The New Jersey And Virginia

The Patriots desired to have a central government with limited powers. The Articles of Confederation, a written document defining the structure of the government from 1781 to 1788, only had powers to declare war, make treaties, borrow and print money; however, it lacked the power to tax either the states or the people.

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)

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 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

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

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

The Articles of Confederation were seen by the Anti-Federalists as a solution to finding a government binding document instead of the Constitution. Although the Articles of Confederation could draw up treaties, borrow money, and produce money they could not enforce treaties, repay the money that was borrowed, and it could not stop certain states from the attempts of issuing their own money. These were just some of the reasons the Federalists believed that the Articles of Confederation could no longer be used to run a country. The Constitution was believed to solve all of these problems with the states as a whole but also give the states the power that they longed for. In order for all of the power to be divided, three branches of government were made; executive, legislative, and judicial.

The 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention involved an extensive amount of compromise among the delegates in order to finalize the U.S. Constitution into the structure that it is known for today. On one end of the spectrum were states' righters, or Antifederalists, who were often delegates from smaller states such as Connecticut, and who sought to scale back the power of the federal government. On the other end of the spectrum were the Federalists, who wanted a strong national government to unite the nation. Additionally, there were other delegates who could not be put into such clear-cut categories. What followed at the convention was the process of compromise: a group of men with different ideas about how government should be structured,

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

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

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

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,

The Virginia plan stipulates that any amendments to be made to the confederation, has to be decided by people themselves and not congress. Congress should look at the amendments and then submit them to the Assembly recommended by the several legislatures to be expressly chosen by the people to consider and decide.