A group of protestors, led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays, began a 6 month rebellion by taking over the Court of Common Pleas in Northampton; the goal was to prevent the trial and imprisonment of debt-ridden citizens.

Aftermath of Shays’ Rebellion By the summer of 1787, many participants in the rebellion received pardons from newly-elected Governor John Hancock. The new legislature placed a moratorium on debts and cut taxes, easing the economic burden the rebels were struggling to overcome.

Although plans for a Constitutional Convention were already under way, the uprising in Massachusetts led to further calls for a stronger national government and influenced the ensuing debate in Philadelphia that led to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution in the summer of 1787.

According to the Virginia Plan, states with a large population would have more representatives than smaller states. Large states supported this plan, while smaller states generally opposed it. Under the New Jersey Plan, the unicameral legislature with one vote per state was inherited from the Articles of Confederation.

The Virginia Plan The legislature was more powerful, as it chose people to serve in the executive and judicial branches. Legislature Two houses (bicameral). The House of Representatives was elected by the people and the Senate was elected by the state legislatures. Both were represented proportionally.

The smaller states opposed the Virginia Plan because the resolution for proportional representation would mean that smaller states would have less say in government than the larger states. If the Virginia Plan was agreed each state would have a different number of representatives based on the state’s population.

The Virginia Plan was a proposal to establish a bicameral (two-branch) legislature in the newly founded United States. Drafted by James Madison in 1787, the plan recommended that states be represented based upon their population numbers, and it also called for the creation of three branches of government.

Introduced to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, James Madison’s Virginia Plan outlined a strong national government with three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The plan called for a legislature divided into two bodies (the Senate and the House of Representatives) with proportional representation.

James Madison, America’s fourth President (1809-1817), made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing The Federalist Papers, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In later years, he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution.”