The Virginia and New Jersey Plans
While thinking of writing the Constitution of the United States, representatives from different states came to decide how many people should be in Congress. Different states had different opinions on this topic. The two main plans were the Virginia and New Jersey plans.
The Virginia Plan
In the Virginia Plan, the number of representatives in Congress would be based on the size of the population of the state. This gave a significant advantage to the larger states, like Virginia, who, because of their larger populations, would have more representatives and thus more of a say in what the country did.
The New Jersey Plan
In the New Jersey Plan, each state got only two representatives so that all states got an equal say in what the country did. However, the larger states, like Virginia, thought this was a bad idea because they thought they would be ganged up on by the smaller states.
The Unified Plan
The unified plan combined the Virginia and New Jersey plans. This plan involved splitting Congress in two, making the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives was formed using the Virginia Plan. The Senate was formed using the New Jersey Plan.
