The first Continental Congress met Sept. 5, 1774. It had been recommended by Franklin the year before. In April, 1774, members of the Virginia House of Burgesses, after their formal dissolution by the Governor, had organized as a committee, and advised the committees of correspondence to confer as to the expediency of another Congress. Some of its delegates were elected by popular conventions; others by the popular houses of the legislatures; others by county committees; a few by immediate popular vote.13 The instructions given to the delegates by their constituents were various. The delegates from New York and New Jersey were simply instructed "to represent" those colonies.. The instructions of the others were in general confined to the adoption of such measures as might extricate the colonies from their present difficulties and obtain the repeal of the obnoxious acts of Parliament. The delegates of South Carolina were by their instructions expressly confined to agreeing to "legal measures." 14 This Con the resolution of Samuel Adams at a Boston town meeting, in November, 1772, for the appointment of such a town committee. 13 The delegates in the Congress of 1774 from New Hampshire were appointed by a Convention of Deputies chosen by the towns, and received their credentials from that convention. In Rhode Island they were appointed by the General Assembly and commissioned by the governor. In Connecticut they were appointed and instructed by the Committee of Correspondence for the Colony, acting under authority conferred by the House of Representatives. In New York the mode of appointment was various. In the City and County of New York the delegates were elected by popular vote taken in seven wards. The same persons were also appointed to act for the counties of West Chester, Albany and Duchess, by the respective committees of those counties; and another person was appointed in the same manner for the county of Suffolk. The New York delegates received no other instruc- gress adopted a declaration of rights and the Non-importation Association, subscribed by each member on behalf of himself and the colony which he represented; and then dissolved, after recommending that another congress be called to meet at Philadelphia in the following year.15 The second Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia, May 10, 1775. The delegates were mostly chosen by popular conventions; but in some cases by the lower houses of the colonial legislatures, with subsequent ratifications by conventions.16 Some credentials granted authority to consent and agree to all such measures as the Congress should deem necessary and effectual to obtain a redress of American grievances. Others were more moderate in their language. After their election the battle of Lexington was fought. Thereupon the Congress, with the consent of the people, assumed revolutionary powers, which were limited merely by their ability to carry them into effect. The first resolution of the first Conti nental Congress was: "That in determining questions in Congress, each colony or province shall have one vote; the Congress not being possessed of, or at present able to procure, proper materials for ascertaining the importance of each colony." "7 The larger States were never able to procure an alteration of this rule. The second Continental Congress organized an army; issued a continental currency; established a treasury department and postoffice; raised a navy; licensed privateers; and in answer to applications from the people of four colonies,18 advised them what forms of government to institute. They also gave recommendations to the people of the respective colonies as to the manner in which they should treat adherents to the King; and adopted the Declaration of Independence.19 15 This has been considered the beginning of the Union. Hildreth's History of the United States, vol. i, p. 43; Lincoln's Inaugural. Both papers are reprinted in Preston's Documents, pp. 192-205. 16 Curtis' Constitutional History of the United States, vol. i, p. 18. 17 September 6, 1774. Journals, vol. i, p. 10. Towle's History and Analysis of the Constitution, 3d ed., p. 48. 18 Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia and South Carolina. 19 See Penhallow v. Doane's Admrs. 3 Dallas, 54, 111. Money was raised by loans and the issue of the Continental currency. The adoption of a formal instrument of union was delayed because of the refusal of some of the colonies to surrender their claims to the western territory. Finally that difficulty was surmounted. The Articles of Confederation, which were drawn by the Continental Congress, were ratified by Maryland, the last State necessary for their adoption, on March 1st, 1781. In drafting these, the Committee unwisely rejected the suggestion of organizing an annual parliament of two houses; 20 and "misled partly by the rooted distrust for which the motive had ceased, and partly by erudition which studied Hellenic councils and leagues as well as later confederacies, took for its pattern the constitution of the United Provinces, with one house and no central power of final decision," 21 as had been done in organizing the Continental Congress. No power was given to the Confederation to levy taxes, contributions being derived from requisitions upon the States, which could not be compelled to pay them; or to regulate commerce, interstate or international; or to create courts, except "for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and for deciding appeals in all cases of