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THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF
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I 783-I 789

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"N

JOHN FISKE

M I am uneasy and apprehensive, more so than during the war."
Jay to Washington, June 27, 1786.

BOSTON AND NSW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
(Cftc laitiers'i&c $rc*J& Cairibri&oe
iSSS

VALE

Copyright, 1888,
Br. JOHN FISKB.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge ;
Eleotrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Hougaton & Co.

^

To
MY DEAR CLASSMATES,
FRANCIS LEE HIGGINSON
AND
CHARLES CABOT JACKSON,
I DEDICATE WIS BOOK.

PKEFACE.

This book contains the substance of the course
of lectures given in the Old South Meeting-House
in Boston in December, 1884, at the Washington
University in St. Louis in May, 1885, and in the
theatre of the University Club in New York in
March, 1886. In its present shape it may serve
as a sketch of the political history of the United
States from the end of the Revolutionary War to
the adoption of the Federal Constitution. It makes
no pretensions to completeness, either as a summary
of the events of that period or as a discussion of
the political questions involved in them. I have
aimed especially at grouping facts in such a way as
to bring out and emphasize . their causal sequence,
and it is accordingly hoped that the book may prove
useful to the student of American history.
My^title was suggested by the fact of Thomas
Paine's stopping the publication of the "Crisis,"
on hearing the news of the treaty of 1783, with the
remark, "The times that tried men's souls are
over." Commenting upon this, on page 55 of the
present work, I observed that so far from the crisis
being over in 1783, the next five years were to be

vi PREFACE.
the most critical time of all. I had not then seen
Mr. Trescot's " Diplomatic History of the Admin
istrations of Washington and Adams," on page 9
of which he uses almost the same words : "It must
not be supposed that the treaty of peace secured
the national life. Indeed, it would be more correct
to say that the most critical period of tho country's
history embraced the time between 1783 and the
adoption of the Constitution in 1788."
That period was preeminently the turning-point
in the development of political society in the west
ern hemisphere. Though small in their mere di
mensions, the events here summarized were in a re
markable degree germinal events, fraught with
more tremendous alternatives of future welfare or
misery for mankind than it is easy for the imagina
tion to grasp. As we now stand upon the thresh
old of that mighty future, in the light of which all
events of the past are clearly destined to seem
dwindled in dimensions and significant only in the
ratio of their potency as causes ; as we discern how
large a part of that future must be the outcome of
the creative work, for good or ill, of men of Eng
lish speech ; we are put into the proper mood for
estimating the significance of the causes which de
termined a century ago that the continent of North
America should be dominated by a single powerful
and pacific federal nation instead of being par
celled out among forty or fifty small communities,
wasting their strength and lowering their moral

PREFACE.

vu

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tone by perpetual warfare, like the states of an
cient Greece, or by perpetual preparation for war
fare, like the nations of modern Europe. In my
book entitled "American Political Ideas, viewed
from the Standpoint of Universal History," I have
tried to indicate the pacific influence likely to be
exerted upon the world by the creation and main
tenance of such a political structure as our Fed
eral Union. The present narrative may serve as
a commentary upon what I had in mind on page
133 of that book, in speaking of the work of our
Federal Convention as "the finest specimen of
constructive statesmanship that the world has ever
seen." On such a point it is pleasant to find one's
self in accord with a statesman so wise and noble
as Mr. Gladstone, whose opinion is here quoted on
page 223.
To some persons it may seem as if the years
1861-65 were of more cardinal importance than
the years 1783-89. Our civil war was indeed an
event of prodigious magnitude, as measured by any
standard that history affords; and there can be
little doubt as to its decisiveness. The measure of
that decisiveness is to be found in the completeness
of the reconciliation that has already, despite the
feeble wails of unscrupulous place-hunters and un-
teachable bigots, cemented the Federal Union so
powerfully that all likelihood of its disruption
may be said to have disappeared forever. When
we consider this wonderful harmony which so soon

Vlll

PREFACE.

has followed the deadly struggle, we may well be
lieve it to be the index of such a stride toward tho
ultimate pacification of mankind as was never
made before. But it was the work done in the
years 1783-89 that created a federal nation capa
ble of enduring the storm and stress of the years
1861-65. It was in the earlier crisis that the pliant
twig was bent ; and as it was bent, so has it grown ;
until it has become indeed a goodly and a sturdy
tree. Cambridge, October 10, 1888.

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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
KESTTLTS OF YOBKTOTVN. pAOB
Fall of Lord North's ministry  1
Sympathy between British Whigs and the revolutionary
party in America ........ 2
34
5,6
7,8
9-11 12
131415101718
19
20
2122

It weakened the Whig party in England .
Charaetor of Lord Shelburne ....
Political instability of the Rockingham ministry
, Obstacles in the way of a treaty of peace .
Oswald talks with Franldin ....
Grenville has an interview with Vergennes .
Effects of Rodney's victory ....
Misunderstanding between Fox and Shelburne .
Fall of the Rockingham ministry . . .
Shelburne becomes prime minister
Defeat of the Spaniards and French at Gibraltar
French polioy opposed to American interests
The valley of the Mississippi; Aranda's prophecy
The Newfoundland fisheries ....
Jay detects the schemes of Vergennes
And sends Dr. Vaughan to visit Shelburne ....
John Adams arrives in Paris and joins with Jay in insisting
upon a separate negotiation with England . . 23, 24
The separate American treaty, as agreed upon :
1. Boundaries 
2. Fisheries ; commercial intercourse
3. Private debts 
4. Compensation of loyalists
Secret article relating to the Yazoo boundary
Vergennes does not like the way in which it has been done 33
On the part of the Americans it was a great diplomatic
Tiotory . -  34

25 2027
28-32 33

x CONTENTS.
Which the commissioners won by disregarding tho instruc
tions of Congress and acting on their own responsibility 35
Tho Spanish treaty  36*
The French treaty  3"
Coalition of Fox with North  88-42
They attack the American treaty in Parliament . . 43
And compel Shelburne to resign  44
Which leaves England without a government, while for
several weeks the king is too angry to appoint ministers 44
Until at length he succumbs to the coalition, which pres
ently adopta and ratifies the American treaty . . 45
The coalition ministry is wrecked upon Fox's India BUI 46
Constitutional crisis ends in the overwhelming victory of
Pitt in the elections of May, 1784 ..... 47
And this, although apparently a triumph for the king, waa
really a death-blow to his system of personal govern
ment  48,49
s CHAPTER H.

THE THTBTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.

50 5152 5354

Cessation of hostilities in Amerioa 
Departure of tho British troops 
Washington resigns his command .....
And goes home to Mount Vernon .....
His " legacy " tb tke American people ....
The next five yeajs rwere the most critical years in Amer
ican history . ^ . • ¦ • ' •
Absence of a sentiment of union, and consequent danger of
anarchy • I .• ' * " * * ' , '
European statesmen, Whether hostile or friendly, had little
faith in the stability of the Union ....
False historic analogies . /io"'e . . • • •
Influence of railroad and telegraph upon the perpetuity of -
the Union . , . < • ¦ • • •
Difficulty of travelling a hundred years ago . . .
Local jealousies and antipathies, an inheritance from prime
val savagery ... . ¦ - ¦ _ • . 62, 63
Conservative character of the American Revolution . . 64
State governments remodelled ; assemblies continued from
colonial times . ¦' 
Origin of the senates in the governor's council of assistants 66
Governors viewed with suspicion '". '. '• • • «'

55 57 58 59
60 61

''}, *

CONTENTS. xi
Analogies with British institutions . • . . .68
Tho judiciary  69
Restrictions upon suffrage ....... 70
Abolition of primogeniture, entails, and manorial privileges 71
Steps toward the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade 72-75
Progress tofrard religious freedom . . . . . 76, 77
Church and state in Virginia  78, 79
Persecution1 of dissenters ...... 80
Madison and tho Religious Freedom Act .... 81
Temporary overthrow of the church .... 82
Difficulties in regard to ordination; the case of Mason
Weems  83
Ordination of Samuel Seabury by non-jurors at Aberdeen . 84
Francis Asbury and the Methodists .... 85
Presbyterians and Congregationalists ..... 86
Roman Catholics  87
Except in the instance of slavery, all tho changes doscribed
in tills chapter were favourable to tho union of the
states^ ..  88
But while the state governments, in all these changes, are
seen working smoothly, we have next to observe, hy
contrast, the clumsiness and inefficiency of the federal
government  89
i CHAPTER III.
THE LEAGUE OF FKTENDSHIP.
The several states have never enjoyed complete sovereignty 90
But in the very act of sevoring their connection with Great
Britain, thoy entered into some sort of union . . 91
Anomalous character of the Continental Congress . . 92
The articles of confederation ; they sought to establish a
" league of friendship " between the states . . 93-97
But failed t6 create a federal government endowed with
real sovereignty  98-100
Military weakness of the government . . . 101-103
Extreme difficulty of obtaining a revenue . . . 104, 105
Congress, being unable to pay tho army, was afraid of it . 106
Supposed scheme for making Washington king . . . 107
Greene's experience in South Carolina .... 108
Gates's staff officers and the Newburgh address . . . 109
The danger averted by Washington . . . 110, 111
Congress driven from Philadelphia by mutinous soldiers . 112

Xll

CONTENTS.

Tho Commutation Act denonncod in Now England
Order of the Cincinnati 
Reasons for the dread which it inspired

Congress finds itself unable to carry out the provisions of

113
114-117 118

119
120, 121 122
. 123
124-120
127, 128
129, 130

the treaty -with. Great Britain
Persecution of the loyalists 
It was especially severe in New York
Trespass Act of 1784 directed against the loyalists
Character and early careor of Alexander Hamilton
The case of Rutgers v. Waddington .
Wholesale emigration of Tories
Congress unable to enforce payment of debts to British
creditors  131
England retaliates by refusing to surrender the fortresses
on the northwestern frontier .... 132, 133
CHAPTER IV.
DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
The barbarous superstitions of the Middle Ages concerning
trade wero still rife in the eighteenth century . . 134
The old theory of the uses of a colony .... 135
Pitt's unsuccessful attempt to secure free trade between
Great Britain and the United States .... 136
Ship-building in New England  137
British navigation acts and orders in council directed against
American commerce ....... 138
John Adams tried in vain to negotiate a commercial treaty
with Great Britain ...... 139, 140
And could see no escape from the difficulties except in sys
tematic reprisal . . ¦ • • • • • "l
But any such reprisal was impracticable, for the several
states imposed conflicting duties ..... 142
Attempts to givo Congress the power of regulating com
merce were unsuccessful ..... 143, 144
And the several states began to make commercial war upon
one another  145
Attempts of New York to oppress New Jersey and Con
necticut • \  146
Retaliatory measures of the two latter states . . . 147
The quarrel between Connecticut and Pennsylvania over the
possession of tho; valley of Wyoming . . . 148-150

rr

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CONTENTS. xin
The quarrel between Now York and Now Hampshire over
the possession of the Green Mountains . ¦ 151-153
Failure of American diplomacy because European states
could not tell whether they were dealing with one nation
or with thirteen  • 154> 155
Failure of American credit j John Adams begging in Hol
land  156-157
The Barbary pirates ....•••• 158
American citizens kidnapped and sold into slavery . . 159
Lord Sheffield's outrageous pamphlet .... 160
Tripoli's demand for blackmail  161
Congress unable to protect American citizens ... 162
Financial distress after the Revolutionary War . . 163, 164
State of the coinage  lfi5
Cost of the war in money  168
Robert Morris and his immense services .... 167
The craze for paper money  1°8
Agitation in the southern and middle states . . 169-171
Distress in Now England  lj[2
Imprisonment for debt  • -1 '"
Bair-money victorious in Rhode Island; the "Know Ye"
measures  ^4-176
Ra---money defeated in Massachusetts ; the Shays insurrec
tion  i""181
The insurrection suppressed by state troops . . • 182
Conduct of the neighbouring states  *83
Tho rebels pardoned  384:
Timidity of Congress  185, 180
CHAPTER V.
GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
Creation of a national domain beyond the Alleghanies 187, 188
Conflicting claims to the western territory ... 189
Claims of Massachusetts and Connecticut . . . 189, 190
Claims of New York  190
Virginia's claims  ll^
Maryland's novel and beneficent suggestion ... 192
The several states yield their claims in favour of the United
States - ._  193.194
Magnanimity of Virginia  1J5
Jefferson proposes a scheme of government for tho north
western territory  I03

xiv CONTENTS.
Names of the proposed ton stateB  197
Jefferson wishes to prohibit slavery in the national domain 198
North Carolina's cossiou of western lands ... 109
John Sevier and the state of Franklin .... 200, 201
Tho northwestern territory  202
Origin of the Ohio company  203
The Ordinance of 1787  204-206
Theory of folk-land upon which the ordinance was based , 20 1
Spain, hearing of the secret article in the treaty of 1783,
loses her temper and threatens to shut up the Missis-
sippiRi-  ^,209
Gardoqui and Jay  *f j"
Threats of secession in Kentucky and New England^ . 211
Washington's views on the political importance of canals
between east and west  212
His far-sighted genius and self-devotion .... 213
Maryland confers with Virginia regarding the navigation of
tho Potoiuao  2
The Madison-Tyler motion in the Virginia legislature . 21o
Convention at Annapolis, Sept. 11, 1786 . . • • 216
Hamilton's address calling for a convention at Philadelphia 217
The impost amendment defeated by the action of New
York ; last ounce upon the camel's back . . 218-220
Suddon changes in popular sentiment . . . • • 221
The Federal Convention meets at Philadelphia, May, 1787 222
Mr. Gladstone's opinion of the work of the convention . 223
The men who were assembled there . . • 224, 22o
Character of James Madison  226> 227
The other leading members  *8
Washington chosen president of the convention . . . ^J
CHAPTER VI.
THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.
Why the proceedings of the convention were kept secret for
so many years 
Difficulty of the problem to be solved .
Symptoms of cowardice repressed by Washington's impas- ^
sioned speech  ¦ • *
The root of all the difficulties; the edicts of the federal
government had operated only upon states, not upon
individuals, and therefore could not be enforced with-
out danger ot war ...•••

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CONTENTS. xv
Tho Virginia plan, of which Madison was the chief author,
offered a radical cure \.  238
And was felt to be revolutionary irt its character . 237-239
Fundamental features of the Virginia plan . . 240, 241
How it was at first received  242
The House of Representatives must be directly elected by
the people  • • -243
Question as to the representation of states brings out the
antagonism between large and small states . . . 244
William Paterson presents tho New Jersey plan; not a
radical cure, but a feeble palliative .... 245
Struggle between the Virginia and New Jersey plans . 246-249
The Connecticut compromise, according to which the na
tional principle is to prevail in the House of Repre
sentatives, and the federal principle in the Senate,
meets at first with fierce opposition . . . 250, 251
But is at length adopted  2''2
And proves a decisive victory for Madison and his methods 253
A few irreconcilable members go home iu dudgeon . . 254
But the small states, having boon propitiated, are suddenly
converted to Federalism, and make tho victory complete 255
Vague dread of the future west  • 255
The struggle between prowdavery and anti-slavery parties
began in the convention, and was quieted by two com
promises  •"*'
Should representation be proportioned to wealth or to popu
lation?  257
Were slaves to be reckoned as persons or as chattels ? . 258
Attitude of the Virginia statesmen  259
It was absolutely necessary to satisfy South Carolina . . 200
The three fifths compromise, suggested by Madison, was a
genuine English solution, if ever there was one . . 261
There was neither rhyme nor reason in it, but for all that,
it was the best solution attainable at the time . . 262
The next compromise was between Now England and South
Carolina as to tho foreign slave-trade and the power of
the federal government over commerce . . . 263
George Mason calls the slave-trade an " infernal traffic " . 204
And tho compromise offends and alarms Virginia . . 265
Belief in the moribund condition of slavery . . • 206
The foundations of the Constitution were laid in compromise 267
Powers granted to the federal government .... 268
Use of federal troops in suppressing insurrections . . 209

XVI

CONTENTS.

Various federal powers  • . 270
Provision for a federal city under federal jurisdiction . 271
The Federal Congress might compel the attendance of mem
bers 
Powers denied to the several states 
Should the federal government bo allowed to make its
promissory notes a legal tender in payment of debts ?
powerful speech of Gouverneur Morris
Emphatic and unmistakable condemnation of paper money
by all the leading delegates .....
The convention refused to grant to the federal government
the power of issuing inconvertible paper, but did not
think an express prohibition necessary ....
If they could have foreseen some recent judgments of the
supreme court, they would doubtless have made the
prohibition explicit and absolute ....
Debates as to the federal executive .....
Sherman's suggestion as to the true relation of the execu
tive to the legislature .......
There was to be a single chief magistrate, but how should
he be chosen ? . • . • • • • .2(9
Objections to an election by Congress .... 280
Ellsworth and King suggest the device of an electoral col
lege, which is at first rejected .....
But afterwards adopted 
Provisions for an election by Congress in the case of a failure
of choice by tho electoral college .....
Provisions for counting the electoral votes
It was not intended to leave anything to be decided by the
president of tho Senate 
The convention foresaw imaginary dangers, but not the real

272 272

273

274

275

276277278

281 282 283
284 285

236 2S7288

Hamilton's opinion of the electoral scheme ...
How it has actually worked 
In this part of its work the convention tried to copy from
the British Constitution  289
In which they supposed the legislative and executive de
partments to be distinct and separate '. 200
Here they were misled by Montesquieu and Blackstone . 291
What our government would be if it were really like that
of Great Britain ...... 292-294
In the British government the executive department is not
separated from the legislative  295

I
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CONTENTS.

xvn

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Circumstances which obscured the true aspect of the case a
century ago ...•••• 296-298
The American cabinet is analogous, not to the British cabi
net, but to the privy council .... 299
The federal judiciary, and its remarkable character . 300-301
Provisions for amending the Constitution . . . 302
The document is signed by all but three of tho delegates . 303
And the convention breaks up  304
With a pleasant remark from Franklin .... 305
CHAPTER VII.
CROWNING THE WORK.
Franklin lays the Constitution befoTe the legislature of
Pennsylvania ......... 306
It is submitted to Congress, which refers it to the legisla
tures of the thirteen states, to be ratified or rejected by
tho peoplo in conventions ...... 307
First American parties, Federalists and Antifederalists 308, 309
The contest in Pennsylvania  310
How to make a quorum ....... 311
A war of pamphlets and newspaper squibs . . 312, 313
Ending in the ratification of the Constitution by Delaware,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey  314
Rejoicings and mutterings ....... 315
Georgia and Connecticut ratify  316
The outlook in Massachusetts  317, 318
The Massachusetts convention meets .... 819
And overhauls the Constitution clause by clause . . . 320
On the subject of an army Mr. Nason waxes eloquent . 321
The clergymen oppose a religious test ..... 322
And Rev. Samuel West argues on the assumption that all
men are not totally depraved ..... 323
Feeling of distrust in the mountain districts . . . 324
Timely speech of a Berkshire farmer .... 825, 326
Attitude of Samuel Adams ..... 326, 827
Meeting of mechanics at the Green Dragon .... 327
Charges of bribery  328
Washington's fruitful suggestion  329
Massachusetts ratifies, but proposes amendments . . . 330
The Long Lane has a turning and becomes Federal Street . 331
New Hampshire hesitates, but Maryland ratifies, and all
eyos are turned upon South Carolina .... 332

XVU1

CONTENTS.

Objections of Rawlins Lowndes answered by Cotesworth
Pinckney  333
¦South Carolina ratifies the Constitution .... 334
Important effect upon Virginia, where thoughts of a south
ern confederacy had been entertained . , 335, 336
Madison and Marshall prevail in the Virginia convention,
and it ratifies the Constitution ..... 337
New Hampshire had ratified four days before . . . 338
Rejoicings at Philadelphia ; riots at Piovidenoe and Albany 839
The struggle in New York  340
Origin of the " Federalist "  341-343
Hamilton wins the victory, and New York ratifies . . 344
All serious anxiety is now at an end ; the laggard states,
North Carolina and Rhode Island ..... 345
First presidential election, January 7, 1789 ; Washington is
unanimously chosen . ...... 846
Why Samuel Adams was not selected for vice-president . 347
Selection of John Adams ....... 348
Washington's journey to New York, April 16-23 . . 349
His inauguration  350

T

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THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF AMERI
CAN HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

The 20th of March, 1782, the day which wit
nessed the fall of Lord North's ministry, was a
day of good omen for men of English race on both
sides of the Atlantic. Within two years from this
time, the treaty which established the independence
of the United States was successfully negotiated at
Paris ; and at the same time, as part of the series
of events which resulted in the treaty, there went
on in England a rapid dissolution and reorganiza
tion of parties, which ended in the overwhelming
defeat of the king's attempt to make the forms of
the constitution subservient to his selfish purposes,
and established the liberty of the people upon a
broader and sounder basis than it had ever occu
pied before. Great indignation was expressed at
the time, and has sometimes been echoed by Brit
ish historians, over the conduct of those Whigs
who never lost an opportunity of expressing their
approval of the American revolt. The Duke of
Richmond, at the beginning of the contest, ex-

2 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.
pressed a hope that the Americans might succeed,
L, . because they wore in the right. Charles
Sympathy be- J °
tweon Britiah ;jjox Sp0ke 0f General Howe 3 first vic-
Wbjgs and the *
rMtluul0Kr- tolT as " ^Q terrible news from Long
lca* Island." Wraxall says that the cele
brated buff and blue colours of the Whig party
were adopted by Fox in imitation of the Conti
nental uniform ; but his unsupported statement is
open to question. It is certain, however, that in
the House of Commons the Whigs habitually al
luded to Washington's army as " our army," and
to the American cause as " the cause of liberty ; "
and Burke, with characteristic vehemence, declared
that he would rather be a prisoner in the Tower
with Mr. Laurens than enjoy the blessings of free
dom in company with the men who were seeking
to enslave America. Still more, the Whigs did all
in their power to discourage enlistments, and in
various ways so thwarted and vexed the govern
ment that the success of the Americans was by
many people ascribed to their assistance. A few
days before Lord North's resignation, George On
slow, in an able defence of the prime minister, ex
claimed, "Why have we failed so miserably in this
war against America, if not from the support and
countenance given to rebellion in this very House ? "
Now the violence of party leaders like Burke
and Fox owed much of its strength, no doubt, to
mere rancorousness of party spirit. But, after
making due allowance for this, we must admit that
it was essentially based upon the intensity of their
conviction that the cause of English liberty was
inseparably bound up with the defeat of the king's

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RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 3
attempt upon the liberties of America. Looking
beyond the quarrels of the moment, they preferred
to have freedom guaranteed, even at the cost of
temporary defeat" and partial loss of empire. Time
has shown that they were right in this, but the ma
jority of the people could hardly be expected to
comprehend their attitude. It seemed to many
that the great Whig leaders were forgetting their
true character as English statesmen, and there is
no doubt that for many years this was
the chief source of the weakness of the tho wiiigs in
Whig party. Sir Gilbert Elliot said, ^^
with truth, that if the Whigs had not thus to a
considerable extent arrayed the national feeling
against themselves, Lord North's ministry would
have fallen some years sooner than it did. The
king thoroughly understood the advantage which
accrued to him from this state of things ; and with
that shortsighted shrewdness of the mere political
wire-puller, in which few modern politicians have
excelled him, he had from the outset preferred to
fight his battle on constitutional questions in Amer
ica rather than in England, in order that the na
tional feeling of Englishmen might be arrayed on
his side. He was at length thoroughly beaten on
his own ground, and as the fatal day approached he
raved and stormed as he had not stormed since the
spring of 1778, when he had been asked to entrust
the government to Lord Chatham. Like the child
who refuses to play when he sees the game going
against him, George threatened to abdicate the
throne and go over to Hanover, leaving his son to
get along with the Whig statesmen. But presently

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

he took heart again, and began to resort to the
same kind of political management which had
served him so well in the earlier years of his reign.
Among the Whig statesmen, the' Marquis of Rock
ingham had the largest political following. He
represented the old Whig aristocracy, his section
of the party had been first to urge the recognition
of American independence, and his principal fol
lowers were Fox and Burke. For all these reasons
he was especially obnoxious to the king. On the
other hand, the Earl of Shelburne was,
Character of . _ . . . , . „
Lord shei- m a certain sense, the political heir ot
Lord Chatham, and represented princi
ples far more liberal than those of the Old Whigs.
Shelburne was one of the most enlightened states
men of his time. He was an earnest advocate
of parliamentary reform and of free trade. He
had paid especial attention to political economy,
and looked with disgust upon the whole barbaric
system of discriminative duties aud commercial
monopolies which had been so largely instrumental
in bringing about the American Revolution. But
being iu these respects in advance of his age, Lord
Shelburne had but few followers. Moreover, al
though a man of undoubted integrity, quite ex
empt from sordid or selfish ambition, there was a
cynical harshness about him which made him gen
erally disliked and distrusted. He was so suspi
cious of other men that other men were suspicious
of him ; so that, in spite of many admirable qual
ities, he was extremely ill adapted for the work
of a party manager.
It was doubtless for these reasons that the king,

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when it became clear that a new government must
be formed, made up his mind that Lord Shelburne
would be the safest man to conduct it. In his
hands the Whig power would not be likely to grow
too strong, and dissensions would be sure to arise,
from which the king might hope to profit. The
first place in the treasury was accordingly offered
to Shelburne ; and when he refused it, and the king
found himself forced to appeal to Lord Rocking
ham, the manner in which the bitter pill was taken
was quite characteristic of George III. He re
fused to meet Rockingham in person, but sent all
his communications to him through Shelburne,
who, thus conspicuously singled out as the object
of royal preference, was certain to incur the dis
trust of his fellow ministers.
The structure of the new cabinet was unstable
enough, however, to have satisfied even such an
enemy as the king. Beside Rockingham himself,
Lord John Cavendish, Charles Fox, Lord Keppel,
and the Duke of Richmond were all Old Whigs.
To offset these five there were five New Whigs,
the Duke of Grafton, Lords Shelburne, Camden,
and Ashburton, and General Conway; while the
eleventh member was none other than the Tory
chancellor, Lord Thurlow, who was kept over from
Lord North's ministry. Burke was made paymas
ter of the forces, but had no seat in the cabinet.
In this curiously constructed cabinet, the prime
minister, Lord Rockingham, counted for Poiitioal insta.
little. Though a good party leader, he &&££
was below mediocrity as a statesman, mini3tr5'*
and his health was failing, so that he could not at-

6

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

tend to business. The master spirits were the two
secretaries of state, Fox and Shelburne, and they
wrangled perpetually, while Thurlow carried the
news of all their quarrels to the king, and in cabi
net meetings usually voted with Shelburne. The
ministry had not lasted five weeks when Fox began
to predict its downfall. On the great question of
parliamentary reform, which was brought up m
May by the young William Pitt, the government
was hopelessly divided. Shelburne's party was in
favour of reform, and this time Fox was found upon
the same side, as well as the Duke of Richmond,
who went so far as to advocate universal suffrage.
On the other hand, the Whig aristocracy, led by
Rockingham, were as bitterly opposed as the king
himself to any change in the method of electing
parliaments ; and, incredible as it may seem, even
such a man as Burke maintained that the old sys
tem, rotten boroughs and all, was a sacred part of
the British Constitution, which none could handle
rudely without endangering the country ! But in
this moment of reaction against the evil influences
which had brought about the loss of the American
colonies, there was a strong feeling in favour of re
form, and Pitt's motion was only lost by a minority
of twenty in a total vote of three hundred. Half
a century was to elapse before the reformers were
again to como so near to victory.
But Lord Rockingham's weak and short-lived
ministry was nevertheless remarkable for the
amount of good work it did in spite of the king's
dogged opposition. It contained great adminis
trative talent, which made itself felt in the most

. 1
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RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 1
adverse circumstances. To add to the difficulty,
the ministry came into office at the critical moment
of a great agitation in Ireland. In less than three
months, not only was tho trouble successfully re
moved, but the important bills for disfranchising
revenue officers and excluding contractors from
the House of Commons were carried, and a tre
mendous blow was thus struck at the corrupt in
fluence of the crown upon elections. Burke's great
scheme of economical reform was also put into op
eration, cutting down the pension list and dimin
ishing the secret service fund, and thus destroying
many sources of corruption. At no time, perhaps,
since the expulsion of the Stuarts, had so much
been done toward purifying English political life
as during the spring of 1782. But during the pro
gress of these important measures, the jealousies
and bickerings in the cabinet became more and
more painfully apparent, and as the question of
peace with America came into the foreground, these
difficulties hastened to a crisis.
From the policy which George III. pursued with
regard to Lord Shelburne at this time, one would
suppose that in his secret heart the king wished,
by foul means since all others had failed, to defeat
the negotiations for peace and to prolong tho war.
Seldom has there been a more oddly obstacieain
. -r-i i. 1 tbe way ol a
complicated situation, reace was to be treaty of
made with America, France, Spain, and
Holland. Of these powers, America and France
were leagued together by one treaty of alliance,
and France and Spain by another, and these trea
ties in some respects conflicted with one another in

¦:.ty. "

8

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

9

the duties which they entailed upon tho combat
ants. Spain, though at war with England for pur
poses of her own, was bitterly hostile to the United
States ; and Franco, thus leagued with two allies
which pulled in opposite directions, felt bound to
satisfy both, while pursuing her own ends against
England. To deal with such a chaotic state of
things, an orderly and harmonious government in
England should have seemed indispensably neces
sary. Yet on the part of England the negotiation
of a treaty of peace was to be the work of two
secretaries of state who were both politically and
personally hostile to each other. Fox, a3 secretary
of state for foreign affairs, had to superintend the
negotiations with France, Spain, and Holland.
Shelburne was secretary of state for home and
colonial affairs ; and as the United States were
still officially regarded as colonies, the American
negotiations belonged to his department. With
such a complication of conflicting interests, George
III. might well hope that no treaty could be made.
The views of Fox and Shelburne as to the best
method of conceding American independence were
very different. Fox understood that France was
really in need of peace, and he believed that she
would not make further demands upon England if
American independence should once be recognized.
Accordingly, Fox would have made this concession
at once as a preliminary to the negotiation. On
the other hand, Shelburne felt sure that France
would insist upon further concessions, and he
thought it best to hold in reserve the recognition
of independence as a consideration to be bargained

•~\

for. Informal negotiations began between Shel
burne and Franklin, who for many years had been
warm friends. In view of tho impending change
of government, Franklin had in March sent a let
ter to Shelburne, expressing a hope that peace
might soon be restored. When the letter reached
London the new ministry had already been formed,
and Shelburne, with the consent of the cabinet,
answered it by sending over to Paris an agent, to
talk with Franklin informally, and ascertain the
terms upon which the Americans would make
peace. The person chosen for this purpose was
Richard Oswald, a Scotch merchant, who owned
large estates in America, — a man of very frank
disposition and liberal views, and a friend of Adam
Smith. In April, Oswald had several conversa
tions with Franklin. In one of these 0?wald talks
conversations Franklin suggested that, ™th 1?rankUn*
in order to make a durable peace, it was desirable
to remove all occasion for future quarrel ; that the
line of frontier between New York and Canada
was inhabited by a lawless set of men, who in time
of peace would be likely to breed trouble between
tlieir respective governments ; and that therefore
it would be well for England to cede Canada to
the United States. A similar reasoning would
apply to Nova Scotia. By ceding these countries
to the United States it would be possible, from
the sale of unappropriated lands, to indemnify the
Americans for all losses of private property during
the war, and also to make reparation to the Tories,
whose estates had been confiscated. By pursuing
such a policy, England, which had made war on

10

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

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RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

11

America unjustly, and had wantonly done it great
injuries, would achieve not merely peace, but rec
onciliation, with America ; and reconciliation, said
Franklin, is " a sweet word." No doubt this was
a bold tone for Franklin to take, and perhaps it
was rather cool in him to ask for Canada and Nova
Scotia ; but he knew that almost every member
of the Whig ministry had publicly expressed the
opinion that the war against America was an un
just and wanton war ; and being, moreover, a
shrewd hand at a bargain, he began by setting his
terms high. Oswald doubtless looked at the mat
ter very much from Franklin's point of view, for
on the suggestion of the cession of Canada he ex
pressed neither surprise nor reluctance. Franklin
had written on a sheet of paper the main points
of his conversation, and, at Oswald's request, he
allowed him to take the paper to London to show
to Lord Shelburne, first writing upon it a note ex
pressly declaring its informal character. Franklin
also sent a letter to Shelburne, describing Oswald
as a gentleman with whom he found it very pleas
ant to deal. On Oswald's arrival in London, Shel
burne did not show the notes of the conversation to
any of his colleagues, except Lord Ashburton. He
kept the paper over one night, and then returned
it to Franklin without any formal answer. But
the letter he showed to the cabinet, and on the 23d
of April it was decided to send Oswald back to
Paris, to represent to Franklin that, on being re
stored to the same situation in which she was left
by the treaty of 1763, Great Britain would be will
ing to recognize the independence of the United

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States. Fox was authorized to make a similar
representation to the French government, and the
person whom he sent to Paris for this purpose was
Thomas Grenville, son of the author of the Stamp
Act. As all British subjects were prohibited from en
tering into negotiations with the revolted colonies,
it was impossible for Oswald to take any decisive
step until an enabling act should be carried through
Parliament. But while waiting for this he might
still talk informally with Franklin. Fox thought
that Oswald's presence in Paris indicated a desire
on Shelbume's part to interfere with the negotia
tions with the French government ; and indeed,
the king, out of his hatred of Fox and his inborn
love of intrigue, suggested to Shelburne that Os
wald " might be a useful check on that part of the
negotiation which was in other hands." But Shel
burne paid no heed to this crooked advice, and
there is nothing to show that he had the least de
sire to intrigue against Fox. If he had, he would
certainly have selected some other agent than Os
wald, who was the most straightforward of men,
and scarcely close-mouthed enough for a diploma
tist. He told Oswald to impress it upon Franklin
that if America was to be independent at all she
must be independent of the whole world, and must
not enter into any secret arrangement with France
which might limit her entire freedom of action in
the future. To the private memorandum which
desired the cession of Canada for three reasons,
his answers were as follows : "1. By way of rep
aration. — Answer. No reparation can be heard

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12

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

>-

of. 2. To prevent future wars. — Answer. It is
to be hoped that some more friendly method will
be found. 3. As a fund of indemnification to
loyalists. — Answer. No independence to be ac
knowledged without their being taken care of."
Besides, added Shelburne, the Americans would be
expected to make some compensation for the sur
render of Charleston, Savannah, and the city of
New York, still held by British troops. From this
it appears that Shelburne, as well as Franklin,
knew how to begin by asking more than he was
likely to get.
While Oswald submitted these answers to Frank
lin, Grenville had his interview with Vergennes,
GrcnviUe has and told him that, if England recognized
the independence of the United States,
she should expect France to restore the
islands of the West Indies which she had taken
from England. Why not, since the indepen
dence of the United States was the sole avowed
object for which France had gone to war ? Now
this was on the 8th of May, and the news of
the destruction of the French fleet in the West
Indies, nearly four weeks ago, had not yet reached
Europe. Flushed with the victories of Grasse, and
exulting in the prowess of the most formidable
naval force that France had ever sent out, Ver
gennes not only expected to keep the islands which
he had got, but was waiting eagerly for the news
that he had acquired Jamaica into the bargain. In
this mood he returned a haughty answer to Gren
ville. He reminded him that nations often went to
war for a specified object, and yet seized twice as

au interview
with Ver
gennes.

