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244 The Annapolis Convention. [i782-86 measures be taken... to avert the dangers which threaten our existence as a free and independent people, 1 ' it was therefore enacted etc. How acute was the danger, and what various forms it took, may be seen from the pathetic description of Hamilton, in the fifteenth number of the Federalist, and from the words of Madison, in his Introduction to the Debates in the Convention. "The federal authority had ceased to be respected abroad.... At home it had lost all confidence and credit. The unstable and unjust career of the States had also forfeited the respect and confidence essential to order and good government, involving a general decay of confidence and credit between man and man." The weakness of the Confederation was early felt outside of Congress. In the year 1782 the legislature of New York unanimously passed resolutions, in which it was declared "that the Confederation was defective, in not giving Congress power to provide a revenue for itself, or in not investing them with funds from established and productive sources; and that it would be advisable for Congress to recommend to the States to call a general convention to revise and amend the Confederation." Nothing however came of this, beyond a reference to it by Hamilton in Congress, with a statement by him that he intended to propose to Congress a plan for the purpose. This was in 1783. It remained for the States which were suffering from the commercial exactions of their neighbours to suggest a consideration of the most pressing needs of the country. Virginia was the first to respond. In January, 1786, a resolution of the legislature of that State was passed, inviting a meeting of deputies from all the States to meet deputies named by Virginia, to consider the trade of the United States; "to examine the relative situations and trade of the States; to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations might be necessary to their common interest and permanent harmony "; and to report a constitutional provision to the States such as, when ratified by them, would enable the United States, in Congress, effectually to provide for the purpose. The deputies were to meet in Annapolis, Maryland, in September of that year (1786). The plan was received with much local favour ; but the feeling was not general enough to bring together deputies from more than five States, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Desire for action was however growing stronger and stronger, and when the deputies met they did not hesitate to make recommendation in vigorous terms ; more than that, in the absence of a majority of the States, they of course could not properly do. But they did not stop at advising the call of a convention to consider the trade of the States ; other things equally deserved attention. The commission of the deputies from New Jersey had pointed to this ; the deputies from that State were empowered " to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial relations, and other important matters, might be