Page:Debates in the Several State Conventions, v5.djvu/144

118 would be advisable for Congress to recommend to the states to call a general convention, to revise and amend the Confederation." It does not appear, however, that his expectation had been fulfilled.$73$

In a letter to James Madison from R. H. Lee, then president of Congress, dated the 26th of November, 1784, he says: "It is by many here suggested, as a very necessary step for Congress to take, the calling on the states to form a convention, for the sole purpose of revising the Confederation, so far as to enable Congress to execute, with more energy, effect, and vigor, the powers assigned to it, than it appears by experience that they can do under the present state of things." The answer of Mr. Madison remarks: "I hold it for a maxim, that the union of the states is essential to their safety against foreign danger and internal contention; and that the perpetuity and efficacy of the present system cannot be confided in. The question, therefore, is, in what mode, and at what moment, the experiment for supplying the defects ought to be made."

In the winter of 1784–5, Noah Webster, whose political and other valuable writings had made him known to the public, proposed, in one of his publications, "a new system of government, which should act, not on the states, but directly on individuals, and vest in Congress full power to carry its laws into effect."$74$

The proposed and expected convention at Annapolis, the first of a general character that appears to have been realized, and the state of the public mind awakened by it, had attracted the particular attention of Congress, and favored the idea there of a convention with fuller powers for amending the Confederacy.

It does not appear that in any of these cases the reformed system was to be otherwise sanctioned than by the legislative authority of the states; nor whether, nor how far, a change was to be made in the structure of the depository of federal powers.

The act of Virginia providing for the Convention at Philadelphia was succeeded by appointments from the other states as their legislatures were assembled, the appointments being selections from the most experienced and highest-standing citizens. Rhode Island was the only exception to a compliance with the recommendation from Annapolis, well known to have been swayed by an obdurate adherence to an advantage, which her position gave her, of taxing her neighbors through their consumption of imported supplies—an advantage which it was foreseen would be taken from her by a revisal of the Articles of Confederation.

As the public mind had been ripened for a salutary reform of the political system, in the interval between the proposal and the meeting of the commissioners at Annapolis, the interval between the last event and the meeting of deputies at Philadelphia had continued to develop more and more the necessity and the extent of a systematic