Il8 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



vention met in September, 1786, only five states were 

 represented, so that the only thing worth while to do 

 was to try again and call another convention. It was 

 Hamilton who wrote the address calling for a conven- 

 tion at Philadelphia, to meet in the following May, to 

 consider the best means of clothing the federal gov- 

 ernment with powers adequate for the maintenance of 

 order and the preservation of the Union. It was high 

 time for such work to be undertaken, for the whole 

 country was falling under the sway of the lord of mis- 

 rule. Congress was bankrupt, foreign nations were 

 scoffing at us, Connecticut had barely escaped from war 

 with Pennsylvania and New York from New Hamp- 

 shire, there were riots and bloodshed in Vermont, 

 Rhode Island seemed on the verge of civil war, Mas- 

 sachusetts was actually engaged in suppressing armed 

 rebellion, Connecticut and New Jersey were threat- 

 ening commercial non-intercourse with New York. 

 Spain was defying us at the mouth of tne Mississippi, 

 and a party in Virginia was entertaining the idea of a 

 separate Southern confederacy. Under such circum- 

 stances it was necessary to act quickly, and it was 

 Hamilton's business to see that New York was repre- 

 sented in the convention. To that end he succeeded 

 in getting elected to the legislature, and spent the win- 

 ter in a hard fight against the party that was opposed 

 to a clear union of the states. That party was very 

 strong. At its head was the governor, George Clinton, 

 who preferred to remain the most powerful citizen of 

 New York rather than occupy a subordinate place 

 under a national government in which his own state 

 was not foremost. The policy of local high tariffs 

 directed against the neighbouring states had been 



