Virginia Plan Debate

The national government's inability to resist foreign governments convinced many leaders within the thirteen colonies of the need for a new constitution with a stronger national government. Shortly after the convention began in September 1787 delegates elected George Washington to lead the convention and agreed that the meetings would not be made public. The decision for privacy allowed for the consideration of an entirely new constitution, as open consideration of a new constitution would likely have been met with great public outcry. As the convention continued and ideas were being discussed, Virginia's delegates introduced a set of reforms known as the Virginia plan. The Virginia plan proposal wanted a bicameral legislative branch which

The Bigger states believed that representation should be based Correspondingly on the contribution each state made to America’s finances and defense, and the smaller states felt that the only acceptable plan was one of equal representation. The compromise proposed by Roger Sherman provided for a dual system of representation (bicameral). In the House of Representatives each individual state’s number of seats would be in proportion to state population. In the Senate, every state would have the same number of seats. On July 16, 1787, the Constitutional convention adopted the Great Compromise by a one-vote margin. The Great Compromise ended the stalemate between patriots and nationalists, leading to numerous other compromises in a spirit of

The final draft of the Constitution was to be worked upon by a set of committees known as the committee of detail and the committee of style and arrangement. The Constitution convention recessed from July 26 to August 6th and awaited news from the detail committee. Once the detail committee presented its draft, the convention would thoroughly comb though every detail, every word, every aspect and discussed every clause, every law, and everything it affected. These discussions led to more compromises and on September 8th the convention handed the draft over to a committee of style and arrangement to be finalized. Twenty three articles were approved for the final constitution draft. The final draft, which was presented to the Constitutional convention on September 12, contained seven articles, a preamble (a brief introductory statement of the constitution’s fundamental purposes) and a closing endorsement. The final Version was presented on Monday, September 17, at the Convention's final session. Several of the delegates were dissatisfied in the result, while some delegates left before the ceremony even began, and three others refused to sign. Of the thirty-nine signers, Benjamin Franklin summarized the document, addressing those in attendance: "There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them." He would accept the