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RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

13

much if favoured by fortune ; and, recurring to the
instance which ranlded most deeply in the memories
of Frenchmen, he cited the events of tho last war.
In 1756 England went to war with France over the
disputed right to some lands on the Ohio River
and the Maine frontier. After seven years of fight
ing she not only kept these lands, but all of Can
ada, Louisiana, and Florida, and ousted the French
from India into the bargain. No, said Vergennes,
he would not rest content with the independence
of America. He would not even regard such an
offer as a concession to France in any way, or as a
price in return for which France was to make a
treaty favourable to England. As regards the rec
ognition of independence, England must treat di
rectly with America.
Grenville was disappointed and chagrined by
this answer, and the ministry made up their minds
that there would be no use in trying to get an hon
ourable peace with France for the present. Accord
ingly, it seemed better to take Vergennes at his
word, though not in the sense in which he meant
it, and, by granting all that the Americans could
reasonably desire, to detach them from the French
alliance as soon as possible. On the 18th of May
there came the news of the stupendous victory of
Rodney over Grasse, and all England
rang with jubilee. Again it had been Rodney's vic-
"shown that " Britannia rules the wave ; " °rJ-
and it seemed that, if America could be separately
pacified, the House of Bourbon might be success
fully defied. Accordingly, on the 23d, five days
after the news of victory, tho ministry decided " to

14

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

15

propose the independence of America iu the first.
instance, instead of making it the condition of a
general treaty." Upon this Fox rather hastily
maintained that the United States were put at once
into the position of an independent and foreign
power, so that the business of negotiating with
them passed from Shelburne's department into his
own. Shelburne, on the other hand, argued that,
as the recognition of independence could not take
effect until a treaty of peace should be concluded,
the negotiation with America still belonged to him,
as secretary for the colonies. Following Fox's in
structions, Grenville now claimed the right of ne
gotiating with Franklin as well as with Vergennes ;
but as his written credentials only authorized him
to treat with France, the French minister suspected
foul play, aud turned a cold shoulder to Grenville.
For the same reason, Grenville found Franklin
very reserved and indisposed to talk on the subject
of the treaty. While Grenville was thus rebuffed
and irritated he had a talk with Oswald, in the
course of which he got from that simple and high-
minded gentleman the story of the private paper
relating to the cession of Canada, which Franklin
had permitted Lord Shelburne to see. Grenville
immediately took offence; he made up his mind
that something underhanded was going on, and that
this was the reason for the coldness of Franklin
and Vergennes ; and he wrote an indignant letter .
about it to Fox. From the wording of this letter,
Fox got the impression that Franldin's proposal
was much more serious than it. really was. It
naturally puzzled him and made him angry, for tho

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attitude of America implied in the request for a
cession of Canada was far different from the atti
tude presumed by the theory that the mere offer of
independence would be enough to detach her from
her alliance with France. The plan of the ministry
seemed imperilled. Fox showed Grenville's letter
to Rockingham, Richmond, and Cavendish ; and
they all inferred that Shelburne was playing a
secret part, for purposes of his own. This was
doubtless unjust to Shelburne. Perhaps his keep
ing the matter to himself was simply one more
illustration of his want of confidence in Fox ; or,
perhaps he did not think it worth while to stir up
the cabinet over a question which seemed too pre
posterous ever to come to anything. Fox, however,
cried out against Shelburne's alleged duplicit}', and
made up his mind at all events to get the American
negotiations transferred to his own department.
To this end he moved in the cabinet, on the last
day of June, that the independence of the United
States should be unconditionally acknowledged,- so
that England might treat as with a foreign power.
The motion was lost, and Fox announced that he
should resign his office. His resignation Fall of th8
would probably of itself have broken 2m^%,
up the ministry, but, by a curious co- 1> 1782'
incidence, on the next day Lord Rockingham died ;
and so the first British government begotten of
Washington's victory at Yorktown came prema
turely to an end.
The Old Whigs now found some difficulty in
choosing a leader. Burke was the greatest states
man in the party, but he had not the qualities of

•-.'i]..;!!?,]-^

16

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

_^>

a party leader, and his connections were not suffi
ciently aristocratic. Fox was distrusted by many
people for his gross vices, and because of his way
wardness in politics. In the dissipated gambler,
who cast in his lot first with one party and then
with the other, and who had shamefully used his
matchless eloquence in defending some of the worst
abuses of the time, there seemed as yet but little
promise of the great reformer of later years, the
Charles Fox who came to be loved and idolized by
all enlightened Englishmen. Next to Fox, the
ablest leader in the party was the Duke of Rich
mond, but his advanced views on parliamentary re
form put him out of sympathy with the majority of
the party. In this embarrassment, the choice fell
upon the Duke of Portland, a man of great wealth
and small talent, concerning whom Horace Wal
pole observed, " It is very entertaining that two or
three great families should persuade themselves
that they have a hereditary and exclusive right of
giving us a head without a tongue ! " The choice
was a weak one, and played directly into the hands
of the king. When urged to make the Duke of
Portland his prime minister, the king replied that
he had already offered that position to Lord Shel
burne. Hereupon Fox and Cavendish
rrimeminis- resigned, but Richmond remained in
office, thus virtually breaking his con
nection with the Old Whigs. Lord Keppel also
remained. Many members of the party followed
Richmond and went over to Shelburne. William
Pitt, now twenty-three years old, succeeded Cav
endish as chancellor of the exchequer ; Thomas

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

17

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Townshend became secretary of state for home and
colonies, and Lord Grantham became foreign secre
tary. The closing days of Parliament were marked
by altercations which showed how wide the breach
had grown between the two sections of the Whig
party. Fox and Burke believed that Shelburne
was not only playing a false part, but was really as
subservient to the king as Lord North had been.
In a speech ridiculous for its furious invective,
Burke compared the new prime minister with Bor
gia and Catiline. And so Parliament was ad
journed on the 11th of July, and did not meet
again until December.
The task of making a treaty of peace was simpli
fied both by this change of ministry and by the
total defeat of the Spaniards and French at Gi
braltar in September. Six months before, Eng
land had seemed worsted in every quarter. Now
England, though defeated in America, was victori
ous as regarded France and Spain. The avowed
object for which France had entered into alliance
with the Americans was to secure the independence
of the United States, and this point was now sub
stantially gained. The chief object for which
Spain had entered into alliance with France was
to drive the English from Gibraltar, and this point
was now decidedly lost. France had bound herself
not to desist from the war until Spain should re
cover Gibraltar ; but now there was little hope of
accomplishing this, except by some fortunate bar
gain in the treaty, and Vergennes tried to persuade
England to cede the great stronghold in exchange
for West Florida, which Spain had lately con-

18

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.,

quered, or for Oran or Guadaloupe. Failing in
this, he adopted a plan for satisfying Spain at the
expense of the United States ; and he did this the
more willingly as he had no love for the Ameri-
French policy cans» and did not wish to see them be-
AmerkinV come too powerf ul. France had strictly
kept her pledges ; she had given us val
uable and timely aid in gaining our independence ;
and the sympathies of the French people were en
tirely with the American cause. But the object of
the French government had been simply to humil
iate England, and this end was sufficiently accom
plished^ depriving her of her thirteen colonies.
The immense territory extending from the Alle
ghany Mountains to the Mississippi River, and
from the border of West Florida to the Great
Lakes, had passed from the hands of France into
those of England at the peace of 1763 ; and by the
Quebec Act of 1774 England had declared the
southern boundary of Canada to be the Ohio River.
At present the whole territory, from Lake Supe
rior down to the southern boundary of what is
now Kentucky, belonged to the state of Virginia,
whose backwoodsmen had conquered it from Eng
land in 1779. In December, 1780, Virginia had
provisionally ceded the portion north of the Ohio
to the United States, but the cession was not yet
completed. The region which is now Tennessee
belonged to North Carolina, which had begun to
make settlements there as long ago as 1758. The
trackless forests included between Tennessee and
West Florida were still in the hands of wild tribes
of Cherokees and Choctaws, Chickasaws and

"¦/

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

19

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Creeks. Several thousand pioneers from North
Carolina and Virginia had already set- 5^ Tallcy 0,
tied beyond the mountains, and the ^ppf; Ami-
white population was rapidly increasing. da'B Pr°i*hecr-
This territory the French government was very un
willing to leave in American hands. The possibil
ity of enormous expansion which it would afford to
the new nation was distinctly foreseen by sagacious
men. Count Aranda, the representative of Spain
in these negotiations, wrote a letter to his king just
after the treaty was concluded, in which he uttered
this notable prophecy : " This federal republic is
born a pygmy. A day will come when it will be a
giant, even a colossus, formidable in these coun
tries. Liberty of conscience, the facility for es
tablishing a new population on immense lands, as
well as the advantages of the new government,
will draw thither farmers and artisans from all the
nations. In a few years we shall watch with grief
the tyrannical existence of this same colossus."
The letter went on to predict that the Americans
would presently get possession of Florida and at
tack Mexico. Similar arguments were doubtless
used by Aranda in his interviews with Vergennes,
and France, as well as Spain, sought to prevent
the growth of the dreaded colossus. To this end
Vergennes maintained that the Americans ought
to recognize the Quebec Act, and give up to Eng
land all the territory north of the Ohio River.
The region south of this limit should, he thought,
be made an Indian territory, and placed under the
protection of Spain and the United States. A
line was to be drawn from the mouth of the Cum-

•'. <,

i>mm:>i

20

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

berland River, following that stream about as far
as the site of Nashville, thence running southward
to the Tennessee, thence curving eastward nearly
to the Alleghanies, and descending through what
is now eastern Alabama to the Florida line. The
territory to the east of this irregular line was to be
under the protection of the United States ; the ter
ritory to the west of it was to be under the protec
tion of Spain. In this division, the settlers beyond
the mountains would retain their connection with
the ^United States, which would not touch the Mis
sissippi River at any point. Vergennes held that
this was all the Americans could reasonably de
mand, and he agreed with Aranda that they had
as yet gained no foothold upon the eastern bank
of the great river, unmindful of the fact that at
that very moment the fortresses at Cahokia and
Kaskaskia were occupied by American garrisons.
Upon another important point the views of the
French government were directly opposed to Amer-
fToSean"d ican iuterests- Tbe right to catch fish
fisheries. on the banks of Newfoundland had been
shared by treaty between France and England;
and the New England fishermen, as subjects of the
king of Great. Britain, had participated in this
privilege. The matter was of very great impor
tance, not only to New England, but to the United
States in general. Not only were the fisheries a
source of lucrative trade to the New England peo
ple, but they were the training-school of a splendid
race of seamen, the nursery of naval heroes whose
exploits were by and by to astonish the world.
To deprive the Americans of their share in these

•¦ j

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MAP OF NORTH AMERICA,
Showing the Boundaries of the UNITED STATES, CANADA, and tho SPANISH POSSES
SIONS, according to the proposals of the Court of France in I 782.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 21
fisheries was to strike a serious blow at the strength
and resources of the new nation. The British gov
ernment was not inclined to grant the privilege,
and on this point Vergennes took sides with Eng
land, in order to establish a claim upon her for
concessions advantageous to France in some other
quarter. With these views, Vergennes secretly
aimed at delaying the negotiations ; for as long as
hostilities were kept up, he might hope to extort
from his American allies a recognition of the
Spanish claims and a renouncement of the fisher
ies, simply by threatening to send them no further
assistance in men or money. In order to retard
the proceedings, he refused to take any steps what
ever until the independence of the United States
should first be irrevocably acknowledged by Great
Britain, without reference to the final settlement
of the rest of the treaty. In this Vergennes was
supported by Franklin, as well as by Jay, who had
lately arrived in Paris to take part in the negotia
tions. But the reasons of the American commis
sioners were very different from those of Ver
gennes. They feared that, if they began to treat
before independence was acknowledged, they would
be unfairly dealt with by Franco and Spain, and
unable to gain from England the concessions upon
which they were determined.
Jay soon began to suspect the designs of the
French minister. He found that he was sending
M. de Rayneval as a secret emissary to Lord Shel
burne under an assumed name; he ascertained
that the right of the United States to the Missis
sippi valley was to be denied ; and he got hold of

22

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

23

a dispatch from Marbois, the French secretary of
jaydetectstue leSation at Philadelphia, to Vergennes,
verg™^ opposing the American claim to the
Newfoundland fisheries. As soon as
Jay learned these facts, he sent his friend Dr.
Benjamin Vaughan to Lord Shelburne to put him
on his guard, and while reminding him that it was
greatly for the interest of England to dissolve the
alliance between America and France, he declared
himself ready to begin the negotiations without
waiting for the recognition of independence, pro
vided that Oswald's commission should speak of
the thirteen United States of America, instead of
calling them colonies and naming them separately.
This decisive step was taken by Jay on his own re
sponsibility, and without the knowledge of Frank
lin, who had been averse to anything like a sepa
rate negotiation with England. It served to set
the ball rolling at once. After meeting the mes
sengers from Jay and Vergennes, Lord Shelburne
at once perceived the antagonism that had arisen
between the allies, and promptly took advantage of
it. A new commission was made out for Oswald,
in which the British government first described
our country as the United States; and early in
October negotiations were begun and proceeded
rapidly. On the part of England, the affair
was conducted by Oswald, assisted by Strachey
and Fitzherbert, who had succeeded Grenville.
In the course of the month John Adams arrived
in Paris, and a few weeks later Henry Laurens,
who had been exchanged for Lord Cornwallis and
released from the Tower, was added to the com-

v

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pany. Adams had a holy horror of Frenchmen
in general, and of Count Vergennes in particular.
He shared that common but mistaken view of
Frenchmen which regards them as shallow, frivo
lous, and insincere ; and he was indignant at the
position taken by Vergennes on the question of the
fisheries. In this, John Adams felt as all New
Englanders felt, and he realized the importance of
the question from a national point of view, as be
came the man who in later years was to earn last
ing renown as one of the chief founders of tho
American navy. His behaviour on reaching Paris
was characteristic. It is said that he left Count
Vergennes to learn of his arrival through the
newspapers. It was certainly some time before
he called upon him, and he took occasion, besides,
to express his opinions about republics and monar
chies in terms which courtly Frenchmen thought
very rude.
The arrival of Adams fully decided the matter
as to a separate negotiation with England. He
agreed with Jay that Vergennes should be kept as
far as possible in the dark until everything was
cut and dried, and Franklin was reluctantly
obliged to yield. The treaty of alliance between
France and the United States had expressly stip
ulated that neither power should ever
make peace without the consent of the miod by jay
other, and in view of this Franklin was
loth to do anything which might seem like aban
doning the ally whose timely interposition had
alone enabled Washington to achieve the crown
ing triumph of Yorktown. In justice to Ver-

24

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

25

gennes, it should be borne in mind that he had
kept strict faith with us in regard to every point
that had been expressly stipulated ; and Frank
lin, who felt that he understood Frenchmen bet
ter than his colleagues, was naturally unwilling to
seem behindhand iu this respect. At the same
time, in regard to matters not expressly stipidated,
Vergennes was clearly playing a sharp game
against us ; and it is undeniable that, without de
parting technically from the obligations of the alli
ance, Jay and Adams — two men as honourable as
ever lived — played a very sharp defensive game
against him. The traditional French subtlety was
no match for Yankee shrewdness. The treaty with
England was not concluded until the consent of
France had been obtained, and thus the express
stipulation was respected ; but a thorough and de
tailed agreement was reached as to what the pur
port of the treaty should be, while our not too
friendly ally was kept in the dark. The annals of
modern diplomacy have afforded few stranger
spectacles. With the indispensable aid of France
we had just got the better of England in fight, and
now we proceeded amicably to divide territory and
commercial privileges with the enemy, and to make
arrangements in which the ally was virtually ig
nored. It ceases to be a paradox, however, when
we remember that with the change of government
in England some essential conditions of the case
were changed. The England against which we
had fought was the hostile England of Lord North;
the England with which we were now dealing was
the friendly England of Shelburne and Pitt. For

•v

V"

V /

the moment, the English race, on both sides of the
Atlantic, was united in its main purpose and di
vided only by questions of detail, while the rival
colonizing power, which sought to work in a direc
tion contrary to the general interests of English-
speaking people, was in great measure disregarded.
As soon as the problem was thus virtually re
duced to a negotiation between the American com
missioners and Lord Shelburne's ministry, the air
was cleared in a moment. Tho principal questions
had already been discussed between Franklin and
Oswald. Independence being first acknowledged,
the question of boundaries came up for settlement.
England had little interest in regaining the terri
tory between the Alleghanies and the
Mississippi, the forts in which were al- American trea-
ready held by American soldiers, and un'on:i.
she relinquished all claim upon it. The "" ar '
Mississippi River thus became the dividing line
between the United States and the Spanish posses
sions, and its navigation was made free alike to
British and American ships. Franklin's sugges
tion of a cession of Canada and Nova Scotia was
abandoned without discussion. It was agreed that
the boundary line should start at the mouth of the
river St. Croix, and, running to a point near Lake
Madawaska in the highlands separating the Atlan
tic watershed from that of the St. Lawrence,
should follow these highlands to the head of the
Connecticut River, and then descend the middle of
the river to the forty-fifth parallel, thence running
westward and through the centre of the water com
munications of the Great Lakes to the Lake of tho

26

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

27

Woods, thence to tho source of the Mississippi,
which was supposed to be west of this lake. This
line was marked in red ink by Oswald on one of
Mitchell's maps of North America, to serve as a
memorandum establishing the precise meaning of
the words used in the description. It ought to
have been accurately fixed in its details by surveys
made upon the spot ; but no commissioners were
appointed for this purpose. The language relat
ing to the northeastern portion of the boundary
contained some inaccuracies which were revealed
by later surveys, and the map used by Oswald was
lost. Hence a further question arose between
Great Britain and the United States, which was
finally settled by the Ashburton treaty in 1842.
The Americans retained the right of catching
fish on the banks of Newfoundland and in the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, but lost the right of drying their
2. Fisheries; fish on the Newfoundland coast. On
commercial v«
intercourse • the other hand, no permission was given
to British subjects to fish on the coasts of the
United States. As regarded commercial inter
course, Jay sought to establish complete reciprocal
freedom between the two countries, and a clause
was proposed to the effect that " all British mer
chants and merchant ships, on the one hand, shall
enjoy in the United States, and in all places belong
ing to them, the same protection and commercial
privileges, and be liable only to the same charges
and duties as their own merchants and merchant
ships ; and, on the other hand, the merchants and
merchant ships of the United States shall enjoy in
all places belonging to his Britannic Majesty the

A

v-

^

rw

same protection and commercial privileges, and be
liable only to the same charges and duties as Brit
ish merchants and merchant ships, saving always
to the chartered trading companies of Great Britain
such exclusive use and trade, and the respective
port3 and establishments, as neither the other sub
jects of Great Britain nor any tho most favoured
nation participate in." Unfortunately for both
countries, this liberal provision was rejected on the
ground that the ministry had no authority to inter
fere with the Navigation Act.
Only two questions were now left to be disposed
of, — the question of paying private debts, and
that of compensating the American loyalists for
the loss of property and general rough treatment
which they had suffered. There were many old

debts outstanding from American to „
3. Private
Ihese had been for debt8;

British merchants.
the most part incurred before 1775, and while
many honest debtors, impoverished during the war,
felt unable to pay, there were doubtless many others
who were ready to take advantage of circumstances
and refuse the payment which they were perfectly
able to make. It was scarcely creditable to us that
any such question should have arisen. Franldin,
indeed, argued that these debts were more than
fully offset by damages done to private property
by British soldiers : as, for example, in the wanton
raids on the coasts of Connecticut and Virginia in
1779, or in Prevost's buccaneering march against
Charleston. To cite these atrocities, however, as
a reason for the non-payment of debts legitimately
owed to innocent merchants in London and Glas-

28

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

29

gow was to argue as if two wrongs could make a
right. The strong sense of John Adams struck at
once to the root of the matter. He declared " he
had no notion of cheating anybody. The ques
tions of paying debts and compensating Tories
were two." This terse statement carried the day,
and it was finally decided that all private debts on
either side, whether incurred before or after 1775,
remained still binding, and must be discharged at
their full value in sterling money.
The last question of all was the one most difficult
to settle. There were many loyalists in the United
States who had sacrificed everything in the support
of the British cause, and it was unquestionably the
duty of the British government to make every pos
sible effort to insure them against further injury,
and, if practicable, to make good their losses al
ready incurred. From Virginia and the New Eng
land states, where they were few in number, they
had mostly fled, and their estates had been confis
cated. In New York and South Carolina, where
they remained in great numbers, they were still
waging a desultory war with the patriots, which
far exceeded in cruelty and bitterness the struggle
between the regular armies. In many cases they
had, at the solicitation of the British government,
joined the invading army, and been organized into
companies and regiments. The regular troops de
feated at King's Mountain, and those whom Arnold
took with him to Virginia, were nearly
tion of all American loyalists. Lord Shelburne
felt that it would be wrong to abandon
these unfortunate men to the vengeance of their

v

fellow countrymen, and he insisted that the treaty
should contain an amnesty clause providing for the
restoration of the Tories to their civil rights, with
compensation for their confiscated property. How
ever disagreeable such a course might seem to the
victorious Americans, there were many precedents
for it in European history. It had indeed come to
be customary at the close of civil wars, and the
effect of such a policy had invariably been good.
Cromwell, in his hour of triumph, inflicted no
disabilities upon his political enemies ; and when
Charles II. was restored to the throne the healing
effect of the amnesty act then passed was so great
that historians sometimes ask what in the world
had become of that Puritan party which a moment
before had seemed supreme in the land. At the
close of the war of the Spanish Succession, the
rebellious people of Catalonia were indemnified for
their losses, at the request of England, and with a
similar good effect. In view of such European
precedents, Vergennes agreed with Shelburne as
to the propriety of securing compensation and fur
ther immunity for the Tories in America. John
Adams insinuated that the French minister took
this course because he foresaw that the presence
of the Tories in the United States would keep the
people perpetually divided into a French party
and an English party ; but such a suspicion was
• quite uncalled for. There is no reason to suppose
that in this instance Vergennes had anything at
heart but the interests of humanity and justice.
On the other hand, the Americans brought for
ward very strong reasons why the Tories should

'¦i

;}'<*r J

30

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

not be indemnified by Congress. .First, as Frank
lin urged, many of them had, by their misrepre
sentations to the British government, helped to stir
up the disputes which led to the war; and as they
had made their bed, so they must lie in it. Sec
ondly, such of them as had been concerned in burn
ing and plundering defenceless villages, and wield
ing the tomahawk in concert with bloodthirsty
Indians, deserved no compassion. It was rather
for them to make compensation for the misery they
had wrought. Thirdly, the confiscated Tory prop
erty had passed into the hands of purchasers who
had bought it in good faith and could not now be
dispossessed, and in many cases it had been dis
tributed here and there and lost sight of. An
estimate of the gross amount might be made, and
a corresponding sum appropriated for indemnifica
tion. But, fourthly, the country was so impover
ished by the war that its own soldiers, the brave
men whose heroic exertions had won the indepen
dence of the United States, were at this moment
in sore distress for the want of the pay which Con
gress could not give them, but to which its honour
was sacredly pledged. The American government
was clearly bound to pay its just debts to the frieuds
who had suffered so much in its behalf before it
should proceed to entertain a chimerical scheme
for satisfying its enemies. For, fifthly, any such
scheme was in the present instance clearly chimer
ical. The acts under which Tory property had
been confiscated were acts of state legislatures, and
Congress had no jurisdiction over such a matter.
If restitution was to be made, it must be made by

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

31

V

V

the separate states. The question could not for a
moment bo entertained by the general government

or its agents

Upon these points the American commissioners
were united and inexorable. Various suggestions
were offered in vain by the British. Their troops
still held the city of New York, and it was doubt
ful whether the Americans could hope to capture it
in another campaign. It was urged that England
might fairly claim in exchange for New York a
round sum of money wherewith the Tories might
be indemnified. It was further urged that certain
unappropriated lands in the Mississippi valley
might be sold for the same purpose. But the
Americans would not hear of buying one of their
own cities, whose independence was already ac
knowledged by the first article of the treaty which
recognized the independence of the United States;
and as for the western lands, they were wanted as a
means of paying our own war debts and providing
for our veteran soldiers. Several times Shelburne
sent word to Paris that he would break off the ne
gotiation unless the loyalist claims were in some
way recognized. But the Americans were obdurate.
They had one advantage, and knew it. Parlia
ment was soon to meet, and it was doubtful whether
Lord Shelburne could command a sufficient ma
jority to remain long in office. He was, accord
ingly, very anxious to complete the treaty of peace,
or at least to detach America from the French
alliance, as soon as possible. The American com
missioners were also eager to conclude the treaty.
They had secured very favourable terms, and were

32

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

loth to run any risk of spoiling what had been
done. Accordingly, they made a proposal in the
form of a compromise, which nevertheless settled
the point in their favour. The matter, they said,
was beyond the jurisdiction of Congress, but they
agreed that Congress should recommend to the
several states to desist from further proceedings
against the Tories, and to reconsider their laws on
this subject ; it should further recommend that per
sons with claims upon confiscated lands might be
authorized to use legal means of recovering them,
and to this end might be allowed to pass to and fro
without personal risk for the term of one year.
Tho British commissioners accepted this compro
mise, unsatisfactory as it was, because it was really
impossible to obtain anything better without throw
ing the whole negotiation overboard. The consti
tutional difficulty was a real one indeed. As
Adams told Oswald, if the point were further in
sisted upon, Congress would be obliged to refer it
to the several states, and no one could tell how
long it might be before any decisive result could be
reached in this way. Meanwhile, the state of war
would continue, and it would be cheaper for Eng
land to indemnify the loyalists herself than to pay
the war bills for a single month. Franklin added
that, if the loyalists were to be indemnified, it
would be necessary also to reckon up the damage
they had done in burning houses and kidnapping
slaves, and then strike a balance between the two
accounts ; and he gravely suggested that a special
commission might be appointed for this purpose.
At the prospect of endless discussion which this

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

33

v-

V

suggestion involved, the British commissioners gave
way and accepted the American terms, although
they were frankly told that too much must not be
expected from the recommendation of Congress.
The articles were signed on the 30th of November,
six days before the meeting of Parliament. HosJ
tilitics in America were' to cease at once, and upon
the completion of the treaty the British fleets and
armies were to be immediately withdrawn from
every place which they held within the limits of
the United States. A supplementary and secret
article provided that if England, on making peace
with Spain, should recover West Florida, the north
ern boundary of that province should be a line run
ning due cast from tho mouth of the Yazoo River
to the Chattahoochee.
Thus by skilful diplomacy the Americans had
gained all that coidd reasonably be asked, while
the work of making a general peace was greatly
simplified. 'It was declared in the preamble that
the articles here signed were provisional, and that
the treaty was not to take effect until terms of
peace should be agreed on between England and
France. Without delay, Franklin laid the whole
matter, except the secret article, before Vergennes,
who forthwith accused the Americans of ingrati
tude and bad faith. Franklin's reply,
that at the worst they could only be aMu*,
charged with want of diplomatic cour- •SwJh'ft'ta-
tesy, has sometimes been condemned as beendonc-
insincere, but on inadequate grounds. He had
consented with reluctance to the separate negotia
tion, because he did not wish to give France any

34

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

35

possible ground for complaint, whether real or os
tensible. There does not seem, however, to have
been sufficient justification for so grave a charge
as was made by Vergennes. If the French nego
tiations had failed until after the overthrow of the
Shelburne ministry ; if Fox, on coming into power,
had taken advantage of the American treaty to
continue the war against France ; and if under
such circumstances the Americans had abandoned
their ally, then undoubtedly they would have be
come guilty of ingratitude and treachery. There
is no reason for supposing that they would ever
have done so, had the circumstances arisen. Their
preamble made it impossible for them honourably
to abandon France until a full peace should be
made, and more than this France could not reason
ably demand. The Americans had kept to the strict
letter of their contract, as Vergennes had kept to
the strict letter of his, and beyond this they meted
out exactly the same measure of frankness which
they received. To say that our debt of gratitude
to France was such as to require us to acquiesce in
her scheme for enriching our enemy Spain at our
expense is simply childish. Franklin was undoubt
edly right. The commissioners may have been
guilty of a breach of diplomatic courtesy, but noth
ing more. Vergennes might be sarcastic about it
for the moment, but the cordial relations between
France and America remained undisturbed.
On the part of the Americans the treaty of Paris
a eat di ic- was oue °^ tne most brilliant triumphs
matio victory. jn fae wh0le history of modern diplo
macy. Had the affair been managed by men of

W

V'

1.1. '
t f
I ;
\f
\ /

ordinary ability, some of the greatest results of the
Revolutionary War would probably have been lost ;
the new republic would have been cooped up be
tween the Atlantic Ocean and the Alleghany Moun
tains; our westward expansion would have been
impossible without further warfare in which Euro
pean powers would have been involved ; and the
formation of our Federal Union would doubtless
have been effectively hindered, if not, indeed,
altogether prevented. To the grand triumph the
varied talents of Franklin, Adams, and Jay alike
contributed. To the latter is due the credit of de
tecting and baffling the sinister designs of France ;
but without the tact of Franklin this probably
could not have been accomplished without offend
ing France in such wise as to spoil everything. It
is, however, to the rare discernment and boldness
of Jay, admirably seconded by the sturdy Adams,
that the chief praise is due. The turning-point of
the whole affair was the visit of Dr. Vaughan to
Lord Shelburne. The foundation of success was
the separate negotiation with England, and here
there had stood in the way a more formidable ob
stacle than the mere reluctance of Franklin. The
chevalier Luzerne and his secretary Marbois had
been busy with Congress, and that body had sent
well-meant but silly and pusillanimous instructions
to its commissioners at Paris to be guided in all
things by the wishes of the French court. To dis
regard such instructions required all the lofty
courage for which Jay and Adams were noted, and
for the moment it brought upon them something
like a rebuke from Congress, conveyed in a letter

36

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

37

from Robert Livingston. As Adams said, in his
vehement way, " Congress surrendered their own
sovereignty into the hands of a French minister.
Blush 1 blush ! ye guilty records ! blush and perish !
It is glory to have broken such infamous orders."
True enough ; the commissioners knew that in di
plomacy, as in warfare, to the agent at a distance
from his principal some discretionary power must
be allowed. They assumed great responsibility,
and won a victory of incalculable grandeur.
The course of the Americans produced no effect
upon the terms obtained by France, but it seriously
modified the case with Spain. Unable to obtain
Gibraltar by arms, that power hoped to get it by
The Spanish diplomacy ; and with tho support of
" ' •' France she seemed disposed to make the
cession of the great fortress an ultimatum, without
which the war must go on. Shelburne, on his part,
was willing to exchange Gibraltar for an island
in the West Indies ; but it was difficult to get the
cabinet to agree on the matter, and the scheme was
violently opposed by the people, for the heroic de
fence of the stronghold had invested it with a halo
of romance and endeared it to every one. Never
theless, so persistent was Spain, and so great the
desire for peace on tho part of the ministry, that
they had resolved to exchange Gibraltar for Guada
loupe, when the news arrived of the treaty with
America. The ministers now took a bold stand,
and refused to hear another word about giving up
Gibraltar. Spain scolded, and threatened a re
newal of hostilities, but France was unwilling to
give further assistance, and the matter was settled

y

/

by England's surrendering East Florida, and al
lowing the Spaniards to keep West Florida and
Minorca, which were already in their hands.
By the treaty with France, the West India isl
ands of Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Christopher,
Dominica, Nevis, and Montserrat were restored to
England, which in turn restored St. me French
Lucia and ceded Tobago to France. treaty-
The French were allowed to fortify Dunkirk, and
received some slight concessions in India and Af
rica ; they retained their share in the Newfound
land fisheries, and recovered the little neighbour
ing islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. For the
fourteen hundred million francs which France had
expended in the war, she had the satisfaction of
detaching the American colonies from England,
thus inflicting a blow which it was confidently
hoped would prove fatal to the maritime power of
her ancient rival ; but beyond this short-lived sat
isfaction, the fallaciousness of which events were
soon to show, she obtained very little. On the
20th of January, 1783, the preliminaries of peace
were signed between England, on the one hand,
and France and Spain, on the other. A truce was
at the same time concluded with Holland, which
was soon followed by a peace, in which most of the
conquests on either side were restored.
A second English ministry was now about to
be wrecked on the rock of this group of treaties.
Lord Shelburne's government had at no time been
a strong one. He had made many enemies by his
liberal and reforming measures, and he had alien
ated most of his colleagues by his reserved de-

~.f.

r- *.¦ ;Jaa..!; ;,-

38

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

39

meanour and seeming want of confidence in them.
In December several of the ministers resigned.
The strength of parties in the House of Commons
was thus quaintly reckoned by Gibbon : " Minis
ter 140 ; Reynard 90 ; Boreas 120 ; the rest un
known or uncertain." But " Reynard " and " Bo
reas " were now about to join forces in one of the
strangest coalitions ever known in the history of
politics. No statesman ever attacked
Fox with another more ferociously than Fox had
attacked North during the past ten
years. He had showered abuse upon him ; accused
him of " treachery and falsehood," of " public per
fidy," and " breach of a solemn specific promise ; "
and had even gone so far as to declare to his face
a hope that he would be called upon to expiate his
abominable crimes upon the scaffold. Within a
twelvemonth he had thus spoken of Lord North
and his colleagues : " From the moment when I
shall make any terms with one of them, I will rest
satisfied to be called the most infamous of man
kind. I would not for an instant think of a coali
tion with men who, in every public and private
transaction as ministers, have shown themselves
void of every principle of honour and honesty. In
the hands of 'such men I would not trust my honour
even for a moment." Still more recently, when at
a loss for words strong enough to express his belief
in the wickedness of Shelburne, he declared that
he had no better opinion of that man than to deem
him capable of forming an alliance with North.
We may judge, then, of the general amazement
when, in the middle of February, it turned out

that Fox had himself done this very thing. ^ An
" ill-omened marriage," William Pitt called it in
the House of Commons. " If this ill-omened mar
riage is not already solemnized, I know a just and
lawful impediment, and in the name of the public
safety I here forbid the banns." Throughout the
country the indignation was great. Many people
had blamed Fox for not following up his charges
by actually bringing articles of impeachment
against Lord North. That the two enemies should
thus suddenly become leagued in friendship seemed
utterly monstrous. It injured Fox extremely in
the opinion of the country, and it injured North
still more, for it seemed like a betrayal of the king
on his part, and his forgiveness of so many insults
looked mean-spirited. It does not appear, how
ever, that there was really any strong personal ani
mosity between North and Fox. They were both
men of very amiable character, and almost inca
pable of cherishing resentment. The language of
parliamentary orators was habitually violent, and
the huge quantities of wine which gentlemen in
those days used to drink may have helped to make
it extravagant. The excessive vehemence of po
litical invective often deprived it of half its effect.
One day, after Fox had exhausted his vocabulary
of abuse upon Lord George Germaine, Lord North
said to him, " You were in very high feather to-day,
Charles, and I am glad you did not fall upon me."
On another occasion, it is said that while Fox was
thundering against North's unexampled turpitude,
the object of his furious tirade cosily dropped off
to sleep. Gibbon, who was the friend of both

40

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

41

statesmen, expressly declares that they bore each
other no ill will. But while thus alike indisposed
to harbour bitter thoughts, there was one man for
whom both Fox and North felt an abiding distrust
and dislike; and that man was Lord Shelburne,
the prime minister.
As a political pupil of Burke, Fox" shared that
statesman's distrust of the whole school of Lord
Chatham, to which Shelburne belonged. In many
respects these statesmen were far more advanced
than Burke, but they did not sufficiently realize
the importance of checking the crown by means of
a united and powerful ministry. ' Fox thoroughly
understood that much of the mischief of the past
twenty years, including the loss of America, had
come from the system of weak and divided minis-*
tries, which gave the king such great opportunity
for wreaking his evil will. He had himself been a
member of such a ministry, which had fallen seven
months ago. When the king singled out Shel
burne for his confidence, Fox naturally concluded
that Shelburne was to be made to play the royal
game, as North had been made to play it for so
many years. This was very unjust to Shelburne,
but there is no doubt that Fox was perfectly hon
est in his belief. It seemed to him that the pres
ent state of things must be brought to an end, at
whatever cost. A ministry sti-ong enough to curb
the king could be formed only by a coalescence of
two out of the three existing parties. A coales
cence of Old and New Whigs had been tried last
spring, and failed. It only remained now to try the
effect of a coalescence of Old Whigs and Tories.

\

Y

Such was doubtless the chief motive of Fox in
this extraordinary move. The conduct of North
seems harder to explain, but it was probably due
to a reaction of feeling on his part. He had done
violence to his own convictions out of weak com
passion for George III., and had carried on the
American war for four years after he had been
thoroughly convinced that peace ought to be made.
Remorse for this is said to have haunted him to
the end of his life. When in his old age he be
came blind, he bore this misfortune with his cus
tomary lightness of heart ; and one day, meeting
the veteran Barr£, who had also lost his eyesight, he
exclaimed, with his unfailing wit, " Well, colonel,
in spite of all our differences, I suppose there are
no two men in England who would be gladder to
see each other than you and I." But while Lord
North could jest about his blindness, the memory
of his ill-judged subservience to the king was
something that he coidd not laugh away, and ¦
among his nearest friends he was sometimes heard
to reproach himself bitterly. When, therefore, in
1783, he told Fox that he fully agreed with him
in thinking that the royal power ought to be
curbed, he was doubtless speaking the truth. No
man had a better right to such an opinion than he
had gained through sore experience. In his own
ministry, as he said to Fox, he took the system as
he found it, and had not vigour and resolution
enough to put an end to it ; but he was now quite
convinced that in such a country as England,
while the king should be treated with all outward
show of respect, he Ought on no account to be al
lowed to exercise any real power.

