ccepted it.

It usually happens that some minor occurrence, almost unnoticed at the
time, leads directly to the most important consequences. And an incident
in domestic affairs started the chain of events in the United States
that ended in the reform of the Federal Government. The rivalry and
jealousy among the States had brought matters to such a pass that either
Congress must be vested with adequate powers or the Confederation must
collapse. But the Articles of Confederation provided no remedy, and it
had been found that amendments to that instrument could not be obtained.
It was necessary, therefore, to proceed in some extra-legal fashion.
The Articles of Confederation specifically forbade treaties or alliances
between the States unless approved by Congress. Yet Virginia and
Maryland, in 1785, had come to a working agreement regarding the use
of the Potomac River, which was the boundary line between them.
Commissioners representing both parties had met at Alexandria and soon
adjourned to Mount Vernon, where they not only reached an amicable
settlement of the immediate questions before them but also discussed the
larger subjects of duties and commercial matters in general. When
the Maryland legislature came to act on the report, it proposed that
Pennsylvania and Delaware should be invited to join with them in
formulating a common commercial policy. Virginia then went one step
farther and invited all the other States to send commissioners to a
general trade convention and later announced Annapolis as the place of
meeting and set the time for September, 1786.

This action was unconstitutional and was so recognized, for James
Madison notes that "from the Legislative Journals of Virginia it
appears, that a vote to apply for a sanction of Congress was followed
by a vote against a communication of the Compact to Congress," and he
mentions other similar violations of the central authority. That this
did not attract more attention was probably due to the public interest
being absorbed just at that time by the paper money agitation. Then,
too, the men concerned seem to have been willing to avoid publicity.
Their purposes are well brought out in a letter of Monsieur Louis Otto,
French Charge d'Affaires, written on October 10, 1786, to the Comte de
Vergennes, Minister for Foreign Affairs, though their motives may be
somewhat misinterpreted.

"Although there are no nobles in America, there is a class of men
denominated "gentle