George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[570] the senate to take into consideration the state of

Chap. XXVIII.} 1782.

the nation. On his motion, it was agreed that the general government ought to have power to provide revenue for itself, and it was resolved ‘that the foregoing important ends can never be attained by partial deliberations of the states separately; but that it is essential to the common welfare that there should be as soon as possible a conference of the whole on the subject; and that it would be advisable for this purpose to propose to congress to recommend, and to each state to adopt, the measure of assembling a general convention of the states, specially authorized to revise and amend the confederation, reserving a right to the respective legislatures to ratify their determinations.’

These resolutions, proposed by Schuyler in the senate, were carried unanimously in both branches of the legislature; and Hamilton, who had drafted them, was elected almost without opposition one of the delegates of New York to congress. Robert Morris, who saw the transcendent importance of the act of the New York legislature, welcomed the young statesman to his new career in these words: ‘A firm, wise, manly system of federal government is what I once wished, what I now hope, what I dare not expect, but what I will not despair of.’

Hamilton of New York thus became the colleague of Madison of Virginia. The state papers which they two prepared were equal to the best in Europe of that time. Hamilton was excelled by Madison in wisdom, large, sound, roundabout sense and perception of what the country would grant; and in his turn surpassed his rival in versatility and creative power.