Events
Leading Up To the Philadelphia Convention
Mt Vernon Conference, 1785.
The
circumstances that led to the Mount Vernon Conference of 1785 began as the country
emerged victorious from the Revolutionary War. Lacking a strong central
government, the states quarreled among themselves and some even established
proprietary regulations, tariffs, and currency. To ensure mutually profitable
commerce on the shared waterways of the Potomac River, the legislators of
Virginia and Maryland recognized the need for an agreement between the two
states regarding the jurisdiction of the waters.
Representatives from Maryland were duly empowered to
discuss with Virginia shared concerns involving the Potomac and Pocomoke
Rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay. To the contrary, the Virginia legislature's
instructions to its appointees focused solely on the Potomac, thereby failing
to include critical waters that required negotiation and in the process
severely limiting the authority of the Virginia commissioners. Virginia
Governor Patrick
Henry further snarled the proceedings by neglecting to
notify the state's commissioners of their appointments. Consequently no
Virginia representatives were on hand to greet the Maryland commissioners upon
their arrival in Alexandria for
the meeting on March 21, 1785. George Washington first heard of the proposed
conference the day before from one of the Maryland commissioners visiting as a
guest at Mount Vernon.
Washington offered the hospitality of Mount Vernon for
the group of Maryland and Virginia representatives to meet. Although not an
official participant in the conference, Washington—with his authoritative
knowledge of the issues and active interest in Potomac navigation—inspired the
delegates and lent considerable prestige to the proceedings.
The resulting “Mount Vernon Compact” was a
thirteen-point agreement that addressed transportation and trade issues
involving more than the Potomac River. It was subsequently ratified by the
Virginia and Maryland legislatures, and Pennsylvania and Delaware were invited
to participate in the agreement.
From George Washington’s Mount Vernon:
<https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/mount-vernon-conference>
Annapolis Convention, 1786
The Annapolis Convention,
formally titled as a “Meeting of Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the Federal
Government,” was a national political convention held September 11-14, 1786.
The meeting aimed at constructing uniform parameters to regulate trade between
states during a time of political turbulence and economic strain. While
chartered as a purely commercial convening, and attended by only a handful of
delegates from five states, the Annapolis Convention served as a decisive
stepping-stone to the Constitutional Convention, effectively laying the
groundwork for our nation’s constitutional formation.
The Convention’s attendees, “dictated by an anxiety
for the welfare of the United States,” came to the collective realization that
trade was altogether inseverable from the widespread “embarrassments”
characterizing the then-present state of affairs, and that to discuss commerce
without first addressing the inadequacies of America’s broader political
framework was thoroughly unavoidable. Articulating these sentiments in a report
issued to all states and Congress, the Annapolis delegates recommended a convention
be held in Philadelphia the following year; the Constitutional Convention,
which, of course, became the Philadelphia constitutional convention.
From George Washington’s Mount Vernon: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/annapolis-convention.
See also Madison’s comments in his proposed “Preface” to his Notes
of Debates, first published in 1840.
Formal Call for a Constitutional
Convention, 1787
Following
the Annapolis meeting, the Congress of the Confederation on 21 February 1787,
voted eight to one (Connecticut opposed) to call a convention to meet in
Philadelphia on 14 May “for the sole and express
purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation and reporting to Congress and
the several [state] Legislatures 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.” Though this initiative in Congress largely owed its life
to the Annapolis Convention report, no reference was made to the report.
From the Center for the Study of the American
Constitution: https://csac.history.wisc.edu/2021/02/24/the-confederation-congress-calls-a-constitutional-convention-21-february-1787/.
Madison’s more extensive comments in his Preface to the Notes
of Debates.
The Virginia Plan
A set
of fifteen resolutions presented to the Convention by Governor Edmund Randolph
of Virginia on May 29, 1787, that served as the basis for discussion until it
was challenged, unsuccessfully, on June 15th by William Paterson of
New Jersey. It represented a complete replacement of the Articles of
Confederation by a more consolidated/national/unitary form of government. See Notes
of Debates, 30-33.
The Pinckney Plan
James
Madison’s Notes report that Charles Pinckney of South Carolina allegedly
proposed an alternative plan of government to the Convention, also on May 29th,
but no authentic copy of that draft has ever been found. It was supposedly
similar to the Virginia Plan and was used by the Convention’s Committee of
Detail in its August 6th draft. See reference at Notes
of Debates, 33.
The New Jersey Plan
After
more than two weeks of the convention discussing a totally new structure of
government outlined in Randolph’s Virginia Plan, William Patterson of New
Jersey proposed a more modest plan of amendment known as the New Jersey Plan on
June 15th. Since several delegations had been instructed by their
states to consider only amending, not replacing, the Articles of Confederation,
there was more support for this alternative than just the New Jersey
delegation. See Notes
of Debates, 118-121.
Alexander Hamilton’s Plan
Upon
the introduction by Patterson of the “New Jersey Plan” three days prior,
Alexander Hamilton said, in effect, that he could not contain his respectful
silence any longer. He was not totally committed to Randolph’s Virginia Plan,
but was totally opposed to Patterson’s alternative. Hamilton was concerned
about America’s great size and need for strong central authority and professed
his deep admiration for the British form of monarchical government. Yet his
proposal for structuring the new government followed an outline similar to the
VA Plan. According to Madison’s Notes, his speech was met with silence
and was not actively discussed thereafter in the Convention. See Notes
of Debates, 138-139
Earlier Precedents
Magna Carta, 1216
The “great charter of liberties” wrung out of King John
to recognize a series of rights that the barons won from King John. As the English
historian Stubbs remarked: “The whole of the Constitutional History of England
is a commentary on this charter.” It established the model for later “bills of
rights.” The Charter was a collection of disparate rights and liberties that
the barons wanted King John and his successors to honor; it was not a coherent,
comprehensive theory or plan of government.
Mayflower
Compact, 1620 [Notable as a written agreement to
form a society]
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN.
We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign
Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France,
and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c.
Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith,
and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in
the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and
mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine
ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and
Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do
enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts,
Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet
and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all
due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have
hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of
November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France,
and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the
fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.
Mr. John Carver, Mr.
William Bradford, Mr Edward Winslow, Mr. William Brewster,
Isaac Allerton, Myles Standish, John Alden, John Turner, Francis Eaton,
James Chilton, John Craxton, John Billington, Joses Fletcher, John Goodman, Mr.
Samuel Fuller, Mr. Christopher Martin, Mr. William Mullins, Mr. William White,
Mr. Richard Warren, John Howland, Mr. Steven Hopkins, Digery
Priest, Thomas Williams, Gilbert Winslow, Edmund Margesson,
Peter Brown, Richard Britteridge
George Soule, Edward Tilly, John Tilly, Francis Cooke, Thomas Rogers, Thomas
Tinker, John Ridgdale, Edward Fuller, Richard Clark,
Richard Gardiner, Mr. John Allerton, Thomas English, Edward Doten, Edward
Liester.
English Bill of Rights 1689
Several
states in the United States, influenced in part by the 1689 English Bill of
Rights that contributed to the end of the English civil war known as the
Glorious Revolution in 1688, had bills of rights as parts of their state
constitutions. The demand for a national bill of rights by several state
conventions debating whether to ratify the propose constitution led James
Madison and others to make a bill of rights one of the very first issues taken
up by the new federal Congress.