to this great object as when unanimously ratified by them, will enable the United States, in Congress assembled, to provide for the same; That the said Commis sioners shall immediately transmit to the several States copies of the preceding resolution, with a circular lette. requesting their concurrence therein, and proposing a time and place for the meeting aforesaid."*

Four other States responded to this resolution of the Virginia Legislature, to wit: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. They all appointed Commissioners, as suggested by Virginia. These Commissioners met in convention at Annapolis, in Maryland, 11th September, 1786. They did nothing, however, but make a report to the Legislatures appointing them and recommending the calling of a General Convention of all the States, to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May, 1787, "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 Federal 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."+

As a reason for this course, they say "they are the more naturally led to this conclusion, as, in the course of their 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 Federal Government, that, to give it efficacy, and to obviate questions and doubts con

* Elliot's Debates, vol. i, p. 115. † Elliot's Debates, vol. i, p. 118.

cerning its precise nature and limits, may requre a correspondent adjustment of other parts of the Federal system."

This communication was addressed to the States from whom the parties held their commissions, and copies of it were likewise sent to the United States, in Congress assembled, and to the Executives of all the States. The Congress took up the subject on the 21st of February, 1787, and came to the following resolution upon it:

"Resolved, That, in the opinion of Congress, it is expedient that, on the second Monday in May next, a Convention of Delegates, who shall have been appointed by the several States, be held at Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confedera tion, and reporting to Congress and the several Legisla tures, such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the States, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government, and the preservation of the Union."

It was under this resolution of Congress that the evermemorable Federal Convention of 1787 was called and met. The initiative step to this movement was the resolution of the 21st of January, 1786, of the Virginia Legislature. Mr. Madison was the author of that resolution, though it was offered by Mr. Tyler, father of the late Ex-President Tyler. Mr. Madison's agency in first starting this movement is what has given him the title of father of the present Constitution. In none of these proceedings, either in Congress, or in the Virginia Legis lature, or in the communication of the Commissioners at Annapolis, is there any intimation of a wish or desire to change the nature of the Government, then existing, in any of its essential Federative features. It does, how

ever, very clearly appear, from the letter of the Commissioners, that, in granting additional powers to the United States, in Congress assembled, it might and would be, in their opinion, proper to make "a correspondent adjustment of other parts of the Federal system." This, doubtless, referred to a division of the powers vested in the States, jointly, under the then Constitution. These were mostly, as we have seen, committed to one body— to the Congress of the States.

Already, the idea had begun to develop itself, of introducing a new feature in the Federal plan-that of divid ing the powers delegated, into Legislative and Executive departments, each distinct from the Judicial; and also dividing the Legislative department into two branches, or houses; and, further still, of allowing the Federal machinery to act directly upon the citizens of the States in special cases, and not on the States in their corporate capacity, as had been in all former Confederacies. This idea, at first, was not fully developed. All new truths are slow of development. Mankind, generally, at first, see new truths indistinctly; as the man we read of in the Scriptures, who, having been born blind, when his eyes were opened, at first, "saw men, as trees, walking." This new feature, or new features, in the Federal plan is but dimly shadowed forth in the letter of the Commissioners, wherein they speak of some necessary correspondent adjustment of the Federal system. Mr. Jefferson, soon after, gives the idea more form and substance, in a letter to Mr. Madison, written at Paris, 16th of December, 1786. Here is his letter:

"I find, by the public papers, that your Commercial Convention failed in point of Representation. If it should produce a full meeting in May, and a broader reformation, it will still be well. To make us one nation,