42

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

Now this was in 1783 the paramount political
question in England, just as much as the question
of secession was paramount in the United States
in 1861. Other questions could be postponed;
the question of curbing the king could not. Upon
this all-important point North had come to agree
with Fox; and as the principal motive of their
coalition may be thus explained, the historian is
not called upon to lay too much stress upon the
lower motives assigned in profusion by their polit
ical enemies. This explanation, however, does not
quite cover the case. The mass of the Tories
would never follow North in an avowed attempt
to curb the king, but they agreed with the follow
ers of Fox, though not with Fox himself, in holy
horror of parliamentary reform, and were alarmed
by a recent declaration of Shelburne that the suf
frage must be extended so as to admit a hundred
new county members. Thus while the two leaders
were urged to coalescence by one motive, their
followers were largely swayed by another, and this
added much to the mystery and general unintelli
gibleness of the movement. In taking this step
Fox made the mistake which was characteristic of
the Old Whig party. He gave too little heed to
the great public outside the walls of the House of
Commons. The coalition, once made, was very
strong in Parliament, but it mystified and scandal
ized the people, and this popular disapproval by
and by made it easy for tho king to overthrow it.
It was agreed to choose the treaty as the occasion
for the combined attack upon the Shelburne min
istry. North, as the minister who had conducted

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

43

the unsuccessful war, was bound to oppose the
I treaty, in any case. It would not do for him to
admit that better terms could not have
"**- been made. Tho treaty was also very burne'u miniJ
; unpopular with Fox's party, and with **'
the nation at large. It was thought that too much
territory had been conceded to the Americans, and
-v fault was found with the article on the fisheries.
But the point which excited most indignation was
\ the virtual abandonment of the loyalists, for here
the honour of England was felt to be at stake. On
\ this ground the treaty was emphatically condemned
v by Burke, Sheridan, and Wilberforce, no less than
\ ¦; by North. It was ably defended in the Commons
by Pitt, and in the Lords by Shelburne himself,
who argued that he had but the alternative of
accepting the terms as they stood, or continuing
v the war ; and since it had come to this, he said,
I without spilling a drop of blood, or incurring one
'. fifth of the expense of a year's campaign, the com
fort and happiness of the American loyalists could
be easily secured. By this he meant that, should
America fail to make good their losses, it was far
better for England to indemnify them herself than
to prolong indefinitely a bloody and ruinous strug
gle. As we shall hereafter see, this liberal and
enlightened policy was the one which England
really pursued, so far as practicable, and her honour
was completely saved. That Shelburne and Pitt
p were quite right there can now be little doubt.
/ But argument was of no avail against the resistless
^ power of the coalition. On the 17th of February
\ Lord John Cavendish moved an amendment to the

44

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

45

ministerial address on the treaty, refusing to ap
prove it. - On the 21st he moved a further amend
ment condemning the treaty. Both motions were
carried, and on the 24th Lord Shelburne resigned.
He did not dissolve Parliament and appeal to the
country, partly because he was aware of his per
sonal unpopularity, and partly because, in spite of
the general disgust at the coalition, there was little
doubt that on the particular question of the treaty
the public opinion agreed with the majority in Par
liament, and not with the ministry. For this rea
son, Pitt, though personally popular, saw that it
was no time for him to take the first place in the
government, and when the king proceeded to offer
it to him he declined.
For more than five weeks, while the treasury
was nearly empty, and the question of peace or war
still hung in the balance, England was without a
regular government, while the angry king went
hunting for some one who would consent to be his
prime minister. He was determined not to submit
„ ,, , to the coalition. He was naturally en-
Tho lung's " ...
wrath. raged at Lord IN orth for turning against
him. Meeting one day North's father, Lord Guil
ford, he went up to him, tragically wringing his
hands, and exclaimed in accents of woe, " Did I
ever think, my Lord Guilford, that your son would
thus have betrayed me into the hands of Mr.
Fox?" He appealed in vain to Lord Gower, and
then to Lord Temple, to form a ministry. Lord
Gower suggested that perhaps Thomas Pitt, cousin
of William, might be willing to serve. " I desired
him," said the king, "to apply to Mr. Thomas Pitt,

"\

or Mr. Thomas anybody." It was of no use. By
the 2d of April Parliament had become furious at
the delay, and George was obliged to yield. The
Duke of Portland was brought in as nominal prime
minister, with Fox as foreign secretary, North as
secretary for home and colonies, Cavendish a3
chancellor of the exchequer, and Keppel as first
lord of the admiralty. The only Tory in tho cab
inet, excepting North, was Lord Stormont, who
became president of the council. The commission
ers, Fitzherbert and Oswald, were recalled from
Paris, and the Duke of Manchester and David
Hartley, son of the great philosopher, were ap
pointed in their stead. Negotiations continued
through the spring and summer. Attempts were
made to change some of the articles, especially tho
obnoxious article concerning the loyalists, but all
to no purpose. Hartley's attempt to negotiate
a mutually advantageous commercial treaty with
America also came to nothing. Tho mo treaty i9
definitive treaty which was finally signed ^yt'he"™
on the 3d of September, 1783, was an ^^f
exact transcript of the treaty which r—ntiy fails.
Shelburne had made, and for making which the
present ministers had succeeded in turning him out
of office. No more emphatic justification of Shel
burne's conduct of this business could possibly have
been obtained.
The coalition ministry did not long survive the
final signing of the treaty. The events of the next
few months are curiously instructive as showing
the quiet and stealthy way in which a political
revolution may be consummated in a thoroughly

46

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

47

conservative and constitutional country. Early in
the winter session of Parliament Fox brought in
his famous bill for organizing the government of
the great empire which Clive and Plastings had
built up in India. Popular indignation at the
ministry had been strengthened by its adopting
the same treaty of peace for the making of which
it had assaulted Shelburne ; and now, on the pas
sage of the India Bill by the House of Commons,
there was a great outcry. Many provisions of the
bill were exceedingly unpopular, and its chief object
was alleged to be the concentration of the immense
patronage of India into the hands of the old Whig
families. With the popular feeling thus warmly
enlisted against the ministry, George III. was now
emboldened to make war on it by violent means ;
and, accordingly, when the bill came up in the
House of Lords, he caused it to be announced, by
Lord Temple, that any peer who should vote in its
favour would be regarded as an enemy by the king.
Four days later the House of Commons, by a vote
of 153 to 80, resolved that " to report any opinion,
or pretended opinion, of his majesty upon any bill
or other proceeding depending in either house of
Parliament, with a view to influence the votes of
the members, is a high crime and misdemeanour,
derogatory to the honour of the crown, a breach of
the fundamental privileges of Parliament, and sub
versive of the constitution of this country." A
more explicit or emphatic defiance to the king
would have been hard to frame. Two days after
ward the Lords rejected the India Bill, and on the
next day, the 18th of December, George turned
the ministers out of office.

\ -
y

>

¦<\

In this grave constitutional crisis the king in
vited William Pitt to form a government, and this
young statesman, who had consistently opposed the
coalition, now saw that his horn- was ConstitutIon!ll
come. He was more than any one else fri™' ondins
J in the over-
the favourite of the people. Fox's polit- J^'ofpltt10"
ical reputation was eclipsed, and North's May' 17M-
was destroyed, by their unseemly alliance. Peo
ple were sick of the whole state of things which
had accompanied the American war. Pitt, who
had only come into Parliament in 1780, was free
from these unpleasant associations. The unblem
ished purity of his life, his incorruptible integrity,
his rare disinterestedness, and his transcendent
ability in debate were known to every one. As the
worthy son of Lord Chatham, whose name was
associated with the most glorious moment of Eng
lish history, he was peculiarly dear to the people.
His position, however, on taking supreme office at
the instance of a king who had just committed
an outrageous breach of the constitution, was ex
tremely critical, and only the most consummate
skill could have won from the chaos such a victory
as he was about to win. When ho became first
lord of the treasury and chancellor of the ex
chequer, in December, 1783, he had barely com
pleted his twenty-fifth year. All his colleagues in
the new cabinet were peers, so that he had to fight
single-handed in the Commons against the united
talents of Burke and Sheridan, Fox and North;
and there was a heavy majority against him, be
sides. In view of this adverse majority, it was
Pitt's constitutional duty to dissolve Parliament

48

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.

49

and appeal to the country. But Fox, unwilling to
imperil his great majority by a new election, now
made the fatal mistake of opposing a dissolution ;
thus showing his distrust of the people and his
dread of their verdict. With consummate tact,
Pitt allowed the debates to go on till March, and
then, when the popular feeling in his favour had
grown into wild enthusiasm, he dissolved Parlia
ment. In the general election which followed, 160
members of the coalition lost their seats, and Pitt
obtained the greatest majority that , has ever been
given to an English minister.
Thus was completed the political revolution in
England which was set on foot by the American
victory at Yorktown. Its full significance was only
gradually realized. For the moment it might seem
that it was the king who had triumphed. He had
shattered the alliance which had been formed for
the purpose of curbing him, and the result of the
election had virtually condoned his breach of the
constitution. This apparent victory, however, had
been won only by a direct appeal to the people,
overthrow of and a^ *ts -advantages accrued to the
SS™p"r- PeoPle> and not to George III. His in-
eonaigovern- genious system of weak and divided
ministries, with himself for balance-
wheel, was destroyed. For the next seventeen
years the real ruler of England was not George
III., but William Pitt, who, with his great popular
following, wielded such a power as no English
sovereign had possessed since the days of Eliza
beth. The political atmosphere was cleared of
intrigue; and Fox, in the legitimate attitude of

leader of the new opposition, entered upon the
glorious part of his career. There was now set in
motion that great work of reform which, hindered
for a while by the reaction against the French revo
lutionists, won its decisive victory in 1832. Down
to the very moment at which American and Brit
ish history begin to flow in distinct and separate
channels, it is interesting to observe how closely
they are implicated with each other. The victory
of the Americans not only set on foot the British
revolution here described, but it figured most
prominently in each of the political changes that
we have witnessed, down to the very eve of the
overthrow of the coalition. The system which
George III. had sought to fasten upon America,
in order that he might fasten it upon England,
was shaken off and shattered by the good people
of both countries at almost the same moment of
time.

V

CHAPTER II.
THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
" The times that tried men's souls are over,"
said Thomas Paine in the last number of the
" Crisis," which he published after hearing that the
negotiations for a treaty of peace had been con
cluded. The preliminary articles had been signed
at Paris on the 20th of January, 1783. The news
arrived in America on the 23d of March, in a let
ter to the president of Congress from Lafayette,
who had returned to France soon after the victory
at Yorktown. A few days later Sir Guy Carleton
received his orders from the ministry to proclaim a
cessation of hostilities by land and sea. A similar
proclamation made by Congress was formally com
municated to the army by Washington on the 19th
of April, the eighth anniversary of the first blood
shed on Lexington green. Since Wayne had
driven the British from Georgia, early in the pre
ceding year, there had been no military operations
between the regular armies. Guerrilla warfare
between Whig and Tory had been kept up in
parts of South Carolina and on the frontier of
New York, where Thayendanegea was still alert
and defiant ; while beyond the mountains the tom
ahawk and scalping-knife had been busy, and
Washington's old friend and comrade, Colonel

v

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 61
Crawford, had been scorched to death by the fire
brands of the red demons ; but the armies had sat
still, awaiting the peace which every one felt sure
must speedily come. After Cornwallis's surrender,
Washington marched his army back to the Hud
son, and established his headquarters at Newburgh.
Rochambeau followed somewhat later, and in Sep
tember joined the Americans on the Hudson ; but
in December the French army marched to Boston,
and there embarked for France. After the formal
cessation of hostilities on the 19th of April, 1783,
Washington granted furloughs to most of his sol
diers ; and these weather-beaten veterans trudged
homeward in all directions, in little groups of four
or five, depending largely for their subsistence on
the hospitality of the farm-houses along the road.
Arrived at home, their muskets were hung over
the chimney-piece as trophies for grandchildren to
be proud of, the stories of their exploits and their
sufferings became household legends, and they
turned the furrows and drove the cattle to pasture
just as in the " old colony times." Their furloughs
were equivalent to a full discharge, for on the 3d
of September the definitive treaty was „ _ ,
- ii Departure of
signed, and the country was at peace. theBrit;»h
Oil o i p -vr , l troops, Nov.
n the 3d of November tho army was 25> 1783*
formally disbanded, and on the 25th of that month
Sir Guy Carleton's army embarked from New
York. Small British garrisons still remained in
the frontier posts of Ogdensburg, Oswego, Niag
ara, Erie, Sandusky, Detroit, and Mackinaw, but
by the terms of the treaty these places were to be
promptly surrendered to the United States. On

52 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
the 4th of December a barge waited at the South
Ferry in New York to carry General Washington
across the river to Paulus Hook, He was going to
Annapolis, where Congress was in session, in order
to resign his command. At Fraunces's Tavern,
near the ferry, he took leave of the officers who so
long had shared his labours. One after another
they embraced their beloved commander, while
there were few dry eyes in the company. They
followed him to the ferry, and watched the depart
ing boat with hearts too full for words, and then
in solemn silence returned up the street. At Phil
adelphia he handed to the comptroller of the treas
ury a neatly written manuscript, containing an
accurate statement of his expenses in the public
service since the day when he took command of
the army. The sums which Washington had thus
spent out of his private fortune amounted to
$64,315. For his personal services he declined to
take any pay. At noon of the 23d, in the pres
ence of Congress and of a throng of ladies and
Washington gentlemen at Annapolis, the great gen-
resigns his erai gave Up nis command, and requested
doc. 23. ' ag an u indulgence " to be allowed to
retire into private life. General Mifflin, who dur
ing the winter of Valley Forge had conspired with
Gates to undermine the confidence of the people
in Washington, was now president of Congress,
and it was for him to make the reply. " You re
tire," said Mifflin, "from the theatre of action
with tho blessings of your fellow-citizens, but the
glory of your virtues will not terminate with your
military command; it will continue to animate

\

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 53
remotest ages." The next morning Washington
hurried away to spend Christmas at his pleasant
home at Mount Vernon, which, save for a few
hours in the autumn of 1781, he had not set eyes
on for more than eight years. His estate had
suffered from his long absence, and his highest
ambition was to devote himself to its simple in
terests. To his friends he offered unpretentious
hospitality. " My manner of living is plain," he
said, " and I do not mean to be put out of it. A
glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always
ready, and such as will be content to partake of
them are always welcome. Those who expect
more will be disappointed." To Lafayette ho
wrote that he was now about to solace himself with
those tranquil enjoyments of which the anxious
soldier and the weary statesman know but little.
" I have not only retired from all public employ
ments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall
be able to view the solitary walk and tread the
paths of private life with heartfelt satisfaction.
Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased
with all ; and this, my dear friend, being the order
of my march, I will move gently down the stream
of life until I sleep with my fathers."
In these hopes Washington was to be disap
pointed. " All the world is touched by his repub
lican virtues," wrote Luzerne to Vergennes, " but
it will be useless for him to try to hide himself and
live the life of a private man : he will always be
the first citizen of the United States." It indeed
required no prophet to foretell that the American
people could not long dispense with the services of

64 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
this greatest of citizens. Washington had already
put himself most explicitly on record as the leader
of the men who were urging the people of the
United States toward the formation of a more per
fect union. The great lesson of the war had not
been lost on him. Bitter experience of the evils
attendant upon the weak government of the Conti
nental Congress had impressed upon his mind the
urgent necessity of an immediate and thorough
reform. On the 8th of June, in view of the ap
proaching disbandment of the army, he had ad
dressed to the governors and presidents of the
several states a circular letter, which he wished
to have regarded as his legacy to the American
people. In this letter he insisted upon four things
as essential to the very existence of the United
His "legacy- States as an independent power. First
cai,tphe°opt7er'" thero must be an indissoluble union of
June 8, 1783. aU ^ ^^ ^^ & ^^ ^^
government, which must possess the power of en
forcing its decrees ; for without such authority it
would be a government only in name. Secondly,
the debts incurred by Congress for the purpose of
carrying on the war and securing independence
must be paid to the uttermost farthing. Thirdly,
the militia system must be organized through
out the thirteen states on uniform principles.
Fourthly, the people must be willing to sacrifice, if
need be, some of their local interests to the com
mon weal ; they must discard their local prejudices,
and regard one another as fellow-citizens of a com
mon country, with interests in the deepest and
truest sense identical.

V

v r
y

l-M-*"

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 65
The unparalleled grandeur of Washington's char
acter, Ins heroic services, and his utter disinterest
edness had given him such a hold upon the people
as scarcely any other statesman known to history,
save perhaps William the Silent, has ever pos
sessed. The noble and sensible words of his cir
cular letter were treasured up in the minds of all
the best people in the country, and when the time
for reforming the weak and disorderly government
had come it was again to Washington that men
looked as their leader and guide. But that time
had not yet come. Only through the discipline
of perplexity and tribulation could the people be
brought to realize the indispensable necessity of
that indissoluble union of which Washington had
spoken. Thomas Paine was sadly mistaken when,
in the moment of exultation over the peace, he de
clared that the trying time was ended. The most
trying time of all was just beginning. It is not
too much to say that the period of five jq-xvh fol
lowing the peace of 1783 was the most critical
moment in all the history of the American people.
The dangers from which we wero saved in 1788
were even greater than the dangers from which we
were saved in 1865. In the War of Secession
the love of union had come to be so strong that
thousands of men gave up their lives for it as cheer
fully and triumphantly as the martyrs of older
times, who sang their hymns of praise Atscnceoja
even while their flesh was witheriner in 8e»tim',»t <t
. & union, aud
the relentless flames. In 1783 the love s°n«<i'*e<1*
j. . danger of
ot union, as a sentiment for which men anarcl,y-
woidd fight, had scarcely come into existence

66 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
among the people of these states. The souls of
the men of that day had not been thrilled by the
immortal eloquence of Webster, nor had they
gained the historic experience which gave to Web
ster's words their meaning and their charm. They
had not gained control of all the fairest part of the
continent, with domains stretching more than three
thousand miles from ocean to ocean, and so situated
in geographical configuration and commercial rela
tions as to make the very idea of disunion absurd,
save for men in whose minds fanaticism for the
moment usurped the place of sound judgment.
The men of 1783 dwelt in a long, straggling series
of republics, fringing the Atlantic coast, bordered
on the north and south and west by two European
powers whose hostility they had some reason to
dread. But nine years had elapsed since, in the
first Continental Congress, they had begun to act
consistently and independently in common, under
the severe pressure of a common fear and an im
mediate necessity of action. Even under such cir
cumstances the war had languished and come nigh
to failure simply through the difficulty of insuring
concerted action. Had there been such a govern
ment that the whole power of the thirteen states
could have been swiftly and vigorously wielded as a
unit, the British, fighting at such disadvantage as
they did, might have been driven to their ships in less
than a year. The length of the war and its worst
hardships had been chiefly due to want of organiza
tion. Congress had steadily declined in power and
in respectability ; it was much weaker at the end
of the war than at the beginning ; and there was

f

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 57
reason to fear that as soon as tho common pressure
was removed the need for concerted action would
quite cease to be felt, and the scarcely formed
Union would break into pieces. There was the
greater reason for such a fear in that, while no
strong sentiment had as yet grown up in favour of
union, there was an intensely powerful sentiment
in favour of local self-government. This feeling
was scarcely less strong as between states like
Connecticut and Rhode Island, or Maryland and
Virginia, than it was between Athens and Megara,
Argos and Sparta, in the great days of Grecian
history. A most wholesome feeling it was, and onei
which needed not so much to be curbed as to be
guided in the right direction. It was a feeling'
which was shared by some of the foremost Revolu
tionary leaders, such as Samuel Adams and Rich
ard Henry Lee. But unless the most profound
and delicate statesmanship should be forthcoming,
to take this sentiment under its guidance, there
was much reason to fear that the release from the
common adhesion to Great Britain would end in
setting up thirteen little republics, ripe for endless
squabbling, like the republics of ancient Greece
and mediaeval Italy, and ready to become the prey
of England and Spain, even as Greece became the
prey of Macedonia.
As such a lamentable result was dreaded by
Washington, so by statesmen in Europe it was gen
erally expected, and by our enemies it was eagerly
hoped for. Josiah Tucker, Dean of Gloucester,
was a far-sighted man in many things; but he
said, " As to the future grandeur of America, and

58 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
its being a rising empire under one head, whether
republican or monarchical, it is one of the idlest
and most visionary notions that ever was con
ceived even by writers of romance. The mutual
antipathies and clashing interests of the Americans,
their difference of governments, habitudes, and
manners, indicate that they will have no centre of
union and no common interest. They never can
be united into one compact empire under any spe
cies of government whatever ; a disunited people
till the end of time, suspicious and distrustful of
each other, they will be divided and subdivided into
little commonwealths or principalities, according
to natural boundaries, by great bays of the sea,
and by vast rivers, lakes, and ridges of mountains."
Such were the views of a liberal-minded philos
opher who bore us no ill-will. George III. said
officially that he hoped the Americans would not
Buffer from the evils which in history had always
followed the throwing off of monarchical govern
ment : which meant, of course, that he hoped they
would suffer from such evils. Ho believed we
should get into such a snarl that the several states,
one after another, would repent and beg on their
knees to be taken back into the British empire.
Frederick of Prussia, though friendly to the Amer
icans, argued that the mere extent of country from
Maine to Georgia would suffice either to break up
the Union, or to make a monarchy necessary. No
republic, ho said, had ever long existed on so great
raise historic a sca^e* ^he Roman republic had been
analogies. transformed into a despotism mainly by
the excessive enlargement of its area. It was only

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 59

little states, like Venice, Switzerland, and Holland,
that could maintain a republican government.
Such arguments were common enough a century
ago, but they overlooked three essential differences
between the Roman republic and the United States.
The Roman republic in Caesar's time comprised
peoples differing widely in blood, in speech, and
in degree of civilization ; it was perpetually threat
ened on all its frontiers by powerful enemies ; and
representative assemblies were unknown to it. The
only free government of which the Roman knew
anything was that of the primary assembly or town
meeting. On the other hand, the people of the
United States were all English in speech, and
mainly English in blood. The differences in de
gree of civilization between such states as Massa
chusetts and North Carolina were considerable,
but in comparison with such differences as those
between Attika and Lusitania they might well be
called slight. The attacks of savages on the fron
tier were cruel and annoying, but never since the
time of King Philip had they seemed to threaten
the existence of the white man. A very small
military establishment was quite enough to deal
with the Indians. And to crown all, the American
people were thoroughly familiar with the principle
of representation, having practised it on a grand
scale for four centuries in England, and for more
than a century in America. The governments of
the thirteen states were all similar, and the polit
ical ideas of one were perfectly intelligible to all
the others. It was essentially fallacious, therefore,
to liken the case of the United States to that of
ancient Rome.

60 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
But there was another feature of the case which
was quite hidden from the men of 1783. Just be
fore the assembling of the first Continental Con
gress James Watt had completed his steam-engine.;
in the summer of 1787, while the Federal Con
vention was sitting at Philadelphia, John Fitch
launched his first steamboat on the Delaware
River ; and Stephenson's invention of the locomo-
SarUoTaeaSd tive was t0 foUow iD less than kalf a
upof perpetu- centlI17- E™n with all other conditions
American favourable, it is doubtful if the Ameri-
Union- can Union could have been preserved to
the present time without the railroad. But for the
military aid of railroads our government would
hardly have succeeded in putting down the rebel
lion of the southern states. In the debates on the
Oregon Bill in the United States Senate in 1843,
the idea that we could ever have an interest in so
remote a country as Oregon was loudly ridiculed
by some of the. members. It would take ten
months — said George McDuffie, the very able
senator from South Carolina — for representa
tives to get from that territory to the District of
Columbia and back again. Yet since the building
of railroads to the Pacific coast, W3 can go from
Boston to the capital of Oregon in much less time
than it took John Hancock to make the journey
from Boston to Philadelphia. Railroads and tele
graphs have made our vast country, both for polit
ical and for social purposes, more snug and com
pact than little Switzerland was in the Middle
Ages or New England a century ago.
At the time of our Revolution the difficulties of

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 61
travelling formed an important social obstacle to
tho union of the states. In our time the persons
who pass in a single day between New York and
Boston by six or seven distinct lines of railroad
and steamboat are numbered by thousands. In
1783 two stage-coaches were enough for all the
travellers, and nearly all the freight besides, that
went between these two cities, except such large
freight as went by sea around Cape Cod. The
journey began at three o'clock in the morning.
Horses were changed every twenty miles, and if
the roads were in good condition some forty miles
would be made by ten o'clock in the evening. In
bad weather, when the passengers had Difficulty of
to get clown and lift the clumsy wheels Sod^n-
out of deep ruts, the progress was much ag0"
slower. The loss of life from accidents, in propor
tion to the number of travellers, was much greater
than it has ever been on the railway. Broad riv
ers like the Connecticut and Housatonic had no
bridges. To drive across them in winter, when
they were solidly frozen over, was easy ; and in
pleasant summer weather to cross in a row-boat
was not a dangerous undertaking. But squalls at
some seasons and floating ice at others were things
to be feared. More than one instance is recorded
where boats were crushed and passengers drowned,
or saved only by scrambling upon ice-floes. After
a week or ten days of discomfort and danger the
jolted and jaded traveller reached New York.
Such was a journey in the most highly civilized
part of the United States. The case was still
worse in the South, and it was not so very much

62 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
better in England and France. In ono respect
the traveller in the United States fared better than
the traveller in Europe: the danger from highway
men was but slight.
Such being the difficulty of travelling, people
never made long journeys save for very important
reasons. Except in the case of the soldiers, most
people lived and died without ever having seen
any state but their own. And as the mails were
irregular and uncertain, and the rates of postage
very high, people heard from one another but sel
dom. Commercial dealings between the different
Btates were inconsiderable. The occupation of the
people was chiefly agriculture. Cities were few
and small, and each little district for the most
part svipported itself. Under such circumstances
the different parts of the country knew very lit
tle about each other, and local prejudices were in
tense. It was not simply free Massachusetts and
Local jealous- slave-holding South Carolina, or English
udw^S*" Connecticut and Dutch New York, that
JSS£^ misunderstood and ridiculed each the
"•gory- other ; but even between such neighbour
ing states as Connecticut and Massachusetts, both
of them thoroughly English and Puritan, and in
all their social conditions almost exactly alike, it
used often to be said that there was no love lost.
These unspeakably stupid and contemptible local
antipathies are inherited by civilized men from
that far-off time when the clan system prevailed
over the face of the earth, and the hand of every
clan was raised against its neighbours. They are
pale and evanescent survivals from the universal

r

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 63
primitive warfare, and the sooner they die out
from human society the better for every one.
They should be stigmatized and frowned down
upon every fit occasion, just as we frown upon
swearing as a symbol of anger and contention.
But the only thing which can finally destroy them
is the widespread and unrestrained intercourse of
different groups of people in peaceful social and
commercial relations. The rapidity with which
this process is now going on is the most encourag
ing of all the symptoms of our modern civilization.
But a century ago the progress made iu this direc
tion had been relatively small, and it was a very
critical moment for the American people.
The thirteen states, as already observed, had
worked in concert for only nine years, during
which their cooperation had been feeble and halt
ing. But the several state governments had been
in operation since the first settlement of the coun
try, and were regarded with intense loyalty by the
people of the states. Under the royal governors
the local political life of each state had been vig
orous and often stormy, as befitted communities of
the sturdy descendants of English freemen. The
legislative assembly of each state had stoutly de
fended its liberties against the encroachments of
the governor. In the eyes of tho people it was the
only power on earth competent to lay taxes upon
them, it was as supreme in its own sphere as the
British Parliament itself, and in behalf of this
rooted conviction the people had gone to war and
won their independence from England. During
the war the people of all the states, except Con-

64 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
necticut and Rhode Island, had carefully remod
elled their governments, and in the performance of
this work had withdrawn many of their ablest
statesmen from the Continental Congress ; but ex
cept for the expulsion of the royal and
ohararteV^i- proprietary governors, the work had in
no instance been revolutionary in its
character. It was not so much that the American
people gained an increase of freedom by their sep
aration from England, as that they kept the free
dom they had always enjoyed, that freedom which
was the inalienable birthright of Englishmen, but
which George III. had foolishly sought to impair.
The American Revolution was therefore in no re
spect destructive. It was the most conservative
revolution known to history, thoroughly English
in conception from beginning to end. It had no
likeness whatever to the terrible popular convulsion
which soon after took place in France. The mis
chievous doctrines of Rousseau had found few
readers and fewer admirers among the Americans.
The principles upon which their revolution was
conducted were those of Sidney, Harrington, and
Locke. In remodelling the state governments, as
in planning the union of the states, the precedents
followed and the principles applied were almost
purely English. We must now pass in review the
principal changes wrought in the several states,
and we shall then be ready to consider the general
structure of the Confederation, and to describe the
remarkable series of events which led to the adop
tion of our Federal Constitution.
It will be remembered that at the time of the

;~-\

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.

65

*>

\

s

Declaration of Independence there were three kinds
of "•overnment in the colonies. Connecticut and
Rhode Island had always been true republics, with
governors and legislative assemblies elected by the
people. Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland
presented the appearance of limited hereditary
monarchies. Their assemblies were chosen by the
people, but the lords proprietary appointed their
governors, or in some instances acted as governors
themselves. In Maryland the office of lord pro
prietary was hereditary in the Calvert Btate govem-
. -r-. ¦» 1-n 1 ments remod-
family ; m Delaware and Jrennsylvania, elled . assom-
y , ... -i ,-t hlies continued
which, though distinct common weaitns Irom colonial
with separate legislatures, had the same
executive head, it was hereditary in the Penn fam
ily. The other eight colonies were viceroyalties,
with governors appointed by the king, while in all
alike the people elected the legislatures. Accord
ingly in Connecticut and Rhode Island no change
was made necessary by the Revolution, beyond the
mere omission of the king's name from legal doc
uments ; and their charters, which dated from tho
middle of the seventeenth century, continued to do
duty as state constitutions till far into the nine
teenth. During the Revolutionary War all the
other states framed new constitutions, but in most
essential respects they took the old colonial char
ters for their model. The popular legislative body
remained unchanged even in its name. In North
Carolina its supreme dignity was vindicated in its
title of the House of Commons ; in Virginia it was
called the House of Burgesses; in most of the
states the House of Representatives. The mem-

66 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 67

bers were chosen each year, except in South Caro
lina, where they served for two years. In the
New England states they represented the town
ships, in other states the counties. In all the
states except Pennsylvania a property qualification
was required of them.
In addition to this House of Representatives all
the legislatures except' those of Pennsylvania and
Georgia contained a second or upper house known
Origin of tha as ^Q Senate. The origin of the senate
8-"u=- is to be found in the governor's council
of colonial times, just as the House of Lords is de
scended from the Witenagemot or council of great
barons summoned by the Old-English kings. The
Americans had been used to having tho acts of
their popular assemblies reviewed by a council,
and so they retained this revisory body as an upper
house. A higher property qualification was re
quired than for membership of the lower house,
and, except in New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
and South Carolina, the term of service was longer.
In Marjdand senators sat for five years, in Vir
ginia and New York for four years, elsewhere for
two years. In some states they were chosen by
the people, in others by the lower house. . In
Maryland they were chosen by a college of electors,
thus affording a precedent for the method of elect
ing the chief magistrate of the union under the
Federal Constitution.
Governors were unpopular in those days. There
was too much flavour of royalty and high preroga
tive about them. Except in the two republics of
Rhode Island and Connecticut, American political

•<

history during the eighteenth century was chiefly
tho record of interminable squabbles between gov
ernors and legislatures, down to the moment when
the detested agents of royalty were clapped into
jail, or took refuge behind the bulwarks of a Brit
ish seventy-four. Accordingly the new constitu
tions were very chary of the powers to be exercised
by the governor. In Pennsylvania and
Delaware, in New Hampshire and Mas- viewed with
_ n suspicion.
sachusetts, the governor was at first re
placed by an executive council, and the president
of this council was first magistrate and titular ruler
of the state. His dignity was imposing enough,
but his authority was merely that of a chairman.
The other states had governors chosen by the leg
islatures, except in New York where the governor
was elected by the people. No one was eligible to
the office of governor who did not possess a speci
fied amount of property. In most of the states
the governor could not be reelected, he had no veto
upon the acts of the legislature, nor any power of
appointing officers. In 1780, in a new constitution
drawn up by James Bowdoin and the two Adamses,
Massachusetts led the way in the construction of a
more efficient executive department. Tho presi
dent was replaced by a governor elected annually
by the people, and endowed with the power of ap
pointment and a suspensory veto. The first gov
ernor elected under this constitution was John
Hancock. In 1783 New Hampshire adopted a
similar constitution. In 1790 Pennsylvania added
an upper house to its legislature, and vested the
executive power in a governor elected by the pec-

68 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
pie for a term of three years, and twice ineligible.
He was intrusted with the power of appointment
to offices, with a suspensory veto, and with the
royal prerogative of reprieving or pardoning crim
inals. In 1792 similar changes were made in Del
aware. In 1789 Georgia added the upper house
to its legislature, and about the same time in sev
eral states the governor's powers were enlarged.
^ Thus the various state governments were repeti
tions on a small scale of what was then supposed
to be the triplex government of England, with its
King, Lords, and Commons. The governor an
swered to the king with his dignity curtailed by
election for a short period, and by narrowly limited
prerogatives. The senate answered to the House
of Lords, except in being a representative and not
a hereditary body. It was supposed to represent
more especially that part of the community which
was possessed of most wealth and consideration ;
and in several states the senators were apportioned
with some reference to the amount of taxes paid
by different parts of the state. The senate of
New York, in direct imitation of the House of
Lords, was made a supreme court of errors. On
the other hand, the assembly answered to the
House of Commons, save that its power was really
limited by the senate as the power of the House
of Commons is not really limited by the House of
Lords. But this peculiarity of the British Consti
tution was not well understood a century ago : and
the misunderstanding, as we shall hereafter see,
exerted a very serious influence upon the form of
our federal government, as well as upon the consti
tutions of the several states.

The judiciary.

~y

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 69
In all the thirteen states the common law of
England remained in force, as it docs to this day
save where modified by statute. British and col
onial statutes made prior to the Revolution contin
ued also in force unless expressly repealed. The
system of civil and criminal courts, the remedies in
common law and equity, the forms of writs, the
functions of justices of the peace, the courts of
probate, all remained substantially unchanged. In
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New ^^rsey, the
judges held office for a term of seven years ; in all
the other states they held office for life or during
good behaviour. In all the states save Georgia
they were appointed either by the gov
ernor or by the legislature. It was
Georgia that in 1812 first set the pernicious ex
ample of electing judges for short terms by the
people,1 — a practice which is responsible for much
of the degradation that the courts have suffered in
many of our states, and which will have to be aban
doned before a proper administration of justice can
ever be secured.
In bestowing the suffrage, the new constitutions
were as conservative as in all other respects. The
general state of opinion in America at that time,
with regard to universal suffrage, was far more ad
vanced than the general state of opinion in Eng
land, but it was less advanced than the opinions
of such statesmen as Pitt and Shelburne and the
Duke of Richmond. There was a truly English
irregularity in the provisions which were made on
1 In recent years Georgia has been one of the first states to
abandon this bad practice.

