[3] Thus, for example, the regulation of commerce was not one of the original purposes for which the Union was formed in 1775 or in 1781. But it became one of the exigencies of the Union, by becoming a national want, and by the revealed incompetency of most of the States to deal with the subject so as to promote their own welfare, or to avoid injury to their confederates. So of a great many other things, for which we must resort, as the framers of the Constitution resorted, to the history of the times. [4] See the preamble to the act of Virginia, _ante_, Vol. I. p. 367, note. [5] See the Resolve of Congress, passed April 18, 1783, proposing to amend the Articles of Confederation. This Resolve was the origin of the proportion of three fifths, in counting the slaves. See _post_, Chapter II. p. 48; _ante_, Vol. I. p. 213, note 2. [6] Madison, Elliot, V. 96. [7] Ibid. 124. [8] Elliot, I. 126. [9] Ibid. 351. CHAPTER II. CONSTRUCTION OF A LEGISLATIVE POWER.--BASIS OF REPRESENTATION, AND RULE OF SUFFRAGE.--POWERS OF LEGISLATION. The Convention having been organized, Governor Randolph of Virginia[10] submitted a series of resolutions, embracing the principal changes that ought to be proposed in the structure of the federal system. Mr. Charles Pinckney of South Carolina also submitted a plan of government, which, with Governor Randolph's resolutions, was referred to a committee of the whole. It is not necessary here to state the details of these several systems; for although that introduced by Randolph gave a direction to the deliberations of the committee, the results arrived at were in some respects materially different. The first distinct departure that was made from the principles of the Confederation was involved in one of the propositions brought forward by Governor Randolph, "that a NATIONAL government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme legislative, executive, and judiciary"; and as this proposition was affirmed in the committee by a vote of six States, it is important to understand the sense in which it was understood by them.[11]