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Chapter IV - James Madison and the Virginia Plan
James Madison and the Virginia Plan
The prominent figure during these meetings was the reserved, barely five-foot-tall, slave-owning Virginia planter James Madison. Reportedly, his "natural aloofness" had increased after his sixteen-year-old fiancee heartlessly jilted him in favor of a medical student. She had sealed her terse farewell letter with a bit of rye dough instead of wax as a "profession of indifference." Noways attired in black, Madison was an uncommunicative loner who disliked crowds and detested using his high-pitched voice in public. Despite his detachment. however. he impressed fellow delegates. One acknowledged his "greatness" while another commented on his "calm expression and blue eyes," adding, "He looked like a thinking man."
Madison's proposals for a national government were incorporated into the "Virginia Plan" which was introduced on May 29, 1787. It called for an executive elected by Congress, a national judiciary and a congressional veto over state laws. The plan also gave Congress extensive power to legislate whenever separate states were judged incompetent. The proposed legislative body also reflected Madison's emphasis on the necessity of compromise. Because the larger states, particularly Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, objected to the one-state one-vote rule of the Articles of Confederation, they ware determined to create a government which recognized representation in proportion to wealth and power. As a result, the plan also called for a two-house legislature with an upper house composed of nominees of the state legislature and a lower house selected by popular vote, the predecessors of our Senate and House of Representatives.
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