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An Essay On The Virginia Plan

499 Words2 Pages

The Virginia Plan The Virginia Plan aimed to replace the Articles of Confederation at the Constitutional Convention. Increasing the power of the government, one the main goals of Virgina Plan concerned many delegates. In retaliation, delegates introduced the New Jersey Plan. The New Jersey aimed to preserve the rights laid out in the Articles of Confederation. Furthermore, many delegates believed the Virginia Plan gave the government too much power and would arm the liberties of the American people. Overall, the Virginia Plan gave the government too much power, without the people’s vote or say.
First, the Virginia Plan sought to distribute representation based upon a state’s population. The larger states such as, Pennsylvania and New York would benefit greatly, while the smaller states such as, New Jersey and Rhode Island would lose influence. For this reason, the Virginia Plan became known as the “big state plan.” Under this plan, more representatives from larger states would attend conventions, outweighing the smaller states’ ideas (SAS Curriculum Pathways). Once again, the government is making important decisions …show more content…

Leading up to the convention, each state was independent and governed itself. Influential people such as, James Madison did not believe this was the best way to govern. Therefore, Madison wanted to combine the states and place them under one national government. By doing so, the government is now more powerful than the states. On the other hand, the New Jersey Plan wanted to allow the states to remain independent, but have a national government for large issues (SAS Curriculum Pathways). So, the real question is, why should government have more power than the states and the people they govern? Shouldn’t the people have the power? Corruption, government overreach, large wars, and staggering amounts of debt are just a few issues with a large, powerful

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Virginia and New Jersey are plans presented at constitutional convention. They give information about the structure of the government, representation of the congress, powers given to the congress and the composition of the government branches. There are several similarities between plans presented at constitutional convection by Virginia and the New Jersey plans. On the other hand there are differences between the two plans as illustrated below.

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These men being known as the founding fathers The Virginia plan was to create a government consisted of what Edmond Randolph proposed that the national government be compiled of a supreme, legislative, executive and judiciary. It was also consisted of 2 houses. The lower house would represent states with the largest population. The members of the upper house would be elected by the lower house making the smaller states have little or no representation in the upper house at all.

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The Virginia Plan was a huge part in forming the constitution we have today. Without it, we may not even have our government. Many others did not like the Virginia Plan because it would provide a too weak of a government. The Virginia Plan was brought in to the convention to revise and edit to form the basis of our government. It stated that there would be three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.

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In May 25, 1787, a convention was called in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to express the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, the intention from many delegates was to draft a new constitution; create a new government rather than fix the existing one. Rhode Island was the only one of the 13 original states to refuse to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention. At the Convention, the first issues they had to address was the representation in Congress.

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Virginia Plan Vs New Jersey Plan Essay

537 Words | 3 Pages

In the creating of the US Constitution, the creators hit many roadblocks. It was difficult for the state delegates to decide on much, especially because they were biased and in favor of their own states. The New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan were two examples of the disagreement of representation within the states in the legislative branch. The New Jersey Plan was in favor of equal representation throughout the states. The Virginia Plan was in favor of population representation, meaning the larger states would have more representation than the smaller states.

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The authors of the Constitution created a balance between federal and state government by creating federalism or a division of powers with checks and balances while maintaining the separation of powers. That being said, the Virginia Plan of having every state hold a two-house legislature was debated against the New Jersey Plan that entailed a single house Congress (Foner, 2014). The end result was a two-house Congress in which each state could then have two senate members that are required to serve for one term of six years and a House of Representatives in which member were elected directly by the people every two years. This system made sure that each population was represented equally despite one state being larger than the other (Foner,

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After deciding to write a new constitution, the delegates could not decide what new form the government should take. One of the options was the Virginia Plan created by Edmund Randolph and James Madison. The plan included a strong government with three branches (the legislative branch, The judicial branch, and the executive branch). In the Virginia Plan, the legislator would consist of two houses and seats would be awarded on the basis of the population. Due to the fact that the seats are awarded based on population, larger states would have more representatives than smaller states.

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