debtors, rich and poor, or farmers, merchants and manufacturers. Madison believed that a single faction could more easily control the government within a state but would have a more difficult time dominating a national government comprising many different interest groups. To protect both national authority and minority rights, Madison believed Congress should be granted veto power over state laws. While waiting for the Convention to formally begin, Madison sketched out the Virginia Plan in consultation with members of the Virginia and Pennsylvania delegations, which shared his vision of a strong national government. While Madison is given chief credit for producing the plan, it was Edmund Randolph, Virginia's governor at the time, who officially put it before the Convention on May 29, 1787. In his introduction, Randolph highlighted the problems facing the Confederation. Referring to Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts, he warned of "anarchy from the laxity of government". The solution to these problems, he asserted, must be based on "the republican principle". Resolutions Calling for the creation of a supreme national government, the Virginia Plan was a radical departure from the Articles of Confederation. Modeled on the existing state governments, the plan called for three branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial). Since the legislature appointed both the executive and judicial branches, however, the plan lacked the system of checks and balances that became central to the US Constitution. It was presented to the Convention as fifteen draft resolutions that outlined basic principles of government. The Articles of Confederation needed to be "corrected and enlarged" to achieve their original purpose, which was to provide for the "common defense, security of liberty, and general welfare". While presented as a revision of the Articles, the Virginia Plan was in reality a replacement of the Articles. Representation in the national legislature should be apportioned according either to "quotas of contribution" (a state's wealth as reflected in the taxes it paid) or the size of each state's non-slave population. This would provide large states, like Virginia, more representation than they had under the Articles of Confederation, which gave each state equal representation regardless of population. For this reason, the plan was called the "large-state plan". The unicameral Confederation Congress should be replaced with a bicameral legislature. Unlike members of the Confederation Congress who were elected by and responsible to the state legislatures, the members of the first branch of the legislature (what would become the