Should The Articles Of Confederation Or Write A New 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,

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)

On 1783, the thirteen colonies defeated the Great Britain at the Revolutionary War, however, the United States government was not founded officially until the United States Constitution came into force on 1789. Although the thirteen colonies had established the Articles of Confederation in 1777 to fight against the Great Britain, the Articles of Confederation was too weak and it became a concern after the Revolutionary War. On May 25th, 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia, with twelve delegates from all colonies except Rhode Island, to revise the Articles of Confederation. However, a new constitution was created and replaced the Articles of Confederation. In order to create the new constitution, all states had to give

The men worked in sworn secrecy so that way they'd have the freedom to explore multiple solutions. The first plan to be presented was the Virginia Plan (remembered as the larger state plan), by James Madison. His plan introduced a three-branch structured government made up of a strong executive, judiciary, and two-chamber legislature. Madison's theory proposed the government would operate forwardly on the people, not the states. The smaller state plan (known most notably by the New Jersey Plan), presented by New Jersey delegates, still kept the confederation-feel that was originally given in 1777; still keeping a single house congress, and created a multiple-person-presidency that would be directly elected by congress. It presented congress with taxation rights, and a more forceful grip on the state

After the Revolution, Americans were faced with the incredibly difficult task of formulating a plan that would lay out the laws of government for the new nation. First, there were the Articles of Confederation, but they later proved to be unsuccessful in effectively governing the nation. Thus, there was a need for a new plan. In 1787, delegates gathered at the Constitutional Convention in order to create a new plan for government. Throughout the convention, a number of compromises were made in order to appease the fears of different groups. These compromises were necessary in order to ratify the Constitution and to create a successful plan of government that would stand the test of time.

The first plan is Virginia Plan, which was drafted on May 29, 1787, by James Madison and his fellow Edmund Randolph in the form of 15 resolutions. It was proposed to the Constitutional Convention by James Madison, who was a political theorist, American statesman, and the well-known fourth President of the United States. He was also the father of checks and balances, which helps to prevent the abuse of power between the branches. The Virginia Plan suggested that we should have a bicameral legislature in which contains two chambers. Besides, each state would have representatives based on the population – according to the Plan. This proposal is clearly an advantage for the large states because of their high population. More than that, they are going to have more representatives which means more power.

According to Collier, “Madison believed these laws were oppressing the creditor minority, and if the country was to have any stability, it must have a national government capable of preventing states from passing them.” (Collier 63) Madison believed in the idea of social contracts, which was the basic theory that power originally belonged to the people and their natural rights. Along with these social contracts, Madison believed that human beings were not all good or all evil, but a little bit of both. He states “human beings are generally governed by rather base and selfish motives, by suspicion, jealousy, desire for self-aggrandizement, and disinclination to do more than is required by convenience or self-interest, or exacted of them by force” (64). Madison believed in three principles that would make a successful government. These three principles were that the government should begin with the people, that all people were ultimately self-serving, and the most important principle was the national government must be completely dominant over everyone else. All in all, James Madison was determined to control power. With all of these ideas in his head for the Constitutional Convention, Madison was ready. The Virginia delegates began to meet for two or three hours each day explaining their plans of government to the convention.

In 1787, 55 delegates met in Philadelphia to write the Constitution; this meeting came to be known as the Constitutional Convention. The attendees of the convention had originally believed that the meeting was arranged to revise the Articles of Confederation, but James Madison and the other Federalists had an alternative motive. The purpose of the Constitutional Convention was to eradicate the Articles of Confederation and to construct an entirely new document altogether, this Constitution would form a strong central government and invest the power equally among the states. The colonists were hesitant to the idea because of their past experience with King George the Third, and in turn they presented a question- how could the document guard

In 1787, Edmund Randolph, the governor of Virginia, presented the Virginia Plan which changed the initial Article entirely. The Virginia Plan proposed a strong central government composed of three branches: legislative, executive and judicial as well as their rotations in office. The legislature would be broken down into two sections where the lower house would be elected by the people, serving a three-year terms and the upper house, chosen by the lower house would serve a seven-year terms. It quickly became a debate on how each state would be represented considering their size and popularity of votes. The larger states would be at a greater advantage and thus, the smaller states opposed the

Prior to the adoption of the constitution by the United States the formal and legal document used to govern the United States was called the Articles of Confederation. This draft was finalized in the summer of 1777 and was adopted by the Second Continental Congress. This document was deemed ineffective rather quickly due to the lack of several issues not being addressed like the government not having the authority to tax the people of the United States. Another issues with this document was that it gave all of the national government’s power and duties to a single chamber legislature known as Congress. This raised many concerns and caused the delegates to convene and work on a new plan that would be more effective. The Virginia Plan was created

In the early parts of America as we know it, there was a document labeled the Articles of Confederations. This was the first written document that was made to set rules and guidelines for how the colonies shall act and be representative. The Articles of Confederation had quite a few flaws however first of which was the lack of power that was allowed for a central government. It is important to realise that America had just won an emotionally and physically draining war in which they fought to abolish the tyrannical rule. They were cautious to make sure they didn’t make a central government too overbearing, and thus ultimately lead to a weak one. Then on May 14, 1787 in Philadelphia, delegates from every original state but Rhode Island gathered in a Constitutional Convention to do their best to improve a flawed Articles of Confederation. In the end, there were three main proposals that were heavily discussed.

James Madison proposed an idea for how the government should function and the meeting was known as the Virginia Plan. Madison wanted a state government and national government to lead the people into a great country. He was also in favor of the national government because the population of Virginia was large which would give them more representation. Madison also included that the national government would have the authority to enforce and create its own laws as well as collecting taxes. Under the Virginia Plan, the government was divided into the legislative branch,

Delegates have different views regarding the government failure to scrap of the Articles of Confederation and mark a new begining. The plans under development included the Virginia Plan that favoured large states and the New Jersey plan remedying small states. The Great Compromise was to benefit the small and large states together. Each of the plans would influence modern forms of the American legislature. To begin with, the focus on Madison’s original idea that led to the formation of Virginia Plan was an inclusive measure for active governments. The plan sought to respond to the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation. Articles of Confederation awarded plenty of power to the states instead of the national government (Vile 45).

There are numerous possible conclusions as to what the Constitution may have looked like had James Madison gotten his way at the debates in the Federal Convention. Initially, Madison’s vision of government lined up with the Virginia Plan presented by Edmund Randolph to the Federal Convention on May 29th, 1787. This plan stressed the interest of a stronger national government, with representation in the legislative branch based on the apportionment of people, instead of states, and subjected state laws to a veto by the national government. Despite the early plan of government, it is more realistic to assert that Madison’s vision for government was pliable, and that his vision evolved through the convention to appear as it did on September 17, 1787. Considering Madison’s comments in both the Federal Convention along with his subsequent authorship of certain Federalist Papers, under the pseudonym Publius, it is clear that through the deliberative process of debate during the convention that James Madison’s vision for a national government was almost wholly reconciled to the final draft. James Madison achieved the majority of his desires for a new constitution, mainly protection against the encroachment by states on federal power, limiting the power of those in government by creating separate distinct functions for each branch of government and finally by securing rights of individuals structurally by extending the republic.

In 1787, the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia to re-evaluate the Articles of Confederation. The New Jersey plan and the Virginia plan were both proposals to strengthen the national government. Bigger states wanted voting to be based on population and wanted to have two houses of Congress, which is when the founders generated the Virginia plan. However, smaller states felt this was not fair and