What were the advantages of the New Jersey plan?

The "advantages" of the New Jersey Plan would be in the eye of the beholder. It is often called the "small state" plan because it afforded equal representation for each state in Congress (as opposed to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses, with a state's representation in each based on their population). Basically, this would have preserved a significant amount of political power for the states, powers which many of the Framers thought...

The "advantages" of the New Jersey Plan would be in the eye of the beholder. It is often called the "small state" plan because it afforded equal representation for each state in Congress (as opposed to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses, with a state's representation in each based on their population). Basically, this would have preserved a significant amount of political power for the states, powers which many of the Framers thought needed to be delegated to a national government. James Madison, the architect of the Virginia Plan, was especially opposed to it, as was Alexander Hamilton, who pointed out that it was essentially the same thing as the old Articles of Confederation. Indeed, those who would have seen the advantages of the New Jersey Plan would have been those who wanted to keep the basic setup of the Articles of Confederation while making some significant changes (like adding an independent judiciary and executive and allowing the power to tax). The New Jersey Plan was thus beneficial to small states, in a way, and to those who wanted the powers of whatever national government that came out of the Philadelphia Convention to be limited.