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The Achievement of the Philadelphia Convention
all State laws contrary to the new articles of union. And it could use force
against any State that disobeyed national policy.
As for the executive branch, the executive was to be chosen by the legislature. The Virginia resolutions did not indicate whether the executive
was to consist of one person or of several persons, but it did specify that
the executive could serve only one term. Also, the executive’s salary
could not be altered while the executive held office. (This was a protection against the executive being threatened by the legislature with loss of
salary, as colonial assemblies had done to colonial governors.) The executive, together with ‘‘a convenient number of the national judiciary,’’
could veto acts of the legislature. But the two houses of the legislature
could overrule the executive’s veto.
The judicial branch would consist of judges chosen by the Federal
legislature. It was to have one or more supreme courts and also lesser
Federal courts, and would try cases of maritime law, cases involving
foreigners, and cases concerning ‘‘the collection of the national revenue,
impeachments of any national officers, and questions which may involve
the national peace and harmony.’’
Of the several other resolutions in the Virginia Plan, one required that
all State officers swear to support the new constitution. Another required
that the new constitution be ratified by State conventions chosen by popular vote.
The day after the Virginia Plan was introduced, Gouverneur Morris
proposed that ‘‘a national Government ought to be established consisting
of a supreme Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary.’’ In adopting this resolution, the Convention in effect discarded the Articles of Confederation
and embarked upon the task of drawing up a new constitution.
The details of the Virginia Plan remained to be debated, however, and
very debatable they were. Opponents of centralization, together with delegates from the smaller States, were alarmed by the boldness and abruptness of the Virginia delegation’s proposal. Many delegates had not even
arrived at Philadelphia, and as they did, opposition to the Virginia Plan
increased.
Had the Virginia Plan been adopted in its entirety, the smaller States
would have been overshadowed by the larger States in the new government. The national legislature would have been supreme over the executive and judicial branches of the government. The several States would