Question

The Virginia and New Jersey Plans introduced at the Constitutional Convention primarily differed in their views on whether slavery should be abolished or maintained. their views on whether slavery should be abolished or maintained. their ideas about how states should be represented in Congress. their ideas about how states should be represented in Congress. their claims about what level of government was best suited to regulate interstate commerce. their claims about what level of government was best suited to regulate interstate commerce. their views on whether the United States needed an executive.

Answer 1

The Virginia Plan proposed a bicameral legislature with representation based on population, benefitting large states, while the New Jersey Plan called for equal representation in a unicameral legislature, supporting small states. They also differed on the issue of counting enslaved populations, resolved by the Three-Fifths Compromise.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Virginia and New Jersey Plans

The Virginia and New Jersey Plans, introduced at the Constitutional Convention, differed significantly in their proposals for state representation in Congress. The Virginia Plan advocated for a bicameral legislature with representation based on state population, which would have given larger states more influence. Conversely, the New Jersey Plan championed a unicameral legislature with equal representation for all states, ensuring that smaller states were not overpowered by larger ones. The question of how to count enslaved populations in determining representation was also a major point of contention between slaveholding and non-slaveholding states.

The delegates eventually reached a compromise regarding the representation of slaves, known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, which determined that 60 percent of the slave population would be counted for both representation and taxation purposes. This was a part of a series of compromises that attempted to balance the power between large and small states and address the divisive issue of slavery without directly confronting it. The resulting Constitution provided a framework for a stronger federal government while leaving many issues unresolved, setting the stage for future conflicts.