When the Virginia delegates arrived in Philadelphia in early May 1787 with Washington at their head, they immediately sat down and prepared a document based on Madison's outline that became known as the "Virginia Plan of Government." Madison's plan, which favored the large states and gave enormous power to a new federal government, became the nationalists' opening line of debate. —James Madison and the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787, Library of Congress

What role did James Madison play in the creation of the U. S. Constitution?