In this document, it was declared that the regulation of trade, which had been made the object of the meeting at Annapolis, could not be effected alone, for the power of regulating commerce would enter so far into the general system of the federal government, that it would require a corresponding adjustment of the other parts of the system. That the system of the general government was seriously defective; that those defects were likely to be found greater on a close inspection; that they were the cause of the embarrassments which marked the state of public affairs, foreign and domestic; and that some mode by which they could be peaceably supplied was imperatively demanded by the public necessities,--were propositions which the country was then prepared to receive. A convention of deputies from the different States, for the special and sole purpose of investigating the defects of the national government, seemed to be the course entitled to preference over all others.[369] It was indeed the only method by which the object of the great statesman who drafted this report could have been reached. The Articles of Confederation had provided, that they should be inviolably observed by every State; that the Union should be perpetual; and that no alteration should be made in any of the Articles, unless agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and confirmed by the legislature of every State.[370] To have left the whole subject to the action of Congress would have insured, at most, only a change in some of the features of the existing government, instead of the great reform which Hamilton believed to be essential,--the substitution of a totally different system. At the same time, the coöperation and assent of Congress were necessary to the success of the plan of a convention, in order that it might not seem to be a violent departure from the provisions of the Articles of Confederation, and also for the sake of their influence with the States. The proposal of the report was therefore cautious. It did not suggest the summoning of a convention to frame a new constitution of government, but "to devise such further provisions as might appear to be necessary to render the constitution of the federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union." It proposed also, that whatever reform should be agreed on by the convention should be reported to Congress, and, when agreed to by them, should be confirmed by the _legislatures_ of all the States. In this manner, the proposal avoided any seeming violence to the Articles of Confederation, and suggested the convention as a body to prepare for the use of Congress a plan to be adopted by them for submission to the States.[371]