Compare And Contrast The Virginia And The Constitutional Convention

The Virginia Plan was a plan drafted by James Madison and was presented by Edmund Randolf. It was presented to the Constitutional Convention on May 29, 1787. According to the plan, a strong central government had three branches: legislative, judicial, and executive. The plan also proposed two houses: the first one had members elected by the people for three-year terms; the second one had older leaders elected by the state legislatures for seven-year terms. The role of the plan was important for “setting the stage for the convention.”

Daron Kozian Professor Hamman POLS 001 03/13/2017 Constitutional Convention The Virginia plan was written by James Madison on May 29, 1787. The Virginia plan proposed a strong central government. The government consisted of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The Virginia plan favored the large states. The congress would make decisions according to state population votes.

The New Jersey plan was another plan that was presented at the Constitutional Convention. The New Jersey Plan was presented by William Patterson on June 15, 1787. This plan was presented because the small states felt that the large states would control the government and they didn’t want that. One component of the plan was that there would be three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch would be unicameral and only have a one house congress.

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.

The Virginia plan presented in 1787 by Edmund Randolph was one option on how the United States should be governed. Their key points were for Congress to have 2 houses and for representation to be based on population. Another option was the New Jersey plan which was presented by William Paterson in the same year. This was to oppose the Virginia plan because not everyone agreed with what was written.

The main divisions at the Constitutional Convention were known as “The Virginia (Large States) Plan” and “The New Jersey (Small States) Plan.” The Virginia Plan was introduced by Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia, on May 29, 1787, at the convention and was prepared by James Madison. Madison, who was a “member of the Continental Congress” (Howard, 2008, p. 12), had faith in the Virginia Plan and thought it would be the best proposal to enforce the laws and assist the government in collecting taxes from the people (Library of Virginia, n.d.). The Virginian delegates planned to “rid the country of the Articles of Confederation, develop two houses of Congress, enact a federal judiciary, give Congress the right to elect a president, and to allow Congress the right to veto the actions of the state” (Schultz, 2010, p. 125).

The New Jersey Plan was in favor of small states and wanted a unicameral legislature and all states to have equal representation. The Connecticut Compromise, also known as The Great Compromise, or Sherman’s Compromise, was reach during the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787,it was an agreement between two earlier proposals which solved the issue it called for a bicameral legislature with the upper chamber, called the Senate, determined by equal representation, and the lower chamber, called the House of Representatives, determined by the population of each state; it combined both interests. The Great Compromise was proposed to address the feelings from the smaller states that their interest would be drawn out by the larger states. However, the Three Fifths Compromise proposed by Judge James Wilson, and Roger Sherman. The Three Fifths Compromise is three out of every five slaves would be counted for taxes and population.

Ratified in 1781, they outlined the framework for a Congressional government. After a trial period of ten years, the Congress came to the conclusion that the government which had been created by the articles was too weak and needed revision. In May of 1787, delegates from several states convened to begin discussion about a new system. Over the next several months, plans like the Virginia plan, which advocated for a bicameral government, and the New Jersey plan, which advocated for a unicameral government, were put forward. Through a series of compromises, the Connecticut plan, also known as the “Great Compromise,” was adopted.

Before all this, “The congresses only consisted of one chamber with a certain number of representatives from every states” (Drinan). Congress went from unicameral to bicameral which divided up the congress. The question was about the states having a certain number of representatives. Larger states and states with a higher population supported the Virginia Plan, which was based on the population. The higher population, the more representatives they could have.

One of the plans presented at the Constitutional Convention was the Virginia Plan.  Virginia delegate Edmund Randolph presented this plan at the beginning of the Convention. He, George Washington, and the other Virginia delegates came up with this idea while waiting for the Convention to begin.   They came up with the Virginia Plan because the Articles of Confederation had many problems associated with it and the delegates wanted to fix them.

The Great Compromise was Roger Sherman’s plan, and was an attempt to resolve the conflicts between the smaller states and larger states, settling the Virginia Plan and New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan called for a bicameral

The Great Compromise finally came when Roger Sherman from Connecticut proposed a bicameral structure with the higher senate getting one vote per state and the lower legislation represented by population. Washington urges Madison to compromise for harmony on the senate

After the countless debates, the Great Compromise was what the convention would come into agreement with representation by population in the House of Representatives “The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one Representative. ”(add footnote) The smaller states were pleased with equal representation in the Senate “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senates from each state and each Senator shall have one vote.”(add

Articles of Confederation vs. U.S. Constitution The Articles of the Confederation and the U.S. Constitution are two articles that where written and accepted by the United States as a foundation for their new government. They are both very important documents that have similarities and differences. Some of the main things the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution have in common is that they addressed the needs of its constituencies.

In Patrick Henry’s, Virginia Convention, he talked about how the people needed to fight back against the British. And in Benjamin Franklin’s, the speech he gave at the Constitutional Convention, talked about how the Articles of Confederation had some problems, and if they were to fix them that the people would most likely have better lives. But there are always differences and similarities. And in these speeches there are differences and similarities. But Patrick and Ben both explained what the people could do and what they shouldn’t do.