The Virginia Plan
Selase Buatsi & Taddie Cook
Description
The Virginia Plan was also known as the "large-state plan". Edmund Randolph proposed the plan, with the help of James Madison, during the Constitutional Convention, the meeting held to revise the Articles of Confederation, as a framework for the Constitution. First it split the government into three houses: the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. The intent was for these three house to balance each other out to ensure the government never became too strong. It also concerned representation of the states in the national government. Randolph suggested that the legislative branch have a bicameral Congress, meaning that it would be composed of two houses. According to his plan, the number of delegates in both houses for each state would be determined by the state’s population. That would mean that the states with the larger "free population" would have more representatives within Congress. Of course, this plan would greatly benefit Virginia, the largest of the states at the time, which is probably why Randolph saw no flaw in his plan.
Branches
Effect
Cartoon
(wasn't made for the Virginia Pan)
Significance
First off, this plan set up the Constitution. Most remember the plan by it's intent for representation in Congress. However, the reality is that this plan was the first that proposed that there be three branches of government. It turned the agenda of the delegates from simply revising the Articles to creating the Constitution.
The Virginia Plan is also important because it was biased and would give the larger states more influence in the government. The smaller states would only have a small percentage of seats in Congress thereby giving them very little say and allotting to them a very small area of influence. Had this plan been adopted, it would have led to turmoil within the country. However, the proposal of this plan led to the idea of two more plans.The later of the two, the Great Compromise, was chosen as the plan to determine representative in Congress.
Citations
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Edmond Randolph . 2006. Edmond Randolph, Kos Media, LLC. Forgotten Founding
Fathers: Edmund Randolph. Web. 11 Oct. 2014.
Edwards, George C., III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry. Government in
America: People, Politics, and Policy. N.p.: Addison-Wesley Educational, 2002. Print.
Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, Thomas Andrew Bailey, and Thomas Andrew Bailey.
The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print.
Rswarts. "Virginia Plan." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Oct. 2011. Web. 11 Oct. 2014.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3nGLKaHVEU>.
Virginia Plan vs. New Jersey Plan . N.d. OpenLearningWorld.com, Open Learning World.
Open Learning World. Web. 11 Oct. 2014.
Vote for Virginia. N.d. Tangient LLC, Tangient LLC. constcon2009. Web. 11 Oct. 2014.