70 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
this subject. Iu New Hampshire, Pennsylvania,
The limited Delaware, and South Carolina, all resi-
auffragB. j^ f reemcn wJj0 p^ taxeg C0U1(J yQ%Q,
In North Carolina all such persons could vote for
members of the lower house, but in order to vote
for senators a freehold of fifty acres was required.
In Virginia none could vote save those who pos
sessed such a freehold of fifty acres. To vote for
governor or for senators in New York, one must
possess a freehold of $250, clear of mortgage, and
to vote for assemblymen one must either have a
freehold of $50, or pay a yearly rent of $10. The
pettiness of these sums was in keeping with the
time when two daily coaches sufficed for the traffic
between our two greatest commercial cities. In
Rhode Island an unincumbered freehold worth
$134 was required ; but in Rhode Island and Penn
sylvania the eldest sons of qualified freemen could
vote without payment of taxes. In all the other
states the possession of a small amount of property,
either real or personal, varying from $33 to $200,
was the necessary qualification for voting. Thus
slowly and irregularly did the states drift toward
universal suffrage ; but although the impediments
in the way of voting were more serious than they
seem to us in these days when the community is
more prosperous and money less scarce, they were
still not very great, and in the opinion of conserva
tive people they barely sufficed to exclude from the
suffrage such shiftless persons as had no visible in
terest in keeping down the taxes.
At the time of the Revolution the succession to
property was regulated in New York and the south-

^^

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 71
ern states by the English rule of primogeniture.
The eldest son took all. In New Jersey, Pennsyl
vania, Delaware, and the four New England states,
the eldest son took a double share. It
. , . . Abolition of
was Georgia that led the way in decree- primogeni-
. , in. •, • » • ture' en'0"8!
ing the equal distribution of intestate and manorial
property, both real and personal; and
between 1784 and 1796 the example was followed
by all the other states. At the same time entails
were either definitely abolished, or the obstacles to
cutting them off were removed. In New York the
manorial privileges of the great patroons were
swept away. In Maryland the old manorial system
had long been dying a natural death through the
encroachments of the patriarchal system of slavery.
The ownership of all ungranted lands within the
limits of the thirteen states passed from the crown
not to the Confederacy, but to the several state
governments. In Pennsylvania and Maryland such
ungranted lands had belonged to the lords proprie
tary. They were now forfeited to the state. The
Penn family was indemnified by Pennsylvania to
the amount of half a million dollars ; but Mary
land made no compensation to the Calverts, inas
much as their claim was presented by an illegiti
mate descendant of the last Lord Baltimore.
The success of the American Revolution made it
possiblo for the different states to take measures
for the gradual abolition of slavery and tho imme
diate abolition of the foreign slave-trade. On this
great question the state of public opinion hi Amer
ica was more advanced than in England. So great
a thinker as Edmund Burke, who devoted much

72 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
thought to the subject, came to the conclusion that
, slavery was an incurable evil, and that
Steps toward " '
tho abolition there was not the slightest hope that
of slavery and ° A
tuesiavo- the trade m slaves could be stopped.
The most that he thought could be done
by judicious legislation was to mitigate the horrors
which the poor negroes endured on board ship, or
to prevent wives from being sold away from their
husbands or children from their parents. Such
was the outlook to one of the greatest political
philosophers of modern times just eighty-two years
before the immortal proclamation of President
Lincoln I But how vast was the distance between
Burke and Bossuet, who had declared about eighty
years earlier that " to condemn slavery was to con
demn the Holy Ghost ! " It was equally vast be
tween Burke and his contemporary Thurlow, who in
1799 poured out the vials of his wrath upon " the
altogether miserable and contemptible" proposal
to abolish the slave-trade. George III. agreed
with his chancellor, and resisted the movement for
abolition with all the obstinacy of which his hard
and narrow nature was capable. In 1769 the Vir
ginia legislature had enacted that the further im
portation of negroes, to be sold into slavery, should
be prohibited. But George III. commanded the
governor to veto this act, and it was vetoed. In
Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Inde
pendence, this action of the king was made the oc
casion of a fierce denunciation of slavery, but in
deference to the prejudices of South Carolina and
Georgia the clause was struck out by Congress.
When George III. and his vetoes had been elimi-

V

\t

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 73
nated from the case, it became possible for the states
to legislate freely on the subject. In 1776 negro
slaves were held in all the thirteen states, but in
all except South Carolina and Georgia there was a
strong seii timent in favour of emancipation. In
North Carolina, which contained a large Quaker
population, and in which estates were small and
were often cultivated by free labour, the pro-slavery
feeling was never so strong as in the southernmost
states. In Virginia all the foremost statesmen —
Washington, Jefferson, Lee, Randolph, Henry,
Madison, and Mason — were opposed to the continu
ance of slavery ; and their opinions were shared by
many of the largest planters. For tobacco-culture
slavery did not seem so indispensable as for the
raising of rice and indigo ; and in Virginia the
negroes, half-civilized by kindly treatment, were
not regarded with horror by their masters, like the
ill-treated and ferocious blacks of South Carolina
and Georgia. After 1808 the policy and the sen
timents of Virginia uuderwent a marked change.
The invention of the cotton-gin, taken in connec
tion with the sudden and prodigious development
of manufactures in England, greatly stimulated the
growth of cotton in the ever-enlarging area of the
Gulf states, and created an immense demand for
slave-labour, just at the time when the importation
of negroes from Africa came to an end. The
breeding of slaves, to be sold to the planters of the
Gulf states, then became such a profitable occupa
tion in Virginia as entirely to change the popular
feeling about slavery. But until 1808 Virginia
sympathized with the anti-slavery sentiment which

74 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
was growing up in the northern states ; and the
same was true of Maryland. Emancipation was,
however, much more easy to accomplish in the
north, because the number of slaves was small, and
economic circumstances distinctly favoured free
labour. In the work of gradual emancipation the
little state of Delaware led the way. In its new con
stitution of 1776 the further introduction of slaves
was prohibited, all restraints upon emancipation
having already been removed. In the assembly of
Virginia in 1778 a bill prohibiting the further in
troduction of slaves was moved and carried by
Thomas Jefferson, and the same measure was passed
in Maryland in 1783, while both these states re
moved all restraints upon emancipation. North
Carolina was not ready to go quite so far, but in
1786 she sought to discourage the slave-trade by
putting a duty of £5 per head on all negroes there
after imported. New Jersey followed the example
of Maryland and Virginia. Pennsylvania went
farther. In 1780 its assembly enacted that no
more slaves should be brought in, and that all
children of slaves born after that date should be
free. The same provisions were made by New
Plampshire in its new constitution of 1783, and by
the assemblies of Connecticut and Rhode Island in
1784. New York went farther still, and in 1785
enacted that all children of slaves thereafter born
should not only be free, but should be admitted to
vote on the same conditions as other freemen. In
1788 Virginia, which contained many free negroes,
enacted that any person convicted of kidnapping
or selling into slavery any free person should suffer

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 75
death on the gallows. Summing up all these facts, ,,.
we seo that within two years after tho independence
of the United States had been acknowledged by
England, while the two southernmost states had
done nothing to check the growth of slavery, North
Carolina had discouraged the importation of slaves ;
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey
had stopped such importation and removed all re
straint upon emancipation ; and all the remaining
states, except Massachusetts, had made gradual
emancipation compulsory. Massachusetts had gone
still farther. Before the Revolution -the anti-
slavery feeling had been stronger there than in any
any other state, and cases brought into court for
the purpose of testing the legality of slavery had
been decided in favour of those who were opposed
to the continuance of that barbarous institution.
In 1777 an American cruiser brought into the port
of Salem a captured British ship with slaves on
board, and these slaves were advertised for sale,
but on complaint being made before the legislature
they were set free. The new constitution of 1780
contained a declaration of rights which asserted
that all men are born free and have an equal and
inalienable right to defend their lives and liberties,
to acquire property, and to seek and obtain safety
and happiness. The supreme court presently de
cided that this clause worked the abolition of slav
ery, and accordingly Massachusetts was the first of
American states, within the limits of the Union, to
become in the full sense of the words a free com
monwealth. Of the negro inhabitants, not more
than six thousand in number, a large proportion

76 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
had already for a long time enjoyed freedom ; and
all were now admitted to the suffrage on the same
terms as other citizens.
By the revolutionary legislation of the states
some progress was also effected in the direction of
a more complete religious freedom. Pennsylvania
and Delaware were the only states in which all
Christian sects stood socially and politi-
Progress to- " "i
wardfrcodom cally on an equal footing. In Rhode,
in religion. J ¦*• °
Island all Protestants enjoyed equal
privileges, but Catholics were debarred from vot
ing. In. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and
Connecticut, the old Puritan Congregationalism
was the established religion. The Congregational
church was supported by taxes, and the minister,
once chosen, kept his place for life or during good
behaviour. He could not be got rid of unless for
mally investigated and dismissed by an ecclesiasti
cal council. Laws against blasphemy, which were
virtually laws against heresy, were in force in these
three states. In Massachusetts, Catholic priests
were liable to imprisonment for life. Any one
who should dare to speculate too freely about the
nature of Christ, or the philosophy of the plan of
salvation, or to express a doubt as to the plenary
inspiration of every word between the two covers
of the Bible, was subject to fine and imprisonment.
The tithing-man still arrested Sabbath-breakers
and shut them up in the town-cage in the market
place ; he stopped all unnecessary riding or driving
on Sunday, and haled people off to the meeting
house whether they would or not. Such restraints
upon liberty were still endured by people who had

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 77
dared and suffered so much for liberty's sake.
The men of Boston strove hard to secure tho repeal
of these barbarous laws and the disestablishment
of the Congregational church ; but they were out
voted by the delegates from the rural towns. The
most that could be accomplished was the provision
that dissenters might escape the church-rate by
supporting a church of their own. The nineteenth
century was to arrive before church and state were
finally separated in Massachusetts. The new con
stitution of New Hampshire was similarly illiberal,
and in Connecticut no change was made. Rhode
Island nobly distinguished herself by contrast
when in 1784 she extended the franchise to Cath
olics. In the six states just mentioned the British gov
ernment had been hindered by charter, and by the
overwhelming opposition of the people, from seri
ously trying to establish the Episcopal church.
The sure fate of any such mad experiment had
been well illustrated in the time of Andros. In
the other seven states there were no such insupera
ble obstacles. The Church of England was main
tained with languid acquiescence in New York.
By the Quakers and Presbyterians of New Jersey
and North Carolina, as well as in half-Catholic,
half-Puritan Maryland, its supremacy was unwill
ingly endured ; in the turbulent frontier common
wealth of Georgia it was accepted with easy con
tempt. Only in South Carolina and Virginia had
the Church of England ever possessed any real
hold upon the people. The Episcopal clergy of
South Carolina, men of learning and high charac-

78 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
ter, elected by their own congregations instead of
being appointed to their livings by a patron, were
thoroughly independent, and in tho late war their
powerful influence had been mainly exerted in
behalf of the patriot cause. Hence, while they
retained their influence after the close of the war
there was no difficulty in disestablishing the church!
It felt itself able to stand without government sup
port. As soon as the political separation from
England was effected, the Episcopal church was
accordingly separated from the state, not only in
South Carolina, but in all the states in which it
had hitherto been upheld by the authority of the
-British government; and in the constitutions of
New Jersey, Georgia, and the two Carolinas, no
less than m those of Delaware and Pennsylvania
it was explicitly provided that no man should be
obliged to pay any church rate or attend any reli
gious service save according to his own free and
unhampered will.
The case of Virginia was peculiar. At first the
Church of England had taken deep root there
because of the considerable immigration of mem
bers of the Cavalier party after the downfall of
Charles I. Most of the great statesmen of Vir
ginia in the Revolution — such as Washington
Madison, Mason, Jefferson, Pendleton, Henry, the
church and Lees> and the Randolphs — were de-
statem vir- scendants of Cavaliers and members of
the Church of England. But for a long
time the Episcopal clergy had been falling into
discredit. Many of them were appointed by the
British government and ordained by the Bishop

r~-

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 79
of London, and they were affected by the irreli
gious listlcssness and low moral tone of the English
church in the eighteenth century. The Virginia
legislature thought it necessary to pass special laws
prohibiting these clergymen from drunkenness and
riotous living. It was said that they spent more
time in hunting foxes and betting on race-horses
than in conducting religious services or visiting
the sick ; and according to Bishop Meade, many
dissolute parsons, discarded from the church in
England as unworthy, were yet thought fit to be
presented with livings in Virginia. To this gen
eral character of the clergy there were many ex
ceptions. There were many excellent clergymen,
especially among the native Virginians, whose ap
pointment depended to some extent upon the repute
in which they were held by their neighbours. But
on the whole the system was such as to illustrate
all the worst vices of a church supported by the
temporal power. The Revolution achieved the dis
comfiture of a clergy already thus deservedly dis
credited. The parsons mostly embraced the cause
of the crown, but failed to carry their congrega
tions with them, and thus they found themselves
arrayed in hopeless antagouism to popular senti
ment in a state which contained perhaps fewer
Tories in proportion to its population than any
other of the thirteen.
At the same time the Episcopal church itself
had gradually come to be a minority in the com
monwealth. For more than half a century Scotch
and Welsh Presbyterians, German Lutherans,
English Quakers, and Baptists, had been work-

80 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
ing their way southward from Pennsylvania and
New Jersey, and had settled in the fertile country
west of the Blue Ridge. Daniel Morgan, who had
won the most brilliant battle of the Revolution,
was one of these men, and sturdiness was a chief
characteristic of most of them. So long as these
frontier settlers served as a much-needed bulwark^
against the Indians, the church saw fit to ignore
them and let them build meeting-houses and carry
on religious services as they pleased. But when
the peril of Indian attack had been thrust west
ward into the Ohio valley, and these dissenting
communities had waxed strong and prosperous,
the ecclesiastical party in the state undertook to
lay taxes on them for the support of the Church
of England, and to compel them to receive Epis
copal clergymen to preach for them, to bless them
in marriage, and to bury their dead. The imme
diate consequence was a revolt which not only
overthrew the established church in Virginia, but
nearly effected its ruin. The troubles began in
1768, when the Baptists had made their way into
the centre of the state, and three of their preach
ers were arrested by the sheriff of Spottsylvania.
As the indictment was read against these men for
" preaching the gospel contrary to law," a deep
and solemn voice interrupted the proceedings.
Patrick Henry had come on horseback many a
mile over roughest roads to listen to the trial,
and this phrase, which savoured of the religious
despotisms of old, was quite too much for him.
"May it please your worships," he exclaimed,
" what did I hear read ? Did I hear an expression

i

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 81
that these men, whom your worships are about to
try for misdemeanour, are charged with preaching
the gospel of the Son of God I " The shamefast
silence and confusion which ensued was of ill omen
for the success of an undertaking so unwelcome to
the growing liberalism of the time. The zeal of
the persecuted Baptists was presently reinforced
by the learning and the dialectic skill of the Pres
byterian ministers. Unlike the Puritans of New
England, the Presbyterians were in favour of the
total separation of church from state. It was one
of their cardinal principles that the civil magistrate
had no right to interfere in any way with matters
of religion. By taking this broad ground they
secured the powerful aid of Thomas Jefferson, and
afterwards of Madison and Mason. The contro
versy went on through all the years of the Revo
lutionary War, while all Virginia, from the sea to
the mountains, rang with fulminations and argu
ments. In 1776 Jefferson and Mason succeeded
in carrying a bill which released all dissenters from
parish rates and legalized all forms of worship.
At last in 1785 Madison won the crowning victory
in the Religious Freedom Act, by which the Church
of England was disestablished and all MadiBOn mA
parish rates abolished, and still more, Freedom A^t,
all religious tests were done away with. 1785- \
In this last respect Virginia came to the front
among all the American states, as Massachusetts
•had come to the front in the abolition of negro/
slavery. Nearly all the states still imposed reli
gious tests upon civil office-holders, from simply
declaring a general belief in the infallibleness of

:¦ -¦:•¦¦

- Zp\

82 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
the Bible to accepting the doctrine of the Trinity.
The Virginia statute, which declared that " opinion
in matters of religion shall in nowise diminish,
enlarge, or affect civil capacities," was translated
into French and Italian, and was widely read and
commented on in Europe.
It is the historian's unpleasant duty to add that
the victory thus happily won was ungenerously fol
lowed up. Theological and political odium com
bined to overwhelm the Episcopal church in Vir
ginia. The persecuted became persecutors. It
was contended that the property of the church,
having been largely created by unjustifiable taxa
tion, ought to be forfeited. In 1802 its parson
ages and glebe lands were sold, its parishes wiped
out, and its clergy left without a calling. "A
reckless sensualist," said Dr. Hawks, " adminis
tered the morning dram to his guests from the
silver cup " used in the communion service. But
in all this there is a manifest historic lesson. That
it should have been possible thus to deal with the
Episcopal church in Virginia shows forcibly the
moribund condition into which it had been brought
through dependence upon the extraneous aid of a
political sovereignty from which the people of Vir
ginia were severing their allegiance. The lesson
is most vividly enhanced by the contrast with the
church of South Carolina which, rooted in its own
soil, was quite able to stand alone when govern
ment aid was withdrawn. In Virginia the church
in which George Washington was reared had so
nearly vanished by the year 1830 that Chief Jus
tice Marshall said it was folly to dream of reviv-

t

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 83
ing so dead a thing. Nevertheless, under the
noble ministration of its great bishop, William
Meade, the Episcopal church in Virginia, no
longer relying upon state aid, but trusting in the
divine persuasive power of spiritual truth, was even
then entering upon a new life and beginning to
exercise a most wholesome influence.
The separation of the English church in Amer
ica from the English crown was the occasion of a
curious difficulty with regard to the ordination of
bishops. Until after the Revolution there were no
bishops of that church in America, and between
1783 and 1785 it was not clear how candidates for
holy orders could receive the necessary consecra
tion. In 1784 a young divinity student „
J ¦»«• r Mason Weema
from Maryland, named Mason Weems, and samuei
who had been studying for some time
in England, applied to the Bishop of London for
admission to holy orders, but was rudely refused.
Weems then had recourse to Watson, Bishop of
Llandaff, author of the famous reply to Gibbon.
Watson treated him kindly and advised him to get
a letter of recommendation from the governor of
Maryland, but after this had been obtained he re
ferred him to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who
said that nothing could be done without the con
sent of Parliament. As the law stood, no one
could be admitted into the ranks of the English
clergy without taking the oath of allegiance and
acknowledging the king of England as the head of
the church. Weems then wrote to John Adams
at the Hague, and to Franklin at Paris, to see if
there were any Protestant bishops on the Con-

84 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
tinent from whom he could obtain consecration.
A rather amusing diplomatic correspondence en
sued, and finally the king of Denmark, after tak
ing theological advice, kindly offered the services
of a Danish bishop, who was to perform the cere
mony in Latin. Weems does not seem to have
availed himself of this permission, probably because
the question soon reached a more satisfactory solu
tion.1 About the same time the Episcopal church
in Connecticut sent one of its ministers, Samuel
Seabury of New London, to England, to be or
dained as bishop. The oaths of allegiance and
supremacy stood as much in the way of the learned
and famous minister as in that of the young and
obscure student. Seabury accordingly appealed to
November 14 *ke non-juring Jacobite bishops of the
n84. Episcopal church of Scotland, and at
length was duly ordained at Aberdeen as bishop
of the diocese of Connecticut. While Seabury
was in England, the churches in the various states
1 I suppose it was this same Mason Weems that was afterward
known in Virginia as Parson Weems, of Pohick parish, near
Mount Vernon. See Magazine of American History, iii. 4G5-472 j
t. 85-90. At first an eccentrio preacher, Parson Weems became
an itinerant -violin-player and book-peddler, and author of that
edifying work, The Life of George Washington, with Curious An
ecdotes equally Honourable to Himself and Exemplary to his Young
Countrymen. On the title-page the author describes himself as
"formerly roctor of Mount Vernon Parish,"— which Bishop
Meade calls preposterous. The book is a farrago of absurdities,
reminding one, alike in its te-ct and its illustrations, of an over
grown English chap-book of the olden time. It lias had an enor
mous sale, and has very likely contributed moro than any other
single book toward forming the popular notion of Washington.
It seems to have been this fiddling parson that first gave currency
to the everlasting story of the cherry-tree and the little hatchet.

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 85
chose delegates to a general convention, wliich
framed a constitution for the " Protestant Epis
copal Church of the United States of America."
Advowsons were abolished, some parts of the lit
urgy were dropped, and the tenure of ministers,
even of bishops, was to be during good behaviour.
At the same time a friendly letter was sent to the
bishops of England, urging them to secure, if pos
sible, an act of Parliament whereby American
clergymen might be ordained without taking the
oaths of allegiance and supremacy. Such an act
was obtained without much difficulty, and three
American bishops were accordingly consecrated in
due form. The peculiar ordination of Seabury
was also recognized as valid by the general con
vention, and thus the Episcopal church in Amer
ica was fairly started on its independent career.
This foundation of a separate episcopacy west
of the Atlantic was accompanied by the further
separation of the Methodists as a distinct religious
society. Although John Wesley regarded the no
tion of an apostolical succession as superstitious,
he had made no attempt to separate his followers
from the national church. He translated the titles
of " bishop " and " priest " from Greek into Latin
and English, calling them " superintendent " and
" elder," but he did not deny the king's headship.
Meanwhile during the long period of his preaching
there had begun to grow up a Methodist church
in America. George Whitefield had come over
and preached in Georgia in 1737, and in Massa
chusetts in 1744, where he encountered much op
position on the part of the Puritan clergy. But

86 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
the first Methodist church in America was founded
in the city of New York in 1766. In 1772 Wesley
sent over Francis Asbury, a man of shrewd sense
and deep religious feeling, to act as his
Francis As- . , ....
bury and the assistant and representative m this coun-
Methodists. f
try. At that time there were not moro
than a thousand Methodists, with six preachers,
and all these were in the middle and southern col
onies ; but within five years, largely owing to the
zeal and eloquence of Asbury, these numbers had
increased sevenfold. At the end of the war, see
ing the American Methodists cut loose from the
English establishment, Wesley in his own house at
Bristol, with the aid of two presbyters, proceeded
to ordain ministers enough to make a presbytery,
and thereupon set apart Thomas Coke to be
"superintendent" or bishop for America. On the
same day of November, 1784, on which Seabury
was consecrated by the non-jurors, at Aberdeen,
Coke began preaching and baptizing in Mary
land, in rude chapels built of logs or under the
shade of forest trees. On Christmas Eve a con
ference assembled at Baltimore, at which Asbury
was chosen bishop by some sixty ministers pres
ent, and ordained by Coke, and the constitution of
the Methodist church in America was organized.
Among the poor white people of the southern
states, and among the negroes, the new church
rapidly obtained great sway ; and at a somewhat
later date it began to assume considerable propor
tions in the north.
Four years after this the Presbyterians, who
were most numerous in the middle states, organ-

r

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 87
ized their government in a general'assemblyi which
was also attended by Congregationalist delegates
from New England in the capacity of simple ad
visers. The theological difference between these
two sects was so slight that an alliance grew up
between them, and in Connecticut some fifty years
later their names were often inaccurately used as
if synonymous. Such a difference seemed to vanish
when confronted with the newer differences that
began to spring up soon after the. close TcaibJla/iiaai
of the Revolution. The revolt against Roman catho-
the doctrine of eternal punishment was
already beginning in New England, and among
the learned and thoughtful clergy of Massachusetts
the seeds of Unitarianism were germinating. The
gloomy intolerance of an older time was beginning
to yield to more enlightened views. In 1789 the
first Roman Catholic church in New England was
dedicated in Boston. So great had been the preju
dice against this sect that in 1784 there were only
600 Catholics in all New England. In the four
southernmost states, on the other hand, there were
2,500 ; in New York and New Jersey there were
1,700; in Delaware and Pennsylvania there were
7,700; in Maryland there were 20,000; while
among the French settlements along the eastern
bank of the Mississippi there were supposed to be
nearly 12,000. In 1786 John Carroll, a cousin of
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, was selected by the
Pope as his apostolic vicar, and was afterward suc
cessively made bishop of Baltimore and archbishop
of the United States. By 1789 all obstacles to the
Catholic worship had been done away with in all
the states.

88 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
In this brief survey of the principal changes
wrought in the several states by the separation
from England, one cannot fail to be struck with
their conservative character. Things proceeded
just as they had done from time immemorial with
the English race. Forms of government were
modified just far enough to adapt them to the new
situation and no farther. The abolition of entails,
of primogeniture, and of such few manorial privi
leges as existed,, were useful reforms of far less
sweeping character than similar changes would
have been in England ; and they were accordingly
effected with ease. Even the abolition of slavery
in the northern states, where negroes were few in
number and chiefly employed in domestic service,
wrought nothing in the remotest degree resembling
a social revolution. But nowhere was this consti
tutionally cautious and precedent-loving mode of
proceeding more thoroughly exemplified than in
the measures just related, whereby the Episcopal
and Methodist churches were separated from the
English establishment and placed upon an inde
pendent footing in the new world. From another
Eice t in tho P0™* 0-^ view it may be observed that all
sifverceau these changes, except in the instance of
were0 favourable slavery, tended to assimilate the states
to union. £0 oue another in their political and
social condition. So far as they went, these changes
were favourable to union, and this was perhaps
especially true in the case of the ecclesiastical
bodies, which brought citizens of different states
into cooperation in pursuit of specific ends in
common.

r

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 89
At the same time this survey most forcibly re
minds us how completely the legislation which
immediately affected the daily domestic life of the
citizen was the legislation of the single state in
which he lived. In the various reforms just passed
in review the United States government took no
part, and could not from the nature of the case.
Even to-day our national government has no power
over such matters, and it is to be hoped it never
will have. But at the present day our national
government performs many important functions of
common concern, which a century ago were scarcely
performed at all. The organization of the single
state was old in principle and well understood by
everybody. It therefore worked easily, and such
changes as those above described were brought
about with little friction. On the other hand, the
principles upon which the various relations of the
states to each other were to be adjusted were not
well understood. There was wide disagreement
upon the subject, and the attempt to compromise
between opposing views was not at first successful.
Hence, in the management of affairs which con
cerned the United States as a nation, we shall not
find the central machinery working smoothly or
quietly. We are about to traverse a period of
uncertainty and confusion, in which it required all
the political sagacity and all the good temper of
the people to save the half-built ship of state from
going to pieces on the rocks of civil contention.

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

91

CHAPTER III.
THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.
That some kind of union existed between the
states was doubted by no one. Ever since the
assembling of the first Continental Congress in
1774 the thirteen commonwealths had acted in
concert, and sometimes most generously, as when
Maryland and South Carolina had joined in the
Declaration of Independence without any crying
grievances of their own, from a feeling that the
cause of one should be the cause of all. It has
sometimes been said that the Union was in its ori
gin a league of sovereign states, each of which sur
rendered a specific portion of its sovereignty to
the federal government for the sake of the common
welfare. Grave political arguments have been
based upon this alleged fact, but such an account
of the matter is not historically true. There never
was a time when Massachusetts or Virginia was an
absolutely sovereign state like Holland or France.
Sovereign over their own internal affairs they are
to-day as they were at the time of the Revolution,
but there was never a time when they presented
themselves before other nations as sovereign, or
were recognized as such. Under the government
of England before the Revolution the thirteen
commonwealths were independent of one another,

V

and were held together, juxtaposed rather than
united, only through their allegiance to The several
il T> • • 1 TT ,1 • Btat0IJ lm™
the Untish crown. Had that allegiance "«™r enjoyed
. .... . ° complete sov-
been maintained there is no telling how oroignty.
long they might have gone on thus disunited ; and
this, it seems, should be one of our chief reasons
for rejoicing that the political connection with
England was dissolved when it was. A permanent
redress of grievances, and even virtual indepen
dence such as Canada now enjoys, we might per
haps havo gained had we listened to Lord North's
proposals after the surrender of Burgoyne; but
the formation of the Federal Union would cer
tainly have been long postponed, and when we
realize the grandeur of tho work which we are now
doing in the world through the simple fact of such
a union, we cannot fail to see that such an issue
would have been extremely unfortunate. How
ever this may be, it is clear that until the connec
tion with England was severed the thirteen com
monwealths were not united, nor were they
sovereign. It is also clear that in the very act of
severing their connection with England these com
monwealths entered into some sort of union which
was incompatible with their absolute sovereignty
taken severally. It was not the people of New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, and so on through the
list, that declared their independence of Great
Britain, but it was the representatives of the
United States in Congress assembled, and speak
ing as a single body in the name of the whole.
Three weeks before this declaration was adopted,
Congress appointed a committee to draw up the

92

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

93

"articles of confederation and perpetual union,"
by which the sovereignty of the several states was
expressly limited and curtailed in many important
particulars. This committee had finished its work
by the 12th of July, but the articles were not
adopted by Congress until the autumn of 1777, and
they were not finally put into operation until tho
spring of 1781. During this inchoate period of
union the action of the United States was that
of a confederation in which some portion of the
several sovereignties was understood to be sur
rendered to the whole. It was the business of the
articles to define the precise nature and extent of
this surrendered sovereignty which no state by it
self ever exercised. In the mean time this sover
eignty, undefined in nature and extent, was exer
cised, as well as circumstances permitted, by the
Continental Congress.
A most remarkable body was this Continental
The Continen- Congress. For the vicissitudes through
itaStraordt' which it passed, there is perhaps no
nary character. other revoiutionary body, save the Long
Parliament, which can be compared with it. For
its origin we must look back to the committees
of correspondence devised by Jonathan Mayhew,
Samuel Adams, and Dabney Carr. First assem
bled in 1774 to meet an emergency which was gen
erally believed to be only temporary, it continued
to sit for nearly seven years before its powers were
ever clearly defined ; and during those seven years
it exercised some of the highest functions of sover
eignty which are possible to any governing body.
It declared the independence of the United States ;

v

it contracted an offensive and defensive alliance
with France ; it raised and organized a Continental
army; it borrowed large sums of money, and
pledged what the lenders understood to be the
national credit for their repayment ; it issued an
inconvertible paper currency, granted letters of
marque, and built a navy. All this it did in the
exercise of what in later times would have been
called "implied war powers," and its authority
rested upon the general acquiescence in the pur
poses for which it acted and in the measures which
it adopted. Under such circumstances its functions
were very inefficiently performed. But the articles
of confederation, which in 1781 defined its powers,
served at the same time to limit them ; so that for
the remaining eight years of its existence the Con
tinental Congress grew weaker and weaker, until it
was swept away to make room for a more efficient
government. John Dickinson is supposed to have been the
principal author of the articles of con- Xhe artlcl(;8 of
federation ; but as the work of the com- coniotI<ir:>t''>n-
mittee was done in secret and has never been
reported, the point cannot be determined. In
November, 1777, Congress sent the articles to the
several state legislatures, with a circular letter
recommending them as containing the only plan of
union at all likely to be adopted. In the course of
the next fifteen months the articles were ratified by
all the states except Maryland, which refused to
sign until the states laying claim to the northwest
ern lands, and especially Virginia, should surrender
their claims to the confederation. We shall by

94 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.
and by see, when we come to explain this point in
detail, that from this action of Maryland there
flowed beneficent consequences that were little
dreamed of. It was first in the great chain of
events which led directly to the formation of the
Federal Union. Having carried her point, Mary-
laud ratified the articles on the first day of March,
1781; and thus in the last and most brilliant
period of the war, whilelGreene was leading Corn
wallis on his fatal chase across North Carolinajthe
confederation proposed at the time of the Declara
tion of Independence was finally consummated.
According to the language of the articles, the
states entered into a firm league of friendship with
each other ; and in order to secure and perpetuate
such friendship, the freemen of each state were en
titled to all the privileges and immunities of free
men in all the other states. Mutual extradition
of criminals was established, and in each state full
faith and credit was to be given to the records,
acts, and judicial proceedings of every other state.
This universal intercitizenship was what gave real
ity to the nascent and feeble Union. In all the
common business relations of life, the man of New
Hampshire could deal with the man of Georgia on
an equal footing before the law. But this was al
most the only effectively cohesive provision in the
-whole instrument. Throughout the remainder of
the articles its language was largely devoted to
reconciling the theory that the states were sever
ally sovereign with the visible fact that they were
already merged to some extent in a larger political
body The sovereignty of this larger body was

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

95

vested in the Congress of delegates appointed
yearly by tho states. No state was to be repre
sented by less than two or more than seven mem
bers ; no one could be a delegate for more than
three years out of every six ; and no delegate could
hold any salaried office under the United States.
As in colonial times the, states had, to preserve
their self-government, insisted upon paying their
governors and judges, instead of allowing them to
be paid out of the royal treasury, so now the dele
gates in Congress were paid by their own states.
In determining questions in Congress, each state
had one vote, without regard to population ; but a
bare majority was not enough to carry any impor
tant measure. Not only for such extraordinary
matters as wars and treaties, but even for the reg
ular and ordinary business of raising money to
carry on the government, not a single step could be
be taken without the consent of at least nine of
the thirteen states ; and this provision well-nigh
sufficed of itself to block the wheels of federal leg
islation. The Congress assembled each year on
the first Monday of November, and could not ad
journ for a longer period than six months. Dur
ing its recess the continuity of government was
preserved by an executive committee, consisting of
one delegate from each state, and known as the
" committee of the states." Saving such matters
of warfare or treaty as the public interest might
require to be kept secret, all the proceedings of
Congress were entered in a journal, to be published
monthly ; and the yeas and nays must be entered
should any delegate request it. The executive de-

96

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

97

partments of war, finance, and so forth were in
trusted at first to committees, until experience soon
showed the necessity of single heads. There was
a president of Congress, who, as representing the
dignity of the United States, was, in a certain
sense, the foremost person in the country, but he
had no more power than any other delegate. Of
the fourteen presidents between 1774 and 1789,
perhaps only Randolph, Hancock, and Laurens are
popularly remembered in that capacity ; Jay, St.
Clair, Mifflin, and Lee are remembered for other
things ; Hanson, Griffin, and Boudinot are scarcely
remembered at all, save by the student of Ameri
can history.
Between the Congress thus constituted and the
several state governments the attributes of sov
ereignty were shared in such a way as to produce
a minimum of result with a maximum of effort.
The states were prohibited from keeping up any
naval or military force, except militia, or from en
tering into any treaty or alliance, either with a
foreign power or between themselves, without the
consent of Congress. No state could engage in
war except by way of defence against a sudden In
dian attack. Congress had the sole right of deter
mining on peace and war, of sending and receiving
ambassadors, of making treaties, of adjudicating all
disputes between the states, of managing Indian
affairs, and of regulating the value of coin and fix
ing the standard of weights and measures. Con
gress took control of the post-office on condition
that no more revenue should be raised from postage
than should suffice to discharge the expenses of the

service. Congress controlled the army, but was
provided with no means of raising soldiers save
through requisitions upon the states, and it could
only appoint officers above the rank of colonel ; the
organization of regiments was left entirely in the
hands of the states. The traditional and whole
some dread of a standing army was great, but there
was no such deep-seated jealousy of a navy, and
Congress was accordingly allowed not only to ap
point all naval officers, but also to establish courts
of admiralty.
Several essential attributes of sovereignty were
thus withheld from tho states; and by assuming
all debts contracted by Congress prior to the adop
tion of the articles, and solemnly pledging the pub
lic faith for their payment, it was implicitly declared
that the sovereignty here accorded to Congress was
substantially the same as that which it had asserted
and exercised ever since the severing of the connec
tion with England. The articles simply defined
the relations of the states to the Confederation as
they had already shaped themselves. Indeed, the
articles, though not finally ratified till 1781, had
been known to Congress and to the people ever
since 1776 as their expected constitution, and
political action had been shaped in general accord
ance with the theory on which they had been drawn
up. They show that political action was at no
time based on the view of the states as absolutely
sovereign, but they also show that the share of sov
ereignty accorded to Congress was very inadequate
even to the purposes of an effective confederation.
The position in which they left Congress was hardly

98

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

99

more than that of the deliberative head of a league.
For the most fundamental of all the at-
faiied to create tributes of sovereignty — the power of
a federal gov- . „
eminent en- taxation — was not given to Congress.
dowed with T . , . , ,
reaisovor- It could neither raise taxes through
an excise nor through custom-house
duties ; it could only make requisitions upon the
thirteen members of the confederacy in proportion
to the assessed value of their real estate, and it Avas
not provided with any means of enforcing these req
uisitions. On this point the articles contained
nothing beyond the vague promise of the states to
obey. The power of levying taxes was thus re
tained entirely by the states. They not only im
posed direct taxes, as they do to-day, but they laid
duties on exports and imports, each according to
its own narrow view of its local interests. The
only restriction upon this was that such state-im
posed duties must not Interfere with the stipula
tions of any foreign treaties such as Congress
might make in pursuance of treaties already pro
posed to the courts of France and Spain. Besides
all this, the states shared with Congress the powers
of coining money, of emitting bills of credit, and of
making their promissory notes a legal tender for
debts. Such was the constitution under which the
United States had begun to drift toward anarchy
even before tho close of the Revolutionary War,
but which could only be amended by the unanimous
consent of all the thirteen states. The historian
cannot but regard this difficulty of amendment as
a fortunate circumstance ; for in the troubles which

s

presently arose it led the distressed people to seek
some other method of relief, and thus prepared the
way for the Convention of 1787, which destroyed
thejvhole, vicious -scheme, and gave us a form of
government under which we have just completed
a century unparalleled for peace and prosperity.
Besides this extreme difficulty of amendment, the
fatal defects of the Confederation were three in
number. The first defect was the two thirds vote
necessary for any important legislation in Congress ;
under this rule any five of the states — as, for ex
ample, the four southernmost states with Mary
land, or the four New England states with New
jersey — COuld defeat the most sorely needed meas
ures. The second defect was the impossibility of
presenting a united front to foreign countries in re
spect to commerce. The third and greatest defect
was the lack of any means, on the part of Congress,
of enforcing obedience. Not only was there no
federal executive or judiciary worthy of the name,
but the central government operated only upon
states, and not upon individuals. Congress could
call for troops and for money in strict conformity
with the articles ; but should any state prove de
linquent in furnishing its quota, there were no con
stitutional means of compelling it to obey the call.
This defect was seen and deplored at the outset
by such men as Washington and Madison, but the
only remedy which at first occurred to them was
one more likely to kill than to cure. Only six
weeks after the ratification of the articles, Madison
proposed an amendment " to give to the United
States full authority to employ their force, as well

100 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.
by sea as by land, to compel any delinquent state
to fulfil its -federal engagements." Washington
approved of this measure, hoping, as ho said, that
" a knowledge that this power was lodged in Con
gress might be the means to prevent its ever being
exercised, and the more readily induce obedience.
Indeed,'' added Washington, " if Congress were
unquestionably possessed «of the power, nothing
should induce the display of it but obstinate dis
obedience and tho urgency of the general welfare."
Madison argued that in the very nature of the
Confederation such a right of coercion was neces
sarily implied, though not expressed in the ar
ticles, and much might have been said in behalf
of this opinion. The Confederation explicitly de
clared itself to be perpetual, yet how could it per
petuate itself for a dozen years without the right to
coerce its refractory members ? Practically, how
ever, the remedy was one which could never have
been applied without breaking the Confedera
tion into fragments. To use the army or navy in
coercing a state meant nothing less than civil war.
The local yeomanry would have turned out against
the Continental army with as high a spirit as that
with which they swarmed about the British enemy
at Lexington or King's Mountain. A government
which could not collect the taxes for its yearly
budget without firing upon citizens or blockading
two or three harbours would have been the absurdest
political anomaly imaginable. No such idea coidd
have entered the mind of a statesman save from
the hope that if one state should prove refractory,
all the others would immediately frown upon it and

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

101

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uphold Congress in overawing it. In such case the
knowledge that Congress had the power would
doubtless have been enough to make its exercise
unnecessary. But in fact this hope was disap
pointed, for the delinquency of each state simply
set an example of disobedience for all the others to
follow ; and the amendment, had it been carried,
would merely have armed Congress with a threat
which everybody would have laughed at. So mani
festly hopeless was the case to Pclatiah Webster
that as early as May, 1781, he published an able
pamphlet, urging the necessity for a federal con
vention for overhauling the whole scheme of govern
ment from beginning to end.
The military weakness due to this imperfect
governmental organization may be il- Mmtarywe:ik.
lustrated by comparing the number of *-^er°^nt
regular troops which Congress was able
to keep iu the field during tho Revolutionary War
with the number maintained by the United States
government during the War of Secession. A
rough estimate, obtained from averages, will suf
fice to show the broad contrast. In 1863, the mid
dle year of the War of Secession, the total popu
lation of the loyal states was about 23,491,600, of
whom about one fifth, or 4,698,320, were adult
males of military age. Supposing one adult male
out of every five to have been under arms at one
time, the number would have been 939,664. Now
the total number of troops enlisted in the northern
army during the four years of the war, reduced to
a uniform standard, was 2,320,272, or an average
of 580,068 under arms in any single year. In

\

102

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

point of fact, this average was reached before the
middle of the war, and the numbers went on in
creasing, until at the end there were more than a
million men under arms, —at least one out of every
five adult males in the northern states. On tho
other hand, in 1779, the middle year of the Revo
lutionary War, the white population of the United
States was about 2,175,000, of whom 435,000 were
adult males of military age. Supposing one out
of every five of these to have been under arms at
once, the number would have been 87,000. Now
in the spring of 1777, when the Continental Con
gress was at the highest point of authority which
it ever reached, when France was willing to lend it
money freely, when its paper currency was not yet
discredited and it could make liberal offers of
bounties, a demand was made upon the states for
80,000 men, or nearly one fifth of the adult male
populatiou, to serve for three years or during the"
war. Only 34,820 were obtained. The total num
ber of men in the field in that most critical year,
including the swarms of militia. who came to the
rescue at Ridgefield and Bennington and Oriskany,
and the Pennsylvania militia who turned out while
their state was invaded, was 68,720. In 1781,
when the credit of Congress was greatly impaired,
although military activity again rose to a maximum
and it was necessary for the people to strain every
nerve, the total number of men in the field, militia
and all, was only 29,340, of whom only. 13,292
were Continentals ; and it was left for the genius
of W ashington and Greene, working with desper
ate energy and most pitiful resources, to save the

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THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 103
country. A more impressive contrast to the readi
ness with wliich the demands of the government
were met in the War of Secession can hardly be
imagined. Had the country put forth its strength
in 1781 as it did in 1864, an army of 90,000 men
might have overwhelmed Clinton at the north and
Cornwallis at the south, without asking any fa
vours of the French fleet. Had it put forth its
full strength in 1777, four years of active warfare
might have been spared. Mr. Lecky explains
this difference by his favourite hypothesis that the
American Revolution was the work of a few ultra
radical leaders, with whom the people Were not
generally in sympathy; and he thinks we could
not expect to see great heroism or self-sacrifice
manifested by a people who went to war over what
he calls a " money dispute." 1 But there is no rea
son for supposing that the loyalists represented the
general sentiment of the country in the Revolution
ary War any more than the peace party repre
sented the general sentiment of the northern states
in the War of Secession. There is no reason for
supposing that the people were less at heart in 1781
in fighting for the priceless treasure of self-govern
ment than they were in 1864 when they fought for
the maintenance of the pacific principles underlying
our Federal Union. The differences in the organi-

^

zation of the government, and in its power of oper
ating directly upon the people, are quite enough to
explain the difference between the languid conduct i
of the earlier war and the energetic conduct of the
later. 1 History of England in the Eighteenth Century, iii. 447.

