The advocates of that project recoiled, therefore, from the dangers which they had unwittingly created. They saw, that the crisis required that harmony and confidence should be studiously cherished, now that the great enterprise of remodelling the government upon a firmer basis was to be attempted. They saw that no new powers could be obtained for the Federal Constitution, if the government then existing were to burden itself with an act so certain to be the source of dissension, and so likely to cause a dismemberment of the Confederacy, as the closing of the Mississippi. Like wise and prudent men, therefore, they availed themselves of the expected and probable formation of a new government, as a fit occasion for disposing of this question; and after an effort to quiet the apprehensions that had been aroused, the whole matter was postponed, by general consent, to await the action of the great Convention of May, 1787.[349] After the Constitution had been formed and adopted, the negotiation was formally referred to the new federal government which was about to be organized, in March, 1789, with a declaration of the opinion of Congress that the free navigation of the river Mississippi was a clear and essential right of the United States, and ought to be so considered and supported.[350] FOOTNOTES: [298] October 15, 1777. Secret Journals, I. 328. [299] Ibid. [300] See the account of the adoption of the Confederation, ante, pp. 131-141. [301] Ante, pp. 131-136. [302] October 30, 1779. Journals, V. 401, 402. [303] September 6, 1780. [304] February 19, 1780. [305] October 10, 1780. [306] The Federalist. [307] Ibid. [308] June 20, 1783. [309] September 13, 1783.