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Virginia Plan Vs New Jersey Plan Essay

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During the constitutional convention, two plans were proposed to solve the problem of state representation in the government. The first of the two plans was the Virginia Plan, proposed by James Madison and the second being the New Jersey Plan, proposed by William Patterson. Both plans consisted of three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judiciary. however, the New Jersey Plan allowed for multiple executives. Additionally, the Virginia Plan had a bicameral legislature, both houses based on state's’ population or its wealth. The New Jersey Plan, on the other hand, has a unicameral legislature, with its single house giving a single vote to each state As a result of the two plans, the Great Compromise was created for the new Constitution and is still used today. The three branches were created with checks and balances to ensure no branch has too much power and two houses of legislature. The number of members of the House of Representatives is based on the population of each state and elected by the people while there are two members of the Senate for each state, elected by the state legislature. I believe the Great Compromise was a smart solution to solve a problem in our government. It created checks and balances within the three branches to prevent one having too much power …show more content…

The Articles outlined each power the three different branches of government had as well as the state's powers and the process of amending the Constitution. Articles VI and VII establishes the Constitution as the law of the land and describes the requirements needed to ratify the new Constitution. The first ten amendments in the Bill of Rights and the Bill of Rights itself was put in place to protect the individual rights of the people. The Bill of Rights was made to be able to adapt with the nation at time went by and society

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