Constitutional Convention Delegates
A major question in the Constitutional Convention was whether the number of representatives to the legislature would be based on population or if it would be based on equal representation for each state regardless of population. The populous states, not surprisingly, preferred a system based on population. They supported the Virginia Plan that was proposed by Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia. The Virginia Plan had a bicameral legislature, each house of which was to be apportioned based on the state's population. The small states preferred the New Jersey Plan, proposed by New Jersey delegate William Paterson. The New Jersey Plan proposed a single national legislature with equal representation for each state. The two plans—and the underlying tensions between the populous states and the small states—often led to some of the more contentious debates in the convention.
These debates from June 9, 11, and 12, 1787, illustrate how.....
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