If most people wanted to increase the power of Congress, they were also afraid to shift the balance too far lest they destroy the sovereignty of the states and the rights of individuals. The machinery for change established in the Articles of Confederation, which required the unanimous consent of the states for all amendments, posed a particularly delicate problem. Experience had shown it unworkable, yet to bypass it would be revolutionary and therefore dangerous.
The first fumbling step toward reform was taken in March 1785 when representatives of Virginia and Maryland, meeting at the home of George Washington to settle a dispute over the improvement of navigation on the Potomac River, suggested a conference of all the states to discuss common problems of commerce. In January 1786 the Virginia legislature sent out a formal call for such a gathering to be held in September at Annapolis. However, the Annapolis Convention disappointed advocates of reform; delegates from only five states appeared; even Maryland, supposedly the host state, did not send a representative. Being so few the group did not feel it worthwhile to propose changes.
Among the delegates was a young New York lawyer named Alexander Hamilton, a brilliant, imaginative, and daring man who was convinced that only drastic centralization would save the nation from disintegration. Hamilton described himself as a “nationalist.” While the war still raged he contrasted the virtues of “a great Federal Republic” with the existing system of “petty states with the appearance only of union, jarring, jealous, and perverse.” Instead of giving up, he proposed calling another convention to meet at Philadelphia to deal generally with constitutional reform. Delegates should be empowered to work out a broad plan for correcting “such defects as may be discovered to exist” in the Articles of Confederation.
The Annapolis group approved Hamilton’s suggestion, and Congress reluctantly endorsed it. This time all the states but Rhode Island sent delegates. On May 25, 1787, the convention opened its
This engraving by William Russell Birch shows Congress Hall (left) which was occupied by Congress from 1790 to 1800, when Philadelphia was capital of the nation. Here, too, was the site of President Washington's second inauguration in 1793 and President John Adams's inauguration in 1797.
Proceedings at the State House in Philadelphia and unanimously elected George Washington its president. When it adjourned four months later, it had drafted the Constitution.
World History
