The Constitutional Convention opened with a surprise from the Virginia delegation. Edmund Randolph proposed that the delegates create a strong national government instead of revising the Articles of Confederation. He introduced the Virginia Plan, which was largely the work of James Madison. The plan called for a two-house legislature, a chief executive chosen by the legislature, and a court system. The members of the lower house of the legislature would be elected by the people. The members of the upper house would be chosen by the lower house. In both houses the number of representatives would be proportional, or corresponding in size, to the population of each state. This would give Virginia many more delegates than Delaware, the state with the smallest population. Delegates from Delaware, New Jersey, and other small states immediately objected to the plan. They preferred the Confederation system in which all states were represented equally. Delegates unhappy with the Virginia Plan rallied around William Paterson of New Jersey. On June 15, he presented an alternative plan that revised the Articles of Confederation, which was all the convention was supposed to do. The New Jersey Plan kept the Confederation’s one-house legislature, with one vote for each state. Congress, however, could set taxes and regulate trade, powers it did not have under the Articles. Congress would elect a weak executive branch consisting of more than one person. Paterson argued that the Convention should not deprive the smaller states of the equality they had under the Articles. His plan was really designed simply to amend the Articles. // write an outline, on the text!! Thank you, if you dodo it write you will be put as brainless and earn 30 points