Short Summary: The Virginia Plan

The Virginia Plan

The Virginia Plan stood on the claim of expanding national power over the states and to have representation to states based on their amount of population. One of the delegates whom were for a stronger national government had mentioned the new country was ready for tyranny. I believe that the thought of having a country under tyranny is dangerous and feeding the national government too much power, especially since the states have already suffered under the harsh rule of tyrant leader, King George III. Therefore this plan would be unfair to the smaller states, because the Virginia Plan called for more representation to states with bigger population for electoral college votes. It would be unfair to the small states, it isn’t their fault for having a smaller population and devalues them. It doesn’t make sense to have more electoral
college votes based on population because at the end of the day it is a national government - to govern the nation. Just because it is a smaller population, doesn’t meant they should be devalued, they still live there and their vote is unfair. In particular, delegate and supporter for a stronger government, James Madison had stated, “a new country was ripe for tyranny if a firm national government was not in place.” During the Critical Period, he believed it was the time for a stronger government, explicitly right after the American Revolutionary War. It’s daunting to have someone draft a plan for the nation when they have trust in tyrant rules, the Americans have just fought a war from the abuses of a tyrant leader. Furthermore there was visible worry from opposition Patrick Henry whom, “feared it would threaten the economic success of individual states and lead to the abuses of power already experiences under British rule.” Subsequently the Constitutional Convention had taken place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. May 25 to September 17, 1787. This crucial meeting consisted of George Washington to hold authority of the meeting, and important delegates such as James Madison and William Paterson were present. James Madison, delegate of Virginia, was the author of the Virginia Plan.
His proposition with the plan was to expand the government power over states, representation for states to be based on their populations and overall called for excessive change to the Articles of Confederation. “In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure.” James Madison expressed in Notes of the Secret Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787. He believed that if elections were available to all classes of people, it would be the downfall of business and governing. But because the government was going to be responsible and in control of the states, it is important to take everybody’s word equally as they are ones being governed. Writer of the New Jersey Plan and delegate of New Jersey, William Paterson had presented the idea to retain equal representation for each state - regardless of population differences. He as well offered amendments to better the national government. Unfortunately this plan wasn’t taken serious during the Constitutional
Convention. Generally, the Articles of Confederation did feel more of a treaty between the states and caused conflict in the new nation, but for the Virginia Plan to grant excessive power to the government and treat population sizes unfairly, it wasn’t the way to go.