Living through those old days, immediately after the peace with England of 1783, we find that public and official recognition of a fatal defect in the _federal_ form of union came from the inability of its _federal_ government, which had no power over commerce, to establish a uniform regulation of trade among the thirteen American nations themselves and between them and foreign nations. Discerning men, such as Madison and Washington and others, already recognized other incurable defects in any form of union which was solely a union of nations and not a union of the American people themselves, in one nation, with a government which should have _national_, as well as _federal_, powers. Taking advantage of the general recognition that some central power over commerce was needed, the legislature of the nation of Virginia appointed James Madison, Edmund Randolph and others, as commissioners to meet similar commissioners to be appointed by the twelve other nations. The instructions to these commissioners were to examine into the trade situation and report to their respective nations as to how far a uniform system of commerce regulations was necessary. The meeting of these commissioners was at Annapolis in September, 1786. Only commissioners from the nations of Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York attended. The other eight nations were not represented. Madison and Hamilton were both present at Annapolis and figured largely in what was done there. It is an interesting and important fact that these two played a large part from its very inception in the peaceful Revolution which brought to an end the independent existence of thirteen nations--a Revolution which subordinated these nations, their respective national governments, and their federation to a new nation of the whole American People, and to the Constitution and the government of that new nation. At every stage of _that_ Revolution, these two men were among its foremost leaders. Recorded history has made it plain that Madison, more than any other man in America, participated in planning what was accomplished in that Revolution. He drafted the substance of most of the Articles in what later became the Constitution of the new nation. By the famous essays (nearly all of which were written by himself or Hamilton) in _The Federalist_, explaining and showing the necessity of each of those Articles, he contributed most effectively to their making by the people of America, assembled in their conventions. He actually drew, probably in conference with Hamilton, what we know as the Fifth Article, which will later herein be largely the subject of our exclusive interest.