Ch. 2.4. Primary Source: The New Jersey Plan Proposed (June 15-16)

Friday, JUNE 15

As an alternative to the Virginia Plan, many features of which had been rejected, William Patterson of New Jersey introduced the “New Jersey Plan.” This proposal adds certain powers to the national government as it existed under the Confederation, including its ability to regulate interstate commerce (item 2) and its ability to raise taxes from the states (subject to approval by a majority of states) (item 3), and allows for a somewhat stronger national executive (item 4). But it makes changes neither to the method for selecting the members of Congress nor to how their votes are counted. Thus the paramount federal institution remains a league of states.

Although the Convention quickly rejected this plan (on June 19), its supporters, including Lansing and Patterson, expressed the unsettling view that to go any further in changing the Articles was illegal, based on the mandates that Congress had originally approved and on which the Convention delegates had been appointed by their states.

Some of the New Jersey Plan’s details are also of broader interest because they show that most delegates favored, for example, the federal regulation of interstate commerce (item 2). Similarly, the specific terms used to describe the population from which taxes would be raised (item 3) are very similar to those that would figure in the Constitution’s Article I, Section 2, including the notorious “three-fifths clause.”

(Text from Teaching American History, Constitutional Convention, June 15.)

Mr. PATTERSON [NJ] laid before the Convention the plan which he said several of the Deputations wished to be substituted in place of that proposed by Mr. RANDOLPH [VA]…, in the words following:

1. Resolved, that the Articles of Confederation ought to be… revised…
2. Resolved, that, in addition to the powers vested in the United States in Congress, by the present existing Articles of Confederation, they be authorized to pass acts for raising a revenue, by levying a duty or duties on all goods or merchandizes of foreign growth or manufacture, imported into any part of the United States; … to pass acts for the regulation of trade and commerce, as well with foreign nations as with each other; …
3. Resolved, that whenever requisitions shall be necessary…, Congress be authorized to make such requisitions in proportion to the whole number of white and other free citizens and inhabitants, of every age, sex, and condition, including those bound to servitude for a term of years, and three-fifths of all other persons not comprehended in the foregoing description, except Indians not paying taxes; … provided, that none of the powers hereby vested in the United States in Congress, shall be exercised without the consent of at least [—blank—] States…
4. Resolved, that the United States in Congress be authorized to elect a Federal Executive, to consist of [—blank—] persons, to continue in office for the term of [—blank—] years…;  hat the Executive, besides their general authority to execute the Federal acts, ought to appoint all Federal officers not otherwise provided for, and to direct all military operations…
5. Resolved, that a Federal Judiciary be established, to consist of a supreme tribunal, the Judges of which to be appointed by the Executive, and to hold their offices during good behavior…
6. Resolved, that all acts of the United States in Congress…, and all treaties made and ratified under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the respective States…; and that the Judiciary of the several States shall be bound thereby in their decisions, any thing in the respective laws of the individual States to the contrary notwithstanding…
7. Resolved, that provision be made for the admission of new States into the Union.
8. Resolved, that the rule for naturalization ought to be the same in every State.
9. Resolved, that a citizen of one State committing an offence in another State of the Union, shall be deemed guilty of the same offence as if it had been committed by a citizen of the State in which the offence was committed.

Saturday, JUNE 16

(From Teaching American History, Constitutional Convention, June 16.)

Mr. LANSING [NY] … Each plan… involves principles directly in contrast. That of Mr. PATTERSON … sustains the sovereignty of the respective States, that of Mr. RANDOLPH destroys it… He was decidedly of opinion that the power of the Convention was restrained to amendments of a Federal nature, and having for their basis the Confederacy in being… He was sure that this was the case with his State. New York would never have concurred in sending Deputies to the Convention, if she had supposed the deliberations were to turn on a consolidation of the States, and a National Government. Was it probable that the States would adopt and ratify a scheme which they had never authorized us to propose, and which so far exceeded what they regarded as sufficient? …

Mr. PATTERSON [NJ] … If the Confederacy was radically wrong, let us return to our States, and obtain larger powers, not assume them ourselves. I came here not to speak my own sentiments, but the sentiments of those who sent me. Our object is not such a government as may be best in itself, but such a one as our constituents have authorized us to prepare, and as they will approve… He reads the fifth Article of the Confederation, giving each State a vote; and the thirteenth, declaring that no alteration shall be made without unanimous consent. This is the nature of all treaties. What is unanimously done, must be unanimously undone…

Mr. RANDOLPH [VA] … He painted in strong colors the imbecility of the existing Confederacy, and the danger of delaying a substantial reform… The true question is, whether we shall adhere to the Federal plan, or introduce the National plan. The insufficiency of the former has been fully displayed by the trial already made… A National Government alone, properly constituted, will answer the purpose; and he begged it to be considered that the present is the last moment for establishing one. After this select experiment, the people will yield to despair.