07 January 2008
James Madison and the Virginia Plan
In spite of the innate conservatism of the states, the Constitution Convention proved decisive once the remarkable group of 55 men assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787. Their grasp of issues had been honed by wide experience in public life – over half had served in the Continental Congress, seven had been state governors, and a number had been involved in writing state constitutions.
George Washington, the general from Virginia who had led the war against the British, brought special prestige to the gathering when he agreed to serve as its presiding officer. Other notables included Alexander Hamilton (New York), Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania), and James Wilson (Pennsylvania). Perhaps the most conspicuous absence was Thomas Jefferson, who had drafted the Declaration of Independence but who was serving as the United States' minister to Paris.
It soon became apparent that the most important and respected voice at the convention was that of James Madison of Virginia. Active in Virginia politics, Madison had acquired a national reputation as a member of the Continental Congress, where he was instrumental in bringing about Virginia's cession of its claim to western territories, creating a national domain.
Madison became increasingly convinced that the liberty of Americans depended on the Union's being sufficiently strong to defend them from foreign predators and, at home, to offset the excesses of popular government in the individual states. No one came to Philadelphia better prepared. He had taken the lead in seeing that the nation's best talent was at the convention. Moreover, in the weeks before the meeting, he had read deeply in the experiences of ancient and modern confederacies and had written a memorandum on the "Vices of the Political System of the United States."
First to arrive in Philadelphia, Madison persuaded Virginia's delegation to propose a plan which, far from simply revising the Articles, would replace them with a national government of sweeping powers. Deriving its authority from the people, Congress would have the power "to legislate in all cases to which the separate States are incompetent, or in which the harmony of the United States may be interrupted by the exercise of individual Legislation." Further departing from the Articles, the Virginia Plan called for the new Constitution to be ratified, not by the state legislatures, but by conventions elected by the people of the several states.
Resolving themselves into a Committee of the Whole, the delegates debated the merits of the Virginia Plan. Those urging an expansion of national powers, led by Madison and James Wilson, thought it essential to scrap the unworkable system of a central government attempting to effect policy through the states. Instead, they asserted, the national government must operate directly on individuals and, through its executive and judicial branches, be able to enforce its laws and decrees. Principles of individual equality, moreover, called for representation in Congress to be based on population, thus abandoning parity among the states. Madison and his allies were hoping to build upon a sense, widely held among the delegates, that ad hoc or piecemeal reform of the existing system would no longer suffice.
Radical reform was, however, too bold for many delegates from the smaller states. While they might concede the need for enlarging the powers of the central government, including giving it the power to raise its own revenue and to regulate commerce, the smaller states feared domination by the large states.
The central question was that of representation. New Jersey's William Paterson insisted that his state could "never confederate on the plan before the committee." With Madison and Wilson continuing to insist on a nationalist plan, it seemed possible that the convention delegates, whatever their agreement on other matters, might founder on the issue of representation.
