Page:Republican Court by Rufus Griswold.djvu/61

wise and all-powerful within itself, will, if there be not a change in the system, be our downfall as a nation. ... I think we have opposed Great Britain, and have arrived at the present state of peace and independency, to very little purpose, if we cannot conquer our own prejudices." In 1786, that able and eminently pure man, John Jay, thus expressed himself: "Our affairs seem to lead to some crisis, some revolution, something that I cannot foresee or conjecture. I am uneasy and apprehensive, more so than during the war. Then we had a fixed object, and though the means and time of obtaining it were often problematical, yet I did firmly believe that justice was with us. The case is now altered. We are going and doing wrong, and, therefore I look forward to evils and calamities, but without being able to guess at the instrument, nature, or measure of them." Still, his trust in Providence made Mr. Jay hopeful for his country. "That we shall again recover," he says, "and things again go well, I have no doubt. Such a variety of circumstances would not, almost miraculously, have combined to liberate and make us a nation, for transient and unimportant pm'poses. I therefore believe we are yet to become a great and respectable people ; but when, and how, only the spirit of prophecy can discern."

While the clouds thus thickened in the political atmosphere, a gleam of light began to break through the darkness. It came from Virginia, in the shape of a proposal, which her position and her patriotism alike entitled her to make. In 1786 she appointed a number of gentlemen to meet such commissioners as might be appointed by other states, to consider the subject of the trade and commerce of the confederacy, and adopt some uniform system which would tend to the common interest and permanent harmony of all the states. Soon after her proposal, commissioners met at Annapolis, from Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Delegates had also been appointed by New