Extreme dlfll- ,-*
culty of obtain- Congress
iug a revenue.

104 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.
Impossible as Congress found it to fill the quotas
of the army, the task of raising a revenue by req
uisitions upon the states was even more discourag
ing. Every state had its own war-debt, and several
•ft ** .
were applicants for foreign loans not easy to ob
tain, so that none could without the greatest diffi
culty raise a" surplus to hand over to
The Continental rag-money
had ceased to circulate by the end of
1780, and our foreign credit was nearly ruined.
The French government began to complain of tho
heavy demands which the Americans made upon
its exchequer, and Vergennes, in sending over a
new loan in the fall of 1782, warned Franklin that
no more must be expected. To save American
credit from destruction, it was at least necessary
that the interest on the public debt should be paid.
For this purpose Congress in 1781 asked permis
sion to levy a five per cent, duty on imports. The
modest request was the signal for a year of angry
discussion. Again and again it was asked, If taxes
could thus be levied by any power outside the
state, why had we ever opposed the Stamp Act or
the tea duties? The question was indeed a serious
one, and as an instance of reasoning from analogy
seemed plausible enough. After more than a year
Massachusetts consented, by a bare majority of two
in the House and one in the Senate, reserving to
herself the right of appointing the collectors. The
bill was then vetoed by Governor Hancock, though
one day too late, and so it was saved. But Rhode
Island flatly refused her consent, and so did Vir
ginia, though Madison earnestly pleaded the cause

THE LEAGUE, OF FRIENDSHIP. 105
of the public credit. For the current expenses of
the government in that same year $9,000,000 were
needed. It was calculated that 14,000,000 might
be raised by a loan, and the other $5,000,000 were
demanded of the states. At the end of the year
$422,000 had been collected, not a cent of which
came from Georgia, the Carolinas, or Delaware.
Rhode Island, which paid $38,000, did the best of
all according to its resources. Of the Continental
taxes assessed in 1783, only one fifth part had beep
paid by the middle of 1785. And the worst of it
was that no one could point to a remedy f or this
state of things, or assign any probable end to it.
Under such circumstances the public credit sank
at home as well as abroad. Foreign creditors —
even France, who had been nothing if not generous
with her loans — might be made to wait ; but there
were creditors at home who, should they prove ugly,
could not be so easily put off. The disbandment
of the army in the summer of 1783, before the
British troops had evacuated New York, was hast
ened by the impossibility of paying the soldiers
and the dread of what they might do under such
provocation. Though peace had been officially
announced, Hamilton and Livingston urged that,
for the sake of appearances if for no other reason,
the army should be kept together so long as the
British remained in New York, if not until they
should have surrendered the western Dreado£the
frontier posts. But Congress could not ¦""¦•'•
pay the army, and was afraid of it, — and not with
out some reason. Discouraged at the length of
time which had passed since they had received any

106

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

money, the soldiers had begun to fear lest, now
that their services were no longer needed, their
honest claims would be set aside. Among the
officers, too, there was grave discontent. In the
spring of 1778, after the dreadful winter at Valley
Forge, several officers had thrown up their com
missions, and others threatened to do likewise.
To avert the danger, Washington had urged Con
gress to promise half-pay for life to such officers
as should serve to the end of the war. It was only
with great difficulty that he succeeded in obtaining
a promise of half-pay for seven years, and even
this raised an outcry throughout the country, which
seemed to dread its natural defenders only less
than its enemies. In the fall of 1780, however, in
the general depression which followed upon the
disasters at Charleston and Camden, the collapse
of the paper money, and ihe discovery of Arnold's
treason, there was serious danger that the army
would fall to pieces. At this critical moment
Washington had earnestly appealed to Congress,
and against the strenuous opposition of Samuel
Adams had at length extorted the promise of half-
pay for life. In the spring of 1782, seeing the
utter inability of Congress to discharge its pecu
niary obligations, many officers began to doubt
whether the promise would ever be kept. It had
been made before the articles of confederation,
which required the assent of nine states to any
such measure, had been finally ratified. It was
well known that nine states had never been found
to favour the measure, and it was now feared that
it might be repealed or repudiated, so loud was the

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 107
popular clamour against it. All this comes of re
publican government, said some of the officers ;
too many cooks spoil the broth ; a dozen heads are
as bad as no head ; you do not know whose prom
ises to trust ; a monarchy, with a good king whom
all men can trust, would extricate us from these
difficulties. In this mood, Colonel Louis Nicola,
of the Pennsylvania line, a foreigner by birth, ad
dressed a long and well-argued letter to Washing
ton, setting forth the troubles of the Bupp0SC(j
time, and urging him to come forward ™^ wash-
as a saviour of society, and accept the lngton king-
crown at the hands of his faithful soldiers. Nicola
was an aged man, of excellent character, and in
making this suggestion he seemed to be acting as
spokesman of a certain clique or party among the
officers, — how numerous is not known. Wash
ington instantly replied that Nicola could not have
found a person to whom such a scheme could be
more odious, and he was at a loss to conceive what
he had ever done to have it supposed that he could
for one moment listen to a suggestion so fraught
with mischief to his country. Lest the affair, be
coming known, should enhance the popular distrust
of the army, Washington said nothing about it.
But as the year went by, and the outcry against
half-pay continued, and Congress showed symptoms
of a willingness to compromise the matter, the dis
content of the army increased. Officers and sol
diers brooded alike over their wrongs. " The army,"
said General Macdongall, " is verging to that state
which, we are told, will make a wise man mad."
The peril of the situation was increased by the

108 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.
well-meant but injudicious whisperings of other
public creditors, who believed that if the army
would only take a firm stand and insist upon a
grant of permanent funds to Congress for liquidat
ing all public debts, the states could probably be
prevailed upon to make such a grant. Robert
Morris, the able secretary of finance, held this
opinion, and did not believe that the states could
be brought to terms in any other way. His name
sake and assistant, Gouverneur Morris, held similar
views, and gave expression to them in February,
1783, in a letter to General Greene, who was still
commanding in South Carolina. When Greene
received the letter, he urged upon the legislature
of that state, in most guarded and moderate lan
guage, the paramount need of granting a revenue
to Congress, and hinted that the army would not
be satisfied with anything less. The assembly
straightway flew into a rage. "No dictation by a
Cromwell I" shouted the members. South Caro
lina had consented to the five per cent, impost, but
now she revoked it, to show her independence, and
Greene's eyes were opened at once to the danger
of the slightest appearance of military intervention
in civil affairs.
At the same time a violent outbreak in the army
at Newburgh was barely prevented by the unfail
ing tact of Washington. A rumour went about
the camp that it was generally expected the army
would not disband until the question of pay should
be settled, and that the public creditors looked to
them to make some such demonstration as would
overawe the delinquent states. General Gates

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

109

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had lately emerged from the retirement in which
ho had been fain to hide himself after Camden,
and had rejoined the army where there was now
such a field for intrigue. An odious aroma of im
potent malice clings about his memory on this last
occasion on which the historian needs to notice him.
He plotted in secret with officers of the staff and
others. One of his staff, Major Armstrong, wrote
an anonymous appeal to the troops, and another,
Colonel Barber, caused it to be circulated about
the camp. It named the next day for a meeting
to consider grievances. Its language was inflam
matory. " My friends ! " it said, " after „
J J , ' The danger-
Seven long" years your sufterinG" cour- ou<> Newburgh
age has conducted the United States of March n,
America through a doubtful and bloody
war ; and peace returns to bless — whom ? A
country willing to redress your wrougs, cherish
your worth, and reward your services ? Or is it
rather a country that tramples upon your rights,
disdains your cries, and insults your distresses?
... If such bo your treatment while the swords
you wear are necessary for the defence of America,
what have you to expect when those very swords,
the instruments and companions of your glory,
shall be taken from your sides, and no mark of
military distinction left but your wants, infirmities,
and scars ?. If you have sense enough to discover
and spirit to oppose tyranny, whatever garb it
may assume, awake to your situation. If the pres
ent moment be lost, your threats hereafter will be
as empty as your entreaties now. Apj>eal from
the justice to the fears of government; and sus-

110

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

pect the man who would advise to longer forbear
ance." Better English has seldom been wasted in a
worse cause. Washington, the man who was aimed
at in the last sentence, got hold of the paper next
day, just in time, as he said, " to arrest the feet
that stood wavering on a precipice." The memory
of the revolt of the Pennsylvania line, which had
so alarmed the people in 1781, was still fresh in
men's minds ; and here was an invitation to more
wholesale mutiny, which could hardly fail to end
in bloodshed, and might precipitate the perplexed
and embarrassed country into civil war. Wash
ington issued a general order, recognizing the exist
ence of the manifesto, but overruling it so far as
to appoint the meeting for a later day, with the
senior major-general, who happened to be Gates,
to preside. This order, which neither discipline
nor courtesy could disregard, in a measure tied
Gates's hands, while it gave Washington time to
ascertain the extent of the disaffection. On the
appointed day he suddenly came into the meeting,
and amid profoundest silence broke forth in a
most eloquent and touching speech. Sympathizing
keenly with the sufferings of his hearers, and fully
admitting their claims, he appealed to their better
feelings, and reminded them of the terrible diffi
culties under which Congress laboured, and of the
folly of putting themselves in the wrong. He still
counselled forbearance as the greatest of victories,
and with consummate skill he characterized the
anonymous appeal as undoubtedly the work of some
- crafty emissary of the British, eager to disgrace

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. Ill
the army which they had not been able to vanquish.
All were hushed by that majestic presence and
those solemn tones. The knowledge that he had
refused all pay, while enduring more than any other
man in the room, gave added weight to every word.
In proof of the good faith of Congress he began
reading a letter from one of the members, when,
finding his sight dim, he paused and took from his
pocket the new pair of spectacles which the astron
omer David Rittenhouse had just sent him. He
had never worn spectacles in public, and as he put
them on he said, in his simple manner and with
his pleasant smile, " I have grown gray in your
service, and now find myself growing blind."
While all hearts were softened he went on reading
the letter, and then withdrew, leaving the meeting
to its deliberations. There was a sudden and
mighty revulsion of feeling. A motion was re
ported declaring " unshaken confidence in the jus
tice of Congress ; " and it was added that " the
officers of the American army view 'With abhorrence
and reject with disdain the infamous proposals con
tained in a late anonymous address to them." The
crestfallen Gates, as chairman, had nothing to do
but put the question and report it carried unani
mously ; for if any still remained obdurate they no
longer dared to show it. Washington immediately
set forth the urgency of the case in an earnest
letter to Congress, and one week later the matter
was settled by an act commuting half-pay for life
into a gross sum equal to five years1 full pay, to be
discharged at once by certificates bearing interest
at six per cent. Such poor paper was all that

112 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.
Congress had to pay with, but it was all ultimately
redeemed ; and while the commutation was advan
tageous to the government, it was at the same time
greatly for the interest of the officers, while they
were looking out for new means of livelihood, to
have their claims adjusted at once, and to receive
something which could do duty as a respectable
sum of money.
Nothing, however, could prevent the story of the
Newburgh affair from being published all over the
country, and it greatly added to the distrustwith
which the army was regarded on general priueiples.
What might have happened was forcibly suggested
by a miserable occurrence in June, about two
months after the disbanding of the army had
begun. Some eighty soldiers of the Pennsylvania
line, mutinous from discomfort and want of pay,
broke from their camp at Lancaster and
drivcTfrom marched down to Philadelphia, led by
Philadelphia mi ¦,
by mutinous a sergeant or two. lney drew up m
soldiers, Juno ° i /~i
21, ns3. \\nQ before the state house, where Con
gress was assembled, and after passing the grog
began throwing stones and pointing their muskets
at the windows. They demanded pay, and threat
ened, if it were not forthcoming, to seize the mem
bers of Congress and hold them as hostages, or else
to break into the bank where the federal deposits
were kept. The executive council of Pennsylvania
sat in the same building, and so the federal gov
ernment appealed to the state government for pro
tection. The appeal was* fruitless. President
Dickinson had a few state militia at his disposal,
but did not dare to summon them, for fear they

^v

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 113
should side with the rioters. Tho city government
was equally listless, and the townsfolk went their
ways as if it were none of their business ; and so
Congress fled across the river and on to Princeton,
where the college afforded it shelter. Thus in a
city of thirty-two thousand inhabitants, the largest
city in the country, the government of the United
States, the body which had just completed a treaty
browbeating England and France, was ignomin-
iously turned out-of-doors by a handful of drunken
mutineers. The affair was laughed at by many,
but sensible men keenly felt the disgrace, and asked
what would be thought in Europe of a government
which could not even command the services of the
police. The army became more unpopular than
ever, and during the summer and fall many town-
meetings were held in New England, condemning
the Commutation Act. Are we not poor enough
already, cried the farmers, that we must be taxed
to support in idle luxury a riotous rabble of sol
diery, or create an aristocracy of men with gold
lace and epaulets, who will presently plot against
our liberties ? The Massachusetts legislature pro
tested ; the people of Connecticut meditated resist
ance. A convention was held at Middletown in
December, at which two thirds of the towns in the
state were represented, and the best method of
overruling Congress was discussed. Much high-
flown eloquence was wasted, but the convention
broke up without deciding upon any course of
action. The matter had become so serious that
wise men changed their minds, and disapproved of
proceedings calculated to throw Congress into con-

114 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.
tempt. Samuel Adams, who had almost violently
opposed the grant of half-pay and had been dissat
isfied with the Commutation Act, now came com
pletely over to the other side. Whatever might
be thought of the policy of the measures, he said,
Congress had an undoubted right to adopt them.
The army had been necessary for the defence of
our liberties, and the public faith had been pledged
to the payment of the soldiers. States were as
much bound as individuals to fulfil their engage
ments, and did not the sacred Scriptures say of an
honest man that, though he sweareth to his own
hurt, he changeth not? Such plain truths pre
vailed in the Boston town-meeting, which voted
that " tho commutation is wisely blended with tho
national debt." The agitation in New England
presently came to an end, and in this matter the
course of Congress was upheld.
In order fully to understand this . extravagant
distrust of the army, we have to talte into account
another incident of the summer of l783,Nwhich
gave rise to a discussion that sent its reverberation
all over the civilized world. Men of the present
generation who in childhood rummaged in their
grandmothers' cosy garrets cannot fail to have
come across scores of musty and worm-eaten pam
phlets, their yellow pages crowded with italics and
exclamation points, inveighing in passionate lan
guage against the wicked and dangerous society
of the Cincinnati. Just before the army was dis
banded, tho officers, at the suggestion of General
Knox, formed themselves into a secret society, for
the purpose of keeping up their friendly inter-

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

115

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course and cherishing the heroic memories of the
struggle in which they had taken part. With the
fondness for classical analogies which characterized
that time, they likened themselves to order of tho
Cincinnatus, who was taken from the cfacianatl*
plough to lead an army, and returned to his quiet
farm so soon as his warlike duties were over.
They were modern Cincinnati. A constitution
and by-laws were established for the order, and
Washington was unanimously chosen to be its
president. Its branches in the several states were
to hold meetings each Fourth of July, and there
was to be a general meeting of the whole society
every year in the month of May. French officers
who had taken part in the war were admitted to
membership, and tho order was to be perpetuated
by descent through the eldest male representatives
of the families of the members. It was further
provided that a limited membership should from
time to time be granted, as a distinguished honour,
to able and worthy citizens, without regard to the
memories of the war. A golden American eagle
attached to a blue ribbon edged with white was
the sacred badge of the order ; and to this emblem
especial favour was shown at the French court,
where the insignia of foreign states were generally,
it is said, regarded with jealousy. No political
purpose was to be subserved by this order of the
Cincinnati, save in so far as the members pledged
to one another their determination to promote and
cherish the union between the states. In its main
intent the society was to be a kind of masonic
brotherhood, charged with the duty of aiding the

116

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

widows and the orphan children of its members in
time of need. Innocent as all this was, however,
the news of the establishment of such a society
was greeted with a howl of indignation all over
the country. It was thought that its founders
were inspired by a deep-laid political scheme for
centralizing the government and setting up a he
reditary aristocracy. The press teemed with invec
tive and ridicule, and the feeling thus expressed
by the penny-a-liners was shared by able men ac
customed to weigh their words. Franklin dealt
with it in a spirit of banter, and John Adams in a
spirit of abhorrence ; while Samuel Adams pointed
out the dangers inherent in the principle of hered
itary transmission of honours, and in the admission
of foreigners into a secret association possessed of
political influence in America. What 1 cried the
men of Massachusetts. Have wo thrown over
board the effete institutions of Europe, only to
have them straightway introduced among us again,
after this plausible and surreptitious fashion ? At
Cambridge it was thought that the general senti
ment of the university was in favour of suppress
ing the order by act of legislature. One of the
members, who was a candidate for senator in the
spring of 1784, found it necessary "to resign in or
der to save his chances for election. Rhode Island
proposed to disfranchise such of her citizens as
belonged to the order, albeit her most eminent citi
zen, Nathanael Greene, was one of them. iEdanus
Burke, a judge of the Supreme Court of South
Carolina, wrote a violent pamphlet against the
society of the Cincinnati under the pseudonym of

V

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THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 117
Cassius, the slayer of tyrants ; and this diatribe,
translated and amplified by Mirabeau, awakened
dull echoes among readers of Rousseau and haters
of privilege in all parts of Europe. A swarm
of brochures in rejoinder and rebutter issued from
the press, and the nineteenth century had come in
before the controversy was quite forgotten.
It is easy for us now to smile at this outcry
against the Cincinnati as much ado about nothing,
seeing as we do that in the absence of territorial
jurisdiction or especial political privileges an order
of nobility cannot be created by the mere inherit
ance of empty titles or badges. For example,
since the great revolution which swept away the
landlordship and fiscal exemptions of the French
nobility, a marquisate or a dukedom in France is
of scarcely more political importance than a doc
torate of laws in a New England university. Men
were nevertheless not to be blamed in 1783 for
their hostility toward that ghost of the hereditary
principle which the Cincinnati sought to introduce.
In a free industrial society like that of America
it had no proper place or meaning ; and the at
tempt to set up such a form might well have been
cited in illustration of the partial reversion toward
militancy which eight years of warfare had effected.
The absurdity of the situation was quickly realized
by Washington, and he prevailed upon the society,
in its first annual meeting of May, 1784, to aban
don the principle of hereditary membership. The
agitation was thus allayed, and iu the presence of
graver questions the much-dreaded brotherhood
gradually ceased to occupy popular attention.

118

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

119

The opposition to the Cincinnati is not fully ex-
/ plained unless we consider it in connection with
Nicola's letter, the Newburgh address, and the
flight of Congress to Princeton. The members of
the Cincinnati were pledged to do whatever they
could to promote the union between the states ;
the object of the Newburgh address was to enlist the
army in behalf of the public creditors, and in some
vaguely-imagined fashion to force a stronger govern
ment upon the country ; the letter of Nicola shows
that at least some of the officers had harboured the
notion of a monarchy ; and the weakness of Con
gress had been revealed in the most startling man
ner by its flight before a squad of mutineers. It
is one of the lessons of history that, iu the virtual
absence of a central government for which a need
is felt, the want is apt to be supplied by the strong
est organization in the country, whatever that may
happen to be. It was in this way that the French
army, a few years later, got control of the govern
ment of France and made its general emperor. In
1783, if the impotence of Congress were to be as
explicitly acknowledged as it was implicitly felt,
the only national organization left in the country
was the army, and when this was disbanded it
seemed nevertheless to prolong its life under a new
and dangerous form in the secret brotherhood of
the Cincinnati. The cession of western lands to
the confederacy was, moreover, completed at about
this time, and one of the uses to which the new
territory was to be put was the payment of claims
due to the soldiers. It was distinctly feared, as is
shown in a letter from Samuel Adams to Elbridge

I'./

Gerry, that the members of the Cincinnati would
acquire large tracts of western land under this
arrangement, and, importing peasants from Ger
many, would grant farms to them on terms of mili
tary service and fealty, thus introducing into
America the feudal system. In order to forestall
any such movement, it was provided by Congress
that in any new states formed out of the western
territory no person holding a hereditary title should
be admitted to citizenship.
From the weakness of Congress as illustrated in
its inability to raise money to pay the public debt
and meet the current expenses of government, and
from the popular dread of military usurpation
which went along with the uueasy consciousness of
that weakness, we have now to turn to another
group of affairs in which the same point is still
further illustrated and emphasized. We have seen
how the commissioners of the United States in
Paris had succeeded in making a treaty of peace
with Great Britain on extremely favourable terms.
So unpopular was the treaty in England, on ac
count of the great concessions made to the Ameri
cans, that, as we have seen, the fall of Lord Shel
burne's ministry was occasioned thereby.
A ¦ £C i . ,i i.i , . Confess finds
As an onset to these liberal concessions, itself unable to
- . . # carry out tho
ot winch the most considerable was the provisions of
. the treaty.
acknowledgment of the American claim
to tho northwestern territory, our confederate gov
ernment was pledged to do all in its power to effect
certain concessions which were demanded by Eng
land. That the American loyalists, whose property
had been confiscated by various state governments,

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121

should be indemnified for their losses was a claim
which, whatever Americans might think of it, Eng
land felt bound in honour to urge. That private
debts, due from American to British creditors,
should be faithfully discharged was tho plainest
dictate of common honesty. Congress, as we have
seen, was bound by the treaty to recommend to the
several states to desist from the persecution of
Tories, and to give them an opportunity of recover
ing their estates ; and it had been further agreed
that all private debts should be discharged at their
full value in sterling money. It now turned out
jthat Congress was powerless to carry out the pro
visions of the treaty upon either of these points.
The recommendations concerning tho Tories were
greeted with a storm of popular indignation. Since
the beginning of the war these unfortunate persons
Persecution of tad been treated with severity both by
the legislatures and by the people. Many
had been banished ; others had fled the country,
and against these refugees various harsh laws had
been enacted. Their estates had been confiscated,
and their return prohibited under penalty of im
prisonment or death. Many others, who had re
mained in the country, were objects of suspicion
and dislike in states where they had not, as in New
York and the Carolinas, openly aided the enemy or
taken part in Indian atrocities. Now, on the con
clusion of peace, in utter disregard of Congress,
fresh measures of vengeance were taken against
these " fawning spaniels," as they were called, these
" tools and minions of Britain." An article in tho
" Massachusetts Chronicle " expressed the common

y

feeling: "As Hannibal swore never to be at peace
with tho Romans, so let every Whig swear, by
his abhorrence of slavery, by liberty and religion,
by tho shades of departed friends who have fallen
in battle, by the ghosts of those of our brethren
who have been destroyed on board of prison-ships
and in loathsome dungeons, never to be at peace
with those fiends the refugees, whose thefts, mur
ders, and treasons have filled the cup of woe."
Tons of pamphlets, issued under the customary
Latin pseudonyms, were filled with this truculent
bombast ; and like sentiments were thundered from
the pulpit by men who had quite forgotten for the
moment their duty of preaching "reconciliation and
forgiveness of injuries. Why should not these
wretches, it was sarcastically asked, be driven at
once from the country ? Of course they could not
desire to live under a free government which they
had been at such pains to destroy. Let them go
forthwith to his majesty's dominions, and live under
the government they preferred. It would never
do to let them stay here, to plot treason at their
leisure ; in a few years they would get control of
all the states, and either hand them over to Great
Britain again, or set up a Tory despotism on Ameri
can soil. Such was thd rubbishj that passed current
as argument with the majority of the people. A
small party of moderate Whigs saw its absurdity,
and urged that the Tories had much better remain
at homo, where they had lost all political influence,
than go and found unfriendly colonies to the north
ward. The moderate Whigs were in favour of
heeding the recommendation of Congress, and act-

122

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

ing in accordance with the spirit of the treaty ; and
these humane and sensible views were shared by
Gadsden and Marion in South Carolina, by Theo
dore Sedgwick in Massachusetts, and by Greene,
Hamilton, and Jay. But any man who held such
opinions, no matter how conspicuous his services
had been, ran the risk of being accused of Tory
sympathies. "Time-serving Whigs" and "trim
mers " were the strangely inappropriate epithets
hurled at men who, had they been in the slightest
degree time-servers, would have shrunk from the
thankless task of upholding good sense and human
ity in the teeth of popular prejudice.
In none of the states did the loyalists receive
severer treatment than in New York, and for obvi
ous reasons. Throughout the war the frontier had
been the scene of atrocities such as no other state,
save perhaps South Carolina, had witnessed.
Cherry Valley and Minisink were names of horror
not easily forgotten, and the fate of Lieutenant
Boyd and countless other victims called loudly for
vengeance. The sins of the Butlers and their
bloodthirsty followers were visited in robbery and
insult upon unoffending men, who were like them
in nothing but in being labelled with the epithet
" Tory." During the seven years that the city of
New York had been occupied by the British army,
many of these loyalists had found shelter there.
The Whig citizens, on the other hand, had been
driven off the island, to shift as best they might in
New Jersey, while their comfortable homes were
seized and assigned by military orders to these
very Tories. For seven years the refugee Whigs

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 123
from across the Hudson had looked upon New
York with feelings like those with which the me
diaeval exile from Florence or Pisa was wont to
regard his native city. They saw in it the home of
enemies who had robbed them, the prison-house of
gallant friends penned up to die of wanton ill-usage
in foul ships' holds in the harbour. When at last
the king's troops left tho city, it wa3 felt that a
great clay of reckoning had arrived. In September,
1783, two months before the evacuation, more than
twelve thousand men, women, and children em
barked for the Bahamas or for Nova Scotia, rather
than stay and face the troubles that were coming.
Many of these were refined and cultivated per
sons, and not all had been actively hostile to the
American cause ; many had simply accepted British
protection. Against those who remained in the
city the returning Whigs now proceeded with great
severity. The violent party was dominant in the
legislature, and George. Clinton, the governor, put
himself conspicuously at its head. A bill was
passed disfranchising all such persons as had vol
untarily stayed in neighbourhoods occupied by the
British troops ; their offence was called misprision
of treason. But the council vetoed this bill as too
wholesale in its operation, for- it would have left
some districts without voters enough to hold an
election. An "iron-clad oath" was adopted in
stead, and no one was allowed to vote unless he
could swear that he had never in anywise Tho ^ ^
abetted the enemy. It was voted that *^«™
no Tory who had left the state should
be permitted to return ; and a bill was passed

124

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known as the Trespass Act, whereby all persons
who had quit their homes by reason of the enemy's
presence ' might recover damages in an action of
trespass against such persons as had since taken
possession of the premises. Defendants in such
cases were expressly barred from pleading a mili
tary order in justification of their possession. As
there was scarcely a building on the island of New
York that had not thus changed hands during the
British occupation, it was easy to foresee what con
fusion must ensue. Everybody whose house had
once been, for ever so few days, in the hands of a
Tory now rushed into court with his action of tres
pass. Damages were rated at most exorbitant
figures, and it became clear that the misdeeds of
the enemy were about to be made the excuse for a
carnival of spoliation, when all at once the test case
of Rutgers v. Waddington brought upon the scene
a sturdy defender of order, an advocate who was
soon to become one of the foremost personages in
American history.
Of all the young men of that day, save perhaps
William Pitt, the most precocious was Alexander
Hamilton. He had already given promise of a
great career before the breaking out of the war.
Alexander He was* born on the island of Nevis, in
Hamilton. t]le Iff^ T^*^ in 1757# HJ3 fathep
belonged to that famous Scottish clan from which
have come one of the most learned metaphysicians
and one of the most original mathematicians of
modern times. His mother was a French lady, of
Huguenot descent, and biographers have been fond
of tracing in his character the various qualities of

v >

-i

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 125
his parents. To the shrewdness and persistence,
tho administrative ability, and the taste for ab
stract reasoning which we are wont to find asso
ciated in the highest type of Scottish mind he
joined a truly French vivacity and grace. His
earnestness, sincerity, and moral courage were
characteristic alike of Puritan and of Huguenot.
In the course of his short life he exhibited a re
markable many-sidedness. So great was his genius
for organization that in many essential respects
tho American government is moving to-day along
the linos which he was the first to mark out.
As an economist he shared to some extent in the
shortcomings of tho age which preceded Adam
Smith, but in the special department of finance he
has been equalled by no other American statesman
save Albert Gallatin. He was a splendid orator
and brilliant writer, an excellent lawyer, and a
clear-headed and industrious student of political
history. He was also emiuent as a political leader,
although he lacked faith in democratic government,
and a generous impatience of temperament some
times led him to prefer short and arbitrary by
paths toward desirable ends, which can never be
securely reached save along the broad but steep
and arduous road of popular conviction. But with
all Hamilton's splendid qualities, nothing about
him is so remarkable as the early age at which
these were developed. At the age of fifteen a bril
liant newspaper article brought him into such re
pute in the little island of Nevis that he was sent
to New York to avail himself of the best advan
tages afforded by the King's College, now known

126 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.
as Columbia. He had at first no definite intention
of becoming an American citizen, but the thrilling
events of the time appealed strongly to the earnest
heart and powerful intelligence of this wonderful
boy. At a gathering of the people of New York
in July, 1774, his generous blood warmed, till a
resistless impulse brought him on his feet to speak
to the assembled multitude. It was no company
of half-drunken idlers that thronged about him, but
an assemblage of grave and responsible citizens,
who looked with some astonishment upon this boy
of seventeen years, short and slight in stature, yet
erect and Ctesar-like in bearing, with firm set
mouth and great, dark, earnest eyes. His eloquent
speech, full of sense and without a syllable of bom
bast, held his hearers entranced, and from that day
Alexander Hamilton was a marked man. He be
gan publishing anonymous pamphlets, which at
first were attributed by some to Jay, and by others
to Livingston. When their authorship was dis
covered, the loyalist party tried in vain to buy off
the formidable youth. He kept up the pamphlet-
war, in the course of which he wofully defeated
Dr. Cooper, the Tory president of the college ; but
shortly afterward he defended the doctor's house
against an angry mob, until that unpopular gentle
man had succeeded in making his escape to a Brit
ish ship. Hamilton served- in the army throughout
the war, for the most part as aid and secretary to
Washington ; but in 1781 he was a colonel in the
line, and stormed a redoubt at Yorktown with
distinguished skill and bravery. He married a
daughter of Philip Schuyler, began the practice of

¦ i

Y

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 127
law, and in 1782, at the age of twenty-five, was
chosen a delegate to Congress.
In 1784, when the Trespass Act threw New York
into confusion, Hamilton had come to be regarded
as one of the most powerful advocates in the coun-
try. In the test case which now came before the
courts he played a part of consummate boldness
and heroism. Elizabeth Rutgers was a widow,
who had fled from New York after its capture by
General Howe. Her confiscated estate had passed
into the hands of Joshua Waddington, a rich Tory
merchant, and she now brought suit un
der the Trespass Act for its recovery, Rutgers*!
It was a case in which popular sympathy W:Kldiugtoa*
was naturally and strongly enlisted in behalf of tho
poor widow. That she should have been turned
out of house and home was one of the many gros3
instances of wickedness wrought by the war. On
the other hand, the disturbance wrought by the
enforcement of the Trespass Act was already creat
ing fresh wrongs much faster than it was righting
old ones ; and it is for such reasons as this that
both in the common law and in the law of nations
the principle has been firmly established that " tho
fruits of immovables belong to the captor as long
as he remains in actual possession of them." Tho
Trespass Act contravened this principle, and it
also contravened the treaty. It moreover placed
the state of New York in an attitude of defiance
toward Congress, which had made the treaty and
expressly urged upon the states to suspend the
legislation against the Tories. On large grounds
of public policy, therefore, the Trespass Act de-

128

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

served to be set aside by the courts, and when
Hamilton was asked to serve as counsel for the
defendant he accepted the odious task without
hesitation. There can be no better proof of his
forensic ability than his winning a verdict, in such
a case as this, from a hostile court that was largely
influenced by the popular excitement. The de
cision nullified the Trespass Act, and forthwith
mass meetings of the people and an extra session
of the legislature condemned this action of the
court. Hamilton was roundly abused, and his
conduct was attributed to unworthy motives. But
he faced the people as boldly as he had faced the
court, and published a letter, under the signature
of Phociou, setting forth in the clearest light the
injustice and impolicy of extreme measures against
the Tories. The popular wrath and disgust at
Hamilton's course found expression in a letter
from one Isaac Ledyard, a hot-headed pot-house
politician, who signed -himself Mentor. A war of
pamphlets ensued between Mentor and Phocion. It
was genius pitted against dulness, reason against
passion ; and reason wielded by genius won the
day. The more intelligent and respectable citizens
reluctantly admitted that Hamilton's arguments
were unanswerable. A club of boon companions,
to which Ledyard belonged, made the same admis
sion by the peculiar manner in which it proposed
to silence him. It was gravely proposed that the
members of the club should pledge themselves one
after another to challenge Hamilton to mortal com
bat, until some one of them should have the good
fortune to kill him I The scheme met with general

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

129

V

favour, but was defeated by the exertions of Ledyard
himself, whose zeal was not ardent enough to con
done treachery and murder. The incident well
illustrates the intense bitterness of political pas
sion at the time, as Hamilton's conduct shows him
in the light of a most courageous and powerful
defender of the central government. For nothing
was more significant in the verdict which he had
obtained than its implicit assertion of the rights of
the United States as against the legislature of a
single state.
In spite of the efforts of such men as HamiltoffpN
life was made very uncomfortable for the Tories^/
In some states they were subjected to mob violence.
Instances of tarring and feathering were not un
common. The legislature of South Carolina was
honourably distinguished for the good faith with
which it endeavoured to enforce the recommenda
tion of Congress ; but the people, unable to forget
the smoking ruins of plundered homes, were less
lenient. Notices were posted ordering prominent
loyalists to leave the country; tho newspapers
teemed with savage warnings ; and finally, of those
who tarried beyond a certain time, many were shot
or hanged to trees. This extremity of bitterness,
however, did not long continue. The instances of
physical violence were mostly confined to the first
two or three years after the close of the war.
In most of the states the confiscating acts were
after a while repealed, and many of the loyalists
were restored to their estates. But the Emi ratlon
emigration which took place between °f Tories.
1 783 and 1785 was very large. It has been esti-

130

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THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

131

mated that 100,000 persons, or nearly three per
cent, of the total white population, quit the coun
try. Those from the southern states went mostly
to the Bahamas and Florida ; while those from the
north laid the foundation of new British states in
New Brunswick and Upper Canada. Many of
these refugees appealed to the British government
for indemnification for their losses, and their claims
received prompt attention. A parlianientar}' com
mission was appointed to inquire into the matter,
and by the year 1790 some $16,000,000 had been
distributed among about 4,000 sufferers, while
many others received grants of crown-lands, or half-
pay as military officers, or special annuities, or ap
pointments in the civil service. On the whole,
the compensation which the refugees received from
Parliament seems to have been much more ample
than that which the ragged soldiers of our Revolu
tionary army ever received from Congress.
While the political passions resulting in this
forced emigration of loyalists were such as naturally
arise in the course of a civil war, the historian can
not but regret that the United States should have
been deprived of the services of so many excellent
citizens. In nearly all .such cases of wholesale
popular vengeance, it is tho 'wrong individuals who
suffer. We could well afford to dispense with the
border-ruffians who abetted the Indians in tlieir
carnival of burning and scalping, but the refugees
of 1784 were for the most part peaceful and unof
fending families, above the average in education
and refinement. The vicarious suffering inflicted
upon them set nothing right, but simply increase^

the mass of wrong, while to the general interests
> of the country the loss of such people was in every
way damaging. The immediate political detriment
wrought at the time, though it is that which here
most nearly concerns us, was perhaps the least im
portant. Since Congress was manifestly unable
to carry out the treaty, an excuse was furnished to
r\ England for declining to fulfil some of its pro-
\- visions. In regard to the loyalists, indeed, the
treaty had recognized that Congress possessed but
an advisory power ; but in the other provision con-
'. / cerning the payment of private debts, which in the
popular mind was very much mixed up with the
question of justice to the loyalists, the faith of the
United States was distinctly pledged. Con sala
On this point also Congress was power- unable to en-
A or force payment
less to enforce the treaty. Massachu- Brituhcredit-
setts, New York, Pennsylvania, Mary- "^,ia^'"1£,'d
land, Virginia, and South Carolina had ^nderUie
all enacted laws obstructing the eollec- weEtern P°8ts-
tion of British debts ; and in flat defiance of the
treaty these statutes remained in force until after
the downfall of the Confederation. The states
f were aware that such conduct needed an excuse,
\ and one was soon forthcoming. Many negroes
had left the country with the British fleet : somo
doubtless had sought their freedom ; others, per
haps, had been kidnapped as booty, and sold to
planters in the West Indies. The number of these
black men carried away by the fleet had been mag
nified tenfold by popular rumour. Complaints had
been made to Sir Guy Carleton, but he had replied
that any negro who came within his lines was pre-

132

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THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.

