The Virginia Plan was a proposal to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which outlined a new form of government for the United States of America. When the delegates to the convention met to discuss the changes that needed to be made to the national government, there was disagreement about whether the current system under the Articles of Confederation could be revised, or a new system was needed entirely. The Virginia Plan was a set of fifteen proposals written by James Madison and presented by Edmund Randolph to outline how a new government might function. It included such recognizable provisions as a bicameral legislature, a national executive, and a supreme judiciary. The New Jersey Plan, presented by William Paterson, countered the Virginia Plan by calling for a legislature with equal representation for every state. The Connecticut Compromise between the two plans would produce the bicameral legislature in the United States Constitution, one based on population, the other on equal representation of the states.