The Constitutional Convention: The Virginia Plan And The Great Compromise

Madison wrote the Virginia Plan, in order to keep the Constitution alive. This Virginia Plan of Madison was consisting for a strong central government. That contain the Supreme Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary. This had provided a bicameral, which was another legislature that contain two houses. One that was elected from the people and a body of nomines from the state legislatures. The bodies of this representation was based on population of the states. In other words, it had enable to the Executive to be elected from the national legislature. This proposal of James Madison was effective and had became preserved in the Articles of Confederation. This also had authority on taxes and trade and protecting the slave trade as well The Virginia Plan of James Madison was indeed a true intelligent

From 1781 to 1789, the newly created United States of America put its trust in the Articles of Confederation to adequately govern itself in times of war and distress. The Articles of Confederation was the United States’ first attempt at a guideline for creating an effective federal government. It was efficient in holding the new country together during the Revolutionary War and managed to help the country attend to pressing foreign and economic problems right after the war. Although the Articles helped bring about momentous and significant change in one decade, it was not the suitable framework for the federal government to effectively govern the new country over a long period of time.

The Virginia Plan was centered mainly around the idea of having a new form of government. This was one of the many advantages because in time, the new nation would have collapsed under the Articles of Confederation.

Following the United States’ independence from Great Britain, delegates from each collective state set out to establish a body to govern the newly formed nation. From this came the Articles of Confederation, which was officially ratified in 1781. The Articles of Confederation proved to be a landmark in government for those days because it was a model of what a loose confederation could be. However, this soon failed because the official

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

After the American Revolution the people of the United States came up with a way of organizing their government called the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation consisted of a weak Central Government and strong State Governments. As this plan was being tested, Shay´s rebellion occurred and the people realized that this way of governing was too weak to handle the people.In that case, people decided to attempt a Constitutional Convention to see what new types of governments they could search for and apply.In addition, while this process was going on, compromises also occurred and people took started taking sides between the consitution.

During the years 1781 to 1789, the Articles of Confederation was the bases of the current government. This confederation was set up to create a weak government, leaving main power in the state legislatures. The people of the new United States did not foresee having a strong central government in fear of a monarchy such as that of Great Britain's. To a significant extent, the government under these articles were ineffective due to the lack of power in Congress and control of foreign relations. A contribution to the downfall of the Articles of Confederation is the insufficiency of it.

After America gained their independence from the British, the founding fathers would create a new form of government named the Articles of Confederation. They had met in Philadelphia to adopt this first official constitution in September of 1777, however, it was not ratified until March of 1781. There were two main purposes of the Articles of Confederation. The first one had been to create unity amongst the colonies, while the second purpose was to prove to the French, along with other foreign countries, that America had a structured government. They needed to win over allies and set their borders. The Articles of Confederation were effective in solving some of the new nation’s problems to an extent. It had been effective in securing American independence and settling disputes over land.

In 1781, the United States ratified the Articles of Confederation - the first system of government to be adopted by Americans. The Articles were seriously flawed, granting little power to national government and allocating most of it for the states. Its short lifespan of 8 years and multitude of problems are clear signals that it mostly did not provide the United States with an efficient government.

It made several proposals regarding the structure and powers of the federal government. Under the Virginia Plan, both houses in the legislature would have their representatives decided according to a state's number of free citizens. It was assumed by Madison that both large and small states would agree to this proposal; however, the smallest states were opposed because they knew they would have less Congressional power under this governmental structure. Roche uses words like "militant" and "truly radical" when describing the structure of the federal government under the Virginia Plan. Both he and Lance Banning relate the support Madison's plan received to the delegates' memories of the behavior of state legislatures under the Articles of Confederation. It is not surprising, therefore, that some delegates first supported a plan that would protect against abuses of power by the states. In response to the Virginia Plan, states' righters began supporting the New Jersey Plan, which called for equal representation in every state. Roche describes it as a "reversion to the status quo under the Articles of Confederation with but minor

During the writing and ratifying of the Constitution, there were some fundamental issues being debated. The main debate was about whether to amend the Articles of Confederation or write a new constitution. James Madison, a member of the Virginia Assembly, moved the convention along but proposing a document he had drafted called the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan created a central republican form of government. The government would consist of the legislative, executive and judicial branch. It

When James Madison and the other 56 delegates to the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in May 1787, they intended to amend the Articles of Confederation. They ended up creating a new constitution, and Madison, representing Virginia, became the chief recorder of information. Like all successful political endeavors, the new federal Constitution—written just four years after the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution—has many "fathers" and many origins. None is more important than the economic and political unrest following the war and a band of ultra-nationalists led by Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and George Washington (“The James Madison Papers”). Although the Convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation,

The creation of a government takes time and goes through many failures and successes. The Articles of Confederation, while being the first attempt at a new government fails by trying to keep revolutionary ideals, but not giving the national government enough power. With the Articles failing a new national government was needed. The Constitution was created to fix the failures of the Articles, but this was a gradual process, the state representatives creating it looked towards the past, by putting in revolutionary ideals, to build it.

The Articles of Confederation helped establish the first form of government in the United States. John Dickinson’s wrote them in 1777. They were ratified in 1781. A constitutional convention in 1787 was called to revise the articles. This convention developed a completely new form of government.