The Delegates of the Confederation

The first major innovation contained in madison's virginia plan was the separation of the legislative branch into two houses. Almost uniformly, the delegates were small r republicans, not small d democrats. They agreed that some kind of upper house would be needed to put the brakes on the runaway anarchy sure blowing out of the lower house. The decision to press on with a whole new constitution met very little opposition because madison had gotten there first and already had a pretty detailed outline for a new constitution in hand.