The New Jersey Plan (also known as the Small State Plan or the Paterson Plan) was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented during the Constitutional Convention of 1787.[1] Principally authored by William Paterson of New Jersey, the New Jersey Plan was an important alternative to the Virginia Plan proposed by James Madison and Edmund Randolph of Virginia.[2] Its proposals would have created a political entity similar to the modern-day European Union.
The less populous states were strongly opposed to the bicameralism and proportional apportionment of Congress by population called for in the Virginia Plan. Less populous states were concerned that the Virginia Plan would give substantial control of the national government to the more populous states.[3] In response, the less populous states proposed an alternative plan that would have retained the one-vote-per-state representation under one legislative body from the Articles of Confederation.[1] Following the defeat of the New Jersey Plan, Paterson and Madison's proposals were reconciled through the Connecticut Compromise, which combined elements of each to create the current structure of Congress today—a Senate in which states are provided equal representation regardless of population, and a House of Representatives in which representatives are apportioned based on population.[4]