Virginia vs. New Jersey
The Virginia and New Jersey Plans were two plans that were drafted during the 1787 Constitutional Convention that impacted the final draft of the constitution. “The problems that plagued the new nation after independence none seemed more amenable to solution than those involving the commerce among the states” (P.8). Delegates’ studied the history of each of the three past government systems -monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy-when operated by alone revealed serious flaws. The Virginia Plan also known as the Randolph Plan was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislature government branch. Under this plan each state would be represented in proportion to their size. At this time current government was under the Articles of Confederation which was failing to provide the type of government it intended.
“The Articles of Confederation had lots of issues such as each state only had one vote in Congress, regardless of size, congress did not have the power to tax, congress did not have the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, and there was no executive branch to enforce any acts passed by Congress”; this led to the creation of the Virginia Plan (gcsu.edu). James Madison was one of the prominent delegates to the Constitutional Convention who drafted what came to be known as the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan proposed a strong national government that could make and enforce laws, and collect taxes. The people would be governed by two governments – the state and national.
The New Jersey Plan also known as the Paterson Plan was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson.
The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which proposed a unicameral legislature in which each state regardless of size would have one vote. The states with small populations were “opposed to giving most of the control of the national government to the more populous states, so they proposed an alternative plan that would have kept the one-vote-per-state representation under one legislative body from the Articles of Confederation” (thinkquest.org). Under the New Jersey Plan, the unicameral legislature with one vote per state was inherited from the Articles of Confederation. This position reflected the belief that the states were independent entities, and as they entered the United States of America freely and individually, so they remained. Under the New Jersey Plan, the unicameral legislature with one vote per state was inherited from the Articles of Confederation. This position reflected the belief that the states were independent entities, and as they entered the United States of America freely and individually, so they remained.
To compare and contrast the two plans, under the Virginia Plan there were three branches of government the legislative, executive and the judicial. The legislative branch was the more powerful because it chose people to serve in the executive and judicial branch. The plan “provided that a council of revision consisting of the executive and a convenient number of the National Judiciary would be empowered to veto laws passed by the legislature” (P. 31). The New Jersey Plan also operated under the three branches of government. The plan “came in the form of amendments to the Articles of Confederation rather than as a new constitution” (P.15). The legislative appointed people to serve the executive branch and the executive branch selected the justices of the Supreme Court. The legislature for the Virginia Plan was represented by bicameral. The House of Representative was elected by the people and the senate was elected by the legislature while New Jersey’s legislature under one house was represented equally. Virginia’s plan could also “regulate interstate trade, strike down laws deemed unconstitutional and use armed forces to enforce laws” (thinkquest.org). Other powers under the New Jersey Plan included levying taxes, regulate trade, and state laws would be subordinate to laws passed by the national legislature.
The Constitutional Convention is a major transition point in American history. It marked the ending of the Revolutionary era and the creation of a new national republican government. If a compromise had not been possible the Virginia Plan would have been more feasible. “The Virginia Plan empowered the legislature simply to legislate in all cases to which the separate states are incompetent, or in which the harmony of the United States may be interrupted by the exercise of individual [state] Legislation” (P.41). Inclusion the Virginia Plan would have been the better selection because it gave representation of each state based on size. The Electoral votes of today are based on the bigger the population of a state the more electoral votes it receives. The plan also had a more detailed proportionate level of government while the New Jersey Plan only expanded the national power of the old system and their main focus was to protect the small states from the large ones by ensuring one state, one vote.
References:
Hemonds. Constitution Summary. n.d. 1 February 2014 <www.gcsu.edu>.
Johnathan Chin, Alan Stern. Thinkquest. 1997. 26 January 2014 <www.thinkquest.org>.
Michael Nelson, Sidney M. Milkis. The American Presidency. Washington: Sage, 2012.
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