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 had a total of 15 resolutions; the resolutions had broadened the debate at the Constitutional Convention and included what power and structure the government should take. This plan was also
Constitutional Convention(1787)- Twelve states participated in the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia the summer of 1787. The first thing accomplished at the Convention was the election of George Washington as Convention president. The delegates agreed upon a structure for their government consisting of a Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branch. The next topic tackled was how would the states be represented with the smaller states on one side of the argument and the larger states on the other side. This argument led James Madison to propose the Virginia Plan.
The Virginia Plan was drafted by James madison and presented on May 29, 1787 by Edmund Jennings Randolph. Randolph, former governor of Virginia, wanted to prevent a crisis in the federal system and felt that revising the federal system would be necessary to create a strong central government that would benefit states with large populations. He thought the federal system should create a two system congress, the House of Representative and the Senate which would control Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. The Virginia Plan also composed three separate branches, The Executive Branch, the legislative branch, and the Judicial Branch. However, the constitution didn’t want one branch to overpower the other branches and so it created checks
The Virginia plan was the first proposal that was largely created by James Madison creating a strong system that had a two house legislature, a chief executive chosen by the legislature, and a court system. The lower house was largely elected by the people. The people in the lower house then elected the people in the upper house. The people that were elected were the ones who then chose the ones who chose the person in the upper house. He also came up with the checks and balances which were very important for Madison was more of a federalist than an anti-federalist.
The Virginia Plan which is also known as the large-state plan was a plan drafted by James Madison. James Madison was a politician from Virginia who wanted the national government to hold more power. So he came up with the Virginia Plan. The idea of the Virginia Plan was that there would be two chambers of congress, in which the representatives would be determined by the population of each state (Patterson, 2013, p. 31). This meant the larger states would have more of an advantage than the smaller states, which would give them more representatives and power.
These men being known as the founding fathers The Virginia plan was to create a government consisted of what Edmond Randolph proposed that the national government be compiled of a supreme, legislative, executive and judiciary. It was also consisted of 2 houses. The lower house would represent states with the largest population. The members of the upper house would be elected by the lower house making the smaller states have little or no representation in the upper house at all.
In May 25, 1787, a convention was called in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to express the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, the intention from many delegates was to draft a new constitution; create a new government rather than fix the existing one. Rhode Island was the only one of the 13 original states to refuse to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention. At the Convention, the first issues they had to address was the representation in Congress.
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.
Compromise was a huge part of America 's history and was extremely useful when it came to the “Articles of Confederation.” The government was starting to realize the articles weren 't strong enough any more and weren 't helping control the citizens. The government said they needed to be revised so Virginia and New Jersey both made an attempt at fixing them. The Virginia Plan was written May 29,1787 and the New Jersey Plan was written shortly after on June 15, 1787. Both plans were preposals for forms of government and both had many flaws.
The Articles of Confederation structured the first government of the thirteen states. The thirteen states included: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. However, Rhode Island did not vote to revise the Articles right away. Therefore, the proposals of the Constitution continued to be declined by the other states due to not having a balance on votes. When Rhode Island finally sent a representative to the Constitution Convention, the Constitution was approved.
On 1787, a constitutional convention was held in Philadelphia state house, where three proposal were suggested: the Virginia Plan, the New Jersey Plan, and the Connecticut Compromise. The Virginia Plan intention was to establish a Congress with numerical representation and a more robust national government; however, this proposition led into an opposed proposal called The New Jersey plan. The New Jersey plan was made to make modification to the Articles of Confederation but more importantly, the plan is to make clear of whom has the power of what states. Two delegates from Connecticut were joined together to acquire the image only by the states in senate and numbers in the House, calling it the Connecticut Compromise. As all the Plans I previously mentioned, I will go on depth on how the Virginia Plan, the New Jersey Plan, and the Connecticut Compromise shape America today.
For an example, this would give Virginia much more delegates than Delaware, the smallest state. Delegates from small states objected to the plan, instead they preferred the Confederation system in which all states were represented equally. On June 15, William Paterson, a delegate from New Jersey, presented a different plan called the New Jersey Plan that revised the Articles of Confederation, which was all the convention was empowered to do. The Plan kept the Confederation’s one-house legislature, with one vote for each state. Congress could set taxes and regulate trade, powers they did not have under the Articles.
James Madison since the first meeting that was supposed to take had already planned on doing more than revising the Articles of Confederation. At the start of the convention Madison, being a nationalist did not feel like he should be the one to present the plan, so he had his friend Edmund Randolph present it (Barbash, 1987). The Virginia Plan, as it was called, would not only give Congress the ability to do more but it also opened up two other parts of the government. The plan was to be a two-house Congress, a lower and upper. The lower house would be elected by the people and the upper would be chosen by the house (Barbash, 1987).
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.
Virginia held five Revolutionary Conventions between August 1774 and July 1776. The conventions selected and instructed the Virginia delegates to Congress, organized military preparation, arranged economic embargoes of British goods, and formed the Virginia Committee of Safety that between August 1775 and July 1776 governed Virginia in the absence of the royal governor. The last of the Revolutionary Conventions met in the Capitol in Williamsburg from May 6 through July 5, 1776. On the morning of May 6, a few members of the House of Burgesses met there for the last time and let that body die.