The general public had long since lost respect for the National Government and its Congress. Even Washington referred to it as the half-starved, limping Government, that appears always moving upon crutches and tottering at every step. The chief difficulty was not to ascertain the remedies needed, but how to apply them. As early as 1780, Hamilton had thought Congress had the right to reassume the powers of sovereignty it had appropriated with the silent consent of the States during the pressing times of the war; or, if the application must be external, that the people might meet in a convention of delegates empowered and instructed to conclude a new and effective federation. Few were ready to go as far as the impetuous Hamilton in thus virtually overthrowing the "Articles of perpetual union" which were legally binding although inefficient. To amend them according to their own provisions would be legitimate if it could be accomplished.
[Illustration: SIGNATURES OF DELEGATES TO ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION.
Hamilton, Reed, Dickinson, Randolph, and Madison were the most prominent
members of this abortive meeting, which led eventually to the
Philadelphia Convention.]
This was considered by the majority of people the proper method; but when the experiment was tried at Annapolis in 1786 of a meeting of commissioners to devise a uniform regulation of trade and to report such an amendment to their States for ratification, only twelve delegates could be gotten together representing five States. Even the State of Maryland, in which the meeting was held, failed to send a representation. Each of the delinquent States had an excuse. The commissioners who did go to Annapolis, headed by Hamilton, Dickinson, and Madison, could only issue an appeal for another meeting of delegates from the several States the following year in the more central city of Philadelphia, empowered to consider not only the commercial troubles but 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."
It can scarcely be said that the failure at Annapolis was either a surprise or a disappointment, because few had expected success. "The expedient is no doubt liable to objections," said Madison, one of the Virginia delegates, "and will probably miscarry. I think, however, it is better than nothing." The object was unfortunately limited to considering the commercial friction between the States and to regulating their foreign relations. The conviction had become general that only an extended amendment of the frame of National Government could correct the difficulties in the commercial functions and in many other needed particulars. The thought that the proposed convention, if the proposition should be generally taken up, would include such a revision of the Articles of Confederation, served also to soften the blow of the Annapolis failure.
CHAPTER V
REFORMING THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
The suggestion, emanating from the unsuccessful gathering at Annapolis, that a convention of delegates be called from the several States to meet at Philadelphia the following year to devise means for rendering the National Government adequate to its task, was supported most admirably by the condition of the times. The Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts, its support in the neighbouring States, and the disorder in Virginia and New Jersey, were moving arguments for immediate action. Even Washington was forced to admit that the people were at last sufficiently misled. The National Government, helpless to invade a sovereign State to suppress domestic insurrection, was compelled to finesse in taking some steps to mobilise the militia by imagining an outbreak of Indians in Massachusetts.
Led by the alarming situation, Congress, with unusual dispatch, took up the Annapolis suggestion within five months after its receipt. But the feeling that the initiative should come from the Congress itself rather than from an irregular convention led to the substitution of a motion from the Massachusetts delegates in Congress that a convention of delegates should be held at Philadelphia on the second Monday of the following May "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation" and reporting its suggestions to Congress and the several State Legislatures.
During the spring of 1787, State after State took up the idea of a convention of the people to correct the errors in the national frame. With rare discrimination, they chose, through their State Legislatures, their leading men as delegates. All hope became centred in this apparently last resort. The convention "will either recover us from our present embarrassments or complete our ruin," said Monroe. That radical changes were necessary, many felt assured. Madison likened the Government at this time to a ship which Congress kept from sinking by standing constantly at the pumps instead of stopping the leaks which endangered her. He began to talk about "a new system" before the convention assembled. In sending to Washington an outline study of all prior confederated governments, he wrote, "Radical attempts, although unsuccessful, will at least justify the authors of them."
Such sentiments were found to prevail generally among the delegates when, on May 25, 1787, a majority of the States was represented and sessions begun in the Independence Hall in the city of Philadelphia. Within five days it was decided to cast aside the deficient Articles, to exceed instructions, and to frame a new National Government with separate legislative, judiciary, and executive functions. To put new wine into old bottles was felt to be useless. No small task confronted the convention in carrying out this resolution. Independence and the other steps thus far leading toward nationality had been taken, as George Mason, of Virginia, said, under a certain enthusiasm which inspired and supported its advocates; but to sit down calmly to consider a project which might bring happiness or misery to millions yet unborn was an action, which, he confessed, absorbed and in a measure suspended the human understanding. Robert Morris, a delegate from Pennsylvania, begged his sons in France to offer a prayer for the success of the meeting since so much of their future happiness depended upon it.