A Merchant's Road to Annapolis, 1786

From the Journal of Elias Mercer, Merchant

1September 2, 1786, Hartford. I loaded my wagon with cheese, onions and a crate of tinware to sell along the road south. My brother Jonah came to see me off. He served six years in the Continental Army, and Congress paid him partly in paper certificates that promised payment later. But Congress cannot tax anyone; it can only ask the states for money, and many states send little. Last spring Jonah sold his certificates to a speculator for a small part of what they promised.

2September 6, New York City. Congress meets here in City Hall, but a clerk told me that on many days too few delegates come to do any business. At the docks, customs officers collected New York's duty on a cargo of English cloth. A Connecticut shopkeeper who buys that cloth will pass the tax on in his price, yet the money goes to New York. Sailors say British soldiers still hold forts on the Great Lakes, three years after the peace treaty promised to remove them, and Congress has no army to make them leave.

3September 8, New Brunswick, New Jersey. The innkeeper grumbled that most foreign goods reach New Jersey through the ports of New York and Philadelphia, so his neighbors pay import taxes to New York on one side and to Pennsylvania on the other.

4September 10, Philadelphia. I sold my cheese, but the buyer paid in Pennsylvania paper money, which merchants back home will take only at a loss. Each state prints its own money. At the coffeehouse, merchants were angry that Britain has closed its West Indies islands to American ships. "If Congress could shut our ports to British ships until Britain opened hers, London would listen," one said. "But Congress has no power over trade, and each state makes its own rules."

5September 14, Annapolis, Maryland. A meeting called to discuss trade between the states ended here today. Only twelve delegates from five states came, too few to act. Before leaving, they asked every state to send delegates to Philadelphia next May to make the national government strong enough for the country's needs. Among them were James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York.

6September 17, 1787, Philadelphia. A year later I am back in Philadelphia. Since May, delegates from twelve states have met behind closed doors at the State House. Today they signed their plan for a new constitution. It gives Congress the power to collect taxes and to regulate trade between the states and with other nations. It creates a president to carry out the laws and a system of national courts, and it forbids the states to print their own paper money.