The Three-Fifths Of The Virginia Plan At The Constitutional Convention

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As mentioned in the module, "Lecture Notes for Chapter 2 The Constitution", the Three-Fifths Compromise or "the three-fifths rule", was put into motion as a way to appease Northern delegates while also preventing the Southern delegates from leaving the convention. The compromise ultimately states, "The three-fifths meant that the House of Representatives and the electoral college would be apportioned in part of the basis of property--specifically, property in slaves" (Bardes, Shelley, Schmidt 42-43). In other words, this referred to slaves in that each one would be counted as three fifths of a person, which benefited slave owners the most as that meant they would have more people from the South when it came to determining the representation in Congress. which is how the interests of Southern states were addressed. In addition, this compromise addressed the South's fear of lack of export taxes as they were promised that export taxes would not be imposed if they agreed to the North's demand of having Congress be responsible for regulating commerce between states and other nations (Bardes, Shelley, Schmidt 43). …show more content…

(2) The creation of an unspecified national executive, elected by the legislature. (3) The creation of a national judiciary, appointed by the legislature" (Bardes, Shelley, Schmidt 41). Moreover, the New Jersey differs from the Virginia Plan in that it was "simply an amendment of the Articles of Confederation [and] its only notable features was its reference to the supremacy doctrine, which was later included in the Constitution" (Bardes, Shelley, Schmidt 42). Despite this difference both plans are important as they helped reach an