133

snmably a freeman, and he could not lend his aid
in remanding such persons to slavery. Jay, as one
of the treaty commissioners, gave it as his opinion
that Carleton was quite right in this, but he thought
that where a loss of slaves could be proved, Great
Britain was bound to make pecuniary compensation
to tho owners. The matter was wrangled over for
several years, in the state legislatures, in town and
county meetings, at dinner-tables, and in bar-rooms,
with the general result that, until such compensa
tion should be made, the statutes hindering the
collection of debts would not be repealed. In re
taliation for this, Great Britain refused to withdraw
her garrisons from the western fortresses, which
the treaty had surrendered to the United States.
This measure was very keenly felt by the people.
As an assertion of superior strength, it was pecul
iarly galling to our weak and divided confederacy,
and it also wrought us direct practical injury. It
encouraged the Indian tribes in their depredations
on the frontier, and it deprived American mer
chants of an immensely lucrative trade in furs. In
the spring of 1787 there were advertised for sale
in London more than 360,000 skins, worth $1,200,-
000 at the lowest estimate ; and had the posts been
surrendered according to the treaty, all this would
have passed through the hands of American mer
chants. The London fur-traders were naturally
loth to lose their control over this business, and in
the language of modern politics they brought
" pressure " to bear on the government to retain
the fortresses as long as possible. The American
refusal to pay British creditors furnished an excel

lent excuse, while the weakness of Congress made
any kind of reprisal impossible ; and it was not
until Washington's second term as president, after
our national credit had been restored and the
strength of our new government made manifest,
that England surrendered this chain of strongholds,
commanding the woods and waters of our north
western frontier.

¦¦¦{

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

135

CHAPTER IV.
DRIFTING TOWARD ANABCHY.
At the close of the eighteenth century the bar
barous superstitions of the Middle Ages concern
ing trade between nations still flourished with
scarcely diminished vitality. The epoch-making
work of Adam Smith had been published in the
same year in which the United States declared
their independence. The one was the great scien
tific event, as the other was the great political
event of the age ; but of neither the one nor the
other were the scope and purport fathomed at the
time. Among the foremost statesmen, those who,
like Shelburne and Gallatin, understood the prin
ciples of the " Wealth of Nations " were few indeed.
The simple principle that when two par-
Barbarous SU- 1.111
pcrstitions ties trade both must be gainers, or one
about trado. ,.
would soon stop trading, was generally
lost sight of ; and most commercial legislation pro
ceeded upon the theory that in trade, as in gam
bling or betting, what the one party gains the other
must lose. Hence towns, districts, and nations
surrounded themselves with walls of legislative re
strictions intended to keep out the monster Trade,
or to admit him only on strictest proof that he
could do no harm. On this barbarous theory, the
use of a colony consisted iu its being a customer

/-

r V

which you could compel to trade with yourself,
while you could prevent it from trading with any
body else ; and having secured this point, you
could cunningly arrange things by legislation so as
to throw all the loss upon this enforced customer,
and keep all the gain to yourself. In the seven
teenth and eighteenth centuries all the commercial
legislation of the great colonizing states was based
upon this theory of the use of a colony. For ef
fectiveness, it shared to some extent the character
istic features of legislation for making water run
up hill. It retarded commercial development all
over the world, fostered monopolies, made the rich
richer and the poor poorer, hindered the inter
change of ideas and the refinement of manners,
and sacrificed millions of human lives in misdi
rected warfare ; but what it was intended to do it
did not do. The sturdy race of smugglers — those
despised pioneers of a higher civilization — thrived
in defiance of kings and parliaments ; and as it
was impossible to carry out such legislation thor
oughly without stopping trade altogether, colonies
and mother countries contrived to increase their
wealth in spite of it. The colonies, however, un
derstood the animus of the theory in so far as it
was directed against them, and the revolutionary
sentiment in America had gained much of its
strength from the protest against this one-sided
justice. In one of its most important aspects, the
Revolution was a deadly blow aimed at the old
system of trade restrictions. It was to a certain
extent a step in realization of the noble doctrines
of Adam Smith. But where the scientific thinker

136 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
grasped tho whole principle involved in the matter,
the practical statesmen saw only the special appli
cation which seemed to. concern them for the mo
ment. They all understood that the Revolution
had set them free to trade with other countries
than England, but very few of them understood
that, whatever countries trade together, the one
cannot hope to benefit by impoverishing the other.
This point is much better understood in Eng
land to-day than in the United States ; but a cen
tury ago there was little to choose between the two
countries in ignorance of political economy. Eng
land had gained great wealth and power through
trade with her rapidly growing American colonies.
One of her chief fears, in the event of American
independence, had been the possible loss of that
trade. English merchants feared that American
commerce, when no longer confined to its old paths
by legislation, would somehow find its way to
France and Holland and Spain and other countries,
until nothing would be left for England. The
Revolution worked no such change, however. The
principal trade of the United States was with Eng
land, as before, because England could best supply
the goods that Americans wanted ; and it is such
considerations, and not acts of Parliament, that de
termine trade in its natural and proper channels.
In 1783 Pitt introduced into Parliament a bill
which would have secured mutual unconditional
free trade between the two countries ; and this was
what such men as Franklin, Jefferson, and Madi
son desired. Could this bill have passed, the hard
feelings occasioned by the war would soon have

, DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 137
died out, the commercial progress of both countries
would have been promoted, and the stupid meas
ures which led to a second war within thirty years
might have been prevented. But the wisdom of
Pitt found less favour in Parliament than the dense
stupidity of Lord Sheffield, who thought that to
admit Americans to the carrying trade would un
dermine the naval power of Great Britain. Pitt's
measure was defeated, and the regulation of com
merce with America was left to the king in coun
cil. Orders were forthwith passed as if upon- the
theory that America poor would be a better cus
tomer than America rich.
Tho carrying trade to the West Indies had been
one of the most important branches of American
industry. The men of New England
•> ° Shipbuilding
were famous tor seamanship, and bet- in New Eng-
land.
ter and cheaper ships could be built in
the seaports of Massachusetts than anywhere in
Great Britain. An oak vessel could be built at
Gloucester or Salem for tweuty-four dollars per
ton ; a ship of live-oak or American cedar cost not
more than thirty-eight dollars per ton. On the
other hand, fir vessels built on the Baltic cost
thirty-five dollars per ton, and nowhere in Eng
land, France, or Holland could a ship be made of
oak for less than fifty dollars per ton. Often the
cost was as high as sixty dollars. It was not
strange, therefore, that before the war more than
one third of the tonnage afloat under the British
flag was launched from American dock-yards. The
war had violently deprived England of this enor
mous advantage, and now she sought to make the

138 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
privation perpetual, in the delusive hope of confin
ing British trade to British keels, and in the belief
that it was the height of wisdom to impoverish the
nation which she regarded as her best customer.
In July, 1783, an order in council proclaimed that
henceforth all trade between the United States and
the British West Indies must be carried on in
British-built ships, owned and navigated by British
subjects. A serious blow was thus dealt not only
at American shipping, but also at the interchange
of commodities between the states and the islands,
which was greatly hampered by this restriction.
During the whole of the eighteenth century the
British naviga- West India sugar trade with the North
X't i. American colonies and with Great Brit-
agam'stAmen- ain had been of immense value to all
parties, and all had been seriously dam
aged by the curtailment of it due to the war. Now
that the artificial state of things created by the war
was to be perpetuated by legislation, the prospect
of repairing the loss seemed indefinitely postponed.
Moreover, even in trading directly with Great
Britain, American ships were only allowed to bring
in articles produced in the particular states of
which their owners were citizens, — an enactment
which seemed to add insult to injury, inasmuch as
it directed especial attention to the want of union
among the thirteen states. Great indignation was
aroused in America, and reprisals were talked of,
but efforts were first made to obtain a commercial
treaty. In 1785 Franklin returned from France, and
Jefferson was sent as minister in his stead, while

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

139

John Adams became the first representative of the
United States at the British court. Adams was
at first very courteously received by George III.,
and presently set to work to convince Lord Car
marthen, the foreign secretary, of the desirableness
of unrestricted intercourse between the two coun
tries. But popular opinion in England
was obstinately set against him. But tries in vain to
for the Navigation Act and the orders commercial
in council, it was said, all ships would
by and by come to be built in America, and every
time a frigate was wanted for the navy the Lords
of Admiralty would have to send over to Boston
or Philadelphia and order one. Rather than do
such a thing as this, it Was thought that the British
navy should content itself with vessels of inferior
workmanship and higher cost, built in British dock
yards. Thirty years after, England gathered an
unexpected fruit of this narrow policy, when, to
her intense bewilderment, she saw frigate after
frigate outsailed and defeated in# single combat
with American antagonists. Owing to her exclu
sive measures, the rapid improvement in American
shipbuilding had gone on quite beyond her ken,
until she was thus rudely awakened to it. With
similar short-sighted jealousy, it was argued that
the American share in the whale-fishery and in the
Newfoundland fishery should be curtailed as much
as possible. Spermaceti oil was much needed in
England : complaints were rife of robbery and
murder in the dimly lighted streets of London and
other great cities. But it was thought that if
American ships could carry oil to England and

140 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
salt fish to Jamaica, the supply of seamen for the
British navy would be diminished; and accord
ingly such privileges must not be granted the Amer
icans unless valuable privileges could be granted
in return. But the government of the United
States could grant no privileges because it could
impose no restrictions. British manufactured goods
were needed in America, and Congress, which could
levy no duties, had no power to keep them out.
British merchants and manufacturers, it was ar
gued, already enjoyed all needful privileges in
American ports, and accordingly they asked no
favours and granted none.
Such were the arguments to which Adams was
obliged to listen. The popular feeling was so
strong that Pitt could not have stemmed it if he
would. It was in vain that Adams threatened re
prisals, and urged that the British measures would
defeat their own purpose. " The end of the Navi
gation Act," said he, " as expressed in its own pre
amble, is to confine the commerce of the colonies
to the mother country ; but now we are become in
dependent states, instead of confining our trade to
Great Britain, it will drive it to other countries : "
and he suggested that the Americaus might make
a navigation act in their turn, admitting to Amer
ican ports none but American-built ships, owned
and commanded by Americans. But under the
articles of confederation such a threat wa3 idle,
and the British government knew it to be so. Thir
teen separate state governments could never be
made to adopt any such measure in concert. The
weakness of Congress had been fatally revealed in

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

141

s

its inability to protect the loyalists or to enforce
the payment of debts, and in its failure to raise a
revenue for meeting its current expenses. A gov
ernment thus slighted at home was naturally de
spised abroad. England neglected to send a minis
ter to Philadelphia, and while Adams was treated
politely, his arguments were unheeded. Whether
in this behaviour Pitt's government was influenced
or not by political as well as economical reasons, it
was certain that a political purpose was entertained
by the king and approved by many people. There
was an intention of humiliating the Americans, and
it was commonly said that under a sufficient weight
of commercial distress the states would break up
their feeble union, and come straggling back, one
after another, to their old allegiance. The fiery
spirit of Adams could ill brook this contemptuous
treatment of the nation which he represented.
Though he favoured very liberal commercial rela
tions with the whole world, he could see no escape
from the present difficulties save in systematic re
taliation. " I should be sorry," he said, " to adopt
a monopoly, but, driven to the necessity of it, I
would not do things by halves. ... If monopolies
and exclusions are the only arms of defence against
monopolies and exclusions, I would venture upon
them without fear of offending Dean Tucker or the
ghost of Dr. Quesnay." That is to say, certain
commercial privileges must be withheld from Great
Britain, in order to be offered to her in return for
reciprocal privileges. It was a miserable policy to
be forced to adopt, for such restrictions upon trade
inevitably cut both ways. Like the non-importa-

142 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
tion agreement of 1768 and the embargo of 1808,
such a policy was open to the objections familiarly
urged against biting off one's own nose. It was
injuring one's self in the hope of injuring some
body else. It was perpetuating in time of peace
the obstacles to commerce generated by a state of
war. In a certain sense, it was keeping up war
fare by commercial instead of military methods,
and there was danger that it might lead to a re
newal of armed conflict. Nevertheless, the con
duct of the British government seemed to Adams
to leave no other course open. But such " means
of preserving ourselves," he said, " can never be
secured until Congress shall be made supreme in
foreign commerce."
It was obvious enough that the separate action
of the states upon such a question was only add
ing to the general uncertainty and confusion. In
1785 New York laid a double duty on
polibie^he all goods whatever imported in British
c^ctinl088 ships. In the same year Pennsylvania
duties' passed the first of the long series of
American tariff acts, designed to tax the whole
community for the alleged benefit of a few greedy
manufacturers. Massachusetts sought to establish
committees of correspondence for the purpose of
entering into a new non-importation agreement,
and its legislature resolved that " the present pow
ers of the Congress of the United States, as con
tained in the articles of confederation, are not
fully adequate to the great purposes they were
originally designed to effect." The Massachusetts
delegates in Congress — Gerry, Holton, and King

/ DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 143
t
^ — were instructed to recommend a general conven
tion of the states for the purpose of revising and
{ amending tho articles of confederation ; but the
delegates refused to comply with their instructions,
and set forth their reasons in a paper which was
f approved by Samuel Adams, and caused the legis
lature to reconsider its action. It was feared that
1 a call for a convention might seem too much like
an open expression of a want of confidence in Con
gress, and might thereby weaken it still further
without accomplishing any good result. For the
r present, as a temporary expedient, Massachusetts
took counsel with New Hampshire, and the two
states passed navigation acts, prohibiting British
ships from carrying goods out of their harbours,
f and imposing a fourfold duty upon all such goods
as they should bring in. A discriminating tonnage
duty was also laid upon all foreign vessels. Rhode
f Island soon after adopted similar measures. In
/ Congress a scheme for a uniform navigation act,
to be concurred in and passed by all the thirteen
states, was suggested by one of the Maryland dele
gates ; but it was opposed by Richard Henry Lee
and most of the delegates from the far south.
The southern states, having no ships or seamen
of their own, feared that the exclusion of British
competition might enable northern ship-owners to
charge exorbitant rates for carrying their rice and
tobacco, thus subjecting them to a ruinous monop-
.—| oly ; but the gallant Moultrie, then governor of
( South Carolina, taking a broader view of the case,
wrote to Bowdoin, governor of Massachusetts, as
serting the paramount need of harmonious and

144 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
united action. In the Virginia assembly, a hot
headed member, named Thurston, declared himself
in doubt " whether it would not be better to en
courage the British rather than the eastern ma
rine ; " but the remark was greeted with hisses and
groans, and the speaker was speedily put down.
Amid such mutual jealousies and misgivings, dur
ing the year 1785 acts were passed by ten states
granting to Congress the power of regulating com
merce for the ensuing thirteen years. The three
states which refrained from acting were Georgia,
South Carolina, and Delaware. The acts of the
other ten were, as might have been expected, a
jumble of incongruities. North Carolina granted
all the power that was asked, but stipulated that
when all the states should have done likewise their
acts should be summed up in a new article of con
federation. Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Mary
land had fixed the date at which the grant was to
take effect, while Rhode Island provided that it
should not expire until after the lapse of twenty-
five years. The grant by New Hampshire allowed
the power to be used only in one specified way, —
by restricting the duties imposable by the several
states. The grants of Massachusetts, New York,
New Jersey, and Virginia were not to take effect
until all the others should go into operation. The
only thing which Congress could do with these acts
was to refer them back to the several legislatures,
with a polite request to try to reduce them to some
thing like uniformity.
Meanwhile, the different states, with tlieir dif
ferent tariff and tonnage acts, began to make com-

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

145

mercial war upon one another. No sooner had the
other three New England states virtually closed
their ports to British shipping than
1 . , Commercial
Connecticut threw hers wide open, an warbetweon
act which she followed up by laying
duties upon imports from Massachusetts. Penn
sylvania discriminated against Delaware, and New
Jersey, pillaged at once by both her greater neigh
bours, was compared to a cask tapped at both ends.
The conduct of New York became especially selfish
and blameworthy. That rapid growth which was
so soon to carry the city and the state to a position
of primacy in the Union had already begun. After
the departure of the British the revival of business
went on with leaps and bounds. The feeling of
local patriotism waxed strong, and in no one was it
more completely manifested than in George Clin
ton, the Revolutionary general, whom the people
elected governor for nine successive terms. From
a humble origin, by dint of shrewdness and untir
ing push, Clinton had come to be for the moment
the most powerful man in the state of New York.
He had come to look upon the state almost as if
it were his own private manor, and his life was de
voted to furthering its interests as he understood
them. It was his first article of faith that New
York must be the greatest state in the Uuion.
But his conceptions of statesmanship were ex
tremely narrow. In his mind, the welfare of New
York meant the pulling down and thrusting aside
of all her neighbours and rivals. He was the vigor
ous and steadfast advocate of every illiberal and
exclusive measure, and the most uncompromising

146 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
enemy to a closer union of the states. His great
popidar strength and the commercial importance
of the community in which he held sway made him
at this time the most dangerous man in America.
The political victories presently to be won by Ham
ilton, Schuyler, and Livingston, without which our
grand and pacific federal union could not have
been brought into being, were victories won by
most desperate fighting against the dogged opposi
tion of Clinton. Under his guidance, the history
of New York, during the five years following the
peace of 1783, was a shameful story of greedy mo
nopoly and sectional hate. Of all the thirteen
states, none behaved worse except Rhode Island.
A single instance, which occurred early in 1787,
may serve as an illustration. The city of New
York, with its population of 30,000 souls, had long
been supplied with firewood from Connecticut, and
with butter and cheese, chickens and garden vege
tables, from the thrifty farms of New Jersey.
This trade, it was observed, carried thousands of
dollars out of the city and into the pockets of de
tested Yankees and despised Jerseymen. It was
ruinous to domestic industry, said the men of New
York. It must be stopped by those effective rem
edies of the Sangrado school of economic doctors,
a navigation act and a protective tariff. Acts
were accordingly passed, obliging every Yankee
sloop which came down through Hell Gate, and
every Jersey market boat which was rowed across
from Paulus Hook to Cortlandt Street, to pay en
trance fees and obtain clearances at the custom
house, just as was done by ships from London or

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

147

r -

Hamburg ; and not a cart-load of Connecticut fire
wood could be delivered at the back-door of a
country-house in Beekman Street until it should
have paid a heavy duty. Great and just was the
wrath of the farmers and lumbermen. The New
Jersey legislature made up its mind to retaliate.
The city of New York had lately bought a small
patch of ground on Sandy Hook, and had built a
light-house there. This light-house was the one
weak spot in the heel of Achilles where a hostile
arrow could strike, and New Jersey gave vent to
her indignation by laying a tax of $1,800 a year on
it. Connecticut was equally prompt. At a great
meeting of business men, held at New London, it
was unanimously agreed to suspend all commercial
intercourse with New York. Every merchant
signed an agreement, under penalty of $250 for
the first offence, not to send any goods whatever
into the hated state for a period of twelve months.
By such retaliatory measures, it was hoped that
New York might be compelled to rescind her odi
ous enactment. But such meetings and such re
solves bore an ominous likeness to the meetings
and resolves which in the years before 1775 had
heralded a state of war ; and but for the good work
done by the federal convention another five years
would scarcely have elapsed before shots would
have been fired and seeds of perennial hatred sown
on the shores that look toward Manhattan Island.
To these commercial disputes there were added
disputes about territory. The chronic quarrel be
tween Connecticut and Pennsylvania over the valley
of Wyoming was decided in the autumn of 1782

148

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

149

by a special federal court, appointed in accord
ance with the articles of confederation.
Disputes about _,, . j-ii.it> i
territory; dis- Ihe prize was adiudged to .rennsylva-
ostere in tho , r J o j _
valley of wyo- ma, and the government of Connecti
cut submitted as gracefully as possible.
But new troubles were in store for the inhabitants
of that beautiful region. The traces of the massa
cre of 1778 had disappeared, the houses had been
rebuilt, new settlers had come in, and the pretty
villages had taken on their old look of content
ment and thrift, when in the spring of 1784 there
came an accumulation of disasters. During a very
cold winter great quantities of snow had fallen,
and lay piled in huge masses on the mountain
sides, until in March a sudden thaw set in. The
Susquehanna rose, and overflowed the valley, and
great blocks of ice drifted here and there, carrying
death and destruction with them. Houses, barns,
and fences were swept away, the cattle were
drowned, the fruit trees broken down, the stores
of food destroyed, and over the whole valley there
lay a stratum of gravel and pebbles. The people
were starving with cold and hunger, and President
Dickinson urged the legislature to send prompt re
lief to the sufferers. But the hearts of the mem
bers were as flint, and their talk was incredibly
wicked. Not a penny would they give to help the
accursed Yankees. It served them right. If they
had stayed in Connecticut, where they belonged,
they would have kept out of harm's way. And
with a blasphemy thinly veiled in phrases of pious
unction, the desolation of the valley was said to
have been contrived by the Deity with the express

r

object of punishing these trespassers. But the
cruelty of the Pennsylvania legislature was not con
fined to words. A scheme was devised for driving
out the settlers and partitioning their lands among
a company of speculators. A force of militia was
sent to Wyoming, commanded by a truculent crea
ture named Patterson, The ostensible purpose was-
to assist in restoring order in the valley, but the*
behaviour of the soldiers was such a3 would have
disgraced a horde of barbarians. They stole what
they could find, dealt out blows to the men and in
sults to the women, until their violence was met-
with violence in return. Then Patterson sent a,
letter to President Dickinson, accusing the farmers.
of sedition, and hinting that extreme measures'
were necessary. Having thus, as he thought, pre
pared the way, he attacked the settlement, turned
some five hundred people out-of-doorsr and burnecL
their houses to the ground. The wretched victims,,
many of them tender women, or Infirm old men, or"
little children, were driven into the wilderness at;
the point of the bayonet, and told to find their way
to Connecticut without further delay. Heart
rending scenes ensued. Many died of exhaustion,.
or furnished food for wolves. But this was more'
than the Pennsylvania legislature had intended.
Patterson's zeal had carried him too far. He was>
recalled, and the sheriff of Northumberland County
was sent, with a posse of men, to protect the1
settlers. Patterson disobeyed, however, and with-
. drawing hi3 men to a fortified lair in the moun
tains, kept up a guerilla warfare. All the Connect
icut men in the neighbouring country flew to arms.

150 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
Men were killed on both sides, and presently Pat
terson was besieged. A regiment of soldiers was
then sent from Philadelphia, under Colonel Arm
strong, who had formerly been on Gates's staff, the
author of the incendiary Newburgh address. On
arriving in the valley, Armstrong held a parley
with the Connecticut men, and persuaded them to
lay down their arms ; assuring them on his honour
that they should meet with no ill treatment, and
that their enemy, Patterson, should be disarmed
also. Having thus fallen into this soldier's clutches,
they were forthwith treated as prisoners. Seventy-
six of them were handcuffed and sent under guard,
some to Easton and some to Northumberland,
where they were thrown into jail.
Great was the indignation in New England when
these deeds were heard of. The matter had be
come very serious. A war between Connecticut
and Pennsylvania might easily grow out of it. But
the danger was averted through a very singular
feature in the Pennsylvania constitution. ' In order
to hold its legislature iu check, Pennsylvania had
a council of censors, which was assembled once in
seven years in order to inquire whether the state
had been properly governed during the interval.
Soon after the troubles in Wyoming the regular
meeting of the censors was held, and the conduct
of Armstrong and Patterson was unreservedly con
demned. A hot controversy ensued between the
legislature and the censors, and as tho people set
great store by the latter peculiar institution, pulilic \
sympathy was gradually awakened for the sufferets.
The wickedness of the affair began to dawn upon

, DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

151

people's minds, and they were ashamed of what had
j been done. Patterson and Armstrong were frowned
down, the legislature disavowed their acts, and it
s was ordered that full reparation should be made to
the persecuted settlers of Wyoming.1
In the Green Mountains and on the upper waters
1 of the Connecticut there had been trouble for
.^ many years. In the course of the Revolutionary
. _ War, the fierce dispute between New York and
New Hampshire for the possession of the Green
Mountains came in from time to time to influence
most curiously the course of events. It was closely
, , connected with the intrigues against General
. Schuyler, and thus more remotely with the Conway
cabal and the treason of Arnold. About the time
of Burgoyne's invasion the association of Green
Mountain Boys endeavoured to cut the Gordian knot
by declaring Vermont an independent Troub, ta
state, and applying to the Continental $°„-£[?™
Congress for admission into the Union, m7-s4.
j The New York delegates in Congress succeeded in
defeating this scheme, but the Vermont people went
on and framed their constitution. Thomas Chitten
den, a man of rough manners but very considerable
ability, a farmer and innkeeper, like Israel Put
nam,, watr-^osen governor, and held that position .
for many yeai.t. New Hampshire thus far had not
actively opposed these measures, but fresh grounds
of quarrel were soon at hand. Several towns on
the east bank of the Connecticut River wished to
1 A very interesting account of these troubles rnay be found in
the first volume of Professor McMaster's History of llxc People of
the United States.

152

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

153

escape from the jurisdiction of New Hampshire.
They preferred to belong to Vermont, because it
was not within the Union, and accordingly not
liable to requisitions of taxes from the Continental
Congress. It was conveniently remembered that
by the original grant, in the reign of Charles H.,
New Hampshire extended only sixty miles from
the coast. Vermont was at first inclined to assent,
but finding the scheme unpopular in Congress, and
not wishing to offend that body, she changed her
mind. The towns on both banks of the river then
tried to organize themselves into a middle state.
— a sort of Lotharingia on the banks of this New
World Rhine, — to be called New Connecticut.
By this time New Hampshire was aroused, and she
called attention to the fact that she still believed
herself entitled to dominion over the whole of Ver
mont. Massachusetts now began to suspect that
the upshot of the matter would be the partition of
the whole disputed territory between New Hamp
shire and New York, and, ransacking her ancient
grants and charters, she decided to set up a claim
on her own part to the southernmost towns in Ver
mont. Thus goaded on all sides, Vermont adopted
an aggressive policy. She not only annexed the
towns east of the Connecticut RiverT,but also as
serted sovereignty over the towns. ill New York as
far as the Hudson. New York sent troops to the
threatened frontier, New Hampshire prepared to
do likewise, and for a moment war seemed inevi
table. But here, as in so many other instances,
Washington appeared as peacemaker, and prevailed
upon Governor Chittenden to use his influence in

S

\/

getting the dangerous claims withdrawn. After
the spring of 1784 the outlook was less stormy in
the Green Mountains. The conflicting claims were
allowed to lie dormant, but the possibilities of mis
chief remained, and the Vermont question was not
finally settled until after the adoption of the Fed
eral Constitution. Meanwhile, on the debatable
frontier between Vermont and New York the em
bers of hatred smouldered. Barns and houses were
set on fire, and belated wayfarers were found mys
teriously murdered in the depths of the forest.
Incidents like these of Wyoming and Vermont
seem trivial, perhaps, when contrasted with the
lurid tales of border warfare in older times between
half-civilized peoples of mediaeval Europe, as we
read them in the pages of Froissart and Sir Walter
Scott. But their historic lesson is none the less
clear. Though they lift the curtain but a little *y
way, they show us a glimpse of the untold dangers /
and horrors from which the adoption of our Fed- ! j
eral Constitution has so thoroughly freed us that: '
we can only with some effort realize how narrowly j ;
we have escaped them. It is fit that they should i j
be borne in mind, that we may duly appreciate the ; !
significance of the reign of law and order which \ I
has been established on this continent during the J
greater part of a century. When reported liT-a.
Europe, such incidents were held to confirm the j
opinion that the American confederacy was going J
to pieces. With quarrels about trade and quarrels |
about boundaries, we seemed to be treading the !
old-fashioned paths of anarchy, even as they had <
been trodden in other ages and other parts of the \

154 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
world. It was natural that people in Europe
should think so, because there was no historic pre
cedent to help them in forming a different opinion.
No one could possibly foresee that within five years
a number of gentlemen at Philadelphia, containing
among themselves a greater amount of political
sagacity than had ever before been brought to
gether within the walls of a single room, would
amicably discuss the situation and agree upon a
new system of government whereby the dangers
might be once for all averted. Still less could any
one foresee that these gentlemen would not only
agree upon a scheme among themselves, but would
actually succeed, without serious civil dissension,
in making the people of thirteen states adopt, de
fend, and cherish it. History afforded no example
of such a gigantic act of constructive statesman
ship. It was, moreover, a strange and apparently
fortuitous combination of circumstances that were
now preparing the way for it and making its ac
complishment possible. No one could forecast the
future. When our ministers and agents in Europe
One nation or raised the question as to making com-
thirteen? mercial treaties, they were disdainfully
asked whether European powers were expected to
deal with thirteen governments or with one. If it
was answered that the United States constituted a
single government so far as their relations with
foreign powers were concerned, then we were forth
with twitted with our failure to keep our engage
ments with England with regard to the loyalists
and the collection of private debts. Yes, we see,
said the European diplomats; the United States

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

155

are one nation to-day and thirteen to-morrow, ac
cording as may seem to subserve their selfish inter
ests. Jefferson, at Paris, was told again and again
that it was useless for the French government to
enter into any agreement with the United States,
as there was no certainty that it would be fulfilled
on our part ; and the same things were said all
over Europe. Toward the close of the war most
of the European nations had seemed ready to enter
into commercial arrangements with the United
States, but all save Holland speedily lost interest
in the subject. John Adams had succeeded in
making a treaty with Holland in 1782. Frederick
the Great treated us more civilly than other
sovereigns. One of the last acts of his life was to
conclude a treaty for ten years with the United
States ; asserting the principle that free ships
make free goods, taking arms and military stores
out of the class of contraband, agreeing to refrain
from privateering even in case of war between the
two countries, and in other respects showing a
liberal and enlightened spirit.
This treaty was concluded in 1786. It scarcely
touched the subject of international trade in time
of peace, but it was valuable as regarded the mat
ters it covered, and in the midst of the general
failure of American diplomacy in Europe it fell
pleasantly upon our ears. Our diplomacy had
failed because our weakness had been proclaimed
to the world. We were bullied by England, in
sulted by France and Spain, and looked askance
at in Holland. The humiliating position in which
our ministers were placed by the beggarly poverty

156 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
of Congress was something almost beyond credence.
It was by no means unusual for the superintendent
of finance, when hard pushed for money, to draw
upon our foreign ministers, and then sell the drafts
for cash. This was not only not unusual ; it was
an established custom. It was done again and
again, when there was not the smallest ground for
supposing that the minister upon whom the draft
was mado would have any funds wherewith to meet
it. He must go and beg the money. That was
part of his duty as envoy, — to solicit loans without
security for a government that could not raise
enough money by taxation to defray its current
Paiiu'ro of expenses. It was sickening work. Just
cr™mfjo'in »ei°re John Adams had been appointed
Adania beg

ging in Hol
land, 1734.

minister to England, and while he was
visiting in London, he suddenly learned
that drafts upon him had been presented to his
bankers in Amsterdam to tho amount of more than
a million florins. Less than half a million florins
were on hand to meet these demands, and unless
something were done at once the greater part of
this paper would go back to America protested.
Adams lost not a moment in starting for Holland.
In these modern days of precision in travel, when
we can translate space into time, the distance be
tween London and Amsterdam is eleven hours. It
was accomplished by Adams, after innumerable
delays and vexations and no little danger, in fifty-
four days. The bankers had contrived, by ingen
ious excuses, to keep the drafts from going to
protest until the minister's arrival, but the gazettes
were full of the troubles of Congress and the bick-

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 157
erings of the states, and everybody was suspicious.
Adams applied in vain to the regency of Amster
dam. The promise of the American government
was not regarded as valid security for a sum equiv
alent to about three hundred thousand dollars.
The members of tho regency were polite, but in
exorable. They could not make a loan on such
terms ; it was unbusinesslike and contrary to pre
cedent. Finding them immovable, Adams was
forced to apply to professional usurers and Jew
brokers, from whom, after three weeks of per
plexity and humiliation, he obtained a loan at ex
orbitant interest, and succeeded in meeting the
drafts. It was only too plain, as ho mournfully
confessed, that American credit was dead. Such
were the trials of our American ministers in Europe
in the dark dT> of the League of Friendship. It
was not a solitary, but a typical, instance. John
Jay's experience at the unfriendly court of Spain
was perhaps even more trying.
European governments might treat us with cold
disdain, and European bankers might pronounce
our securities worthless, but there was one quarter
of the world from which even worse measure was
meted out to us. Of all the barbarous communi
ties with which the civilized world has had to deal
in modern times, perhaps none have made so much
trouble as the Mussulman states on the southern
shore of the Mediterranean. After the breaking
up of the great Moorish kingdoms of the Middle
Ages, this region had fallen under the nominal
control of the Turkish sultans as lords paramount
of the orthodox Mohammedan world. Its miser-

158 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
able populations became the prey of banditti.
Swarms of half-savage chieftains settled down upon
the land like locusts, and out of such
piratea. a pandemonium of robbery and murder
as has scarcely been equalled in historic times the
pirate states of Morocco and Algiers, Tunis and
Tripoli, gradually emerged. Of these communities
history has not one good word to say. In these
fair lands, once illustrious for the genius and vir
tues of a Hannibal and the profound philosophy of
St. Augustine, there grew up some of the most ter
rible despotisms ever known to the world. The
things done daily by the robber sovereigns were
such as to make a civilized imagination recoil with
horror. One of these cheerful creatures, who
reigned in the middle of the eighteenth century,
and was called Muley Abdallah, especially prided
himself on his peculiar skill in mounting a horse.
Resting his left hand upon the horse's neck, as he
sprang into the saddle he simultaneously swung
the sharp scimiter in his right hand so deftly as to
cut off the head of the groom who held the bridle.
From his behaviour in these sportive moods one
may judge what he was capable of on serious occa
sions. He was a fair sample of the Barbary mon
archs. The foreign policy of these wretches was
summed up in piracy and blackmail. Their cor
sairs swept the Mediterranean and ventured far
out upon the ocean, capturing merchant vessels,
and murdering or enslaving their crews. Of the
rich booty, a fixed proportion was paid over to the
robber sovereign, and the rest was divided among
the gang. So lucrative was this business that it

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 159
attracted hardy ruffians from all parts of Europe,
and the misery they inflicted upon mankind during
four centuries was beyond calculation. One ot
their favourite practices was the kidnapping of
eminent or wealthy persons, in the hope of extort
ing ransom. Cervantes and Vincent de Paul were
anions the celebrated men who thus tasted the hor
rors of Moorish slavery ; but it was a calamity that
: mio-ht fall to the lot of any man or woman, and it
y was but rarely that the victims ever regained their
, freedom. Against these pirates the governments of Europe
contended in vain. Swift cruisers frequently cap
tured their ships, and from the days of Joan of Arc
-- down to the days of Napoleon their skeletons
swung from long rows of gibbets on all the coasts
of Europe, as a terror and a warning. But their
w> losses were easily repaired, and sometimes they
cruised in fleets of seventy or eighty sail, defying
the navies of England and France. It was not ur,
p til after England, in Nelson's time, had acquired
supremacy in the Mediterranean that this dreadful
scourge was destroyed. Americans, however, have
just ground for pride in recollecting that their
government was foremost in chastising these pirates
in their own harbours. The exploits of our little
r navy in the Mediterranean at the beginning of the
present century form an interesting episode in
"T" American history, but in the weak days American dU_
of the Confederation our commerce was ^m-
plundered with impunity, and American
citizens were seized and sold into slavery in the
markets of Algiers and Tripoli. One reason for

160 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
the long survival of this villainy was the low state
of humanity among European nations. An Eng
lishman's sympathy was but feebly aroused by tho
plunder of Frenchmen, and the bigoted Spaniard
looked on with approval so long as it was Protest
ants that were kidnapped and bastinadoed. In
1783 Lord Sheffield published a pamphlet 011
the commerce of the United States, in wliich he
shamelessly declared that the Barbary pirates were
really useful to the great maritime powers, because
they tended to keep the weaker nations out of their
share in the carrying trade. This, he thought, was
a valuable offset to the Empress Catherine's device
of the armed neutrality, whereby small nations
were protected; and on this wicked theory, as
Franklin tells us, London merchants had been
heard to say that " if there were no Algiers, it
would be worth England's while to build one." It
was largely because of such feelings that the great
states of Europe so long persisted in the craven
policy of paying blackmail to the robbers, instead
of joining in a crusade and destroying them.
In 1786 Congress felt it necessary to take meas
ures for protecting the lives and liberties of Amer
ican citizens. The person who called himself " Em
peror " of Morocco at that time was different from
most of his kind. He had a taste for reading, and
had thus caught a glimmering of the enlightened
liberalism which French philosophers were preach
ing. He wished to be thought a benevolent despot,
and with Morocco, accordingly, Congress succeeded
in making a treaty. But nothing could be done
with the other pirate states without paying black-

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 161
mail. Few scenes in our history are more amus
ing, or more irritating, than the interview of John
Adams with an envoy from Tripoli in London.
. The oily-tongued barbarian, with his soft voice and
his bland smile, asseverating that his only interest
in life was to do good and make other people happy,
stands out in fine contrast with the blunt, straight
forward, and truthful New Englander ; and their
conversation reminds one of the old story of Coeur-
de-Lion with his curtal-axe and Saladin with the
blade that cut the silken cushion. Adams felt sure
that the fellow was either saint or devil, but could
not quite tell which. Tho envoy's love Tripoiidc-
for mankind was so great that he could nS?Feb!ack"
not bear the thought of hostility between 178°-
the Americans and the Barbary States, and he
'suggested that everything might be happily ar
ranged for a million dollars or so. Adams thought
it better to fight than to pay tribute. It would be
cheaper in the end, as well as more manly. At the
same time, it was better economy to pay a million
dollars at once than waste many times that sum in
war risks and loss of trade. But Congress could
do neither one thing nor the other. It was too
poor to build a navy, and too poor to buy off the
pirates : and so for several years to come American
ships were burned and American sailors enslaved
with utter impunity. With the memory of such
wrongs deeply graven in his heart, it was natural
that John Adams, on becoming president of the
United States, should bend his energies toward
founding a strong American navy.
A government touches the lowest point of igno-

0

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\

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DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

miny when it confesses its inability to protect the
lives and property of its citizens. A government
congress un- which has come to this has failed in dis-
American°cS- charging the primary function of govern-
Z8"B' ment, and forthwith ceases to have any
reason for existing. In March, 1786, Grayson
wrote to Madison that several members of Congress
thought seriously of recommending a general con
vention for remodelling the government. " I have
not made up my mind," says Grayson, " whether
it would not be better to bear the ills we have than
fly to those we know not of. I am, however, in no
doubt about the weakness of the federal government.
If it remains much longer in its present state of
imbecility, we shall be one of the most contemptible
nations on the face of the earth." " It is clear to
me as A, B, C," said Washington, " that an exten
sion of federal powers would make us one of the
most happy, wealthy, respectable, and powerful na
tions that ever inhabited the terrestrial globe.
Without them we shall soon be everything which is
the direct reverse. I predict the worst consequences
from a half-starved, limping government, always
moving upon crutches and tottering at every step."
There is no telling how long the wretched state
of things which followed the Revolution might
have continued, had not the crisis been precipi
tated by the wild attempts of the several states to
remedy the distress of the people by legislation.
Financial dis- That financial distress was widespread
tates thTpoHt- and deep-seated was not to be denied.
icai cnsiB. ^ j.j]e Deginning of the war the amount
of accumulated capital in the country had been

-r.

