Compare And Contrast The Articles Of Confederation And The Virginia Plan

The Articles of Confederation was the first federal foundational laws of the United States. It was composed due to the conflicting views of the politicians at the time and the need to unite the States during the war. Its development and resoluteness had a sluggish inception due to some Americans uncertainties of the government’s substantial central power and property demands by States. The Articles of Confederation was finally sanctioned on March 1, 1781. Under the Articles, each States stayed autonomous, with Congress having the final say over disputes. Congress was also given the ability to make accords and agreements, uphold armies and currencies. The Articles of Confederation did best with territorial expansion in the West, thanks to the Ordinances that were written for the Articles and the benefits they had. However, under the Articles, the central government had no power to impose taxes and manage commerce, because of this the government was consistently short of funds. Despite the lack of funding, money was still required for the war effort, and Congress' meantime solution was to print nearly $250 million paper currency, this led to major inflation in the States. This deficit urged legislators to find a solution; the Constitution of 1787. Both the Articles and the Constitution worked to preserve a free government, different from the tyrannical rule they have experienced from the British Parliament. Also, both documents allowed states the power to manage mercantilism,

Another hot topic of the Constitutional Convention was representation in Congress. Smaller states opposed the Virginia Plan to determine representation by populations, believing that they would be overpowered by the larger states. In response, they proposed the New Jersey Plan, which proposed representation equal to each state. A committee of eleven men stepped in and developed the Great

First of all, the New Jersey Plan will make every state equal, despite their size or population. A goal of the New Jersey Plan is to protect state sovereignty, or supreme power. The New Jersey Plan is the way to go because it’ll give all the states an equal amount of representatives and votes. The New Jersey Plan also calls for a separation of powers in the three branches of government. The plan also proposed a one house unicameral legislature. In addition, every state, big or small, would have equal power which would ensure that the large states wouldn’t overrun the smaller states. On the other hand, if the Virginia Plan gets put into action, the large states will gain more power, leaving us smaller states in the dust with very little power in the federal government. The Virginia Plan was created to make the large states more powerful than the smaller states. Do you honestly want to live in a country where you can’t voice your opinion because your country is too small? Generally speaking, the Virginia Plan will make the small states feel like they’re living in the 13 colonies under British rule all over

The Virginia Plan sparked debate over its legislative representative proposals. The plan proposed representation of the states by population. This proposition favored the larger states. The Jersey Plan also known as the smaller state plan rallied for equal representation for all states. A compromise was finally reached. One house of the legislature would consist of two representatives from each state. This satisfied the small states. The second house of the legislature would consist of representatives based on population, thus satisfying the larger states. The establishment of a fair measure to apply taxation and representation in the legislature was described in the Federalist Papers: The Apportionment of Members among the States. The government would conduct a census that would prevent the states from understating their population for taxation and overstating their population for representation. The “Great Compromise” resolving the issue of representation did not mean that the federalists and anti-federalists had come to agreement on the Constitution.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 brought together delegates from thirteen divergent states to amend the Articles of Confederation. But James Madison, delegate from Virginia, had other ideas. He set the agenda for the Convention by drafting the Virginia Plan, an entirely new structure for the government. The strengths offered by the Virginia Plan included the framework for a strong, central government which separated powers into three branches: the legislative, executive, and the judicial. In addition, the Virginia Plan had built-in checks and balances between the branches. Madison believed that sovereignty rested with the people, and he proposed proportional representation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. However,

In both the Virginia and New Jersey Plans, they both had a separation of powers and checks and balances. Also in both, Congress would choose the executives. For the most part, the Virginia and New Jersey Plans are not alike. The Virginia Plan wanted a strong national government with a bicameral legislature, and the New Jersey Plan wanted a weak national government with a unicameral legislature.

During the Philadelphia convention, the Framers ran into many problems when talking about representation. Plans were proposed on how to run the government, including the Virginia and New Jersey Plan. These plans were centered on representation in Congress and how many houses there should be. The Virginia Plan proposed for Congress to be a bicameral legislature and for both houses to have proportional representation while the New Jersey Plan focused on having one house in Congress and have it be based on equal representation. This sparked disagreements when delegates from smaller states believed their voices would not be heard if the Virginia Plan became the outline for government, likewise delegates of larger states thought that in equal representation their voices would not be

During the constitutional convention, two plans were proposed to solve the problem of state representation in the government. The first of the two plans was the Virginia Plan, proposed by James Madison and the second being the New Jersey Plan, proposed by William Patterson. Both plans consisted of three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judiciary. however, the New Jersey Plan allowed for multiple executives. Additionally, the Virginia Plan had a bicameral legislature, both houses based on state's’ population or its wealth. The New Jersey Plan, on the other hand, has a unicameral legislature, with its single house giving a single vote to each state

Of the many plans to structure the government present the two that drew the most attention were the Virginia and the New Jersey Plans. Both of these plans were decimated by members of the convention for various reason. The plan from Virginia was viewed as a structure that would be more beneficial to larger states because it recommended an executive and judicial branches of government in addition to a two chambered congress with all representation based on the population of the state which was less beneficial to smaller states such as New Jersey. While the plan recommend called the New Jersey Plan would be just the opposite of the Virginia Plan since it called for a stronger national government to support the Articles of the Confederation with the ability to tax and regulate commerce between states. The New Jersey Plan also called for a single chambered congress and each state having one single vote. Deliberations lasted many weeks until finally

This plan was known as the Great Compromise that combined element of both Virginia’s and New Jersey’s plans to appease both the small and large states. The plan had 2 house legislatures, initially called the “lower house” and the “upper house” due to their location in the two story building that would house them. Besides, upper house is the senate with 2 members per state, whereas lower house is the House of Representatives, based on population. According to the plan, all states would have the same number of seats.

A. There are many ways on how the New Jersey Plan differs from the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan had a national legislature of two houses, one elected directly by the people, the other chosen by the first house from nominations made by the state assemblies. The Virginia Plan also provided for an executive elected by Congress. The New Jersey Plan retained the unicameral legislature in which each state possessed one vote but gave Congress new powers to tax and regulate trade.

On the other hand, delegates from less populous states favored the New Jersey Plan which declared that all states would have an equal amount of votes. This idea goes back to the Articles of Confederation giving each state one vote. Both ideas were strongly reinforced by their respective sides, but they needed to be combined together in a way that would satisfy both large and small states.

Virginia plan placed a lot of power in the legislative branch, and had a system very similar to the one we use today. The branch is split up into two houses, the House of Representatives, as well as the Senate. The number of officials in these institutions would be based solely on population, or their contribution to the federation. They would be voted on by the people, for the House of Reps, and the Senate would then be chosen by government officials. This was a very scary plan to the smaller states, who much rather favored the New Jersey plan. This option outlined a very equal playing field for all states. There is a one house legislature system, with equal representation across the board. All decisions were made based on the state’s

This was essential towards the growing abolitionist movement and emancipation movement. Due to the weakness of the Articles of Confederation, a completely new and different Constitution was finally “agreed” upon by all thirteen states by 1790.Virginia called for a convention to modify the Articles of Confederation in 1786, and state representatives from every state, except Rhode Island, gathered in Philadelphia in 17887, numbering 55 in all. The representatives at this gathering all could be considered nationalists, and desired a strong, central government. None of the Representatives were from the lower/poorer classes. They aimed to strengthen America’s foreign affairs and weaknesses in negotiating with the European powers. They aimed to give the federal / national government genuine power and authority in dealing with issues, domestic or overseas. They wanted to preserve the union from runaway anarchy and “mobocracy”. They wanted to halt runaway and unrestrained democracy in the various states. This was accelerated by the fears caused by Shays’s Rebellion in Massachusetts.Deciding to completely scrap the ineffective Articles of Confederation, the members and representatives of the convention disobeyed orders from the Congress to revise. Choosing a compromise between “the large state plan“ of Virginia (bicarmel house in Congress of which representation would be based on population) and