198 JAMES MADISON 



the trouble to select commissioners. As the repre- 

 sentation was so inadequate, the convention thought 

 it best to defer action, and accordingly adjourned after 

 adopting an address to the states, which was pre- 

 pared by Alexander Hamilton. The address incorpo- 

 rated a suggestion from New Jersey, which indefinitely 

 enlarged the business to be treated by such a conven- 

 tion ; it was to deal not only with the regulation of 

 commerce, but with " other important matters." Act- 

 ing upon this cautious hint, the address recommended 

 the calling of a second convention, to be held at Phila- 

 delphia on the second Monday of May, 1787. Mr. 

 Madison was one of the commissioners at Annapolis, 

 and was very soon appointed a delegate to the new 

 convention, along with Washington, Randolph, Mason, 

 and others. The avowed purpose of the new con- 

 vention was to " devise such provisions as shall appear 

 necessary to render the Constitution of the federal 

 government adequate to the exigencies of the Union, 

 and to report to Congress such an act as, when agreed 

 to by them, and confirmed by the legislatures of every 

 state, would effectually provide for the same." The 

 report of the Annapolis commissioners was brought 

 before Congress in October, in the hope that Congress 

 would earnestly recommend to the several states the 

 course of action therein suggested. At first the objec- 

 tions to the plan prevailed in Congress, but the events 

 of the winter went far toward persuading men in all 

 parts of the country that the only hope of escaping 

 anarchy lay in a thorough revision of the imperfect 

 scheme of government under which we were then 

 living. The paper money craze in so many of the 

 states, the violent proceedings in the Rhode Island 



