Definition
Small states feared that representation by population, as the Virginia Plan proposed, would let the large states run everything, and on June 9 William Paterson of New Jersey warned that his state would be "swallowed up." On June 15, 1787, Paterson presented the New Jersey Plan, which kept the Articles' one-house Congress with one vote per state but gave it new powers to tax imports and regulate trade. The delegates rejected it, seven states to three, on June 19. The small states kept fighting for an equal vote, and on June 30 Delaware's Gunning Bedford Jr. warned that they might find a foreign ally if the large states broke up the union.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The plan stated the small states' side of the dispute over representation, which ended in the Great Compromise. Questions ask students to compare it with the Virginia Plan: large states backed seats by population, and small states backed an equal vote for every state. Because it would have strengthened the Articles of Confederation instead of replacing them, it also fits questions about continuity and change between the Articles and the Constitution. Neither plan settled how to count enslaved people, which the delegates decided separately in the Three-Fifths Compromise.
In the sources
“New Jersey will never confederate on the plan before the Committee. She would be swallowed up.”
Connections
- Virginia Plan: the large-state plan it answered, with seats based on population
- Great Compromise: gave each state an equal vote in the Senate, as small states wanted
- Articles of Confederation: the plan kept the Articles' one-house Congress and one vote per state
Study it in context
Topic 3.8: The Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification Watch this part