Roger Sherman

That Edmund Randolph! He is charming but frequently irresolute. Today he proposed the Virginia plan. Just because he is the governor of Virginia, he thinks that we are all at his disposal. This is an unfair plan. It calls for a legislature based on proportional representation. All the representatives from the smaller states hate it!

It seems to me that Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and three states from the Deep South -- Georgia, and the two Carolinas have joined forces to get it passed. This alliance seems to be based in part of the misperception that with population flowing in the Southwest, the Deep South states would eventually be the same as those of the Big Three. The alliance may also have been based on a sense among the delegates from the Deep South that if they support the Big Three, that they will not be harassed about slavery.

It is an uneasy alliance. The delegates from the South are mistaken. If this Virginia Plan goes through, they will lose everything! The North and the South are so suspicious of the other. How can there be an alliance?

Madison seemed to be opposing it today. We were discussing how any plan that allows one state to have more power over the other based on size is justified on any level.

Paterson from New Jersey and I have decided to get together and discuss this together. We had begun a little this afternoon, maybe a plan where there is proportional representation in the lower house and equal representation in the higher house.

I feel that my peers undermine my ability with politics. I was there when the Declaration of resolves happened in 1774. I was on the committee for both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. I have also signed these documents and have been a member of the Congress for so long.

When I shared with Adams my thoughts about this he stated that I was "a solid, and sensible man and that I was one of his most cordial friends which he ever had in his life." Henry who was also with us said that I was "one of the three leading men in Congress and that I was a great statesman." Maybe I'm not so dislike after all. But I have heard the things that my opponents have said about me, "He is cunning as the devil, and if you attack him, you ought know him well; he is not easily managed, but if he suspects you are taking him in, and you may as well catch an eel by the tail." Am I cunning? I don't think so. Well, not more cunning than any other statesman.

Perhaps it is that I am self-educated and not as polished as those in my company. But does it really matter? Genealogy is important in England not here. Anyway, I despise all who are apart of that stupid alliance. I hope this idea between Paterson and myself works out.