What is the significance of the annapolis meeting

British imports were flooding American markets and threatening the livelihoods of American artisans, while imperial harbors were closed to American ships, thus threatening the profits of American merchants.

None of these amendments secured the required ratification of all thirteen state legislatures. Even so, Congress was still considering other amendments in the summer of , when a committee chaired by Charles Pinckney drafted a report with another half-dozen proposals.

By then, however, a different path to reform had emerged in Virginia. At the start of the Virginia legislation session, Madison began urging his colleagues to endorse the idea of granting Congress permanent regulatory powers over commerce. During the ensuing debates, however, the assembly whittled the proposal down to a point where Madison decided it would be better to do nothing than to pursue a policy that seemed too weak to work.

Yet just as the session was closing, a resolution was moved calling for an interstate convention to discuss the idea of giving Congress adequate power over commerce. Madison was not its author, and he initially doubted its prospects. Yet by the early spring of , when the Virginia commissioners set Annapolis in September as the place and time of meeting, Madison had shifted his opinion.

The idea of holding a convention to propose constitutional changes remained a source of uncertainty. The Articles of Confederation were quite specific about the rules for their amendment.

Changes had to be proposed by Congress, with a supermajority of nine states, and then ratified by all thirteen legislatures. Even holding a convention could be criticized as an insult to Congress and thus work to weaken its authority.

Some members jealously guarded the power of the states and resisted the idea of centralizing power in the national government.

Yet the idea of holding a general constitutional convention was not a novelty. Such a proposal had been discussed in the early s. Its strongest supporters were to be found in the officer corps of the Continental Army, arguably the one group whose bitter experience during the war left them most inclined to support a radical strengthening of national authority.

No one had a better grasp of the weaknesses of the Confederation, because from one year to the next, they had repeatedly seen how difficult it was for Congress to muster adequate supplies, money, and troops from the states.

Their commander in chief, George Washington, may have been a Virginia gentleman, but from on, he was also a strong nationalist. Alexander Hamilton shared these nationalist views. After resigning his commission in the Continental Army, Hamilton served in the New York legislature and the Continental Congress in — Once in Congress, he came to know Madison quite well, and together they must have discussed the tactics of constitutional reform.

Yet Hamilton was more of a political adventurer than Madison. In , Hamilton was toying with the idea of having Congress issue a call for a general constitutional convention. He abandoned that project because he knew it would not muster the requisite support. But the basic idea retained its appeal. By the summer of , the deteriorating political situation dictated the conclusions that Hamilton, Madison, and the other Annapolis commissioners now shared. Nevertheless, their decision to propose a general convention to meet in Philadelphia was risky.

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 an exertion of the untied 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.

Though your Commissioners could not with propriety address these observations and sentiments to any but the States they have the honor to represent, they have nevertheless concluded from motives of respect, to transmit copies of the Report to the United States in Congress assembled, and to the executives of the other States.

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A Landholder I. Pennsylvania elects 69 delegates. Centinel III. The other four of the 13 original states , Connecticut, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia, refused or chose not to take part. Though it was comparatively small and failed to accomplish its intended purpose, the Annapolis Convention was a major step leading to the creation of the U. Constitution and the current federal government system. After the end of the Revolutionary War in , the leaders of the new American nation took on the daunting job of creating a government capable of fairly and efficiently meeting what they knew would be an ever-growing list of public needs and demands.

This resulted in a series of localized tax rebellions, economic depressions, and problems with trade and commerce that the central government was unable to resolve, such as:. Under the Articles of Confederation, each state was free to enact and enforce its own laws regarding trade, leaving the federal government powerless to deal with trade disputes between different states or to regulate interstate commerce. Realizing that a more comprehensive approach to the powers of the central government was needed, the Virginia legislature, at the suggestion of future fourth President of the United States James Madison , called for a meeting of delegates from all of the existing thirteen states in September , in Annapolis, Maryland.

A total of only 12 delegates from just five states—New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia — actually attended the convention. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North Carolina had appointed commissioners who failed to arrive in Annapolis in time to attend, while Connecticut, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia chose not to participate at all. Delegates who attended the Annapolis Convention included:. On September 14, , the 12 delegates attending the Annapolis Convention unanimously approved a resolution recommending that Congress convene a broader constitutional convention to be held the following May in Philadelphia for the purpose of amending the weak Articles of Confederation to rectify a number of serious defects.

With only five of the thirteen states represented, the authority of the Annapolis Convention was limited. As a result, other than recommending the calling of a full constitutional convention, the delegates attending the delegates took no action on the issues that had brought them together.

The events of the Annapolis Convention also prompted eventual first President of the United States George Washington to add his plea for a stronger federal government. Thirteen Sovereignties pulling against each other and all tugging the federal head, will soon bring ruin on the whole. Eight months later, on May 25, , the Constitutional Convention convened and succeeded in creating the present U.

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