"The inspiration given to the men of the age when our constitution was framed, was a wonder to the world. No nation had ever attempted by a written paper to provide a fundamental basis for government to last for all time and to provide for every emergency which might arise. The British Constitution, which had been the maternal chart of government before the Revolution, was a collective name for the principles of public policy on which the government of the United Kingdom was based. It was not formulated in any document, but the gradual development of the political intelligence of the English people, resulting from concessions from the Crown, successive revolutions, numerous enactments of Parliament and from the established principles of the common law. But here in this new country, by young men, born in the territory around Fredericksburg, was inaugurated a departure from the traditions of our ancestors to govern by a written fundamental law, a nation, whose progress thereunder has been phenomenal and has been, and will ever be, a continuing cause of astonishment to the civilized world. "As has been stated in this chapter, the Constitution of Virginia, of 1777, drawn by George Mason, was the first written constitution. Subsequently, the several colonies that revolted against Great Britain, entered into written articles of confederation for the common defense and for government in time of war, but when the independence of the United States had been recognized by Great Britain, these articles of confederation were found totally inadequate for the powers of government. "The power of making war, peace and treaties, of levying money and regulating commerce and the corresponding judicial and executive authorities, were not fully and effectually vested in the Federal Union; so it became necessary that the freed colonies should either become weak, independent sovereignties, or should be bound together by stronger obligations, and, that for the general welfare, the separate sovereignties should surrender certain rights and powers to central control. With a view to this object, on the 21st day of January, 1786, a resolution passed the Legislature of Virginia for the appointment of five commissioners, any three of whom might act, to meet similar commissioners from other States of the Union; and, under this resolution, the commissioners appointed fixed the first meeting in September following as the time, and the city of Annapolis, Maryland, as the place of meeting.