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DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 163
very small. The great majority of the people did
little more than get from the annual yield of their
farms or plantations enough to meet the current
expenses of the year. Outside of agriculture the
chief resources were the carrying trade, the ex
change of commodities with England and the West
Indies, and the cod and whale fisheries ; and in
these occupations many people had grown rich.
The war had destroyed all these sources of revenue.
Imports and exports had alike been stopped,.so that
there was a distressing scarcity of some of the com
monest household articles. The enemy's navy had
kept us from the fisheries. Before the war, the
dock-yards of Nantucket were ringing with the
busy sound of adze and hammer, rope-walks cov
ered the island, and two hundred keels sailed
yearly in quest of spermaceti. At the return of
peace, the docks were silent and grass grew in the
streets. The carrying trade and the fisheries began
soon to revive, but it was some years before the
old prosperity was restored. The war had also
wrought serious damage to agriculture, and in some
parts of the country the direct destruction of prop
erty by the enemy's troops had been very great.
To all these causes of poverty there was added the
hopeless confusion due to an inconvertible paper
currency. The worst feature of this financial de
vice is that it not only impoverishes people, but be-
muddles their brains by creating a false and fleet
ing show of prosperity. By violently disturbing
apparent values, it always brings on an era of wild
speculation and extravagance in living, followed by
sudden collapse and protracted suffering. In such

164 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
crises the poorest people, those who earn their
bread by the sweat of their brows and have no
margin, of accumulated capital, always suffer the
most. Above all men, it is the labouring man who
needs sound money and steady values. We have
seen all these points amply illustrated since the
War of Secession. After the War of Indepen
dence, when the margin of accumulated capital was
so much smaller, the misery was much greater.
While the paper money lasted there was marked
extravagance in living, and complaints were loud
against the speculators, especially those who oper
ated in bread-stuffs. Washington said he would
like to hang them all on a gallows higher than that
of Haman ; but they were, after all, but the inevi
table products of this abnormal state of things, and
the more guilty criminals were the demagogues who
went about preaching the doctrine that the poor
man needs cheap money. After the collapse of
this continental currency in 1780, it seemed as if
there were no money in the country, and at the
peace the renewal of trade with England seemed at
first to make matters worse. The brisk importa
tion of sorely needed manufactured goods, which
then began, would naturally have been paid for in
the south by indigo, rice, and tobacco, in the mid
dle states by exports of wheat and furs, and in
New England by the profits of the fisheries, the
shipping, and the West India trade. But in the
southern and middle states the necessary revival
of agriculture could not be effected in a moment,
and British legislation against American shipping
and the West India trade fell with crippling force

•A 'I

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DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 165
upon New England. Consequently, we had little
else but specie with which to pay for imports, and
the country was soon drained of what little specie
there was. In the absence of a circulating medium
there was a reversion to the practice of barter, and
the revival of business was thus further impeded.
Whiskey in North Carolina, tobacco in Virginia,
did duty as measures of value ; and Isaiah Thomas,
editor of the Worcester " Spy," announced that he
would receive subscriptions for his paper in salt
pork. It is worth while, in this connection, to observe
what this specie was, the scarcity of which created
so much embarrassment. Until 1785 no national
coinage was established, and none was issued until
1793. English, French, Spanish, and German
coins, of various and uncertain value, passed from
hand to hand. Beside the ninepences stateoftho
and fourpence-ha'-pennles, there were cou,aee.
bits and half-bits, pistareens, picayunes, and fips.
Of gold pieces there were the Johannes, or joe, the
doubloon, tho moidore, and pistole, with English
and French guineas, carolins, ducats, and chequins.
Of coppers there were English pence and half
pence and French sous ; and pennies were issued
at local mints in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connect
icut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The Eng
lish shilling had everywhere degenerated in value,
but differently in different localities ; and among
silver pieces the Spanish dollar, from Louisiana
and Cuba, had begun to supersede it as a measure
of value. In New England the shilling had sunk
from nearly one fourth to one sixth of a dollar ; in

166

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

New York to one eighth ; in North Carolina to one
tenth. It was partly for this reason that in devis
ing a national coinage tho more uniform dollar was
adopted as the unit. At the same time the decimal
system of division was adopted instead of the cum
brous English system, and the result was our pres
ent admirably simple currency, which we owe to
Gouverneur Morris, aided as to some points by
Thomas Jefferson. During the period of the Con
federation, tho chaotic state of the currency was a
serious obstacle to trade, and it afforded endless
opportunities for fraud and extortion. Clipping
and counterfeiting were carried to such lengths
that evory moderately cautious person, in tailing
payment iu hard cash, felt it necessary to keep a
small pair of scales beside him and carefully weigh
each coin, after narrowly scrutinizing its stamp and
deciphering its legend.
In view of all these complicated impediments to
business on the morrow of a long and costly war,
it was not strange that the whole country was in
some measure pauperized. The cost of the war,
estimated in cash, had been about $170,000,000 —
a huge sum if we consider the circumstances of the
country at that time. To meet this crush-
Cost of the . . -, ,
war; Robert mg indebtedness Mr. II ildreth reckons
Morns and his
immense ser- the total amount raised by the states,
vices. j i
whether by means of repudiated paper
or of taxes, down to 1784, as not more than f 30,-
000,000. No wonder if the issue of such a struc-
gle seemed quite hopeless. In many parts of the
country, by the year 1786, the payment of taxes
had come to be regarded as an amiable eccentri-

~v^

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 167
city. At one moment, early in 1782, there was not
a single dollar in the treasury. That the gov
ernment had in any way been able to finish the
war, after the downfall of its paper money, was due
to the gigantic efforts of one great man, — Robert
Morris, of Pennsylvania. This statesman was
born in England, but he had come to Philadelphia
in his boyhood, and had amassed an enormous for
tune, which he devoted without stint to the service
of his adopted country. Though opposed to the
Declaration of Independence as rash and prema
ture, he had, nevertheless, signed his name to that
document, and scarcely any one had contributed
more to the success of the war. It was he who
supplied the money which enabled Washington to
complete the great campaign of Trenton and
Princeton. In 1781 he was made superintendent
of finance, and by dint of every imaginable device
of hard-pressed ingenuity he contrived to support
the brilliant work which began at the Cowpens
and ended at Yorktown. He established the Bank
of North America as an instrument by which gov
ernment loans might be negotiated. Sometimes
his methods were such as doctors call heroic, as
when he made sudden drafts upon our ministers in
Europe after the manner already described. In
every dire emergency he was Washington's chief
reliance, and in his devotion to the common weal
he drew upon his private resources until he became
poor ; and in later years — for shame be it said —
an ungrateful nation allowed one of its noblest and
most disinterested champions to languish in a debt
or's prison. It was of ill omen for the fortunes of

168

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

169

the weak and disorderly Confederation that in 1784,
after three years of herculean struggle with impos
sibilities, this stout heart and sagacious head could
no longer weather the storm. The task of creating
wealth out of nothing had become too arduous and
too thankless to be endured. Robert Morris re
signed his place, and it was taken by a congres
sional committee of finance, under whose manage
ment the disorders only hurried to a crisis.
By 1786, under the universal depression and
want of confidence, all trade had well-nigh stopped,
and political quackery, with its cheap and ditty
remedies, had full control of the field. In the very
face of miseries so plainly traceable to the deadly
paper currency, it may seem strange that people
should now have begun to clamour for a renewal
of the experiment wliich had worked so much evil.
Yet so it was. As starving men are said to dream
of dainty banquets, so now a craze for
fictitious wealth in the shape of paper
money ran like an epidemic through the
There was a Barmecide feast of economic
only now it was the several states that
sought to apply the remedy, each in its own way.
And when we have threaded the maze of this rash
legislation, we shall the better understand that
clause in our federal constitution which forbids the
making of laws impairing the obligation of con
tracts. The events of 1786 impressed upon men's
minds more forcibly than ever the wretched and
disorderly condition of the country, and went far
toward calling into existence the needful popular
sentiment in favour of an overruling central govern
ment.

The crazo for
paper-money,178G.

country. vagaries :

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The disorders assumed very different forms in
the different states, and brought out a great diver
sity of opinion as to the causes of the distress and
the efficacy of the proposed remedies. Only two
states out of the thirteen — Connecticut and Dela
ware — escaped the infection, but, on the other
hand, it was only in seven states that the paper
money party prevailed in the legislatures. North
Carolina issued a large amount of paper, and, in
order to get it into circulation as quickly as possi
ble, the state government proceeded to buy tobacco
with it, paying double the specie value of the to
bacco. As a natural consequence, the paper dollar
instantly fell to seventy cents, and went on declin
ing. In South Carolina an issue was tried some
what more cautiously, but the planters . Agitation in
soon refused to take the paper at its southern ^nd
a. x middle states.
face value. Coercive measures were
then attempted. Planters and merchants were
urged to sign a pledge not to discriminate between
paper and gold, and if any one dared refuse the
fanatics forthwith attempted to make it hot for
him. A kind of " Kuklux " society was organized
at Charleston, known as the " Hint Club." Its
purpose was to hint to such people that they had
better look out. If they did not mend their ways,
it waa unnecessary to inform them more explicitly
what they might expect. Houses were combustible
then as now, and the use of firearms was well un
derstood. In Georgia the legislature itself at
tempted coercion. Paper money was made a legal
tender in spite of strong opposition, and a law was
passed prohibiting any planter or merchant from

170

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

exporting any produce without taking affidavit that
he had never refused to receive this scrip at its full
face value. But somehow people found that the
more it was sought to keep up the paper by dint of
threats and forcing acts, the faster its value fell.
Virginia had issued bills of credit during the cam
paign of 1781, but it was enacted at the same time
that they should not be a legal tender after the
next January. The influence of Washington,
Madison, and Mason was effectively brought to
bear in favour of sound currency, and the people of
Virginia were but slightly affected by the craze of
1786. In the autumn of that year a proposition
from two counties for an issue of paper was de
feated in the legislature by a vote of eighty-five to
seventeen, and no more was heard of the matter.
In Maryland, after a very obstinate fight, a rag
money bill was carried in the house of representa
tives, but the senate threw it out ; and the meas
ure was thus postponed until the discussion over
the federal constitution superseded it in popidar in
terest. Pennsylvania had warily begun in May,
1785, to issue a million dollars in bills of credit,
wliich were not made a legal tender for the pay
ment of private debts. They were mainly loaned
to farmers on mortgage, and were received by the
state as an equivalent for specie in the payment
of taxes. By August, 1786, even this carefully
guarded paper had fallen some twelve cents below
par, — not a bad showing for such a year as that.
New York moved somewhat less cautiously. A
million dollars were issued in bills of credit receiv
able for the custom-house duties, which were then

V
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T

V

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 171
paid into the state treasury ; and these bills were
made a legal tender for all money received in law
suits. At the same time the New Jersey legisla
ture passed a bill for issuing half a million paper
dollars, to be a legal tender in all business trans
actions. The bill was vetoed by the governor in
council. The aged Governor Livingston was
greatly respected by the people ; and so the mob at
Elizabethtown, wliich had duly planted a stake and
dragged his effigy up to it, refrained from inflict
ing the last indignities upon the image, and burned
that of one of the members of the council instead.
At the next session the governor yielded, and the
rag money was issued. But an unforeseen diffi
culty arose. Most of the dealings of New Jersey
people were in the cities of New York and Phila
delphia, and in both cities the merchants refused
their paper, so that it speedily became worthless.
The business of exchange was thus fast getting
into hopeless confusion. It has been said of Brad-
shaw's Railway Guide, the indispensable compan
ion of the traveller in England, that no man can
study it for an hour without qualifying himself for
an insane asylum. But Bradshaw is pellucid clear
ness compared with the American tables of ex
change in 1786, with their medley of dollars and
shillings, moidores and pistareens. The addition
of half a dozen different kinds of paper created
such a labyrinth as no human intellect could ex
plore. No wonder that men were counted wise who
preferred to take whiskey and pork instead. No
body who had a yard of cloth to sell could tell how
much it was worth. But even worse than all this

172

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DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

173

/"'

was the swift and certain renewal of bankruptcy
which so many states were preparing for them
selves. Nowhere did the warning come so quickly or so
sharply as in New England. Connecticut, indeed,
as already observed, came off scot-free. She had
issued a little paper money soon after the battle
of Lexington, but had stopped it about the time
of the surrender of Burgoyne. In 1780 she had
wisely aud summarily adjusted all relations be
tween debtor and creditor, and the crisis of 1786
found her people poor enough, no doubt, but able
to wait for better times and indisposed to adopt
violent remedies. It was far otherwise in Rhode
Island and Massachusetts. These were preemi-
nistressinNow nently the maritime states of the Union,
England. an(j Upon them the blows aimed by Eng
land at American commerce had fallen most se
verely. It was these two maritime states that suf
fered most from the cutting down of the carrying
trade and the restriction of intercourse with the
West Indies. These things worked injury to ship
building, to the exports of lumber and oil and
salted fish, even to the manufacture of Medford
rum. Nowhere had the normal'machiuery of busi
ness been thrown out of gear so extensively as in
these two states, and in Rhode Island there was
the added disturbance due to a prolonged occupa
tion by the enemy's troops. Nowhere, perhaps,
was there a larger proportion of the population in
debt, and in these preeminently commercial com
munities private debts were a heavier burden and
involved more personal suffering than in the sonie-

S

what patriarchal system of life in Virginia or
South Carolina. In the time of which we are now
treating, imprisonment for debt was common.
High-minded but unfortunate men were carried to
jail, and herded with thieves and ruffians in loath
some dungeons, for the crime of owing a hundred
dollars which they could not promptly pay. Under
such circumstances, a commercial disturbance, in
volving widespread debt, entailed an amount of
personal suffering and humiliation of which, in
these lander days, we can form no adequate con
ception. It tended to make the debtor an outlaw,
ready to entertain schemes for the subversion of
society. In the crisis of 1786, the agitation in
Rhode Island and Massachusetts reached white
heat, and things were done which alarmed the
whole country. But the course of events was dif
ferent in the two states. In Rhode Island the agi
tators obtained control of the government, and the
result was a paroxysm of tyranny. In Massachu
setts the agitators failed to secure control of the
government, and the result was a paroxysm of re
bellion. The debates over paper money in the Rhode Isl
and legislature began in 1785, but the advocates
of a sound currency were victorious. These men
were roundly abused in the newspapers, and in the
next spring election most of them lost their seats.
The legislature of 1786 showed an overwhelming
majority in favor of paper money. The farmers
from the inland towns were unanimous in support
ing the measure. They could not see the difference
between the state making a dollar out of paper and

174 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
a dollar out of silver. The idea that the value did
not lie in the government stamp they dismissed as
an idle crotchet, a wire-drawn theory, worthy only
of "Jiterary fellows." What they could see was
the glaring fact that they had no money, hard or
soft ; and they wanted something that would sat
isfy their creditors and buy new gowns for their
wives, whose raiment was unquestionably the worse
for wear. On the other hand, the merchants from
seaports like Providence, Newport, and Bristol un
derstood the difference between real money and the
promissory notes of a bankrupt government, but
they were in a hopeless minority. Half a million
dollars were issued in scrip, to be loaned to the
farmers on a mortgage of their real estate. No
one could obtain the scrip without giving a mort
gage for twice the amount, and it was thought
that this security would make it as good as gold.
But the depreciation began instantly. When the
worthy farmers went to the store for dry goods or
sugar, and found the prices rising with dreadful
rapidity, they were at first astonished, and then en
raged. The trouble, as they truly said, was with
Bag money tho wicked merchants, who would not
Rho^tad; take the PaPer do]Jars at taeir face value.
Te°""meXe8'. These men were thus thwarting the gov
ernment, and must be punished. An
act was accordingly hurried through the legisla
ture, commanding every one to take paper as an
equivalent for gold, under penalty of five hundred
dollars fine and loss of the right of suffrage.
The merchants in the cities thereupon shut up
their shops. During the summer of 1786 all

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

175

-v

s
V

v

V /

business was at a standstill in Newport- and Prov
idence, except in the bar-rooms. There and about
the market-places men spent their time angrily dis
cussing politics, and scarcely a day passed without
street-fights, which at times grew into riots. In
the country, too, no less than in the cities, the god
dess of discord reigned. The farmers determined
to starve the city people into submission, and they
entered into an agreement not to send any produce
into the cities until the merchants should open their
shops and begin selling their goods for paper at its
face value. Not wishing to lose their pigs and but
ter and grain, they tried to dispose of them in Bos
ton and New York, and in the coast towns of Con
necticut. But in all these places their proceedings
had awakened such lively disgust that placards
were posted in the taverns warning purchasers
against farm produce from Rhode Island. Disap
pointed in these quarters, the farmers threw away
their milk, used their corn for fuel, and let their
apples rot on the ground, rather than supply the
detested merchants. Food grew scarce in Provi
dence and Newport, and in the latter city a mob of
sailors attempted unsuccessfully to storm the pro
vision stores. The farmers were threatened with
armed violence. Town-meetings were held all over
the state, to discuss the situation, and how long
they might have talked to no purpose none can say,
when all at once the matter was brought into court.
A cabinet-maker in Newport named Trevett went
into a meat-market kept by one John Weeden, and
selecting a joint of meat, offered paper in payment.
Weeden refused to take the paper except at a

176

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

177

heavy discount. Trevett went to bed supperless,
and next morning informed against the obstinate
butcher for disobedience to the forcing act. Should
the court find him guilty, it would be a good spec
ulation for Trevett, for half of the five hundred
dollars fine was to go to the informer. Hard-
money men feared lest the court might prove sub
servient to the legislature, since that body possessed
the power of removing the five judges. The case
was tried in September amid furious excitement.
Huge crowds gathered about the court-house and
far down the street, screaming and cheering like a
crowd on the night of a presidential election. The
judges were clear-headed men, not to be brow
beaten. They declared the forcing act unconstitu
tional, and dismissed the complaint. Popular
wrath then turned upon them. A special session
of the legislature was convened, four of the judges
were removed, and a new forcing-act was prepared.
This act provided that no man could vote at elec
tions or hold any office without taking a test oath
promising to receive paper money at par. But
this was going too far. Many soft-money men
were not wild enough to support such a measure ;
among the farmers there were some who had
grown tired of seeing their produce spoiled on their
hands ; and many of the richest merchants had an
nounced their intention of moving out of the state.
The new forcing act accordingly failed to pass, and
presently the old one was repealed. The paper
dollar had been issued in May ; in November it
passed for sixteen cents.
These outrageous proceedings awakened disgust

~\

and alarm among sensible people in all the other
states, and Rhode Island was everywhere reviled
and made fun of. One clause of the forcing act
had provided that if a debtor should offer paper to
his creditor and the creditor should refuse to take
it at par, the debtor might carry his rag money to
court and deposit it with the judge ; and the judge
must thereupon issue a certificate discharging tho
debt. The form of certificate began with the
words " Know Ye," and forthwith the unhappy lit
tle state was nicknamed Rogues' Island, the home
of Know Ye men and Know Ye measures.
While the scorn of the people was thus poured
out upon Rhode Island, much sympathy was felt
for the government of Massachusetts, which was
called upon thus early to put down armed rebellion.
The pressure of debt was keenly felt in the rural
districts of Massachusetts. It is esti- „Rag money do-
mated that the private debts in the ioatedinsiaB-
1 sachueetts ;
state amounted to some $7,000,000, and thoshaysinsur. rection, Aug.
the state's arrears to the federal gov- Hg?"Feb*
ernment amounted to some $7,000,000
more. Adding to these sums the arrears of boun
ties due to the soldiers, and the annual cost of the
state, county, and town governments, there was
reached an aggregate equivalent to a tax of more
than $50 on every man, woman, and child in this
population of 379,000 souls. Upon every head of a
family the average burden was some $200 at a time
when most farmers would have thought such a sum
yearly a princely income. In those days of scar
city most of them did not set eyes on so much as
$50 in the course of a year, and happy was he who

178

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

had tucked away two or three golden guineas or
moidores in an old stocking, and sewed up the
treasure in his straw mattress or hidden it behind
the bricks of the chimney-piece. Under such cir
cumstances the payment of debts and taxes was
out of the question ; and as the same state of
things made creditors clamorous and ugly, the
courts were crowded with lawsuits. The lawyers
usually contrived to get their money by exacting
retainers in advance, and the practice of cham
perty was common, whereby the lawyer did his
work in consideration of a percentage on the sum
which was at last forcibly collected. Homesteads
were sold for the payment of foreclosed mortgages,
cattle were seized in distrainer, and the farmer
himself was sent to jail. The smouldering fires of
wrath thus kindled found expression in curses
aimed at lawyers, judges, and merchants. The
wicked merchants bought foreign goods and
drained the state of specie to pay for them, while
they drank Madeira wine and dressed their wives
in fine velvets and laces. So said the farmers ;
and city ladies, far kinder than these railers
deemed them, formed clubs, of which the members
pledged themselves to wear homespun, — a poor
palliative for the deep-seated ills of the time. In
such mood were many of the villagers when in the
summer of 1786 they were overtaken by the craze
for paper money. At the meeting of the legisla
ture in May, a petition came in from Bristol
County, praying for an issue of paper. The peti- ,
tioners admitted that such money was sure to de
teriorate in value, and they doubted the wisdom of

V

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V A

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. . 179
trying to keep it up by forcing acts. Instead of
this they would have the rate of its deterioration
regulated by law, so that a dollar might be worth
ninety cents to-day, and presently seventy cents,
and by and by fifty cents, and so on till it should
go down to zero and be thrown overboard. People
would thus know what to expect, and it would be
all right. The delicious naivete' of this argument
did not prevail with the legislature of Massachu
setts, and spft money was frowned down by a vote
of ninety-nine to nineteen. Then a bill was
brought in seeking to reestablish in legislation the
ancient practice of barter, and make horses and
cows legal tender for debts ; and this bill was
crushed by eighty-nine votes against thirty-five.
At the same time this legislature passed a bill to
¦ strengthen the federal government by a grant of
supplementary funds to Congress, and thus laid a
further burden of taxes upon the people.
There was an outburst of popular wrath. A con
vention at Hatfield in August decided that the
court of common pleas ought to be abolished, that
no funds should be granted to Congress, and that
paper money should be issued at once. Another
convention at Lenox denounced such incendiary
measures, approved of supporting the federal gov
ernment, and declared that no good could come
from the issue of paper money. But meanwhile
the angry farmers had resorted to violence. The
legislature, they said, had its sittings in Boston,
under the influence of wicked lawyers and mer
chants, and thus could not be expected to do the
will of the people. A cry went up that henceforth

180

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

the law-makers must sit in some small inland town,
where jealous eyes might watoh their proceedings.
Meanwhile the lawyers must be dealt with ; and
at Northampton, Worcester, Great Barrington, and
Concord the courts were broken up by armed
mobs. At Concord one Job Shattuck brought sev
eral hundred armed men into the town and sur
rounded the court-house, while in a fierce harangue
he declared that the time had come for wiping out
all debts. "Yes," squeaked a nasal voice from
the crowd, — " yes, Job, we know all about them
two farms you can't never pay for 1 " But this
repartee did not save the judges, who thought it
best to flee from the town. At first the legislature
deemed it wise to take a lenient view of these pro
ceedings, and it even went so far as to promise to
hold its next session out of Boston. But the agi
tation had reached a point where it could not be
stayed. In September the supreme court was to
sit at Springfield, and Governor Bowdoin sent a
force of 600 militia under General Shepard to pro
tect it. They were confronted by some 600 insur
gents, under the leadership of Daniel Shays. This
man had been a captain in the Continental army,
and in his force were many of the penniless veterans
whom Gates would fain havo incited to rebellion at
Newburgh. Shays seems to have done what he
could to restrain his men from violence, but he was
a poor creature, wanting alike in courage and good
faith. On the other hand the militia were lacking
in spirit. After a disorderly parley, with much
cursing and swearing, they beat a retreat, and the
court was prevented from sitting. Fresh riots fol-

1/ >

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 181
lowed at Worcester and Concord. A regiment of
cavalry, sent out by the governor, scoured Middle
sex County, and, after a short fight in the woods
near Groton, captured Job Shattuck and dispersed
his men. But this only exasperated the insurgents.
They assembled in Worcester to the number of
1,200 or more, where they lived for two months at
free quarters, while Shays organized and drilled
them. Meanwhile the habeas corpus act was sus
pended for eight months, and Governor Bowdoin
called out an army of 4,400 men, who were placed
under command of General Lincoln. As the state
treasury was nearly empty, some wealthy gentle
men in Boston subscribed the money needed for
equipping these troops, and about the middle of
January, 1787, they were collected at Worcester.
The rebels had behaved shamefully, burning barns
and seizing all the plunder they could lay hands
on. As their numbers increased they found their
military stores inadequate, and accordingly they
marched upon Springfield, with the intent to capture
the federal arsenal there, and provide themselves
with muskets and cannon. General Shepard held
Springfield with 1,200 men, and on the 25th of Jan
uary Shays attacked him with a force of somew'hat
more than 2,000, hoping to crush him and seize the
arsenal before Lincoln could come to the rescue.
But his plan of attack was faulty, and as soon as his
men began falling under Shepard's fire a panic
seized them, and they retreated in disorder to Lud
low, and then to Amherst, setting fire to houses
and robbing the inhabitants. On the approach of

182 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
Lincoln's army, three days later, Shays retreated
to Pelham, and planted his forces on
Tho Inmirrec- , , .,-
tionmipprcssod two steep hiils protected at the bottom
by state troops. , , , . , T ,
by huge snowdrifts. Lincoln advanced
to Hadley and sought to open negotiations with
the rebels. They were reminded that a contest
with the state government was hopeless, and that
they had already incurred the penalty of death ;
but if they would now lay down their arms and go
home, a free pardon could be obtained for them.
Shays seemed willing to yield, and Saturday, the
3d of February, was appointed for a conference
between some of the leading rebels and some of
the officers. But this was only a stratagem. Dur
ing the conference Shays decamped and marched
his men through Prescott and North Dana to Pe
tersham. Toward nightfall the trick was discov
ered, and Lincoln set his whole force in motion
over the mountain ridges of Shutesbury and New
Salem. The day had been mild, but during the
night the thermometer dropped below zero and an
icy, cutting snow began to fall. There was great
suffering during the last ten miles, and indeed the
whole march of thirty miles in thirteen hours over
steep and snow-covered roads was a worthy exploit
for these veterans of the Revolution. Shays and
his men had not looked for such a display of en
ergy, and as they were getting their breakfast on
Sunday morning at Petersham they were taken by
surprise. A few minutes sufficed to scatter them
in flight. A hundred and fifty, including Shays
himself, were taken prisoners. The rest fled in all
directions, most of them to Athol and Northfield,

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

183

\
v V

¦ /

whence they made their way into Vermont. Gen
eral Lincoln then marched his troops into the
mountains of Berkshire, where disturbances still
continued. On the 26th of February one Captain
Hamlin, with several hundred insurgents, plun
dered the town of Stockbridge and carried off the
leading citizens as hostages. He was pursued as
far as Springfield, defeated there in a sharp skir
mish, with a loss of some thirty in killed and
wounded, and his troops scattered. This put an
end to the insurrection in Massachusetts.
During the autumn similar disturbances had oc
curred in the states to the northward. At Exeter
in New Hampshire and at Windsor and Rutland
in Vermont the courts had been broken up by
armed mobs, and at Rutland there had been blood
shed. When the Shays rebellion was put down,
Governor Bowdoin requested the neigh
bouring states to lend their aid in bring- neighbouring
mg the insurgents to justice, and all
complied with the request except Vermont and
Rhode Island. The legislature of Rhode Island
sympathized with the rebels, and refused to allow
the governor to issue a warrant for their .arrest.
On the other hand, the governor of Vermont issued
a proclamation out of courtesy toward Massachu
setts, but he caused it to be understood that this
was but an empty form, as the state of Vermont
could not afford to discourage Immigration I A
feeling of compassion for the insurgents was widely
spread in Massachusetts. In March the leaders
were tried, and fourteen were convicted of treason
and sentenced to death ; but Governor Bowdoin,

184 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
whose term was about to expire, granted a reprieve
for a few weeks. At the annual election in April
the candidates for the governorship were Bowdoin
and Hancock, and it was generally believed that
the latter would be more likely than the former to
pardon the convicted men. So strong was this
feeling that, although much gratitude was felt to
ward Bowdoin, to whoso energetic measures the
prompt suppression of the rebellion was due, Han
cock obtained a large majority. When the ques
tion of a pardon came up for discussion, Samuel
Adams, who was then president of the senate, was
strongly opposed to it, and one of his arguments
was very characteristic. " In monarchies," he
said, " the crime of treason and rebellion may ad
mit of being pardoned or lightly punished ; but the
man who dares to rebel against the laws of a re
public ought to suffer death." This was Adams's
sensitive point. He wanted the whole world to
realize that the ride of a republic is a rule of law
and order, and that liberty does not mean license.
But in spite of this view, for which there was much
to be said, the clemency of the American tempera
ment prevailed, and Governor Hancock pardoned
all the prisoners.
Nothing in the history of these disturbances is
more instructive than the light incidentally thrown
upon the relations between Congress and the state
government. Just before the news of the rout at
Petersham, Samuel Adams had proposed in the
senate that the governor should be requested to
write to Congress and inform that body of what
was going on in Massachusetts, stating that " al-

v

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 185
though the legislature are firmly persuaded that
... in all probability they will be able speedily
and effectively to suppress tho rebellion, yet, if any
unforeseen event should take place which may frus
trate the measures of government, they rely upon
such support from the United States as is expressly
and solemnly stipulated by the articles of confeder
ation." A resolution to this effect was carried in
the senate, but defeated in the house through the
influence of western comity members in sympathy
with the insurgents ; and incredible as it may seem,
the argument was freely used that it was incompat
ible with the dignity of Massachusetts to allow
United States troops to set foot upon her soil.
When we reflect that the arsenal at Springfield,
where the most considerable disturbance occurred,
was itself federal property, the climax of absurdity
might seem to have been reached.
It was left for Congress itself, however, to cap
that climax. The progress of the insurrection in
the autumn in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Mas
sachusetts, as well as the troubles in Rhode Island,
had alarmed the whole country. It was feared
that the insurgents in these states might join
forces, and in some way kindle a flame
u Congress
that would run through the land. Ac- afraid to tn-
° terfere.
cordingly Congress in October called
upon the states for a continental force, but did not
dare to declare openly what it was to be used for.
It was thought necessary to say that the troops
were wanted for an expedition against the north
western Indians 1 National humiliation could go
no further than such a confession, on the part of

186

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.

our central government, that it dared not use force
in defence of those very articles of confederation to
which it owed its existence. Things had come to
such a pass that people of all shades of opinion
were beginning to agree upon one thing, — that
something must be done, and done quickly.

