What Was The New Jersey Plan?

New Jersey Plan: The New Jersey Plan was one benefit as to how the United States would be governed. The plan requested for each state to have one vote in Congress rather of the number of votes being based on population. This was to protect the equality of the states, regardless of populace size.

The New Jersey Plan (also recognized as the Small State Plan or the Paterson Plan) was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Perambulation Meeting on June 15, 1787. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which called for two condominium of Society, both elected with apportionment according to population. The less populous states were adamantly opposed to giving most of the control of the governmental government to the more crowded states, and so proposed an alternative plan that would have kept the one-vote-per-state representation under one parliamentary body from the Articles of Confederation.

 What Was The New Jersey Plan?

The New Jersey Plan

The New Jersey Plan was one option as to how the United States would be governed. The Plan called for each state to have one vote in conference instead of the number of votes being based on populace. This was to protect the equality of the states nevertheless of population size.

The New Jersey Plan was introduced to the Perambulation Convention by William Paterson, a New Jersey delegate, on June 15, 1787. The Perambulation Convention was assembled to amend the Articles of Fellowship, but it became apparent that a new government would need to be created. The Articles of Confederation was the first form of government, but was studied ineffective because Americans did not want to have another tyrant like Great Britain. The states wanted the power. One of the major debates that emerged during the Convocation is how many votes each state would have in Congress.

The New Jersey Plan was meant to be the opportunity to the Virginia Plan in regards to how the federal government would be businesslike. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and a delegate from Maryland (named Luther Martin) created the New Jersey Plan. The New Jersey Plan was meant to protect the interests of the negligibler states from being trampled by the larger states. The plan called for one vote per state in Congress rather than having votes based on representation, since that would benefit the larger states. The Virginia Plan called for two houses based on representation and that would have nullified the power of the smaller states.

New Jersey Plan Definition

State, political organization of society, or the body politic, or, more narrowly, the institutions of government. The state is a form of human cooperation distinguished from other social groups by its purpose, the establishment of order and security; its technique, the laws and their administration; its territory, the area of jurisdiction or geographic boundaries; and finally by its sovereignty. The state consists, most broadly, of the negotiation of the individuals on the means whereby disputes are settled in the form of laws. In such countries as the United States, Australia, Nigeria, Mexico, and Brazil, the term state (or a cognate) also refers to political units, not sovereign themselves, but subject to the authority of the larger state, or federal union.
 

In the summer of 1787, 55 men from 12 states convened in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention. (Rhode Island did not send a delegation.) The purpose was to form a better government, as the Articles of Confederation had serious flaws.

In the days before the convention commenced, Virginians, including James Madison and the state’s governor, Edmund Randolph, conceived what became known as the Virginia Plan. Under the proposal, which was presented to the convention on May 29, 1787, the new federal government would have a bicameral legislative branch with an upper and lower house. Both houses would be apportioned per state based on population, so the large states, such as Virginia, would have a clear advantage in steering national policy. William Paterson, representing New Jersey, took the lead in opposing the Virginia Plan. Following two weeks of debate, Paterson introduced his own proposal: the New Jersey Plan.

The plan argued for increasing the power of the federal government to correct problems with the Articles of Confederation, but maintaining the single house of Congress which existed under the Articles of Confederation.

In Paterson’s plan, each state would get one vote in Congress, so there would be equal power divided among states regardless of population.

Paterson’s plan had features beyond the apportionment argument, such as the creation of a Supreme Court and the right of the federal government to tax imports and regulate trade. But the greatest difference from the Virginia Plan was over the issue of apportionment: the allocating of legislative seats based on population.

Virginia Plan Vs New Jersey Plan

One criticism of the Virginia Plan was that it called for the creation of a new government instead of just amending the Articles of Confederation. The New Jersey Plan would amend some of the ideas of the Articles of Confederation. The New Jersey Plan had 11 resolutions, and some of the key ideas included:

  • Restoring the unicameral structure from the Articles of Confederation
  • Each state was equal regardless of the size of its population
  • Power to tax and regulate interstate commerce
  • Gave Congress the power to tax

Structure of Government

Under the New Jersey Plan, the composition of the government would be three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative power (Congress) would come from the states that would each have one vote regardless of population and would be unicameral (one Congress). The Virginia Plan called for bicameral (two Congresses). Congress would have the power to create an executive council that would be limited to a single 4-year term. The executive branch would be more than one person and could be removed by a majority. The judiciary would have no power over the states and would be appointed by the executive branch and would serve for life.

What Was The New Jersey Plan

What Was The New Jersey Plan
The history of the Western state begins in ancient Greece. Plato and Aristotle wrote of the polis, or city-state, as an ideal form of association, in which the whole community’s religious, cultural, political, and economic needs could be satisfied. This city-state, characterized primarily by its self-sufficiency, was seen by Aristotle as the means of developing morality in the human character. The Greek idea corresponds more accurately to the modern concept of the nation—i.e., a population of a fixed area that shares a common language, culture, and history—whereas the Roman res publica, or commonwealth, is more similar to the modern concept of the state.The res publica was a legal system whose jurisdiction extended to all Roman citizens, securing their rights and determining their responsibilities. With the fragmentation of the Roman system, the question of authority and the need for order and security led to a long period of struggle between the warring feudal lords of Europe.

It was not until the 16th century that the modern concept of the state emerged, in the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli (Italy) and Jean Bodin (France), as the centralizing force whereby stability might be regained. In The Prince, Machiavelli gave prime importance to the durability of government, sweeping aside all moral considerations and focusing instead on the strength—the vitality, courage, and independence—of the ruler. For Bodin, his contemporary, power was not sufficient in itself to create a sovereign; rule must comply with morality to be durable, and it must have continuity—i.e., a means of establishing succession.Bodin’s theory was the forerunner of the 17th-century doctrine of the “divine right of kings,” whereby monarchy became the predominate form of government in Europe. It created a climate for the ideas of the 17th-century reformers like John Locke in England and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France, who began to reexamine the origins and purposes of the state.

What was the main purpose of the New Jersey plan?

The purpose of the New Jersey Plan, proposed in June 1787, was to support the interests of the smaller states in the nation, in opposition to Virginia’s plan, which argued for a powerful national government.

What did the New Jersey plan support?

The New Jersey Plan was supported by the states of New York, Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey. It proposed a unicameral legislature with one vote per state. Paterson and supporters wanted to reflect the equal representation of states, thus enabling equal power. The Paterson Plan was composed of eleven resolutions.

What was wrong with the New Jersey plan?

Key Takeaways: The New Jersey Plan

In the New Jersey Plan, the government would have one legislative house in which each state would have one vote. The New Jersey Plan was rejected, but it led to a compromise meant to balance the interests of small and large states.