Andrew Delos Santos

Professor Sara Butler

Political Science 1A
31 May 2015
Summary of the Three Plans
The Virginia Plan:
The Virginia plan was created in hopes of reducing Americas problems during 1787. The
Virginia Plan was a plan that proposed a two-house legislature with a representative from each
state according to both power and the amount of people living in that state. The plans creator,
Governor Edmund Randolph, sought to solve the problems with his proposed Virginia Plan
which focused on some key components. The ideas focused on benefiting the people at large
because they got to choose the representatives to speak for them. Also, improving the
government was another benefit because they would not have to deal with protests regarding the
desire of no government at all. The national government was more beneficial compared to the
state governments. As well as this portion of the plan, the plan also promoted the idea of
branches within the government in which each would have their own individual power over the
other. Congress and the Legislative had the powers of whatever was in the Legislative Rights.
The Executive Branch had the power with whatever rights were employed in the Congress. There
was also a separate judiciary and interpreter of laws in which they were to operate whenever
needed. The national and state governments would look like a more powerful national
government rather than both states and national government having power.
The New Jersey Plan:
The New Jersey Plan was created because it was in disagreement with that of the Virginia
Plan. William Paterson, its writer, proposed several different ideas that differed from the Virginia
Plan. First and foremost, he preferred it because the plan was in support of the people more
directly and benefited them more overall rather than the Virginia Plan in which they elected
officials to represent the people. The powers Congress had were greater than that of the
Legislature in evaluating some cases. They decided that if a decision could not be formed
unanimously, Congress would be the deciding vote to see if the law passed or not. Also,
Congress had the power to impeach someone in the Executive Branch as well. In the Executive
Branch, they did not have a specific power but they did have the risk of being impeached if both
Congress and the Legislative Branch wanted to impeach the Executive. There is a separate
judiciary and interpreter of laws in which a single magistrate would be chosen to rule for one
part and there would be other magistrates chosen for different regions as well. Overall, the
relationship between the national and state governments is that the states would start to return to
having more power than that of the national government. They preferred this plan because it
showed that the state government would have more power and would be represented more than
that of the national government.
The Connecticut/Great Compromise:

The Great Compromise was a plan created by Roger Sherman benefited the small states.
Under the Great Compromise, small states were allowed to have the number of representatives it
had in the House of Representatives. But in the Senate, they were allowed equality within the
votes regardless if they had more or less representatives on the contrary compared to the House
of Representatives. So small states benefited from this plan more as a result due to the
arrangement of the plan to improve equality within both big and small states. Congress had a
specific power in which they were allowed to make laws that were followed by states. However,
Congress did not have the power to veto a law. This later extended to the Constitution and
national laws as well. The Executive Branch had the power to elect Supreme judges in the
judiciary rather than having a vote to see who could be the judge. Also, there was a judiciary of
law that was separate; they had the power to conduct judicial review of the national legislation.
The relationship between the states and the national government would look like more power to
the smaller states so that they can have their voices heard besides the larger states to the national
government. So overall, this plan worked out well because the small states had their voices heard
more.

Bibliography

"Origins of Government: The New Jersey or, or Paterson, Plan." Gale Encyclopedia of American
Law. 2011. Galegroup.com. (May 31, 2015).
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The Great Compromise. Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States. 2008.
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The Origins of U.S. Government: The Virginia Plan, or Randolph, Plan. Gale Encyclopedia of
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