Angelica De La Cruz

Political Science 001

May 6, 2017

Summarized Plans for the Constitutional Convention

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 didnt want one branch to overpower the other branches and so it
created checks and balances. Checks and Balances gave boundaries to the government so they
wouldnt overpower each other and have equal balance among each branch. This plan benefitted
the large wealthy states and gave congress the power to veto state laws that where created by the
legislative branch and carried out by the executive branch.

The New Jersey Plan

On June 15, 1787 the U.S government gathered together and held the constitutional convention
in Philadelphia to draft a new plan, this plan benefitted large states and gave disadvantages to
other states that were smaller. However, William Patterson proposed a plan that would benefit
small states (Ex: Virginia) and not keep them in fear of large states taking over the government.
His plan substituted and retained the purely federal character of the Articles of Confederation
(Levy, Leonard, 2000, pg. 46-54). Pattersons proposal gave each state an equal representation in
the national legislature, allowing each state to have a single vote in a unicameral congress. This
benefitted small states because representation was not only going to be based on population, but
was going to bring equality and unity. Another part of the plan was The nucleus of the
supremacy clause, making national law the supreme law of the statesit was a warning to large
state nationalists that they would have to compromise on the issue of representation (Phelps,
Shirelle, 2005, pg. 110-111), but regardless of his efforts delegates, James Madison and Edmund
Randolph rejected his proposal and this led to the great compromise. .
The Connecticut Compromise

The disagreement that led between the large states and the small states would have caused a
conflict among each other. However, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth settled this by
creating a compromise in which both large and small states would benefit. This compromise
would have two houses, one would be the House of Representatives which would be represented
by each states population and creating proposed laws that deal with taxing and spending, this
benefitted large states, and the other house would be Senate, which would have equal
representation and have the choice to approve or disapprove proposed laws that were created
from the House of Representatives, this benefitted small states. This was an agreement that
large and small states reached during the constitutional convention in 1787 that in part defined
the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the U.S (Wickham,
Dewayne, 2012, pg. 7). The great compromise gave each state 2 senators (house of
representative and senate) which benefitted all states, without this compromise the constitutional
convention would have failed and caused conflict among states.

Work Cited

"Origins of U.S. Government: The Virginia, or Randolph, Plan." Gale Encyclopedia of American
Law, edited by Donna Batten, 3rd ed., vol. 13, Gale, 2011, pp. 107-109. Gale Virtual
Reference Library, login.ezp.pasadena.edu%2Flogin%3Furl%3Dhttp%3A%2F
%2Fgo.galegroup.com%2Fps%2Fi.do%3Fp%3DGVRL%26sw%3Dw%26u
%3Dpasa19871%26v%3D2.1%26id%3DGALE%257CCX1337704834%26it%3Dr
%26asid%3D90ed9c28ec88279ada2922900ba02f93. Accessed 2 May 2017.

"The New Jersey, or Paterson, Plan." West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edited by Shirelle
Phelps and Jeffrey Lehman, 2nd ed., vol. 12, Gale, 2005, pp. 110-111. U.S. History in
Context, login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?
url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3437704861/UHIC?
u=pasa19871&xid=e64a4d08. Accessed 2 May 2017.

Leny, Leonard W. "New Jersey Plan." Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, edited
by Leonard W. Levy and Kenneth L. Karst, 2nd ed., vol. 4, Macmillan Reference USA,
2000, p. 1800. U.S. History in Context, login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?
url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3425001760/UHIC?
u=pasa19871&xid=fe9f2145. Accessed 2 May 2017.

Estes, Todd. "The Connecticut effect: the great compromise of 1787 and the history of small
state impact on Electoral College outcomes." The Historian, vol. 73, no. 2, 2011, p.
255+. U.S. History in Context, login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?
 url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A260060595/UHIC?
u=pasa19871&xid=6e4ee54a. Accessed 2 May 2017.

Wickham, DeWayne. "Connecticut compromise': An education reform model." USA Today, 22

May 2012, p. 07A. U.S. History in Context, login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?
url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A290439167/UHIC?u=pasa19871&xid=aee09f0.
Accessed 2 May 2017.