<P> Hamilton presented his plan to the Convention on June 18, 1787 . The plan was perceived as a well - thought - out plan, but it was not considered, because it resembled the British system too closely . It also contemplated the loss of most state authority, which the states were unwilling to allow . </P> <P> Immediately after Randolph finished laying out the Virginia Plan, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina presented his own plan to the Convention . As Pinckney did not write it down, the only evidence of the plan are Madison's notes, so the details are somewhat vague . It was a confederation, or treaty, among the thirteen states . There was to be a bicameral legislature made up of a Senate and a House of Delegates . The House would have one member for every one thousand inhabitants . The House would elect Senators who would serve by rotation for four years and represent one of four regions . Congress would meet in a joint session to elect a President, and would also appoint members of the cabinet . Congress, in joint session, would serve as the court of appeal of last resort in disputes between states . Pinckney did also provide for a supreme Federal Judicial Court . The Pinckney plan was not debated, but it may have been referred to by the Committee of Detail . </P> <P> The Connecticut Compromise, forged by Roger Sherman from Connecticut, was proposed on June 11 . In a sense it blended the Virginia (large - state) and New Jersey (small - state) proposals . Ultimately, however, its main contribution was in determining the apportionment of the Senate, and thus retaining a federal character in the constitution . Sherman sided with the two - house national legislature of the Virginia Plan, but proposed "That the proportion of suffrage in the 1st . branch (house) should be according to the respective numbers of free inhabitants; and that in the second branch or Senate, each State should have one vote and no more ." This plan failed at first, but on July 23 the question was finally settled . </P> <P> What was ultimately included in the constitution was a modified form of this plan . In the Grand Committee, Benjamin Franklin successfully proposed the requirement that revenue bills originate in the house . But the final July 16 vote on the compromise still left the Senate looking like the Confederation Congress . In the preceding weeks of debate, Madison, King, and Gouverneur Morris each vigorously opposed the compromise for this reason . Then on July 23, just before most of the convention's work was referred to the Committee of Detail, Morris and King moved that state representatives in the Senate be given individual votes, rather than voting en bloc, as they had in the Confederation Congress . Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, a leading proponent of the compromise, supported their motion, and the Convention adopted it . As the personally powerful senators were to receive terms much longer than the state legislators who appointed them, they became substantially independent . The compromise nonetheless continued to serve the self - interest of small - state political leaders, who were assured of access to more seats in the Senate than they might otherwise have obtained . </P>

What was the first plan of government for the united states