This United States Constitution was really the second constitution the United States ever had. The first one being The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. It was created by the Second Continental Congress beginning in 1776, all 13 states had ratified it near the beginning of 1781. America fresh off independence from Britain wanted to greatly limit the powers of government and make sure it never became anything similar to Britain’s rule. Because of this the Articles of Confederation gave the government very limited power. As the years went by Congress and other political powers began to realize the system of government was not capable of making this nation the way they wanted it to be. No one took their currency seriously and the government lacked the power to enforce much of anything. The main problem of the Articles of Confederation according to George Washington was “no money.” States never paid all of their taxes and sometimes …show more content…
This convention's purpose was to revise the constitution and make the federal constitution satisfactory for the needs of a successful government. Two plans for structuring the government arose at the beginning of the convention. The Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan was proposed by Virginian delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. James Madison worked on bettering the document while he waited for the Constitutional convention of 1787. The Virginia Plan set forth the idea of population-weighted representation in the proposed national legislature. One of the big debates to get passed was how to value a state's legislative power. In the articles of confederation each state had one vote in a unicameral legislature. This seemed to be unfair because some states had much larger populations yet had the same
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.”
The Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan had many similarities and distinct differences. The New Jersey Plan wanted the Legislative Branch to consist of one house with equal representation from all states. It also stated that the Legislative Branch could collect taxes from the states. The Virginia Plan included details about a powerful Legislative Branch. There would be two houses with membership proportional to the state’s population.
Student’s name Professor’s name Course number Date The Virginia and New Jersey plans 1 The Virginia plan had various characteristics as proposed by Mr Randolph. He suggested in accordance to the wishes of the committee that the national government should be created and that it should consist of a supreme legislative, Executive and Judiciary. According to Mr. Patterson in the Virginia plan which he drew from Mr. Randolph’s propositions, proposed that revision of the articles of confederations was paramount in order to render federal constitution adequacy to the demands of both government and the union in preservation.
"The Virginia Plan" (May 1787), authored by James Madison and Edmund Randolph, contained several proposals that represented objections for some individuals who ultimately refused to sign the Constitution. These objections centered around concerns over the proposed structure of government and the balance of power between the states and the central government. One proposal in the Virginia Plan that raised objections was the establishment of a bicameral legislature with representation based on population. This provision would have given larger states, with higher populations, more influence and power in the legislative branch. Smaller states, fearing their interests would be overshadowed by larger states, objected to this representation model,
Final Exam Part I: QA2 The Virginia Plan a New Constitution The Virginia Plan proposed a new Constitution designed as a republic and a strong national government. The most distinguished feature of the plan created structural changes as well as delegated sovereignty to the Federal government and the people. This transfer of power diminished the role of the States in the national government. The Virginia Plan structurally replaced the unicameral Congress by separating federal power among three branches of government, a bicameral legislature, an executive and a judiciary.
How the Virginia Plan and New Jersey Plan Effected Representation The idea of equal representation has been debated many times throughout the history of mankind. But equal representation is often not feasible without compromise which is exactly what happened in Philadelphia in the year 1787. The representation that was being questioned was how the small and large states could both be represented equally, and it is not shocked that both the small and large states had a plan of how the representation should work. “The one plan was federal, the other national,” (105)
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.
The Virginia Plan, created by James Madison, proposed that the Articles of Confederation to be “scrapped” or thrown out, and that the people would make a new National Government which has the power to make laws binding upon the states, to raise its own money through taxes, and to regulate trade throughout the states. The mayor, Edmund Randolph, introduced this plan. It was wildly popular throughout the states and was put into effect. It was significant in creating our new government simply because it got rid of the Articles of Confederation. It made it possible for the federal government to not only gain money from tax from the states, but it also impacted the creation of our new government.
Virginia Plan The Virginia plan was proposed by an Edmund J. Randolph in May 28, 1787. The plan however was written by James Madison, a political theorist. The Virginia Plan was also called the Big State plan because it would mostly benefit the bigger states. The Virginia Plan was the first document to suggest a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, which would all be independent from one another.
In 1787, delegates met in Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia to come up with varied views that spearheaded the formation of the Constitution of the USA that came into existence allowing the powers of the federal government to exceed those of the federal states. Several issues were proposed by different individuals to be adopted into the constitution of the country. They include, The Annapolis Conference, Paterson and the New Jersey Plan. The question of power, Madison and the Virginia Plan; Empowering a president plan among many others (Vile, 2006). The Virginia plan was the mother of the US constitution as it proposed several issues that are present in the constitution of America.
Leading up to the convention, each state was independent and governed itself. Influential people such as, James Madison did not believe this was the best way to govern. Therefore, Madison wanted to combine the states and place them under one national government. By doing so, the government is now more powerful than the states. On the other hand, the New Jersey Plan wanted to allow the states to remain independent, but have a national government for large issues (SAS Curriculum Pathways).
The New Jersey Plan was one option in the matter of how the United States would be spoken to. The Plan required each state to have one vote in Congress as opposed to the amount of votes being established on people. This was to secure the equalization of the states paying little regard to people size. The New Jersey Plan was familiar with the Constitutional Convention by William Paterson, a New Jersey delegate, on June 15, 1787. The Constitutional Convention was met to change the Articles of Confederation, yet it got the chance to be apparent that another governing body would ought to be made.
After deciding to write a new constitution, the delegates could not decide what new form the government should take. One of the options was the Virginia Plan created by Edmund Randolph and James Madison. The plan included a strong government with three branches (the legislative branch, The judicial branch, and the executive branch). In the Virginia Plan, the legislator would consist of two houses and seats would be awarded on the basis of the population. Due to the fact that the seats are awarded based on population, larger states would have more representatives than smaller states.
Virginia Plan was a proposal for a strong national government with a bicameral legislature and a President chosen by the national legislature. The New Jersey Plan was a proposal for a unicameral legislature with equal representation for each state and a President chosen by Congress. The Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Plan, was a compromise between the Virginia and New Jersey Plans that established a bicameral legislature with representation based on population in the House of Representatives and equal representation in the Senate, and a President elected through an electoral college. The pros of the Virginia Plan included the creation of a strong national government and representation based on population.