Joanna Gatmaitan

Summary

The Virginia Plan

Instead of revising the Articles of Confederation, Edmund Randolph introduced the Virginia Plan
on May 29, 1787 which was written primarily by James Madison. Madison wrote a totally
different national government and constitution. The Virginia Plan has three branches. These are
the bicameral legislature (2 house legislature), a chief executive chosen by the legislature and a
federal judiciary system. The 2 house legislature had a representation of each state based on its
population (the House of Representatives). One house was with members elected by the people
and the other was composed of older leaders elected by the state (the Senate). Its purpose was
to protect the large states interests in the new government. Small states feared that the states
with larger population would take over the national government and would have more power.
They wanted to have equal representation (each state should have the same number of
representatives in Congress), but the Virginia Plan wanted to have proportional representation
in which states with larger population should have more representatives. The Virginia plan
would have a Congressional power to cancel any state law.
Large states include Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and
Pennsylvania.

The New Jersey Plan

After two weeks of debating the Virginia Plan, William Patterson created a new plan for
representation called the New Jersey Plan. This was a unicameral legislation and had a weak
national government. This plan was designed to modify the Articles of the Confederation. It
favored the small states because it recommended for each state to have equal representation.
The New Jersey Plan also recommended also had the power to collect taxes and to regulate
commerce which the Articles of Confederation did not have. The plan also supported a National
judiciary with a wide scope of administration. The Congress also had the power to regulate
trade among the states and other nations. Its purpose was to have the same level of power in
legislature as the larger states had. This plan was imposed as a warning to the Virginia Plan to
compromise on the issue of representation. Small states include Connecticut, Delaware,
Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and South Carolina.
The Great Compromise

The Great Compromise was primarily the breakthrough of the Constitutional Convention. It put
the arguing of the small states and large states to a stop. It is basically the combination of The
Virginia Plan and The New Jersey Plan. Roger Sherman from Connecticut proposed this plan.
After months of debate between the Virginia Plan and New Jersey Plan, the convention had
finalized that the legislature was also bicameral like the Virginia Plan had. The House of
Representatives and the Senate are the two houses of this plan. The membership at the house
is based on proportional representation and the Senate was based on equal representation. The
house has the power to emerge all bills for raising money. The delegates accepted this
compromise with a close vote. Counting slaves in were an issue at this plan. The states with few
slaves didnt want to count them in at all while the states with large number of slaves wanted to
count them in for representation purposes. The delegates at the Constitutional Convention
solved this problem by what they called the three-fifths Compromise.
CITATION

ROCHE, JOHN P. "Constitutional Convention of 1787." In Encyclopedia of the American

Constitution, 2nd ed., edited by Leonard W. Levy and Kenneth L. Karst, 517-523. Vol. 2. Detroit:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. U.S. History in Context (accessed July 11, 2017).
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3425000583/UHIC?u
=pasa19871&xid=a1bdf21b.

"The Virginia, or Randolph, Plan." In West's Encyclopedia of American Law, 2nd ed., edited by Shirelle
Phelps and Jeffrey Lehman, 107-109. Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale, 2005. U.S. History in Context (accessed July
11, 2017).
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3437704860/UHIC?u=pas
a19871&xid=8936c7bd.

Robertson, David Brian. "Great Compromise." In Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United
States, edited by David S. Tanenhaus, 359. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. U.S. History
in Context (accessed July 11, 2017).
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3241200424/UHIC?u=pas
a19871&xid=01c25361.