Pros And Cons Of The Virginia Plan

The Virginia Plan was a plan created by James Madison that advocated for a more improved, stronger national government for the United States. It proposed a government that would create better unity between states, a stable economy that would be able to regulate state and international trade, and a better stance on state representation. There were many advantages that the Virginia Plan had over the New Jersy plan even when taking into account the Virginia Plans flaws. These flaws being the possible tyranny that could be caused by larger states and smaller states. However, the good often outweighs the bad.

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.

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

After the colonies gained independence from England on July 4, 1776, they acknowledged the need for a new form of government. Their current government (the Articles of Confederation) was defective and needed emendation. For instance, Congress had the legal right to declare war and perform on foreign policy, but don’t have the right to demand revenues from the states. This was, in fact, an issue that needed to be solved because it endangers the existence of the country. For example, since Congress lacked the power to raise military funds, it could not provide sufficient support for the armed forces. Congress was forced to demobilize the Army after the revolutionary war. It would have been very terrible for the newly formed country (The United States) if the British or the Spanish had attacked (page, 39). Another weakness of the Article was demonstrated by the Shays Rebellion. It illustrated how the central government could not protect the citizens from armed Rebellion. The colonists called for a constitutional convention to discuss how to correct their flaws. The Virginia plan was introduced, which advocated that representation should be based on population. It basically called for a legislative branch with one house that also has the authority to regulate trade and taxation. It called for a separation of powers, leaving three branches in charge: the legislative, the executive, and the Judicial branches. The Virginia plan would allow big States to control the presidency which

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

Virginia plan was the first and large plan drafted by James Madison and presented by Edmund Randolph to the Constitutional

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

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.

The current method of representation in the US congress was created under the Connecticut plan, or the Great Compromise. Two plans were devised at the Constitutional Convention in 1787: the Virginia plan, which detailed representation based on a state’s population, and the New Jersey plan, which called for each state to have equal representation in Congress. The Great Compromise was a mixture of those two plans and proposed a bicameral legislature with population based representation in the House and equal representation between the states in the Senate. Although the founders may have eventually came to compromise, it wasn’t a simple process. The Virginia Plan had favored large states and the New Jersey plan had favored the smaller states;

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 contained many points but some of the main points consist of the Virginia plan, the New Jersey plan, and the great compromise. The Virginia plan was initiated by James Madison had a strong central government with legislature seats based on a state’s population. The New Jersey Plan was conducted by William Paterson also has a strong central government that endorsed equal representatives throughout the states. The great compromise was imitated to settle the disagreements between the north and south. The great compromise stated a two-house legislature the seats for one of the houses was based on population of the state and the other houses seats were distributed upon states. The great compromise set up a strong

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

On May 1787 fifty-five delegates met in Philadelphia to attempt to forge a new constitution. Edmund Randolph and James Madison introduced the Virginia plan, while William Paterson introduced the New Jersey plan. The Virginia plan only benefits the large states, but the New Jersey plan gives every state equality. Therefore, the New Jersey plan would be better and fair for the country.