The Constitutional Convention originally gathered in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation, only to produce something much different. The Virginia Delegation, headed by
James Madison, framed the debate by immediately drawing up and presenting a proposal. The
Virginia Plan's 15 resolutions broadened the debate to include what form the structure and
power of the national government would take. It was the first document to produce a
separation of powers into an executive, legislative, and judicial branch.
The Virginia Plan also proposed that the legislative branch should consist of two houses. In
these two houses, each of the states would be represented in proportion to their populations.
Thus, states with a large population, like Virginia (which was the most populous state at the
time), would have more representatives than smaller states. Naturally, the larger states
approved of this notion, but the smaller states did not.
What is the main idea