In the circular letter transmitting these resolutions to the respective States, Annapolis, in Maryland, was proposed as the place, and the ensuing September (1786) as the time of meeting.
Before the arrival of the period at which these commissioners were to assemble the idea was carried by those who saw and deplored the complicated calamities which flowed from the inefficacy of the general government, much further than was avowed by the resolution of Virginia. "Although," said Mr. Jay, one of the most conspicuous patriots of the Revolution, in a letter to Washington, dated the 16th of March, 1786, "you have wisely retired from public employments, and calmly view, from the temple of fame, the various exertions of that sovereignty and independence which Providence has enabled you to be so greatly and gloriously instrumental in securing to your country, yet I am persuaded you cannot view them with the eye of an unconcerned spectator.
"Experience has pointed out errors in our national government which call for correction, and which threaten to blast the fruit we expected from our tree of liberty. The convention proposed by Virginia may do some good, and would perhaps do more, if it comprehended more objects. An opinion begins to prevail that a general convention for revising the articles of confederation would be expedient. Whether the people are yet ripe for such a measure, or whether the system proposed to be attained by it is only to be expected from calamity and commotion, is difficult to ascertain.
"I think we are in a delicate situation, and a variety of considerations and circumstances give me uneasiness. It is in contemplation to take measures for forming a general convention. The plan is not matured. If it should be well connected and take effect, I am fervent in my wishes that it may comport with the line of life you have marked out for yourself to favor your country with your counsels on such an important and single occasion. I suggest this merely as a hint for consideration."
To the patriots who accomplished the great revolution which gave to the American people a national government capable of maintaining the union of the States and of preserving republican liberty, we must ever feel grateful and admire and honor them for their services during that arduous and doubtful struggle which terminated in the triumph of human reason and the establishment of a free government. To us who were not actors in those busy scenes, but who enjoy the fruits of the labor without having participated in the toils or the fears of the patriots who achieved such glorious results, the sentiments entertained by the most enlightened and virtuous of America at that eventful period cannot be uninteresting.
"Our affairs," said Mr. Jay, in a letter of the 27th of June (1786), "seem to lead to some crisis, some revolution—something that I cannot foresee or conjecture. I am uneasy and apprehensive, more so than during the war. Then, we had a fixed object and, though the means and time of obtaining it were often problematical, yet I did firmly believe that we should ultimately succeed, because I did firmly believe that justice was with us. The case is now altered, we are going and doing wrong and therefore I look forward to evils and calamities, but without being able to guess at the instrument, nature, or measure of them.
"That we shall again recover and things again go well, I have no doubt. Such a variety of circumstances would not, almost miraculously, have combined to liberate and make us a nation for transient and unimportant purposes. I therefore believe we are yet to become a great and respectable people, but when or how, only the spirit of prophecy can discern.
"There doubtless is much reason to think and to say that we are woefully, and, in many instances, wickedly misled. Private rage for property suppresses public considerations, and personal rather than national interests have become the great objects of attention. New governments have not the aid of habit and hereditary respect, and, being generally the result of preceding tumult and confusion, do not immediately acquire stability or strength. Besides, in times of commotion, some men will gain confidence and importance who merit neither, and who, like political mountebanks, are less solicitous about the health of the credulous crowd than about making the most of their nostrums and prescriptions.
"What I most fear is that the better kind of people (by which I mean the people who are orderly and industrious, who are content with their situations, and not uneasy in their circumstances) will be led by the insecurity of property, the loss of confidence in their rulers, and the want of public faith and rectitude, to consider the charms of liberty as imaginary and delusive. A state of uncertainty and fluctuation must disgust and alarm such men and prepare their minds for almost any change that may promise them quiet and security."
To this interesting letter Washington made the following reply: