e foreign or interstate
commerce. Legislation in this field, subject to unimportant exceptions,
was left to the individual States. Disputes between States with common
interests in the navigation of certain rivers and bays were inevitable.
Discriminatory regulations were followed by reprisals.

Virginia, recognizing the need for an agreement with Maryland respecting
the navigation and jurisdiction of the Potomac River, appointed in June
1784, four commissioners to "frame such liberal and equitable
regulations concerning the said river as may be mutually advantageous to
the two States." Maryland in January 1785 responded to the Virginia
resolution by appointing a like number of commissioners[e] "for the
purpose of settling the navigation and jurisdiction over that part of
the bay of Chesapeake which lies within the limits of Virginia, and over
the rivers Potomac and Pocomoke" with full power on behalf of Maryland
"to adjudge and settle the jurisdiction to be exercised by the said
States, respectively, over the waters and navigations of the same."[f]

At the invitation of Washington the commissioners met at Mount Vernon,
in March 1785, and drafted a compact which, in many of its details
relative to the navigation and jurisdiction of the Potomac, is still in
force.[g] What is more important, the commissioners submitted to their
respective States a report in favor of a convention of all the States
"to take into consideration the trade and commerce" of the
Confederation. Virginia, in January 1786, advocated such a convention,
authorizing its commissioners to meet with those of other States, at a
time and place to be agreed on, "to take into consideration the trade of
the United States; to examine the relative situations and trade of the
said States; to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial
regulations may be necessary to their common interest and their
permanent harmony; and to report to the several States, such an act
relative to this great object, as when unanimously ratified by them,
will enable the United States in Congress, effectually to provide for
the same."[h]

This proposal for a general trade convention seemingly met with general
approval; nine States appointed commissioners. Under the leadership of
the Virginia delegation, which included Randolph and Madison, Annapolis
was accepted as the place and the first Monday in September 1786 as the
time for the convention. The attendance at Annapolis prov