At the Constitutional Convention, what did the smaller states have to fear about the Virginia Plan? What did the delegate from New Jersey propose instead?

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 by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787. [1] The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses of Congress, both elected with apportionment according to population. [2] The less populous states were adamantly opposed to giving most of the control of the national government to the more populous states, and so proposed an alternative plan that would have kept the one-vote-per-state representation under one legislative body from the Articles of Confederation. The New Jersey Plan was opposed by James Madison and Edmund Randolph (the proponents of the Virginia state Plan).

Because the houses were based on population and the smaller states had less people. The Virginia Plan (also called the Large-State Plan), was one method to establish representation of states in Congress. By the plan, the number of representatives granted to a state would be directly proportional to the population of the state, and thus would grant more representatives, and more voting power, to the larger states.

The smaller states wanted to have equal representation amongst states; that each state would have and equal number of votes in Congress. These different desires by small and large states led to the Great Compromise of 1787, which established a Bi-Cameral legislation, two legislative bodies.