Beier Li

Professor Butler
Political Science
September 13, 2015
Summarize Plans from the Constitutional Convention
There are three major plans proposed at the Constitutional Convention: the Virginia Plan,
the New Jersey Plan, and the Great/Connecticut Compromise. First, the Virginia Plan was
presented by James Madison and it was a proposal of the structure of the government in the
constitutional convention. The Virginia Plan proposed a two house system that have authorized
to make laws, which is the bicameral legislature. The Virginia Plan references that each states
can represent base on the free inhabitants in the state, which means those big state would have
more representatives than the small state, for example, Virginia. As a result, most of the large
states are supporting this plan, but this plan was opposite by the small states. The Virginia Plan
mentions, each voters can vote for their lower house in the different states, and base on the state
legislature, the lower house are responsible to pick the upper house.
The New Jersey Plan, which called a small state plan. It was like a response to the
Virginia Plan. The New Jersey Plan was presented by William Paterson and it was a proposal of
structure improve of United States of America government. Basically the major difference
compare to Virginia Plan is the New Jersey Plan only wants one legislature and each states can
only have one vote so its more equal representative. Also the plans mentions, congress elects a
federal executive that assembly with multiple people. Also, nobody can be re-elected or recalled
by Congress when requested by the majority of executives of the states. This propose reflected

the belief that the states were independent entities and they are freely and individually. Also,
according to the Articles of Confederation, congress will gain addition power that can raise funds
and other measures. Also, congress are authorized to regulate commerce with other nations in the
world. This is different to the Virginia plan, it gave the congress more power and let the
legislature passed law to limit all states and also the federal executive.
The last one, the Great Compromise was presented by Roger Sherman in the
Constitutional Convention. Its basically a choices that balance the Virginia Plan and the New
Jersey Plan. Because of the unequal representative base on the Virginia Plan, the small states
would like to have equal representation compare to the large state so their interest would not be
affected. The Great Compromise was the most successful and the final constitution after
developed. The Great Compromise mentions that the House of Representatives would assigned
according to their population in the state. Also, citizens could vote for the members directly, and
each state will have two senator to vote independently.

Work Cited

Estes, Todd. "The Connecticut Effect: The Great Compromise of 1787 and the History of
Small States Impact on the Electoral College Outcomes." N.p., 2011. Web. 13 Sept. 2015.

Hickox, Charles, and Andrew Laviano. "William Paterson." EBSCO Host. Web. 14 Sept.
2015