What Was the Great Compromise?
By Rahawa Ghebrelul
After the Revolutionary War, the United States was stuck with 13 states and no plan of government. To try and change this, they created the Articles of the Confederation. However that created many problems for the new country. And in 1774, the Constitutional Congress was formed to create a new plan of government.
The Virginia Plan
Under the plan proposed by Virginia, there would be:
- 3 branches of government (executive, judicial and legislative)
- 2 houses of legislature (bicameral)
- The greater the state's population, the greater its number of representatives in the legislature
The New Jersey Plan
Under the plan proposed by New Jersey in response to the Virginia plan there would be:
- 3 branches of government
- Only one house in the legislature (unicameral)
- 1 vote per state
To satisfy both the larger states that agreed with Virginia and the smaller states that agreed with New Jersey, The Great Compromise was created
The Great Compromise
Under the terms of the Great Compromise there would be
- 3 branches of government
- A bicameral (has two houses)legislature
- One house would be the House of Representatives and representatives would be given out according to population
- The other would be the Senate and each state would have 2 senators automatically