National Park Service photo Comparing the Plans
"...give New Jersey an equal vote, and she will dismiss her scruples, and concur in the national system."
-Charles Pinckney in Madison's Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention
The convention resolved itself once more into a Committee of the Whole to compare the Virginia and the New Jersey plans. This debate will take up the rest of June. Lansing (NY) called for reading the first resolution of each plan -- that of New Jersey sustains state sovereignty that of Virginia destroys it. He gave several reasons for preferring the New Jersey Plan. So did Paterson (NJ). Both stressed that the New Jersey Plan was compatible with the delegates' instructions and with the wishes of the people. James Wilson of Pennsylvania responded with a point -by-point comparison of the two plans, and with arguments in favor of the Virginia Plan. Wilson compared the plans on thirteen points, including the type of legislatures proposed, a single executive versus more than one executive, and the basis of authority, be it the people or the state legislatures.
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Last updated: February 26, 2015