New Jersey Plan

The New Jersey Plan was one option as to how the United States would be governed. The Plan called for each state to have one vote in Congress instead of the number of votes being based on population. It was introduced to the Constitutional Convention by William Paterson, a New Jersey delegate, on June 15, 1787.

The larger states favored the Virginia Plan. According to the Virginia Plan, each state would have a different number of representatives based on the state's population. The smaller states favored the New Jersey Plan. .This two-house legislature plan worked for all states and became known as the Great Compromise.

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States should have all equal number of representatives

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Delaware

Perhaps the most important of these was introduced by the Connecticut Compromise, which established a bicameral legislature with the U.S. House of Representatives apportioned by population, as desired by the Virginia Plan, and the Senate granted equal votes per state, as desired by the New Jersey Plan.

The New Jersey Plan was therefore formulated by delegates from the small states providing alternative ideas for a new government system as a response to the Virginia Plan to prevent the large states becoming too powerful.

The delegates of the small states of New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and Delaware agreed the New Jersey Plan which had been drafted by William Paterson. It was proposed to the Constitutional Convention by William Paterson on June 15, 1787. William Paterson (1745 - 1806) was a lawyer and the Governor of Virginia who introduced and defended the New Jersey Plan to the Convention's delegates. William Paterson believed in the predominance of law over governments.