the continental taxes in the State of New
York, with the understanding that his exertions were to be employed in
impressing upon the Legislature the wants and objects of the Government.
In pursuance of this, he urged resolutions which were unanimously
adopted in July, 1782, recommending the call of a convention for the
purpose of revising and amending the Articles of Confederation. He was
also elected by the Legislature of this year a member of Congress. He
bore an active part in its debates, and was greatly employed in its
important financial measures.

On the final departure of the British from New York, in 1783, Hamilton
became a resident of the city with his family, and devoted himself
assiduously to the practice of his profession. He was constantly,
however, looked to as a public man. We find him, in 1784, appealing to
the public under the signature of Phocion, in favor of more liberal and
enlightened views in regard to the loyalists of the late Revolution, and
their rights of property. In 1786 he is a member of the State Assembly,
and in September of the same year among the delegates of the five States
which, at the instance of Virginia, met at Annapolis to confer on the
commercial interests of the country; a too limited representation,
indeed, to achieve the objects in view, but the precursor of the great
Federal Convention at Philadelphia of the following year.

We have seen Hamilton's early studies of the theoretical workings of
government. His practical experience, in the army of Washington, of the
imperfections of Congress and the defects of the old confederation, was
not likely to let him forget the subject. Authority in government, rules
in legislation, financial measures, taxes, loans, and a bank, were
topics constantly before his mind. The Convention of 1787 gave him, at
length, the wished-for opportunity to enter upon a full discussion of
his plans in a cause and before an audience worthy of his powers.
Washington was the presiding officer, Franklin was in attendance; it was
a congregation of notables--Rufus King, Oliver Ellsworth, Roger Sherman,
William Livingston, Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, John Dickinson,
Luther Martin, James Madison, George Wythe, John Rutledge, and others as
worthy. Much has been said of Hamilton's course in this Convention, and
of his advocacy of monarchical views. It is true that a plan of
government which he supported in a speech of length and eloquence,
provided several