The Virgina Plan Vs. The New Jersey Plan

At the Constitutional Convention many arguments were made over representation of the states and how it should be arranged. Fore the most part two main sides were taken, by the larger states and the little states. These were The Virginia Plan and The New Jersey plan.

The views, opinions and plan of action of the biggest states were The Virginia Plan.

The Virginia Plan took sides on both slavery and representation and had very different views on each. As outlined in The Virginia Plan, states should have representation in the government based on that particular states' population and wealth. The larger states had bigger militias and paid more taxes, so they felt that they should have more say in government. It was also suggested and highly recommended by the states in favor of The Virginia Plan that the government should, from there on out, have three branches: The executive, the Judicial, and the Legislative branches. The Legislative branch was to have greater power, as it would choose the officials in the other two branches. These states wanted a bicameral legislature with a House of Representatives and a Senate, both based on population and wealth. The Virginia Plan gave the national government more power than it had under the Articles of Confederation, allowing it such powers, that as: regulating interstate trade, vetoing laws passed by the state that were deemed unconstitutional, and using the armed forces to enforce laws.

The conflicting views of the states led to a different plan being drawn up by the tiniest states, this was The New Jersey Plan. This plan took many opposing views to those of the large states. Instead of suggesting representation based on population, this plan called for equal representation for every state. This was mainly because of the fact that it was supported by the smaller, more sparsely populated states. In the equally represented legislature there was to be only one house, this made it a unicameral legislature. The national government would, if this plan was chosen for the new government, be able to: levy taxes, regulate trade, and state laws would have to be in accordance with those of the national government. The vast majority of the powers would be given to the states to prevent a dictatorship or monarchy. The one issue that was agreed upon by all states at The Convention was that there should be three branches of national government, with the legislative being the one holding the most power.

Finally, after a great deal of heated debate, a compromise was reached; this was to be known as The Great Compromise. Under this compromise, which was to become our constitution the legislature was to have two houses. Representation in The House of Representatives was based upon the population of your states. In this house, the largest states with the densest populations would have the upper hand. The other house was the Senate. Each state was permitted two senators, because there were more little states, those states had the upper hand. Bills had to be approved by both houses in order to be made a law and put into action. Powers were distributed between the federal and state governments, with the federal regime receiving enough to be productive and the state enough to keep the national government in check. The compromise made between the states was a good measure for the nation and quite possibly saved it from falling apart and collapsing. By getting all the states to agree The Constitutional Convention was able to move out of its' deadlock and precede to construct what today we know as our Constitution. This just goes to show you that none of us is as strong as we all are together.