CHAPTER II.

THE REVOLUTION OF 1787.

WOULD be interesting, if it were possible, to trace

from the start the steps that led to the calling of the Federal Convention. John Fiske thinks it grew out of a scheme of Washington's for connecting the east and the west by means of inland navigation.

Washington's

the east and west

together.

It is certain that no man in the country realized more clearly than Washington the importance of union. He knew that the war had been needlessly prolonged because there had been no central governplan for binding ment strong enough to call out the resources of the country; and when the war was over he was far from thinking that the dangers that had threatened the country from its impotent government were at an end. "It is clearly my opinion," he wrote to Hamilton in 1783, "unless Congress have powers competent to all general purposes, that the disasters we have encountered, the expense we have incurred, and the blood we have spilt, will avail us nothing." He knew that the great obstacle in the way of conferring competent powers on Congress was the feeling that it was a foreign government. It seemed to him, therefore, a matter of the first importance to bind the east and the west together by inland navigation. Make the varions parts

of the country manifestly one in interest was his thought; bind them together in an organic commercial whole, and they will soon seem to themselves one politically; the sentiment of union will soon be developed. At a time when the south and west were in a ferment about the free navigation of the Mississippi, he 'wrote: "I may be singular in my ideas, but they are these: That to open a door to, and make easy the way for those settlers to the westward, ** before we make any stir about the navigation of the Mississippi, and before our settlements are far advanced towards that river, would be our true line of policy." In consequence of his efforts, a company was organized in 1785 for extending the navigation of the Potomac and James rivers, and he was made president of it.

The steps that

But when John Fiske asserts that this led to the meeting of commissioners from Maryland and Virginia in 1785, he goes beyond the evidence. Washington's published correspondence makes no mention of the visit of the commissioners, nor has any evidence been brought forward to show a direct connection between his scheme for binding the east and the west in a commercial whole, and the meeting, which led to the Anwas the first link in the chain of events, that led directly to the constitution of the United States. Perhaps Lodge's assertion: "It (Washington's canal scheme) helped among other things to bring Maryland and Virginia together," is as far as we shall ever be able to go. But whatever brought them together, their meeting was

napolis convention.

the first step towards the constitution of the United States.

The commissioners from those states met to form a compact between Virginia and Maryland for the regulation of the trade upon the Potomac and Pocomoke rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay. A compact was agreed upon to be submitted to the legislatures of their respective states. In the course of their discussions, the commissioners saw that it was desirable for the two states to have a uniform system in all that pertained to currency, duties, and commercial matters in general. They accordingly recommended that each year two commissioners should be appointed to report upon the details of a system for the next year.

The legislature of Maryland approved of the compact made by their commissioners. In considering the proposed commercial commission, they saw that it was desirable for Delaware and Pennsylvania to agree with Maryland and Virginia on a uniform commercial system. In their report to Virginia, therefore, they recommended that Delaware and Pennsylvania be invited to send commissioners to the conference. And would it not be well, continued the Maryland report, to invite commissioners from all the thirteen states to attend the conference?

James Madison was a member of the Virginia legislature, and the report from Maryland gave him an opportunity that he was eager to improve. He realized vividly the need of a stronger central government and had al

ready prepared a motion recommending a convention of the thirteen states. It had been laid on the table. But when the report from Maryland was presented, it was taken from the table and passed.

The resolution was passed January 21, 1786. It provided that commissioners from Virginia should meet such commissioners as might by appointed by the other states "to take into consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative situation and trade of the said states, to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest and their permanent harmony; and to report to the several states such an act relative to this great object, as when unanmiously ratified by them, will enable the United States in congress assembled effectually to provide for the same."

The commissioners appointed by Virginia in the circular letter which they sent to the several states proposed that the convention should be held in Annapolis in September, 1786. It is doubtful whether anything would have come of the proposal, had not New York defeated the scheme to give Congress the power to levy an impost of five per cent for twenty-five years. The action of New York certainly had one important result the representation of New York at the convention. When the legislature of that state rejected the revenue system, Alexander Hamilton and his friends exerted themselves to the utmost to secure the appoint

ment of commissioners from New York. They succeeded, and Hamilton himself was appointed as one of them.

vention do?

The convention met at Annapolis in September, 1786. As only five states were represented it did not venture to transact any business. Before adjourning, however, on motion of Hamilton, the conWhat did the Annapolis Con- vention voted to recommend the states to send delegates to a constitutional convention to be held in Philadelphia on the second Monday of the following May, "to take into consideration the situation of the United States; to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of the union; and to report such an act for that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled as when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the legislature of every state will effectually provide for the same."

The Articles of Confederation were supposed to be framed in harmony with the prevailing opinion that the states were independent and sovereign; that the confederacy was only a league of friendship; and that when the states entered into it they lost none of the sovereignty and independence which, as they supposed, belonged to them before 1781, and which

Supposed theory

of the Articles of belongs to all independent nations. In enumerating the defects of the Confederacy,

Confederation.