captures.' The most important powers could not be exercised without the assent of nine States. The articles could not be amended without the assent of all. During the war, the patriotism of the people, and the despotic powers granted to Washington as commander-in-chief, prevented these defects from causing the ruin of the country, although they greatly prolonged the struggle in which Great Britain would have been defeated earlier had adequate powers been vested in the United States. When peace was restored and provision was necessary to pay creditors at home and abroad, the Confederation became openly contemptible. " 22 Coincident with the break-down of the Confederation, the several States had been organized under the advice of the Continental Congress, not in imitation of the federal body, but in governments similar to those which had prevailed in them while they were colonies, and analogous to that of Great Britain, with the legislatures generally divided into two houses, and the three 20 This had been suggested by Joseph Hawley of Massachusetts in November, 1775. Bancroft's Formation of the Constitution, p. 11. 21 Bancroft's Formation of the Constitution, p. 11. 22 Articles of Confederation, IX. departments, the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary, independent and co-ordinate. The call of the Federal Convention was the result of a meeting of commissioners from Virginia and Maryland for the purpose of agreeing upon regulations for the navigation of Chesapeake Bay and the rivers Potomac and Pocomoke, who visited the house of Washington in March, 1785.23 § 5. Preliminaries to the Federal Convention. The formal initiative of the Federal Convention was the appointment of commissioners by Virginia and Maryland to draw a compact for the regulation of trade upon the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac and Pocomoke rivers. These commissioners met at Alexandria in March, 1785, and in the same month visited Mt. Vernon, where they agreed, after consulting with Washington, to recommend a meeting of commissioners from all the States to make arrangements, with the consent of Congress, for the regulation of commerce. Virginia called such a conference, and five States were represented at Annapolis in September, 1786. New Jersey alone had authorized its delegates to consider “other important matters" besides commercial regulations, which might be necessary to the common interest and permanent harmony. A report was made, which seems to have been drawn by Hamilton.1 In it the Commissioners submitted their opinion: "That the idea of extending the powers of their deputies to other objects than those of commerce, which has been adopted by the state of New Jersey, was an improvement on the original plan, and will deserve to be incorporated into that of a future convention. 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 concerning its 23 The original meeting was held at Alexandria, but the commissioners visited Mt. Vernon where the plan of the meeting of commissioners from all the States was suggested. Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. v, p. 90; § 5. 1 Curtis' Constitutional History of the United States, vol. i, p. 234. precise nature and limits, may require a correspondent adjustment of other parts of the federal system. That there are important defects in the system of the federal government, is acknowledged by the acts of all those states which have concurred in the present meeting; that the defects, upon a closer examination, may be found greater and more numerous than even these acts imply, is at least so far probable, from the embarrassments which characterize the present state of our national affairs, foreign and domestic, as may reasonably be supposed to merit a deliberate and candid discussion, in some mode which will unite the sentiments and councils of all the states. In the choice of the mode, your commissioners are of opinion that a convention of deputies from the different states, for the special and sole purpose of entering into this investigation, and digesting a plan for supplying such defects as may be discovered to exist, will be entitled to a preference, from considerations which will occur without being particularized. commissioners decline an enumeration of those national circumstances on which their opinion respecting the propriety of a future convention, with more enlarged powers, is founded; as it would be a useless intrusion of facts and observations, most of which have been frequently the subject of public discussion, and none of which can have escaped the penetration of those to whom they would in this instance be addressed. They are, however, of a nature so serious, as, in the view of your commissioners, to render the situation of the United States delicate and critical, calling for the exertion of the united virtue and wisdom of all the members of the confederacy. Under this impression, your commissioners, with the most respectful deference, beg leave to suggest their unanimous conviction, that it may essentially tend to advance the interests of the Union, if the states, by whom they have been respectively delegated, would themselves concur, and use their endeavors to procure the concurrence of the other states, in the appointment of commissioners, to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May next, 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." 2 February 21st, 1787, Congress adopted the following resolution: 2 Elliot's Debates, 2d ed., vol. i, pp. 117, 118. |