Annapolis Convention
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Search complete. 10 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Annapolis Convention".
Sep 29, 2026
Tom PriceHOST
Its weaknesses, including the national government's inability to regulate interstate commerce, led to calls for revisions and eventually the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Tom PriceHOST
He referenced the Annapolis Convention and Shays' Rebellion as contributing factors during 1786 and 1787 and discussed the Federalist Papers.
Tom PriceHOST
Much of the lecture, which was attended by about 30 people and watched on livestream by about 40 more, focused on key debates at the Constitutional Convention, particularly the question of representation.
Tom PriceHOST
Vial highlighted the Virginia and New Jersey plans and how they approached representation in the new government.
Seth DinkleHOST
At least initially, this was supposed to be about trade, not a convention to write a new constitution.
Seth DinkleHOST
Now, the Annapolis Convention of 1786 is one of those events that was, in the literal sense, a failure.
Seth DinkleHOST
But historically, it is important.
Seth DinkleHOST
The convention met from September 11th to September 14th of 1786, but only 12 delegates from five states showed up.
Seth DinkleHOST
With only five states represented, the delegates did not believe that they had sufficient authority or legitimacy to create a meaningful national commercial agreement, but the delegates concluded that commerce was connected to the much larger problems within the Articles Confederation.
Seth DinkleHOST
So you cannot simply fix trade without addressing other weaknesses in the current system.
Seth DinkleHOST
Both Madison and Hamilton did attend the Annapolis Convention, and they would play a major role in drafting the convention's final report.
Seth DinkleHOST
The report, commonly associated with Hamilton, recommended that all states send delegates to a new convention in Philadelphia in May of 1787.
Kristi NowakNARRATOR
The legislature approved the plan, but did not press it to a conclusion.
Kristi NowakNARRATOR
the annapolis convention action finally came from the south the virginia legislature taking things into its own hands called a conference of delegates at annapolis to consider matters of taxation and commerce when the convention assembled in seventeen eighty six it was found that only five states had taken the trouble to send representatives the leaders were deeply discouraged but the resourceful hamilton a delegate from new york turned the affair to good account he secured the adoption of a resolution calling upon the congress itself to summon another convention to meet at philadelphia a national convention called seventeen eighty seven the congress as tardy as ever at last decided in february seventeen eighty seven to issue the call fearing drastic changes however it restricted the convention to the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confederation jealous of its own powers it added that any alterations proposed should be referred to the congress and the states for their approval every state in the union except rhode island responded to this call indeed some of the states having the annapolis resolution before them had already anticipated the congress by selecting delegates before the formal summons came thus by the persistence of governors legislatures and private citizens there was brought about the long desired national convention in may seventeen eighty seven it assembled in philadelphia the eminent men of the convention on the roll of that memorable convention were fifty-five men at least half of whom were acknowledged to be among the foremost statesmen and thinkers in america every field of statecraft was represented by them war and practical management in washington who was chosen president of the convention diplomacy in franklin now old and full of honor in his own land as well as abroad finance in alexander hamilton and robert morris Law in James Wilson of Pennsylvania, the philosophy of government in James Madison, called the father of the Constitution.
Kristi NowakNARRATOR
They were not theorists, but practical men, rich in political experience and endowed with deep insight into the springs of human action.
Kristi NowakNARRATOR
Three of them had served in the Stamp Act Congress—Dickinson of Delaware, William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, and John Rutledge of South Carolina.
speaker_0HOST
They had no authority to decide anything, no power to bind anyone.
speaker_0HOST
By every normal standard, the Annapolis Convention was dead on arrival.
speaker_0HOST
A footnote, an embarrassment, one more small proof that the states could not even organize a meeting, let alone a government.
speaker_0HOST
And yet, out of that failure, maybe because of it, came the convention that produced the Constitution.
9 MINS LATER
speaker_0HOST
As a junior officer during the war watching the army starve while Congress dithered, he had concluded that the whole Confederate structure was rotten, and he had been saying so in letters and essays ever since.
speaker_0HOST
To Hamilton...
speaker_0HOST
The Annapolis Convention's failure was not a disaster, it was an opportunity.
speaker_0HOST
The opening he had been waiting years for, a convention that succeeded at its small commercial task would have produced a modest report and dispersed.
Tara RossGUEST
I think George Washington was really concerned about the Potomac and commerce up and down the Potomac.
Tara RossGUEST
And, you know, so they ended up, they had something called the Annapolis Convention, which was supposed to address economic concerns.
Tara RossGUEST
But what it ended up turning into was the call for another convention.
Tara RossGUEST
And that's the Constitutional Convention in 1787.