Model Research Paper

The largest compromise of the two, is known as “The Great Compromise.” The Great compromise is the middle ground that the delegates reached after much argument over two proposed plans. The “Virginia” Plan was better suited for the largest states within America. It favored a more powerful state government, Bicameral legislation and the number of representatives would be based on the state’s total population. Whereas, the “New Jersey” Plan was better suited for the smaller states within the union. It gave the power to a national government, favored unicameral legislation and gave each state an equal number of representatives. After weeks of heavy debate and much disagreement the delegates finally reached a compromise. “The Great Compromise,” combined the values and ideas of both the plans into something that they hoped would appease both large and small states. The Great Compromise awarded a Bicameral legislature and allowed the lower house to be determined by the population, while the upper house gave each state an equal number of

The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action, written by John P. Roche, addressed the difficulty that the Founding Fathers had in constructing the U.S. Constitution because of the high level of stress they received and the limited amount of time that they had to carry out the formation of this document while keeping the best interest of the country as a priority. John P. Roche starts of by commenting on why the creation of the Constitution was so effective and how the Articles of Confederation benefitted the ratification of the new U.S. Government. As it turns out, the delegates elected to attend Pennsylvania were mainly people who had served in Congress and had experience in the weakness of the Articles in granting too little power to the national government. In addition, the delegates were appointed by the state legislatures, not by the people, as justified by the Articles of Confederation.

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.

Madison’s national veto also weakened the Virginia Plan, since the national government’s supreme judgment could only cause resentment by local authorities grappling with purely local issues. To counteract Madison’s bold proposal, delegates from the smaller states, headed by New Jersey’s William Paterson, offered a competing plan, the New Jersey Plan. To its credit, the New Jersey Plan amended the Articles of Confederation by adding a plural executive and a judiciary appointed by the executive branch. The New Jersey Plan proposed proportional representation in both houses of Congress to protect the smaller states. Although the addition of an executive would have strengthened the existing confederation, it resulted in a weak plural head of state. Furthermore, since the New Jersey Plan merely amended the Articles, and since the Articles had never been amended given the necessity of a unanimous vote by all of the states, the Plan was almost certainly doomed to

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

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

Thirteen months later, Ben served on the committee that drafted the declaration of independence. He contributed to the Government by serving as a postmaster general, and took over the duties as a president of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention. James Madison was known as the Father of the United States Constitution, no other delegate was prepared for the Federal Convention in 1787 like he was. Alexander Hamilton served in the legislature in 1787, which got him chosen as one of the delegates to the Convention. He was at a disadvantage against the other delegates because of how small of a role he played in the debates. He did however end up as one of the three delegates from New York that signed the finished document. George Washington always had concerns for the country’s future, so he was never a fan of the convention because of humanity’s common failings, and he realized that many citizens suspected the convention would be merely a seizure of power from the states by an all powerful central government and he didn’t want to attend because he didn’t want to appear as the power grasping type of person.The U.S. Constitution called "a living document." Though it may seem like a dry piece of paper to you, it really is designed to live and grow as the nation

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.

The largest dispute between these two plans was over the differing population sizes. The Virginia Plan called for representation to be determined by the population of a state. This meant the larger the population, the more representatives it would have. This satisfied the bigger states but left smaller states like New Jersey with less representation. Alternately, the New Jersey Plan pushed for each state to have equal representation. The Virginia Plan called for a bicameral legislative branch while the New Jersey Plan wanted a unicameral legislative. With a bicameral legislative each state's amount of votes would be based on their population. With a unicameral legislative each state would be entitled to only one vote. These quarrels eventually led to the two plans being examined, and certain ideas merged to fulfill the needs of both

In the book “A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution” by Carol Berkin she explains the constitution from start to finish from how it all began, to the debates inside the convention and finally the end product. Berkin takes the reader and puts him directly in the middle of the convention of 1786; throughout the book you can feel the excitement, the frustration, the tensions between delegates and the overall commitment to making a new government work for all.

When the Constitution was in its ratification process the small states sided with federalists in wanting a stronger central government, while larger states sided with anti-federalists in wanting more state rights. This was seen in two important proposals to the Constitutional convention surrounding the executive branch. First, the New Jersey Plan or the small states plans, wanted one house that has equal representation, with one vote per state. This would make small states more powerful and have the same say in the government as the larger states did. Second, was the Virginia Plan or the large states plan (Document 4), was to have a bicameral legislative, with one house with representation based on population, and the other elected through that house. This gave more power to the states, the larger states gaining a clear advantage as well. These two plans clearly portrayed the different ideas of

The Connecticut Plan, also known as the Connecticut Compromise was a merger of the Virginia and the New Jersey Plans. The original Virginia plan wanted representation based on it’s state population and the New Jersey plan wanted an equal number of representatives for all the states. During the Constitutional Convention in 1787 an agreement was reached between the larger and smaller states and it was decided that each state should have fair and equal representation and voting rights. The agreement also laid out the plan for the structure of the representation of each state. This agreement became known as the Great Compromise and a Bi-cameral legislature was formed and divided into the House of Representatives and the Senate. It was decided

The Virginia Plan was introduced by Edmund Randolph during the Constitutional Convention on May 29, 1787. It was presented in the form of fifteen resolutions that detailed why the Articles of Confederation should be replaced. Larger states would support this plan because it called for proportional representation by population. The more population a state had, the more representation it would have in Congress. Smaller states, such as New Jersey opposed this idea and introduced their own plan. The New Jersey plan laid out provisions that called for each state to have equal representation and 1 vote each in Congress regardless of population. It was meant to protect smaller states from the larger states. The Virginia and New Jersey plan. Because