Novus Ordo Selorum: A New Order for the Ages
Fifty-five delegates, representing all the states except Rhode Island, attended the convention that met in the Philadelphia State House from May through September 1787. The men were on the whole relatively young. Their average age was forty-four. Only one delegate, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) who was then 81, was elderly. They were all well educated by the standards of the day. Most were members of the political and economic elite, and feared what one of them called the "turbulence and follies" of democracy. Yet all were also products of the American Revolution, and thus retained the republican suspicion of concentrated power.
The delegates unanimously chose George Washington (1732-1799) as president to preside over their sessions. So that they could speak without restraint, they closed their business to the public and the press. Although each state delegation had a vote, the Virginia delegation, led by Edmund Randolph (1753-1813), George Mason (1725-1792), and James Madison (1751-1836), controlled the agenda and presented the Convention with its first working proposal. Known as the Virginia Plan, it called for the creation of a new national government.
According to Edmund Randolph, who introduced the proposal, the Virginia Plan provided for the organization of a new national legislature consisting of two houses. In the lower house, the states would be represented according to their population. Thus, the most populous state, which happened to be Virginia, would have almost ten times as many representatives as the least populous state, Delaware. Members of the upper house were to be elected by members of the lower house from among candidates nominated by the state legislatures. But not all states had to be represented in the upper house. Consequently, some of the smaller states might at times have no representatives in the upper house. Members of the lower house were to be elected directly by the people. The legislature would then choose an executive.
Largely the work of Madison, the Virginia Plan was radical in its implications. It called for the formation of a very different kind of government than that which existed under the Articles of Confederation. The Virginians' proposal aroused immediate opposition among delegates from Delaware, New Jersey, and other states with small populations. Some responded by arguing that the convention had authority only to revise the Articles, not to fashion an entirely novel instrument of government. Others submitted alternatives to the Virginia Plan itself.
The most promising plan came from William Paterson (1745-1806) of New Jersey. Paterson suggested the establishment of a federal rather than a national government. The so-called New Jersey Plan preserved the existing unicameral legislature, in which each state enjoyed equal representation. At the same time, however, it granted to Congress expanded power to tax and to regulate commerce. When the delegates voted to table Paterson's recommendation, the Virginia Plan remained the focus for discussion and debate.
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