Some critics of the Articles of Confederation formed a reform movement in the late 1700s to improve the government. Of these reformers, some only wanted to make changes in the Articles of Confederation. Others, however, wanted to completely overhaul the Articles.
Despite these different approaches, reform-minded Americans shared a common belief. They thought that a stronger central government would be more effective in maintaining order and in developing policies that benefited the United States. They also believed that giving the national government control over interstate and foreign trade would result in prosperity. These goals—peace and prosperity—were powerful motives for change.
Some of these reformers began to work for a change in government soon after the Articles of Confederation were ratified. Friends and colleagues exchanged letters, expressing their concerns and searching for solutions. “I find also the pride of independence taking deep and dangerous hold on the hearts of individual states,” Thomas Jefferson wrote to another Virginia leader. “I know no danger so dreadful and so probable as that of internal contests,” he continued. “And I know no remedy so likely to prevent it [state arguments] as the strengthening of the band which connects us.”
While letters were exchanged, some people began to hold conferences to discuss the issues in person. One such gathering was the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785. Delegates from Maryland and Virginia met at George Washington’s home to settle differences over navigation rights on their common border, the Potomac River.
The success of the Mount Vernon Conference encouraged other attempts to settle state differences. Delegates from five states met at Annapolis, Maryland, in September 1786 to discuss the larger problem of interstate trade. One of the delegates at Annapolis was Alexander Hamilton of New York, a young lawyer who had served on General Washington’s staff during the American Revolution.
Since so few states were represented at the Annapolis Convention, Hamilton suggested that the delegates call another meeting, of all the states, to consider revising the Articles of Confederation. Like others involved in the reform movement, Hamilton said he wanted to “render [make] the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies [needs] of the Union.” The delegates at Annapolis agreed to try for another meeting. The meeting took place in the spring of 1787, when representatives from 12 of the 13 states met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This meeting was the famous Constitutional Convention.
