consist of two houses and seats would be awarded on the basis of the population. Due to the fact that the seats are awarded based on population, larger states would have more representatives than smaller states.

In the creating of the US Constitution, the creators hit many roadblocks. It was difficult for the state delegates to decide on much, especially because they were biased and in favor of their own states. The New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan were two examples of the disagreement of representation within the states in the legislative branch. The New Jersey Plan was in favor of equal representation throughout the states. The Virginia Plan was in favor of population representation, meaning the larger states would have more representation than the smaller states.