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
Madison’s national veto also weakened the Virginia Plan, since the national government’s supreme judgment could only cause resentment by local authorities grappling with purely local issues. To counteract Madison’s bold proposal, delegates from the smaller states, headed by New Jersey’s William Paterson, offered a competing plan, the New Jersey Plan. To its credit, the New Jersey Plan amended the Articles of Confederation by adding a plural executive and a judiciary appointed by the executive branch. The New Jersey Plan proposed proportional representation in both houses of Congress to protect the smaller states. Although the addition of an executive would have strengthened the existing confederation, it resulted in a weak plural head of state. Furthermore, since the New Jersey Plan merely amended the Articles, and since the Articles had never been amended given the necessity of a unanimous vote by all of the states, the Plan was almost certainly doomed to
After the colonies gained independence from England on July 4, 1776, they acknowledged the need for a new form of government. Their current government (the Articles of Confederation) was defective and needed emendation. For instance, Congress had the legal right to declare war and perform on foreign policy, but don’t have the right to demand revenues from the states. This was, in fact, an issue that needed to be solved because it endangers the existence of the country. For example, since Congress lacked the power to raise military funds, it could not provide sufficient support for the armed forces. Congress was forced to demobilize the Army after the revolutionary war. It would have been very terrible for the newly formed country (The United States) if the British or the Spanish had attacked (page, 39). Another weakness of the Article was demonstrated by the Shays Rebellion. It illustrated how the central government could not protect the citizens from armed Rebellion. The colonists called for a constitutional convention to discuss how to correct their flaws. The Virginia plan was introduced, which advocated that representation should be based on population. It basically called for a legislative branch with one house that also has the authority to regulate trade and taxation. It called for a separation of powers, leaving three branches in charge: the legislative, the executive, and the Judicial branches. The Virginia plan would allow big States to control the presidency which
The two major plans proposed during the 1787 constitutional convention was The Virginia Plan and The New Jersey Plans. The Virginia Plans called for a strong national government branched into judicial, legislative and executive branches. The legislative branch would have two houses- the first house being chosen by the people and the second house by
Both the Virginia and New Jersey Plans dealt with how the states should be represented in Congress during the Constitutional Convention. The Virginia Plan wanted a strong national government with a bicameral legislature, while the New Jersey Plan wanted a weak national government with a unicameral legislature. The Virginia Plan favored big states such as Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania while New Jersey Plan favored small states such as New Jersey and Rhode Island. The Virginia Plan believed that states should be represented according to their population and the greater the population of a state, the more representatives they would have. While The New Jersey Plan called for every state to receive the same number of representatives,
Of the many plans to structure the government present the two that drew the most attention were the Virginia and the New Jersey Plans. Both of these plans were decimated by members of the convention for various reason. The plan from Virginia was viewed as a structure that would be more beneficial to larger states because it recommended an executive and judicial branches of government in addition to a two chambered congress with all representation based on the population of the state which was less beneficial to smaller states such as New Jersey. While the plan recommend called the New Jersey Plan would be just the opposite of the Virginia Plan since it called for a stronger national government to support the Articles of the Confederation with the ability to tax and regulate commerce between states. The New Jersey Plan also called for a single chambered congress and each state having one single vote. Deliberations lasted many weeks until finally
The Bill of Rights became a very important document in the United States Constitution in order to ensure United States citizens equal protection of their rights and liberties. The main objective of the Bill of rights was to place limits on the national government creating an understanding and dividing the powers between the states and the national government. Not all the powers were granted to the national government however not all the powers were prohibited to the states. As stated by Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir & Tolbert (2015) the bill of rights consists of 10 amendments incorporated in the U.S constitution. It is important to note that each amendment contains a legal court case in which the supreme court as well as the government have ruled and have ignored or have protected the rights of the individuals involved.
In the “Virginia Plan vs. New Jersey Plan” both plans called for a strong national government with 3 branches which led to the Great Compromise. The Great Compromise provided for a bicameral congress. The bicameral structure wanted to accommodate both large and small states unlike the unicameral which only included the small vote.
The largest dispute between these two plans was over the differing population sizes. The Virginia Plan called for representation to be determined by the population of a state. This meant the larger the population, the more representatives it would have. This satisfied the bigger states but left smaller states like New Jersey with less representation. Alternately, the New Jersey Plan pushed for each state to have equal representation. The Virginia Plan called for a bicameral legislative branch while the New Jersey Plan wanted a unicameral legislative. With a bicameral legislative each state's amount of votes would be based on their population. With a unicameral legislative each state would be entitled to only one vote. These quarrels eventually led to the two plans being examined, and certain ideas merged to fulfill the needs of both
the founding document of our nation’s laws and government. Within its texts, the Constitution outlines the operations and existence of all three branches of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, as well as their functions and interdependence. The constitution also includes the Bill of Rights, and all other amendments that serve as a basis for any law created in our country at either the federal or state level. While semi-extensive, the main rights we share are those from the bill of rights, which
The idea of the Virginia plan to propose representation based on population became the House of Representatives. 10. The idea of the New Jersey Plan to propose representation based on one vote per state became the House of Senate. 11. The Constitutional Convention created the Great Compromise to have a bicameral legislature, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
How did the Constitution guard against tyranny? In 1783, the newly independent United States of America and their former colonizers, Great Britain, met in paris to negotiate independence independence and peace after a long and hard war which started due to how the tyrant, King George III, was taxing and unfairly treating the people of the colonies. A tyranny is when a person or group of people abuse their powers as leaders. The Articles of Confederation was America’s first attempt at a constitution, which failed because it was too weak and had a central government which had very little, if any, power over the states.
With a final decision of five to four, the states passed the Great Compromise and it was officially adopted in July 16, 1781. The Great Compromise proposed that the United States would have a bi-cameral legislature instead of an unicameral legislature. There would be two houses: an upper house known as The Senate, and a lower house as The House of Representatives. There would be two senators per state, which favored the equality that small states were longing for. The number of House of Representatives per state would depend on how populous the state was according to the decennial census, giving citizens in large states equal power to citizens of small states. Senators were to be appointed by the State legislatures and would have six-year terms. Whereas the members of The House of Representatives are elected by the public vote and have two-year terms.
The men worked in sworn secrecy so that way they'd have the freedom to explore multiple solutions. The first plan to be presented was the Virginia Plan (remembered as the larger state plan), by James Madison. His plan introduced a three-branch structured government made up of a strong executive, judiciary, and two-chamber legislature. Madison's theory proposed the government would operate forwardly on the people, not the states. The smaller state plan (known most notably by the New Jersey Plan), presented by New Jersey delegates, still kept the confederation-feel that was originally given in 1777; still keeping a single house congress, and created a multiple-person-presidency that would be directly elected by congress. It presented congress with taxation rights, and a more forceful grip on the state
I feel as if the Virginia Plan is the best course of action because it is proposing a bicameral (having two separate legislative houses) legislative. For example, bigger states would have more representatives while smaller states would have less representatives since they weren’t has big. The Virginia Plan also called for three branches for a national government, and the branches were legislative, judicial, and executive. James Madison ( a Virginia