ure than his colleagues saw? On May 18, 1786,
he writes intimately to John Jay:

... We are certainly in a delicate situation; but my fear is that
the people are not yet sufficiently _misled_ to retract from
error. To be plainer, I think there is more wickedness than
ignorance mixed in our councils. Under this impression I scarcely
know what opinion to entertain of a general convention. That it
is necessary to revise and amend the Articles of Confederation, I
entertain no doubt; but what may be the consequences of such an
attempt is doubtful. Yet something must be done, or the fabric
must fall, for it certainly is tottering.

Ignorance and design are difficult to combat. Out of these proceed
illiberal sentiments, improper jealousies, and a train of evils
which oftentimes in republican governments must be sorely felt
before they can be removed. The former, that is ignorance, being
a fit soil for the latter to work in, tools are employed by them
which a generous mind would disdain to use; and which nothing but
time, and their own puerile or wicked productions, can show
the inefficacy and dangerous tendency of. I think often of our
situation, and view it with concern. From the high ground we stood
upon, from the plain path which invited our footsteps, to be so
fallen! so lost! it is really mortifying.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ford, xi, 31.]

One of the chief causes of the discontents which troubled the public
was the increasing number of persons who had been made debtors after
the war by the more and more pressing demands of their creditors.
These debtors knew nothing about economics; they only knew that
they were being crushed by persons more lucky than themselves. In
Massachusetts they broke out in actual rebellion named after the man
who led it, Daniel Shays. They were put down by the more or less
doubtful appeal to veterans of the National Army, but their ebullition
was not forgotten as a symptom of a very dangerous condition. In 1786
representatives from five States met in a convention at Annapolis
to consider the hard times and the troubles in trade. Washington,
Hamilton, and Madison were thought to be behind the convention, which
accomplished little, but made it clear that a large general convention
ought to meet and to discuss the way of securing a strong central
government. This convention was discussed during that summer and
autumn, and