The Virginia Plan

[Keith Broaders]

The Virginia Plan

Had the Virginia Plan for apportioning the House of Representatives been accepted the framers of the Constitution would have a bicameral legislature with two chambers representing the people. They would have created a democracy instead of a republic.

The men who wrote the Constitution understood that when a majority has the power to govern the the rights of the minority are threatened. A bicameral legislature with one house to represent the people and a second house to represent the states created a republican form of government where the tyranny of the majority could be held in check.

For all of the amendments, except the 17th  three-fourths of the states must votes for its ratification. In Article  V there is an amendment protection clause that requires all of the states to agree on its ratification.

The clause reads: No states shall be denied its equal suffrage in the senate without their consent. In 1913 when the Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan declared that the 17th Amendment had been lawfully ratified he ignored the provision in Article V that demanded the unanimous approval of all of the states.

The proposed Amendment was initially ratified by 36 states and 12 states did not give their consent. Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia and Utah have never given their consent to surrender their Constitutional right to be represented in the senate.

The states that have not ratified the 17th Amendment are guaranteed the right to be re[resented in the senate and have a legitimate right to discontinue the direct election of senators in their states.