p5.09+Virginia+Plan+Page

Group Members and Roles

 * Jim - Journalist
 * David - Speaker
 * Audrey - Photographer/Radio
 * Melissa - Writer
 * Trenton - Leader/Debater
 * Ashish - Graphics

Group Slogan
“The people's say, it's the equal way!"===

Radio
Imagine a world, where you had no voice… no communication, no means of sharing your points or opinions. The New Jersey plan takes your voice, the Virginia plan supports it. The Virginia Plan wants representation by population so that your voice can be heard. 3 branches of government, 2 houses represented proportionally, is 1 good idea and 0 displeasure in America. The Virginia Plan, the plan you can trust. The people’s say; it’s the equal way.

What Your Group Wants -- Plan for New Constitution
The Virginia Plan, calls for the government to be composed of three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Furthermore, the legislative branch should be divided into two parts. Representation in this bicameral legislature will be based on the number of free inhabitants of each state. This gurantees that people in one state have the same political say as those in another. Also integral to the Virginia Plan is a system of checks and balances. Together, the Executive and the a select number of the Judiciary will have the ability to examine and reject every act of the National Legislature.

Bullet Points of Your Plan[[image:P5-virginiabrochurefront-0910.jpg width="240" height="187" align="right"]]

 * "common defence, security of liberty and general welfare"
 * Representation by population of free inhabitants

President with executive rights
 * Three Branches of Government
 * Bicameral Legislature**
 * Judiciary**


 * The state governments must support the national government**

Legislative Branch can veto state laws
 * Checks and Balances**
 * President can veto Legislature (with members of Judiciary)


 * New states can be admitted

Orator: Text of Your Speech
David

Good day to you all I think you all know why I am here but since I like to hear myself talk I will say it anyway.

Americans, friends, country men, and delegates of the new jersey plan(role eyes) lend me your ears. I am Edmund Randolph the representative from the great state of Virginia. It is time this great country of ours found its path. At the moment we are straying from the way of democracy. These articles of confederation are not sufficient to meet the needs of this country of ours. It is an unfair system which needs to be changed, for is that not the reason we are here. We are a Republic not an oligarchy. We need to create a system which caters to the needs of the majority and not to the whims of every minority. Because the honest fact is you can’t make everyone happy. We need representation by population. In this way we shall let the majority speak for us all, for that’s what democracy is, government by the people and for the people.

We need to have a system where the power is more evenly divided. In our current state we are on the path of destruction. The plan which the great state of Virginia has come up with is to give states representation by population this way every man is equal. At the current moment we have little to no central government to speak of. We need to give more power to the national government so that we can be a real nation. I’m not suggesting we give all the power to the national government, I’m suggesting a system of checks and balances. That way everything stays well balanced and in check. If we make our national government stronger we can then relieve our debt from the war easier. Sound good.

Now the representative from New Jersey may tell you that we need to make it so all states are equally represented, but if we do that then it is not truly equal for then smaller populations have greater say then larger populations and that my friends makes not a colonial worth of sense. The representative from the New Jersey plan will tell you their plan favors everyone when in reality it favors their own selfish wants. For did we not just fight our revolution because it made no sense for small to rule big. The New Jersey plan is asking us to basically dishonor the men who fought and died for this nation of ours. I myself fought Britain in the revolutionary war and I did not fight just so we could create another limited monarchy. When we were under a king there was pressure and now there is still pressure, Pressure pushing down on me

Pressing down on you no man ask for Under pressure - that burns a building down Splits a family in two Puts people on streets Um ba ba be Um ba ba be De day da Ee day da - that's o.k. It's the terror of knowing What this world is about Watching some good friends Screaming 'Let me out

You may find it silly but the words of that song ring true to what we have right now as a government. I believe Benjamin martin said it best when he said, “Why would I trade one tyrant three thousand miles away for three thousand tyrants one mile away? An elected legislature can trample a man’s rights as easily as a king can.” Truer words are seldom spoken; if we listen to the New Jersey plan our rights will without a doubt be trampled.

What I am suggesting is a three branch system, with the legislative branch made into a bicameral system, in this each state is represented by a certain number of delegates which is decided upon by the population of the state. Equal representation by population. Within this plan we have a system of checks and balances so that no one branch has ultimate power. Now doesn’t that sound fair?

