A Source Book in American History to 1787

by Unknown

That appointments of Commissioners have also been made by the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and North Carolina, none of whom have however attended, but that no information has been received by your Commissioners of any Appointment having been made by the States of Connecticut, Maryland, South-Carolina or Georgia.

That the express terms of the Powers to your Commissioners supposing a Deputation from all the States, and having for Object the trade and Commerce of the United States, your Commissioners did not conceive it advisable to proceed on the business of their Mission, under the Circumstance of so partial and defective a Representation.

Deeply impressed however with the magnitude and importance of the Object confided to them on this Occasion, your Commissioners cannot forbear to indulge an expression of their earnest and unanimous wish that speedy measures may be taken to effect a general meeting of the States in a future Convention, for the same, and such other Purposes, as the situation of Public Affairs may be found to require.

If in expressing this wish, or in intimating any other Sentiment, your Commissioners should seem to exceed the strict bounds of their Appointment, they entertain a full Confidence that a Conduct dictated by an anxiety for the welfare of the United States, will not fail to receive an indulgent Construction.

In this persuasion, your Commissioners submit an Opinion, that the Idea of extending the Powers of their Deputies to other Objects than those of Commerce, which has been adopted by the State of New Jersey, was an improvement on the original Plan, and will deserve to be incorporated into that of a future Convention. They are the more naturally led to which Conclusion, as in the course of the Reflections on the Subject, they have been induced to think, that the Power of regulating Trade, is of such comprehensive extent, and will enter so far into the General System of the Fœderal Government, that to give it efficacy, and to obviate questions and doubts concerning its precise nature and limits, may require a corresponding adjustment of other Parts of the Fœderal System.

That there are important defects in the System of the Fœderal Government, is acknowledged by the Acts of those States which have concurred in the present Meeting. That the defects, upon a closer examination may be found greater and more numerous than even these Acts imply, is at least so far probable from the embarrassments which characterize the present state of our National Affairs, foreign and domestic, as may reasonably be supposed to merit a deliberate and candid discussion, in some mode, which will unite the Sentiments and Councils of all the States. In the choice of the mode, your Commissioners are of Opinion that a Convention of Deputies from the different States, for the special and sole purpose of entering into this investigation and digesting a Plan for supplying such defects as may be discovered to exist, will be entitled to a preference, from Considerations which will occur without being particularized.

Your Commissioners decline an enumeration of those National Circumstances on which their Opinion respecting the Propriety of a future Convention with more enlarged Powers is founded; as it would be an useless intrusion of facts and Observations, most of which have been frequently the Subject of Public Discussion, and none of which can have escaped the penetration of those to whom they would in this instance be addressed. They are however of a nature so serious as, in the View of your Commissioners, to render the situation of the United States delicate and critical, calling for an exertion of the united Virtue and Wisdom of all the Members of the Confederacy.

Under this Impression Your Commissioners, with the most respectful deference, beg leave to suggest their unanimous conviction that it may essentially tend to advance the interests of the Union, if the States by whom they have been respectively delegated would themselves concur, and use their endeavours to procure the concurrence of the other States, in the Appointment of Commissioners to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May next, 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 Fœderal 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 Legislatures of every State" will effectually provide for the same.