Congress Bicameral Analysis

Both the Virginia and New Jersey Plans dealt with how the states should be represented in Congress during the Constitutional Convention. The Virginia Plan wanted a strong national government with a bicameral legislature, while the New Jersey Plan wanted a weak national government with a unicameral legislature. The Virginia Plan favored big states such as Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania while New Jersey Plan favored small states such as New Jersey and Rhode Island. The Virginia Plan believed that states should be represented according to their population and the greater the population of a state, the more representatives they would have. While The New Jersey Plan called for every state to receive the same number of representatives,

Answer to Question 1 The two plans differ in many ways. The Virginia plan was based on population weighted representation in the national legislature. The Virginia plan had three branches of government namely, executive, legislative, and judicial. The plan had two houses. The legislative branch is elected by the people, while the legislative branch would elect the executive branch. The first house of legislation will be of three years terms while that of second house would be of seven year. New Jersey plan on the other hand had one branch of government. This plan had only one house and all states can equally vote. Hence, there will be equal representation. The government is divided into executive, legislative and judiciary branch.

The Virginia plan and New Jersey plan were plans proposed by both big and little states to try and better their chances of being represented in Congress. When it came down to representation in congress there became a problem, bigger states wanted to be represented by population while smaller states

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

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 Virginia plan, New Jersey plan and Great Compromise were all necessary steps for getting our government to the way it is today. Even though there was a disagreement between the Virginia Plan and New Jersey Plan the Great Compromise joined aspects from both plans to create a government that

In the “Virginia Plan vs. New Jersey Plan” both plans called for a strong national government with 3 branches which led to the Great Compromise. The Great Compromise provided for a bicameral congress. The bicameral structure wanted to accommodate both large and small states unlike the unicameral which only included the small vote.

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

4. Q. Why did the Articles of Confederation favor the sovereignty of the states rather than that of the federal government?

The Virginia Plan is a document created by James Madison, presented on May 8, 1787, to the Constitutional Convention by Edmund Randolph (Munson). It entailed a proposal for a bicameral legislature, a plan to separate the legislative branch into two chambers, “the National Legislature ought to consist of two branches”

Mallory Pineda AE 1 The Articles of Confederation and United States Constitution are two documents that shaped the U.S. government into what it is today. The Articles of Confederation (AOC) was the first Constitution of the United States. Americans soon realized that this document had to be substantially modified because the U.S.

In 1787, a group of fifty-five American delegates, met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to attend the Constitutional Convention to work out problems with the way the country was run. This involved improving and revising the old Articles of Confederation. Instead of revising the Articles of Confederation to make the

In the Constitution, the first house (House of Representatives) is described saying, “Representatives.. shall be appointed… according to… (population)... The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand but each state shall have at least one representative.” (Document D) The second house, Senate, is explained saying, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislatures thereof for six years; and each senator shall have one vote.” (Document D) The House of Representatives is population run, with one representative for every thirty thousand in each state. States such as Virginia had up to ten representatives, while other states like Rhode Island and Delaware only had one. Because the voting in Congress wouldn't be fair all population based, the Senate has exactly two seats for every state, no matter the population/size. Larger states tend to be happier with the setup of the House of Representatives since they have more people in the house, and therefore more of a say. On the other hand, smaller states like Senate because they get just as much of a say as the other and larger states. In the case that both houses were population based, larger states would nearly hold all the power in Congress, which could essentially lead to tyranny if they gained too much

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

Tyranny, a word that many have mistaken the definition of, but even though the perception of tyranny was astray to the American people, they still feared it’s principles. In 1787, the American States sent representatives to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention in order to fix the Articles of Confederation. The