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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Proposal Edmund Randolph proposed the Virginia Plan, written by James Madison, on May 29, 1787. The Virginia Plan called for membership in two houses of the national legislature to be allocated to each state proportional to its population. A significant debate arose on proportional representation following the introduction of the Virginia Plan. Many less populous states, such as Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey, feared that proportional representation would result in their interests being overshadowed by those of the larger states. Several of these states threatened to leave the Convention if proportional representation was adopted. As small state delegates became increasingly alarmed at the debate taking place, William Paterson, with the assistance of Connecticut's Roger Sherman, Maryland's David Brearley and Luther Martin, and New York's John Lansing, proposed a unicameral legislature. Introduced on June 15, the New Jersey Plan would have maintained the Congress of the Confederation but substantially expanded its power. The less populous states' alternative plan provided that each state was to have equal representation in the legislature, regardless of their population. This position reflected the belief that the states were independent entities and, as they entered the United States freely and individually, remained so. The New Jersey Plan proposed: The Articles of Confederation should be amended. In addition to the