(IMPROV)

Representation by population the people it’s the equal way

Debater (Trenton): Possible Objections to Plan and Your Replies[[image:P5-va-plan-speech-randolph-0910.jpg width="332" height="190" align="right"]]

 * Objections to Virginia's Plan of representation
 * Legislature influence is based upon population for both houses.
 * Which is of greater benefit to larger states than smaller ones
 * Which makes the states unequal in representation
 * Which makes the larger states equal to a monarchy
 * Which is bad based on the consensus that Monarchy is bad.
 * Therefore the Virginia Plan of representation is bad because it denotes monarchy.
 * And ultimately reduces the United States back to Colonial status under large states such as Virginia.

This argument only stands if it is stated that smaller states should have an equal say with the larger ones. This in itself is a fallible argument, choosing to represent by plots of land rather than the people. Concerning our recent struggle to gain our rights as individuals, I find this argument contradictory to the old spirit of 1776. If we allow ourselves to be blinded by the soil we live upon and disregard the voices of our brothers, then this will never be the nation we were meant to fight for. Nationalism belongs in the nation: never in the States.


 * So why can't we put the two together?

Are we to be a federal government that would go as low as to appease every side of an argument? Does the natural Course of events let a man pick and choose both out of two choices, failing to realize that he can only pick one? I can foresee the consequences of this compromise already: with the two plans already at disagreement with each other, we'd just be simulating the same results with the compromise, only with an official bicameral house. Nothing would get done.

Virginia, A Beacon
OCTOBER 6—CLASSROOM OF MR. GEIB

Secrecy enveloped the room. The Constitutional Convention was about to begin. Papers rustled as the delegates made last minute modifications to their speeches. Silence filled the room as James Madison approached the podium. His speech mainly regarded the necessity for the whims of the minority to be considered only after the needs of the majority had been met. Representation should be based population, as it is not the goal of government to meet the needs of its states, but rather those of its people. Amid song lyrics and the discussion of a bicameral legislature, the New Jersey Plan was eloquently denounced as dishonorable to those who had fought and died for America’s independence.

The representative of the New Jersey Plan followed, and promptly began by insinuating that the previous speaker had been advocating Fascism. This vague attempt to besmirch Madison fell upon deaf ears. Still, his points were presented in a comprehensible fashion. The New Jersey Plan adamantly called for a unicameral legislature, with state-based representation.

The representative of the Great Compromise pleaded for these opposing camps to set aside their differences. The Crispus Attucks Coalition pleaded with those assembled to first address the issue of slavery. Their heathen ramblings were deftly countered by the Dixiecrat Bloc, whose well-crafted speech swayed many. In a fit of rage, the Coalition’s representative through his hat upon the ground, which served to summarize the whole affair.

After the speeches, the floor opened to debate. Only after the delegates of the New Jersey plan had finished with their immature pipe-related verbiage, were the true differences separating the opposing camps made known. First though, let it be said that Mr. Madison comported himself with great ease, even while the pipe-joke-slinging delegates of New Jersey failed to recognize the irony behind their words (completely aloof as they were to the fact that it is hypocritical to condemn something that you readily consume, albeit rolled into a different form). Said secretive smokers engaged in heated debate with Madison and his advisor, Edmund Randolph.

Amid Madison's flawless retorts, and Randolph's well-constructed arguments regarding equality, those in favor of a Compromise managed to get few words in edgewise. Their voices were heard however, if only as vague murmurs in the background. Neither of the two opposing camps seemed to be willing to concede any points however, and at the Convention’s abrupt conclusion, very little had been decided.

Also interesting was the debate between the Dixiecrat Bloc, and the Crispus Attucks Coalition. Fierce debate surrounded a certain zoological metaphor employed by the Dixiecrats, but beyond that the debate remained remarkably civil. Mr. Pickney was able to skate around the issue of morality, and even managed to use the Bible to his advantage.

Had there been more time, the cool voice of compromise would have likely prevailed. However, it ended as we left it: one nation, divided, under God, with liberty and justice for those not enslaved.

Pictures