THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 271 the need clearly and met it courageously. For several years, from 1781 to 1787, thinkers had been groping towards the idea that we must have a new kind of federation, such that the central government could act directly upon individual citizens; and in that final year Hamilton wrote: "The evils we experience do not proceed from minute or partial imperfections, but from fundamental errors in the structure, which cannot be amended otherwise than by an alteration in the first principles and main pillars of the fabric. The great radical vice. of the existing confederacy is the principle of LEGISLATION for STATES in their corporate or collective capacity, as contradistinguished from the INDIVIDUALS of which they consist." Federalist, XI. (The variety of type was used by Hamilton.) confedera This fundamental defect had been found in every federal union in earlier history. All had been confederations of states. The American Constitution of 1787 was A federal to give to the world a new type of government, state or a -a federal state. In the old type the states tion of remained sovereign states confederated. In the states new type they are fused, for certain purposes, into one sovereign unit. This new kind of federal government, said the shrewd and philosophical Tocqueville forty years later, was "a great discovery in political science." It was adopted by Switzerland in 1848, by the Dominion of Canada in 1867, by the German Empire in 1871, by Australia in 1900, and by South Africa in 1909. CHAPTER XV THE FEDERAL CONVENTION AND THE CONSTITUTION WHEN the second revenue amendment failed, in 1786 (page 270), a "Continental convention" had already been called to consider more radical changes. Suggestions for change in government Suggestions for a convention to form a stronger government had been made from time to time by individuals for several years. As early as 1776 Thomas Paine had urged: "Nothing but a continental form of government can keep the peace of the continent. . . . Let a continental conference be held to frame a continental charter. . . . Our strength and happiness are continental, not provincial. We have every opportunity and every encouragement to form the noblest and purest constitution on the face of the earth." Twice Hamilton had secured from the New York legislature a resolution favoring such a convention. No concrete result followed, however, until these proposals became connected with a commercial undertaking. Washington had long been interested in Western lands, and at the close of the Revolution he owned some thirty The Mount Vernon meeting, 1786 thousand acres in the Virginia Military Reserve (page 251). A visit to the West impressed him powerfully with the need of better communication with that region, both for business prosperity and for continued political union; and he urged Virginia to build roads to her Western possessions. In pursuance of this idea he became president of a company 1 1 Referring to the danger that the Westerners might join Spain, he wrote: "They stand, as it were, upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them either way." PRELIMINARY ATTEMPTS 273 to improve the navigation of the Potomac. This matter required assent from both Virginia and Maryland. These States were also in dispute over the tariffs at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. At Washington's invitation, commissioners from the two States met at Mount Vernon, to discuss these matters. There it was decided to hold another meeting to which Pennsylvania also should be invited, as she, too, was interested in Chesapeake Bay. Washington had suggested that the proposed meeting, since it concerned improvement in the means of commerce, should consider also the possibility of uniform duties on that commerce. Maryland expressed approval, and asked whether it might not be well to invite other States to the proposed conference; and Virginia finally issued an invitation to all the States to send representatives to Annapolis, September 1, 1786. Convention Only five States appeared at this Annapolis Convention. Even Maryland failed to choose delegates. But New Jersey had instructed her representatives to try The failure to secure, not only uniform duties, but also other of the measures which might render the Confederation ade- Annapolis quate to the needs of the times. This thought was made the basis of a new call. The delegates at Annapolis adopted an address, drawn by Alexander Hamilton, urging all the States to send commissioners to Philadelphia the following May, "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 to Congress such an act "as when agreed to by them [Congress], and confirmed by the legislatures of every State, will effectually provide for" those exigencies. At first this call attracted little attention. But the sudden increase of anarchy in the fall of 1786 brought men to recognize the need for immediate action. Here was the opportunity. Madison persuaded the Virginia legislature to appoint delegates and to head the list with the name of Washington. Even in Virginia there had been warm opposition to a convention. Patrick Henry refused to attend, and the young Monroe called the meeting unwise. Washington thought of declining his appointment, not because the meeting was not needed, but because he expected it to turn out a fizzle and questioned whether attendance would be consonant with his dignity. Not until late in March did he agree to go, after three months of hesitation. Meantime other States had followed Virginia's lead, and the Philadelphia Convention became a fact. The Phila- 1787 That famous Convention lasted four months - from May 25, 1787, to September 17. The debates were guarded by the most solemn pledges of secrecy. Most that we know about them comes from Madison's notes. Madison had been disappointed in the September, meager information regarding the establishment of earlier confederacies, and he believed that upon the success of the federation now to be formed "would be staked possibly the cause of liberty throughout the world." Accordingly, he determined to preserve full records of its genesis. Missing no session, he kept careful notes of each day's proceedings and of each speaker's arguments; and each evening he wrote up these notes more fully, submitting them sometimes to the speakers for correction. In 1837, when every member of the Convention had passed away, Congress bought this manuscript from Madison's Mrs. Madison, and published it as "Madison's Journal of the Constitutional Convention." A few other members took imperfect notes and several wrote letters that throw light upon the attitude of certain men. Journal Fifty-five men sat in the Convention. Seventy-three delegates were appointed, but eighteen failed to appear. Composition Twenty-nine of the fifty-five had benefited by and leaders college life; but among those who had missed that training were Franklin and Washington. With few exceptions the members were young men, several of the most active being under thirty. The entire body was English by descent and traditions. Three notable members Alexander Hamilton of New York, and James Wilson and Robert Morris of Pennsylvania - had been born English subjects outside the United States; and the great South Carolina delegates, Rutledge and the Pinckneys, had been educated in England. Virginia and New Jersey were to give their names to the two schemes that contended for mastery in the Convention; and their delegations, therefore, are of special interest. Virginia sent seven members. Among them were Washington, George Mason (who eleven years before had drawn the first State constitution), Edmund Randolph, her brilliant young governor, and Madison, who was to earn the title "Father of the Constitution." New Jersey sent four delegates, all tried statesmen: Livingstone, eleven times her governor, Patterson, ten times her AttorneyGeneral, Brearly, her great Chief Justice, and Houston, many times her Congressman. These delegations were typi From the Stuart por GEORGE WASHINGTON. cal. "Hardly a man in the Convention," says McMaster, "but had sat in some famous assembly, had filled some high place, or had made himself conspicuous for learning, for scholarship, or for signal service rendered in the cause of liberty.' On the other hand, William Pierce of Georgia, who sat in the Convention, in his entertaining character sketches of his |