Virginia and New Jersey plans presented at the Constitutional Essay

Virginia and New Jersey plans presented at the Constitutional Convention - Essay Example Within the two houses of the legislative branch, one branch would consist of people who were to be elected by the citizens for a term of three years while the other branch called for a group of older leaders that state legislatures elected for a term of seven years of service. Under the New Jersey Plan, the proposal was to have a unicameral legislative branch and each state, no matter what the size of its population, would have one vote. This proposal was written as a response to the Virginia Plan to help give smaller states just as strong or equal power to the larger states. The New Jersey Plan gave Congress the power to set and collect taxes. All federal laws trumped state laws. For the Congress, there would be an executive council which could be subjected to a recall by governors of each state. These members would serve a four-year term. In the judicial branch, the executive branch would appoint the members and these members would serve for a life term. There are significant differences in the congressional representation in the plans. The Virginia Plan gave more power to larger states and would base representation of the people on the population of the states. Both houses of the legislature would have representation based on population proportions. The New Jersey Plan called for a representation that was more equal so that each state was on a more even scale. Population would not be the determination of the state’s members and each would have equal representation under this plan because these people thought that this gave the larger states too much power. There would only be one house of legislature and there would be one vote per state. Congress, under the Virginia Plan, had terms of offices that were not specified though they would be made up the three different branches of the government. The legislative branch could deny any state laws if they did not follow suit with