![]() ![]() The New Jersey Plan would enlarge some of the powers of Congress-such as the power to raise money though import taxes-but would otherwise leave the scheme of representation unchanged. On June 15, William Paterson of New Jersey introduced an alternative plan to revise and correct the Articles of Confederation. The Virginia Plan would establish a national government that represented the people of the United States directly: the people themselves would elect their representatives, and the laws of Congress would apply to them directly rather than to the state governments. In both Houses, the number of representatives from each state (referred to by the delegates as the "rule of suffrage") would be "proportioned," determined by either the population of each state, or by the amount of taxes each state contributed annually to national funds. The Virginia Plan would establish two Houses of Congress: in the first or "lower" House, representatives would be elected directly by the people of each state representatives in the second or "upper" House would be selected by members of the lower House out of a pool of candidates nominated by the state legislatures. Madison, therefore, devised what came to be known as the Virginia Plan, which was introduced to the Convention by Edmund Randolph of Virginia on May 29. Some delegates, including James Madison, believed this arrangement led to many of the problems that the United States faced during the 1780s (See Lesson 1 of this unit, " The Road to the Constitutional Convention"). The states were equally represented in Congress because each state delegation could cast only one vote. Each state legislature selected delegates to a unicameral Congress (that is, there was only one legislative branch, unlike the bicameral Congress established later by the Constitution). According to the Articles of Confederation, the states were united in a "firm league of friendship" under what was understood to be a federal government. From the beginning, however, the central point of contention among delegates was the extent to which the scheme of representation under the Articles should be changed. ![]() In May of 1787, delegates from the states began assembling in Philadelphia for a Convention to recommend amendments to the Articles of Confederation. Students will also see why the Connecticut Compromise was crucial for the Convention to fulfill its task of remedying the political flaws of the Articles of Confederation. By examining the views of delegates as recorded in James Madison's Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, students will understand the arguments of those who supported either the Virginia Plan or New Jersey Plan. This lesson will focus on the various plans for representation debated during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The question was finally resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which resulted in a system of representation that would be "partly national, partly federal," involving a combination of the two kinds of representation. Another group of delegates believed that the current scheme of representation under the Articles of Confederation was flawed and had to be replaced with a better one-a "national" one. One group of delegates believed that they were not authorized to change the "federal" representational scheme under the Articles of Confederation, according to which the states were equally represented in a unicameral Congress by delegates appointed by the state legislatures. ![]() This question was especially contentious, and kept the delegates embroiled in debate and disagreement for over six weeks. When the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention convened in May of 1787 to recommend amendments to the Articles of Confederation, one of the first issues they addressed was the plan for representation in Congress.
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