New Jersey Plan Disadvantages

During the Continental Convention Madison introduced The Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan embodied his principal proposals, including a legislature of two houses with differing terms of office and with representation favoring the large states. He wanted the national government clothed "with positive and compleat authority in all cases which require uniformity. " The upper house of the legislature was to have a veto on the state legislation, and he proposed a national executive. The new government would have the power to enforce its laws.

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.

In conclusion, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia had 3 influential plans were Virginia, New Jersey, and Connecticut Compromise plans. Virginia and New Jersey plans were opposite to each other between the benefits of large states and small states, but Connecticut Compromise plan satisfied the conditions of these two, was accepted into the final form of the U.S. Constitution. Compromises had been necessary at every point, and in some case produced unforeseen results. However the Constitutional succeeded beyond the hopes of its strongest

The New Jersey Plan was proposed on June 15, 1787 by a man named William Paterson. This plan was proposed for the new government for the United States of America as to oppose to the Virginia Plan. The New Jersey Plan was set up with one branch of government which was the legislative branch and it was opposed by the creators of the Virginia Plan James Madison and Edmund Randolph. This unicameral legislature was inherited by the former constitution on which was to be replaced The Articles of

The Virginia Plan suggested for a bicameral legislative branch. The Constitutional Convention originally was held in Philadelphia to alter the Articles of Confederation, the federal government, under the Articles, was too weak to enforce their laws and therefore had no power. James Madison, headed the Virginia Delegates, he shapes the debate by instantly drawing up and presenting a proposal. Edmund Randolph, then Governor of Virginia officially put the suggestion before the Convention on May 29, 1787. (loc.gov)

Virginia and New Jersey Plan proposed the balance of representation of small states with the big states

During the Constitutional Convention, two plans were proposed called the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. This compromise is the combination of those two plans which helped to create the House of Representatives and the Senate. To please the larger states, the House of Representatives was based on population which was part of the Virginia Plan. (Doc. D). The Senate of the United States shall be composed by the legislatures thereof for six years; and each senator shall have one vote.” (Doc. D). Thus, it is vital that the representation of each state is equitable so that large and small states both can have a say in government. If the Constitution was not existent, some states would have total control over other states because the smaller states would not have a say. The powers the people have, also keep people who make laws from being in the government for too long because they could gain too much power. This is the last way the Constitution guards from

“Perhaps the greatest debate undertaken by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 centered on how many representatives each state should have in the new government's lawmaking branch, the U.S. Congress. As is often the case in government and politics, resolving a great debate, required a Great Compromise.”(About) The Great Compromise that was reached by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth on July 16, 1787 incorporated the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan in parts. It formed a bicameral legislature as proposed by the Virginia Plan. It also decided that the lower house would have representatives in proportion to population of each state. These representatives would be elected by the people. However, while deciding on the representation of states in the upper house, as per the tenets of the Great Compromise, each state would have two members, irrespective of its population.

It proposed more power to the states, and the federal government to hold little power. This was quickly dismissed by those who wanted a strong federal government. The nationalists were able to convince those in favor of the New Jersey plan that any new legislation would be in direct relation to what the people wanted (Bruns, 1986).

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.

Therefore, on the 15th of June 1787, New Jersey statesman William Paterson created the New Jersey plan. Unlike the previous plan, this favored smaller states with a smaller population. Also, instead of being bicameral like the Virginia plan. The New Jersey plan had a one-house legislature. With the New Jersey plan, congress could set taxes and regulate trade, However, much to the larger states’ dismay, the New Jersey plan only allowed one vote per state. In addition, the New Jersey plan installed an executive branch of more than one person. Soon thereafter, the citizens couldn’t decide how to find a proper medium between the Virginia plan and the New Jersey plan. So, the Great Compromise was

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

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.