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The Virginia Plan Essay

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The Virginia Plan proposed that a National Government consisting of a supreme legislative, executive, and judiciary branches be created. This was very different from what the existing Confederation of Sates were comprised of. This new National Government was approved by Congress with little debate between its members, because as time was moving forward more and more members of Congress realized that there was a need for a stronger National Government. The details of the Virginia Plan called for the legislature branch to be comprised of two houses. A lower house, where the states would be represented in proportion to each state’s population and the upper house would have its’ members elected by the members of the lower house. Thus began the …show more content…

While with the Articles of Confederation, it was the states that held majority of the power and jurisdiction of the United States; these powers were being granted to the new National Government. The individual state governments would though maintain some of the authoritarian power that was granted in the Articles of Confederation. This was a major concern of our founding fathers, they did not want a national government that would become so powerful, that its’ citizenry would become its subjects such as that they revolted against, England. So of this fear was born the separation of powers between the different branches of the national government. Both houses of the legislature would have to agree on a cause for a law to be enacted, and once approved it would be sent to the newly created executive branch for that elected official to sign into law. This new office would be known as the President of the United States, and one of the powers of the executive branch would be that it had the power to appoint judges to the judiciary branch of the national government. The executive branch judicial appointees would however need to be approved by the upper house known as the Senate. These members of the judiciary branch would serve life terms. The power behind this branch of government was that of interpreting the laws and ensuring that they did not violate the Constitution of the United States. (Brinkley,

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