Overview
Part 1 - What were the major points of the Virginia Plan? How did the New Jersey plan help shape the Virginia Plan into a working constitution agreed upon by all delegates?
Minimum 400 word response with citations.
Part 2- Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honors to their deceased kings, and the Christian World hath improved on the plan by doing the same to their living ones. How impious is the title of sacred Majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust!..
To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho’ himself might deserve some decent degree of honors of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in Kings, is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule, by giving mankind an ASS FOR A LION. Section 1
What type of document is it? Who created it and why?
When was the document created? What physical details reveal this?
What was/is the purpose of the document?
Section 2
What was the creator's situation or intention at the time of creation? What is the creator's relationship to the document? What evidence shows this?
Are there inconsistencies or ambiguities in the document? Does it make an argument? If so, is it supported or warranted? What makes it reliable or unreliable?
Section 3
What does the document reveal about the period during which it was created?
What research questions could this primary source answer?
What else would you like to know about this document or its topic? How could you find the answers to those questions?