Annapolis Convention

• Author: Leonard W. Levy
• Pages: 90

Page 90

In 1785 a few nationalists led by JAMES MADISON and ALEXANDER HAMILTON sought desperately to preserve the Union of the states under the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. Congress seemed inept and powerless. The chances that the United States might "Balkanize" seemed likely. As early as 1782 Hamilton had proposed a convention of the states to reassess their union. In 1785 delegates from Maryland and Virginia met in Alexandria to reconcile their mutual interests in Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. Madison promoted the plan of a convention of delegates from all of the states to consider augmenting the powers of Congress over commerce. Maryland and Virginia agreed on the call of such a convention in Annapolis in September 1786, and they invited all the states to send delegates.

When the Annapolis Convention met, only five states were in attendance. Undaunted, Hamilton and Madison made the best of the situation by framing a report, which those in attendance unanimously adopted, critical of the inadequacies of the Articles of Confederation and urging still another convention of all the states to assemble in Philadelphia in May 1787. The purpose of that convention would be to "take into consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such other provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the...