Question

What was William Paterson’s main contribution to the Constitutional Convention?

What was the Three-Fifths Compromise?
Why were some delegates opposed to having a president to lead the executive branch?
Explain the name Publius.

Answer 1

1. William Paterson presented a plan to oppose Madison’s Virginia Plan. The New Jersey Plan, as it was called, proposed revising the Articles of Confederation.

2. To settle the issue of proportional representation, the delegates agreed on a formula for counting slaves in a state’s population. A slave would count as three-fifths of a person.

3. Paterson and others who supported the New Jersey Plan thought a single president would be too much like a king.

4. The name Publius was used to sign The Federalist articles when they were published in newspapers. Publius was a pseudonym for James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.

Answer 2

His main contribution was the idea of the New Jersey plan which sought to solve the problem of state representation according to the size of the population. It was rejected but many parts of it were included in the Connecticut compromise which made a bicameral government with many parts from Paterson's plans.

The three-fifths compromise was an a compromise regarding the size of the population based on the number of slaves in the state. This was important when it came to determining the size of representation in the house of representatives because of how slaves would be counted. The compromise established that each slave would count as three-fifths of a full citizen.

They believed that the president would have too much power and that they could eventually become tyrannical similarly to how kings were in Europe. They feared that other parts of the executive branch would not dare disagree with the president out of fear.

Publius was a pseudonym used by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay when they wrote their federalist papers. They wrote as such to present as if they were talking as the people who have issues and who are united under these issues.