Definition
At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, there was a great debate over how representatives to the new government would be selected: the same number per state, or a certain number per state based upon the state’s population. The Virginia Plan (also known as the Large-State Plan by silly people) was a proposal at the Constitutional Convention by delegates from Virginia. Drafted by James Madison, the Virginia Plan proposed a strong central government composed of three branches: legislative (bicameral), executive, and judicial. The plan called for a legislature divided into two bodies (the Senate and the House of Representatives) with proportional representation. That is, each state’s representation in Congress would be based on its population. The alternative to the Virginia Plan, William Paterson’s New Jersey Plan, intended to give states equal representation in a unicameral (one-chamber) legislature. The New Jersey Plan would have revised the Articles of Confederation to keep more power in the hands of the states instead of a centralized government.
On July 16, 1787, a plan proposed by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, Connecticut’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention, established a two-house legislature. The Great Compromise, or Connecticut Compromise as it is often called, proposed a solution to the heated debate between larger and smaller states over their representation in the newly proposed Senate. The larger states believed that representation should be based proportionally on the contribution each state made to the nation’s finances and defense, and the smaller states believed that the only fair plan was one of equal representation. The compromise proposed by Sherman and Ellsworth provided for a dual system of representation. In the House of Representatives each state’s number of seats would be in proportion to population. In the Senate, all states would have the same number of seats. Amendments to the compromise based representation in the House on total white population and three-fifths of the black population. On July 16, 1787, the convention adopted the Great Compromise by a one-vote margin.
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