V \

CHAPTER V.
GERMS OE NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
While the events we have heretofore contem
plated seemed to prophesy the speedy dissolution
and downfall of the half-formed American Union,
a series of causes, obscure enough at first, but
emerging gradually into distinctness and then into
prominence, were preparing the way for the founda
tion of a national sovereignty. The growth of this
sovereignty proceeded stealthily along creation of »
such ancient lines of precedent as to mainTeyond
take ready hold of people's minds, al- tea! Aneghan'
though few, if any, understood the full purport of
what they were doing. Ever since the days when
our English forefathers dwelt in village communi
ties in the forests of northern Germany, the idea of
a common land or f olkland — a territory belonging
to the whole community, and upon which new com
munities might be organized by a process analogous
to what physiologists call cell-multiplication — had
been perfectly familiar to everybody. Townships
budded from village or parish folkland in Mary
land and Massachusetts in the seventeenth century,
just as they had done in England before the time
of Alfred. The critical period of the Revolution
witnessed the repetition of this process on a gigan
tic scale. It witnessed the creation of a national

188 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
territory beyond the Alleghanies, — an enormous
folkland in which all the thirteen old states had a
common interest, and upon which new and deriva
tive communities were already beginning to organ
ize themselves. Questions about public lands are
often regarded as the driest of historical dead-
wood. Discussions about them in newspapers and
magazines belong to the class of articles which the
general reader usually skips. Yet there is a great
deal of the philosophy of history wrapped up in
this subject, and it now comes to confront us at
a most interesting moment ; for without studying
this creation of a national domain between the
Alleghanies and the Mississippi, wo cannot under
stand how our Federal Union came to be formed.
When England began to contend with France
and Spain for the possession of North America, she
made royal grants of land upon this continent, in
royal ignorance of its extent and configuration.
But until the Seven Years' War the eastward and
westward partitioning of these grants was of little
practical consequence ; for English dominion was
bounded by the Alleghanies, and everything be
yond was in the hands of the French. In that
most momentous war the genius of the elder Pitt
won the region east of the Mississippi for men of
English race, while the vast territory of Louisiana,
beyond, passed under the control of Spain. Dur
ing the Revolutionary War, in a series of romantic
expeditions, the state of Virginia took military pos
session of a great part of the wilderness east of the
Mississippi, founding towns in the Ohio and Cum
berland valleys, and occupying with garrisons of

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 189
her state militia the posts at Cahokia, Kaskaskia,
and Vincennes. We havo seen how, through the
skill of our commissioners at Paris, this noble coun
try was secured for the Americans in the treaty of
1783, in spite of the reluctance of France conflicting
and the hostility of Spain. Throughout ?v1e1,™rnt'terri-
the Revolutionary War the Americans tOT-v"
claimed the territory as part of the United States ;
but when once it passed from under the control of
Great Britain, into whose hands did it go ? To
whom did it belong ? To this question there were
various and conflicting answers. North Carolina,
indeed, had already taken possession of what was
afterward called Tennessee, and at the beginning
of the war Virginia had annexed Kentucky. As
to these points there could be little or no dispute.
But with the territory north of the Ohio River it
was very different. Four states laid claim either
to the whole or to parts of this territory, and these
claims were not simply conflicting, but irreconcila
ble. The charters of Massachusetts and Connecticut
were framed at a time when people had not got over
the notion that this part of the continent was not
much wider than Mexico, and accordingly these
colonics had received the royal permission to ex
tend from sea to sea. The existence of a foreign
colony of Dutchmen in the neighbourhood was a
trifle about which these documents did
. , Claims of Mas-
not trouble themselves ; but when sachusctts and
, 1 , Connecticut.
Charles II. conquered this colony and
bestowed it upon his brother, tho province of New
York became a stubborn fact, which could not

190 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
be disregarded. Massachusetts and Connecticut
peaceably settled their boundary line with New
York, and laid no claims to land within the limits
of that state; but they still continued to claim
what lay beyond it, as far as the Mississippi River,
where the Spanish dominion now began. The re
gions claimed by Massachusetts have since become
the southern halves of the states of Michigan and
Wisconsin. The region claimed by Connecticut
was a narrow strip running over the northern por
tions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois ;
and we have seen how much trouble was occasioned
in Pennsylvania by this circumstance.
But New York laughed to scorn these claims of
ciaimaoJNew Connecticut. In the seventeenth cen-
Tork' tury all the Algonquin tribes between
Lake Erie and the Cumberland Mountains had
become tributary to the Iroquois ; and during the
hundred years' struggle between France and Eng
land for the supremacy of this continent the Iro
quois had put themselves under the protection of
England, which thenceforth always treated them
as an appurtenance to New York. For a hundred
years before the Revolution, said New York, she
had borne the expense of protecting the Iroquois
against the French, and by various treaties she had
become lawful suzerain over the Six Nations and
their lands and the lands of their Algonquin vas
sals. On such grounds New York claimed pretty
much everything north of tbe Ohio and east of the
Miami. But according to Virginia, it made little differ
ence what Massachusetts and Connecticut and New

V

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 191
York thought about tho matter, for every acre of
land, from the Ohio River up to Lake Superior,
belonged to her. Was not she the lordly VirKinWa
" Old Dominion," out of which every claim8-
one of the states had been carved ? Even Cape
Cod and Cape Ann were said to bo in " North
Virginia," until, in 1614, Captain John Smith in
vented the name " New England." It was a fair
presumption that any uncarved territory belonged
to Virginia ; and it was further held that the orig
inal charter of 1609 used language wliich impli
citly covered the northwestern territory, though,
as Thomas Paine showed, in a pamphlet entitled
" Public Good," this was very doubtful. But be
sides all this, it was Virginia that had actually
conquered the disputed territory, and held every
military post in it except those which the British
had not surrendered; and who could doubt that
possession was nine points in the law ?
Of these conflicting claims, those of New York
and Virginia were the most grasping and the most
formidable, because they concerned a region into
which immigration was beginning rapidly to pour.
They were regarded with strong disfavour by 'the
small states, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware,
and Maryland, which were so situated that they
never could expand in any direction. They looked
forward with dread to a future in which New York
and Virginia might wax powerful
enough to tyrannize over their smaller nolS and bo.
neighbours. But of these protesting ges^Sct".
states it was only Maryland that fairly 15' 1777'
rose to the occasion, and suggested an idea which

192 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
seemed startling at first, but from which mighty
and unforeseen consequences were soon to follow.1
It was on the 15th of October, 1777, just two days
before Burgoyne's surrender, that this path-break
ing idea first found expression in Congress. The
articles of confederation were then just about to bo
presented to the several states to be ratified, and
the question arose as to how the conflicting western
claims should be settled. A motion was then made
that "the United States in Congress assembled
shall have the sole and exclusive right and power
to ascertain and fix the western boundary of such
states as claim to the Mississippi, . . . and lay out
the land beyond tho boundary so ascertained into
separate and independent states, from time to time,
as the numbers' and circumstances of the people
may require." To carry out such a motion, it
would be necessary for the four claimant states
to surrender their claims into the hands of the
United States, and thus create a domain which
should be owned by the confederacy in common.
So bold a step towards centralization found no fa
vour at the time. No other state but Maryland
voted for it.
But Maryland's course was well considered : she
pursued it resolutely, and was rewarded with com
plete success. By February, 1779, all the other
states had ratified the articles of confederation. In
the following May, Maryland declared that she
1 This subject has been treated in a masterly manner hy Mr.
H. B. Adams, in an essay on Maryland's Influence upon Land Ces
sions to the United States, published in tho Third Series of tho
admirable Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Foli-
tics. I am indebted to Mr. Adams for many -valuable suggestions.

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 193
would not ratify the articles until she should re
ceive some definite assurance that the northwestern
territory should become the common property of
the United States, " subject to be parcelled out by
Congress into free, convenient, and independent
governments." The question, thus boldly brought
into the foreground, was earnestly discussed in Con
gress and in the state legislatures, until in Febru
ary, 1780, partly through the influence of General
Schuyler, New York decided to cede all her claims
to the western lands. This act of New York set
things in motion, so that in September Congress
recommended to all states having west- Th0 eeveral
ern claims to cede them to tho United |&£X™ -m
States. In October, Congress, still pur- £n?SltX
suing the Maryland idea, went farther, 11W-S5-
and declared that all such lands as might bo ceded
should be sold in lots to immigrants and the money
used for federal purposes, and that in duo season
distinct states should be formed there, to be ad
mitted into the Union, with the same rights of sov
ereignty as the original thirteen states. As an in
ducement to Virginia, it was further provided that
any state which had incurred expense during the
war in defending its western possessions should
receive compensation. To this general invitation
Connecticut immediately responded by offering to
cede everything to which she laid claim, except
3,250,000 acres on the southern shore of Lake
Erie, which she wished to reserve for educational
purposes. Washington disapproved of this reser
vation, but it was accepted by Congress, though
the business was not completed until 1786. This

194 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
part of the state of Ohio is still commonly spoken
of as the " Connecticut Reserve." Half a million
acres were given to citizens of Connecticut whose
property had been destroyed in the British raids
upon her coast towns, and the rest were sold, in
1795, for $1,200,000, in aid of schools and colleges.
In January, 1781, Virginia offered to surrender
all the territory northwest of* the Ohio, provided
that Congress would guarantee her in the possession
of Kentucky. This gave rise to a discussion which
lasted nearly three years, until Virginia withdrew
her proviso and made the cession absolute. It was
accepted by Congress on the 1st of March, 1784,
and on the 19th of April, in the following year, —
the tenth anniversary of Lexington, — Massachu
setts surrendered her claims ; and the whole north
western territory — the area of the great states of
Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
(excepting the Connecticut Reserve) — thus be
came the common property of the half-formed
nation. Maryland, however, did not wait for this.
As soon as New York and Virginia had become
thoroughly committed to the movement, she ratified
the articles of confederation, which thus went into
operation on the 1st of March, 1781.
This acquisition of a common territory speedily
led to results not at all contemplated in the theory
of union upon which the articles of confederation
were based. It led to " the exercise of national
sovereignty in the sense of eminent domain," as
shown in the ordinances of 1784 and 1787, and
prepared men's minds for the work of the Federal
Convention. Great credit is due to Maryland for

N

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 195
her- resolute course in setting in motion this train
of events. It aroused fierce indignation at the
time, as to many people it looked unfriendly to tbe
Union. Some hot-heads were even heard to say
that if Maryland should persist any longer in her
refusal to join the confederation, she ought to be
summarily divided up between the neighbouring
states, and her name erased from the map. But
the brave little state had earned a better fate than
that of Poland. When we have come to trace out
the results of her action, we shall see that just as
it was Massachusetts that took the decisive step
in bringing on the Revolutionary War when she
threw the tea into Boston harbour, so it was Mary
land that, by leading the way toward the creation
of a national domain, laid the corner-stone of our
Federal Union. Equal credit must be given to Vir
ginia for her magnanimity in making the desired
surrender. It was New York, indeed, that set tho
praiseworthy example; but New York, after all,
surrendered only a shadowy claim, whereas Vir
ginia gave up a magnificent and princely territory
of which she was actually in possession. She
might have held back and made endless Magnanimity
trouble, just as, at the beginning of the °fvirsi,lia-
Revolution, she might have refused to make com
mon cause with Massachusetts ; but in both in
stances her leading statesmen showed a far-sighted
wisdom and a breadth of patriotism for which no
words of praise can be too strong. In the later
instance, as in the earlier, Thomas Jefferson played
an important part. He, who in after years, as
president of the United States, was destined, by

196 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
the purchase of Louisiana, to carry our western
frontier beyond the Rocky Mountains, had, in 1779,
done more than any one else to support the roman
tic campaign in which General Clark had taken
possession of the country between the Alleghanies
and the Mississippi. He had much to do with the
generous policy which gave up the greater part of
that country for a national domain, and on the very
day on which the act of cession was completed he
presented to Congress a remarkable plan for the gov
ernment of the new territory, which was only par
tially successful because it attempted too much, but
the results of which were in many ways notable.
In this plan, known as tho Ordinance of 1784,
Jefferson proposed to divide the northwestern terri
tory into ten states, or just twice as many as have
actually grown out of it. In each of these states
the settlers might establish a local government,
Joiierson pro- under the authority of Congress ; and
of goTCrninrat when in any one of them the population
we'stomtcrri-" should come to equal that of the least
0ry' populous of the original states, it might
be admitted into the Union by the consent of nine
states in Congress. The new states were to have
universal suffrage ; they must have republican forms
of government ; they must pay their shares of the
federal debt ; they must forever remain a part of
the United States ; and after the year 1800 negro
slavery must be prohibited within their limits.
The names of these ten states have afforded much
amusement to Jefferson's biographers. In those
days the schoolmaster was abroad in the land after
a pecidiar fashion. Just as we are now in the full

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 197
tide of that Gothic revival which goes back for its
beginnings to Sir Walter Scott ; as we admire uie-
diasval things, and try to build our houses after old
English models, and prefer words of what people
call " Saxon " origin, and name our children Ro
land and Herbert, or Edith and Winifred, so our
greatgrandfathers lived in a time of classical re
vival. They were always looking for precedents
in Greek and Roman history ; they were just be
ginning to try to make their wooden houses look
like temples, with Doric columns ; they preferred
words of Latin origin ; they signed their pamphlets
"Brutus" and "Lycurgus," and in sober earnest
baptized their children as Cajsar, or Marcellus, or
Darius. The map of the United States was just
about to bloom forth with towns named Ithaca and
Syracuse, Corinth and Sparta ; and on the Ohio
River, opposite the mouth of Licking Creek, a city
had lately been founded, the name of which was
truly portentous. " Losantiville " was this wonder
ful compound, in which the initial L stood for
"Licking," while os signified "mouth," and " op
posite," and ville " town ; " and the whole read
backwards as " Town-opposite-mouth-of-Licking."
In 1790 General St. Clair, then governor of the
northwest territory, changed this name to Cincin
nati, in honor of the military order to which he be
longed. With such examples in mind, we may see
that the names of the proposed ten states, from
which the failure of Jefferson's ordinance has de
livered us, illustrated the prevalent taste of the
time rather than any idiosyncrasy of the man. The
proposed names wero Sylvauia, Michigania, Cher-

198 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
sonesus, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Sara
toga, Washington, Polypotamia, and Pelisipia.
It was not the nomenclature that stood in the
way of Jefferson's scheme, but the wholesale way
in which he tried to deal with the slavery question.
He wished to hem in the probable extension of
slavery by an impassable barrier, and accordingly
he not only provided that it should be extinguished
in the northwestern territory after the
Ho wishes to . , . .
prohibit siav- year 1800, but at the same time his anti-
ery hi the na- * B ^
tionai do- slavery ardour led him to try to extend
main. J , . , " _
the national dominion southward, lie
did his best to persuade the legislature of Virginia
to crown its work by giving up Kentucky to the
United States, and he urged that North Carolina
and Georgia should also cede their western terri
tories. As for South Carolina, she was shut in be
tween the two neighbouring states in such wise that
her western claims were vague and barren. Jeffer
son would thus have drawn a north-and-south line
from Lake Erie down to the Spanish border of the
Floridas, and west of this line he would have had
all negro slavery end with the eighteenth century.
The policy of restricting slavery, so as to let it die
a natural death within a narrowly confined area, —
the policy to sustain which Mr. Lincoln was elected
president in 1860, — was thus first definitely out
lined by Jefferson in 1784. It was the policy of
forbidding slavery in the national territory. Had
this policy succeeded then, it would have been an
ounce of prevention worth many a pound of cure.
But it failed because of its largeness, because it
had too many elements to deal with. For the

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GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 199
moment, the proposal to exclude slavery from the
northwestern territory was defeated, because of
the two thirds vote required in Congress for any
important measure. It got only seven states in
its favour, where it needed nine. This defeat, how
ever, was retrieved three years later, when the fa
mous Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery for-
evor from the national territory north of the Ohio
River. But Jefferson's scheme had not only to
deal with the national domain as it was, but also to
extend that domain southward to Florida ; and in
this it failed. Virginia could not be persuaded to
give up Kentucky until too late. When Kentucky
came into the Union, after the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, she came as a sovereign state,
with all her domestic institutions in her own hands.
With the western districts of North Carolina the
case was somewhat different, and the story of this
region throws a curious light upon the affairs of
that disorderly time.
In surrendering her western territory, North
Carolina showed praiseworthy generosity. But the
frontier settlers were too numerous to be handed
about from one dominion to another, without say
ing something about it themselves ; and their ac
tion complicated the matter, until it was too late
for Jefferson's scheme to operate upon them. In
June, 1784, North Carolina ceded the region since
known as Tennessee, and allowed Congress two
years in which to accept the grant. Meanwhile,
her own authority was to remain supreme there.
But tho settlers grumbled and protested. Some
of them were sturdy pioneers of the finest type, but

200 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
along with these there was a lawless population of
"white trash," ancestors of the peculiar race of
men we find to-day in rural districts of Missouri
and Arkansas. They were the refuse of North
Carolina, gradually pushed westward by the ad
vance of an orderly civilization. Crime was rife
in the settlements, and, in the absence of courts, a
rough-and-ready justice was administered by vigi
lance committees. The Cherokees, moreover, were
troublesome neighbours, and people lived in dread
of their tomahawks. Petitions had again and
again gone up to the legislature, urging the estab
lishment of courts and a militia, but had passed un
heeded, and now it seemed that the state had with
drawn her protection entirely. The settlers did
not wish to have their country made a national do
main. If their own state could not protect them,
it was quite clear to them that Congress could not.
What was Congress, any way, but a roomful of
men whom nobody heeded ? So these backwoods
men held a convention in a log-cabin at Jonesbor-
ough, and seceded from North Carolina. They
declared that the three counties between the Bald
Mountains and the Holston River constituted an
independent state, to which they gave the name of
John Sevier, Franklin ; and they went on to frame
"? FmnMtof a constitution and elect a legislature
1784-87. -svitla two chambers. For governor they
chose John Sevier, one of the heroes of King's
Mountain, a man of Huguenot ancestry, and such
dauntless nature that he was generally known as
the " lion of the border." Having done all this,
the seceders, in spite of their small respect for

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GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 201
Congress, sent a delegate to that body, requesting
that the new stato of Franklin might be admitted
into the Union. Before this business had been
completed, North Carolina repealed her act of
cession, and warned the backwoodsmen to .return
to their allegiance. This at once split the new
state into two factions : one party wished to keep
on as they had now started, the other wished for
reunion with North Carolina. In 1786 the one
party in each county elected members to represent
them in the North Carolina legislature, while the
other party elected membors of the legislature of
Franklin. Everywhere two sets of officers claimed
authority, civil dudgeon grew very high, and pis
tols were freely used. The agitation extended into
the neighbouring counties of Virginia, where some
discontented people wished to secede and join the
state of Franklin. For the next two years there
was something very like civil war, until the North
Carolina party grew so strong that Sevier fled, and
the state of Franklin ceased to exist. Sevier was
arrested on a warrant for high treason, but he ef
fected an escape, and after men's passions had
cooled down his great services and strong charac
ter brought him again to the front. He sat in the
senate of North Carolina, and in 1796, when Ten
nessee became a state in the Union, Sevier was her
first governor.
These troubles show how impracticable was the
attempt to create a national domain in any part of
the country which contained a considerable popu
lation. The instinct of self-government was too
strong to allow it. Any such population would

202 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
have refused to submit to ordinances of Congress.
To obey the parent state or to set up for one's self,
— these were the only alternatives which ordinary
men at that time could understand. Experience
had not yet ripened their minds for comprehend
ing a temporary condition of semi-independence,
such as exists to-day under our territorial govern
ments. The behaviour of these Tennessee back
woodsmen was just what might have been expected.
The land on which they were living was not com
mon land : it had been appropriated ; it belonged
to them, and it was for them to make laws for it.
Such is the lesson of the short-lived state of Frank
lin. It was because she perceived that similar
feelings were at work in Kentucky that Virginia
did not venture to loosen her grasp upon that state
until it was fully organized and ready for admis
sion into the Union. It was in no such partly set
tled country that Congress could do such a thing
as carve out boundaries and prohibit slavery by an
act of national sovereignty. There remained the
magnificent territory north of the Ohio, — an em
pire in itself, as large as the German Empire, with
the Netherlands thrown in, — in which the collec
tive wisdom of the American people, as represented
in Congress, might autocratically shape the future ;
for it was still a wilderness, watched by frontier
garrisons, and save for the Indians and the trap
pers and a few sleepy old French towns on the
eastern bank of the Mississippi, there were no
signs of human fife in all its vast solitude. Here,
where there was nobody to grumble or secede, Con
gress, in 1787, proceeded to carry out the work
which Jefferson had outlined three years before.

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GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 203
It is interesting to trace the immediate origin of
the famous Ordinance of 1787. At the close of
the war General Rufus Putnam, from the moun
tain village of Rutland in Massachusetts, sent to
Congress an outline of a plan for colonizing the re
gion between Lake Erie and the Ohio origin of the
with veterans of the army, who were 0hiocomi)any*
well fitted to protect the border against Indian at
tacks. The land was to be laid out in townships
six miles square, " with large reservations for the
ministry and schools ; " and by selling it to the
soldiers at a merely nominal price, the penniless
Congress might obtain an income, and at the same
time recognize their services in the only substan
tial way that seemed practicable. Washington
strongly favoured the scheme, but, in order to carry
it out, it was necessary to wait until the cession of
the territory by the various claimant states should
be completed. After this had been done, a series
of treaties were made with the Six Nations, as over
lords, and their vassal tribes, the Wyandots, Chip-
pewas, Ottawas, Delawares, and Shawnees, whereby
all Indian claims to the lands in question were for
ever renounced. Tho matter was then formally
taken up by Holden Parsons of Connecticut, and
Rufus Putnam, Manasseh Cutler, Winthrop Sar
gent, and others, of Massachusetts, and a joint-
stock company was formed for the purchase of
lands on the Ohio River. A large number of set
tlers — old soldiers of excellent character, whom
the war had impoverished — were ready to go and
take possession at once ; and in« its petition the
Ohio company asked for nothing better than that

204 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
its settlers should be " under the immediate gov
ernment of Congress in such mode and for such
time as Congress shall judge proper." Such a
proposal, affording a means at once of replenishing
the treasury and satisfying the soldiers, could not
but be accepted ; and thus were laid the founda
tions of a state destined within a century to equal
in population and far surpass in wealth the whole
Union as it was at that time. It became necessary
at once to lay down certain general principles of
government applicable to the northwestern terri
tory ; and the result was the Ordinance of 1.787,
which was chiefly the work of Edward Carrington
and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, and Nathan
Dane of Massachusetts, in committee, following
the outlines of a draft which is supposed to have
been made by Manasseh Cutler. Jefferson was no
longer on the ground, having gone on his mission
to Paris, but some of the principles of his proposed
Ordinance of 1784 were adopted.
It was provided that the northwestern territory
should ultimately be carved into states, not exceed
ing five in number, and any one of these might be
admitted into the Union as soon as its population
should reach 60,000. In the mean time, the whole
me ordinance tenitory was to be governed by officers
of 1787. appointed by Congress, and required to
take an oath of allegiance to the United States.
Under this government there was to be unqualified
freedom of religious worship, and no religious tests
should be required of any public official, Intestate
property should descend in equal shares to children
of both sexes. Public schools were to be ©stab

's

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 205
lished. Suffrage was not yet made universal, as a
freehold in fifty acres was required. No law was
ever to be made which should impair the obligation
of contracts, and it was thoroughly agreed that this
provision especially covered and prohibited the
issue of paper money. The future states to be
formed from this territory must make their laws
conform to these fundamental principles, and under
no circumstances could any one of them ever be
separated from the Union. In such wise, the
theory of peaceful secession was condemned in
advance, so far as it was possible for the federal
government to do so. Jefferson's principle, that
slavery should not be permitted in the national
domain, was also adopted so far as the northwest
was concerned ; and it is interesting to observe tho
names of the states which were present in Congress
when this clause was added to the ordinance. They
were Georgia, the two Carolinas, Virginia, Dela
ware, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts ;
and the vote was unanimous. No one was more
active in bringing about this result than William
Grayson of Virginia, who was earnestly supported
by Lee. The action of Virginia and North Caro
lina at that time need not surprise us. But tho
movements in favour of emancipation in these two
states, and the emancipation actually effected or
going on at the north, had already made Georgia
and South Carolina extremely sensitive about slav
ery; and their action on this occasion can be ex
plained only by supposing that they were willing
to yield a point in this remote territory, in order
by and by to be able to insist upon an equivalent

206 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
in the case of the territory lying west of Georgia.
Nor would they have yielded at all had not a fugi
tive slave law been enacted, providing that slaves
escaping beyond the Ohio shoidd be arrested and
returned to their owners. These arrangements
having been made, General St. Clair was appointed
governor of the territory ; surveys were made ; land
was put up for sale at sixty cents per acre, pay
able in certificates of the public debt ; and settlers
rapidly came in. The westward exodus from New
England and Pennsylvania now began, and only
fourteen years elapsed before Ohio, the first of the
five states, was admitted into the Union.
" I doubt," says Daniel Webster, " whether one
single law of any law-giver, ancient or modern, has
produced effects of more distinct, marked, and last
ing character than the Ordinance of 1787." Noth
ing could have been more emphatically an exercise
of national sovereignty ; yet, as Madison said, while
warmly commending the act, Congress did it " with
out the least colour of constitutional authority."
The ordinance was never submitted to the states
for ratification. The articles of confederation had
never contemplated an occasion for such a pecul
iar assertion of sovereignty. " A great and inde
pendent fund of revenue," said Madison, " is pass
ing into the hands of a single body of men, who
can raise troops to an indefinite number, and ap
propriate money to their support for an indefinite
period of time. . . . Yet no blame has been whis
pered, no alarm has been sounded," even by men
most zealous for state rights and most suspicious
of Congress. Within a few months this argument

N<

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GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 207
was to be cited with telling effect against those
who hesitated to accept the Federal Constitution
because of the great powers which it conferred upon
the general government. Unless you give a gov
ernment specific powers, commensurate with its
objects, It is liable on occasions of public necessity
to exercise powers which have not been granted.
Avoid the dreadful dilemma between dissolution
and usurpation, urged Madison, by clothing tho
government with powers that are ample but clearly
defined. In a certain sense, the action of Congress
in 1787 was a usurpation of authority to meet an
emergency which no one had foreseen, as in the
cases of Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana and Lin
coln's emancipation of the slaves. Each of these
instances marked, in one way or another,
a brilliant epoch in American history, knd°Spoal0lt"
and in each case the public interest was &^™IZ'
so unmistakable that the people con- bMed'
sented and applauded. The theory upon which
the Ordinance of 1787 was based was one which
nobody could fail to understand, though perhaps
no one would then have known just how to put it
into words. It was simply the thirteen states,
through their delegates in Congress, dealing with
the unoccupied national domain as if it were the
common land or folkland of a stupendous town
ship. The vast importance of the lands between the
Alleghanies and the Mississippi was becoming
more apparent every year, as the westward move
ment of population went on. But at this time
their value was much more clearly seen by tho

208 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
southern than by the northern states'. In tho
north the westward emigration was only just be
ginning to pass the Alleghanies ; in the south, as
we have seen, it had gone beyond them several
years ago. The southern states, accordingly, took
a much sounder view than the northern states of
the importance to the Union of the free navigation
of the Mississippi River. The difference was for
cibly illustrated in the dispute with Spain, which
came to a crisis in the summer of 1786. It will
be remembered that by the treaties which closed
the Revolutionary War the provinces of
Spain, hearing !* t •*•
of the secret East and West Florida were ceded by
article in tho .„ - J
troaty of 1783, England to Spain. West Florida was
loses hor tcin- *-* . . * v
pcraudthrcat- the region lying between the Appalach-
ens to shut up . -i i n /r  •
tho Mississippi icola and the Mississippi rivers, includ
ing the southernmost portions of the
present states of Alabama and Mississippi. By
the treaty between Great Britain and the United
States, the northern boundary of this province was
described by the thirty-first parallel of latitude;
but Spain denied the right of these powers to place
the boundary so low. Her troops still held Natchez,
and she maintained that the boundary must be
placed a hundred miles farther north, starting
from the Mississippi at the mouth of the Yazoo
River, near the present site of Vicksburg. Now
the treaty between Great Britain and the United
States contained a secret article, wherein it was
provided that if England could contrive to keep
West Florida, instead of surrendering it to Spain,
then the boundary should start at the Yazoo. This
showed that both England and the United States

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GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 209
wore willing to yield the one to the other a strip of
territory which both agreed in withholding from
Spain. Presently the Spanish court got hold of
the secret article, and there was great indignation.
Here was England giving to tho Americans a piece
of land which she knew, and the Americans knew,
was recently a part of West Florida, and therefore
belonged to Spain ! Castilian grandees went to
bed and dreamed of invincible armadas. Congress
was promptly informed that, until this affair should
be set right, the Americans need not expect the
Spanish government to make any treaty of com
merce with them ; and furthermore, let no Amer
ican sloop or barge dare to show itself on the
Mississippi below the Yazoo, under penalty of
confiscation. When these threats were heard in
America, there was great excitement everywhere,
but it assumed opposite phases in the north and
in the south. The merchants of New York and
Boston cared little more about the Mississippi
River than about Timbuctoo, but they were ex
tremely anxious to see a commercial treaty con
cluded with Spain. On the other hand, the back
woodsmen of Kentucky and the state of Franklin
cared nothing for the trade on the ocean, but they
would not sit still while their corn and their pork
were confiscated on the way to New Orleans. The
people of Virginia sympathized with the backwoods
men, but her great statesmen realized the impor
tance of both interests and the danger of a conflict
between them.
The Spanish envoy, Gardoqui, arrived in the
summer of 1784, and had many interviews with

210 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
Jay, who was then secretary for foreign affairs.
Gardoqui set forth that his royal master was gra
ciously pleased to deal leniently with the Ameri-
Gardoquiand cans, and would confer one favour upon
Jay" them, but could not confer two. Ho
was ready to enter into a treaty of commerce with
us, but not until wo should havo renounced all
claim to the navigation of the Mississippi River
below the Yazoo. Here the Spaniard was inexora
ble. A year of weary argument passed by, and he
had not budged an inch. At last, in despair, Jay
advised Congress, for the sake of the commercial
treaty, to consent to the closing of the Mississippi,
but only for twenty-five years. As the rumour of
this went abroad among tho settlements south of tho
Ohio, there was an outburst of wrath, to which an
incident that now occurred gave added virulence. A
North Carolinian trader, named Amis, sailed down
the Mississippi with a cargo of pots and kettles
and barrels of flour. At Natchez his boat and his
goods were seized by the Spanish officers, and he
was left to make his way home afoot through sev
eral hundred miles of wilderness. The story of his
wrongs flew from one log-cabin to another, until it
reached the distant northwestern territory. In the
neighbourhood of Vincennes there were Spanish
traders, and one of them kept a shop in the town.
The shop was sacked by a band of American sol
diers, and an attempt was made to incite the In
dians to attack the Spaniards. Indignation meet
ings were held in Kentucky. The people threat
ened to send a force of militia down the river and
capture Natchez and New Orleans ; and a more

v

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GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 211
dangerous threat was made. Should the north
eastern states desert them and adopt Jay'a sugges
tion, they vowed they would secede, and throw
themselves upon Great Britain for protection. On
the other hand, there was great agitation ^^ g{
in the seaboard towns of Massachusetts, "^a'
They were disgusted with tho back- <£»•»]£*¦
woodsmen for making such a fuss about
nothing, and with tho people of tho southern states
for aiding and abetting them; and during this tur
bulent summer of 1786, many persons were heard
to declare that, in case Jay's suggestion should not
be adopted, it would be high time for the New
England states to secede from the Union, and form
a confederation by themselves. The situation was
dangerous in the extreme. Had the question been
forced to an issue, the southern states would never
have seen their western territories, go and offer
themselves to Great Britain. Sooner than that,
they would have broken away from the northern
'states. But New Jersey and Pennsylvania now
came over to the southern side, and Rhode Island,
moving in her eccentric orbit, presently joined
them ; and thus the treaty was postponed for the
present, and the danger averted.
This lamentable dispute was watched by Wash
ington with feelings of gravest concern. From an
early age he had indulged in prophetic dreams of
the grandeur of the coming civilization in America,
and had looked to the country beyond the moun
tains as the field in which the next generation was
to find room for expansion. Few had been more
efficient than he in aiding the great scheme of Pitt

212 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
for overthrowing the French power in America, and
he understood better than most men of his time how
much that scheme implied. In his early journeys
in the wilderness he had given especial attention to
the possibilities of water connection between the
east and west, and he had bought for himself and
surveyed many extensive tracts of land beyond tho
mountains. The subject was a favourite one with
him, and he looked at it from both a commercial
and a political point of view. What we most
needed, he said in 1770, were easy transit lines be-
washington's tween east and west, as " the channel
hn-Tortanc^of of conveyance of the extensive and val-
tweeneost and uable trade of a rising empire." Just
T'06t' before resigning his commission in 1783
Washington had explored the route through the
Mohawk Valley, afterward taken first by the Erie
Canal, and then by the New York Central Rail
road, and had prophesied its commercial impor
tance in the present century. Soon after reaching
his home at Mount Vernon, he turned his attention
to the improvement of intercourse with the west
through the valley of the Potomac. The east and
west, he said, must be cemented together by in
terests in common; otherwise they will break
asunder. Without commercial intercourse they
will cease to understand each other, and will thus
be ripe for disagreement. It is easy for Lmental
habits, as well as merchandise, to glide down
stream, and the connections of the settlers beyond
the mountains all centre in New Orleans, which is
in the hands of a foreign and hostile power; No
one can tell what complications may arise from this,

v

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 213
argued Washington ; " let us bind these people to
us by a chain that can never be broken ; " and with
characteristic energy ho set to work at once to es
tablish that line of communication that has since
grown into the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and
into the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. During
the three years preceding the meoting of the Fed
eral Convention he was largely occupied with thi3
work. In 1785 he became president of a company
for extending the navigation of the Potomac and
James rivers, and the legislature of Virginia passed
an act vesting him with one hundred and fifty shares
in the stock of the company, in order to testify
their " sense of his unexampled merits." But
Washington refused the testimonial, and His far-
declined to take any pay for his services, and 'scuSsv™
because he wished to arouse the people
to the political importance of the undertaking,
and felt that his words would have more weight
if he were known to have no selfish interest in it.
His sole purpose, as he repeatedly said, was to
strengthen the spirit of union by cementing the
eastern and western regions together. At this
time he could ill afford to give hi3 services without
pay, for his long absence in war-time had sadly
impaired his estate. But such was Washington.
In order to carry out the enterprise of extend
ing the navigation of the Potomac, it became nec
essary for the two states Virginia and Mar,]Bnd con.
Maryland to act in concert ; and early ^are^rdh.g
in 1785 a joint commission of the two 0«h"pXtion
states met for consultation at Washing- mM' 1785p
ton's house at Mount Vernon. A compact insur-

214 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
ing harmonious cooperation was prepared by the
coniinissioners ; and then, as Washington's scheme
involved the connection of the head waters of the
Potomac with those of the Ohio, it was found nec-
es:?ry to invite Pennsylvania to become a party to
tl e compact. Then Washington took the occasion
tu suggest that Maryland and Virginia, while they
v ere about it, should agree upon a uniform system
ot duties and other commercial regulations, and
upon a uniform currency ; and these suggestions
were sent, together with the compact, to the legis
latures of the two states. Great things were des
tined to come from these modest beginnings.
Just as in the Yorktown campaign, there had come
into existence a multifarious assemblage of events,
apparently unconnected with one another, and all
that was needed was the impulse given by Wash
ington's far-sighted genius to set them all at work,
surging, swelling, and hurrying straight forward
to a decisive result.
Late in 1785, when the Virginia legislature had
wrangled itself into imbecility over the question of
clothing Congress with power over trade, Madison
hit upon an expedient. He prepared a
Madison's mo- ,L l
tion ; a step in motion to the eftect that commissioners
from all the states should hold a meet
ing, aud discuss the best method of securing a uni
form treatment of commercial questions ; but as
he was most conspicuous among the advocates of a
more perfect union, he was careful not to present
the motion himself. Keeping in the background,
he persuaded another member — John Tyler,
father of the president of that name, a fierce

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GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 215
zealot for state rights — to make the motion. The
plan, however, was " so little acceptable that it
was not then persisted in," and the motion was laid
on the table. But Madison knew what was com
ing from Maryland, and bided his time. After
some weeks it was announced that Maryland had
adopted the compact made at Mount Vernon con
cerning jurisdiction over the Potomac. Virginia
instantly replied by adopting it also. Then it was
suggested, in the report from Maryland, that Del
aware, as well as Pennsylvania, ought to be con
sulted, since the scheme should rightly include a
canal between the Delaware River and the Chesa
peake Bay. And why not also consult with these
states about a uniform system of duties ? If two
states can agree upon these matters, why not four ?
And still further, said the Maryland message, —
dropping the weightiest part of the proposal into a
subordinate clause, just as women are said to put
the quintessence of their letters into the postscript,
— might it not be well enough, if we are going to
have such a conference, to invite commissioners
from all the thirteen states to attend it ? An in
formal discussion can hurt nobody. The confer
ence of itself can settle nothing ; and if four states
can take part in it, why not thirteen ? Here was
the golden opportunity. The Madison-Tyler mo
tion was taken up from the table and carried.
Commissioners from all the states were invited to
meet on the first Monday of September, 1786, at
Annapolis, — a safe place, far removed from the
influence of that dread tyrant, the Congress, and
from wicked centres of trade, such as New York

216 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
and Boston. It was the governor' of Virginia who
sent the invitations. It may not amount to much,
wrote Madison to Monroe, but " the expedient is
bettor than nothing ; and, as the recommendation
of additional powers to Congress is within the pur
view of the commission, it may possibly lead to bet
ter consequences than at first occur."
The seed dropped by Washington had fallen on
fruitful soil. At first it was to be just a little
meeting of two or three states to talk about the
Potomac River and some projected canals, and al
ready it had come to be a meeting of all the states
to discuss some uniform system of legislation on
the subject of trade. This looked like progress,
yet when the convention was gathered
Convention at •* . °
sTIi'rreo a* Annapolis, on tue Htli of September,
the outlook was most discouraging.
Commissioners were there from Virginia, Dela
ware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Rhode Island
and North Carolina, had duly appointed commis
sioners, but they were not there. It is curious to
observe that Maryland, which had been so earnest
in the matter, had nevertheless now neglected to
appoint commissioners ; and no action had been
taken by Georgia, South Carolina, or Connecticut.
With only five states represented, the commission
ers did not think it worth while to go on with their
work. But before adjourning they adopted an ad
dress, written by Alexander Hamilton, and sent it
to all the states. All the commissioners present
had been empowered to consider how far a uniform
commercial system might be essential to the per-

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 217
manent harmony of the states. But New Jersey
had taken a step in advance, and instructed her
delegates " to consider how far a uniform system
in thoir commercial regulations and other impor
tant matters might be necessary to the common
interest and permanent harmony of the several
states." And other important matters, — thus
again was the weightiest part of the business rele
gated to a subordinate clause. So gingerly was
the great question — so dreaded, yet so inevitable
— approached ! This reference to " other mat
ters " was pronounced by the commissioners to be
a vast improvement on the original plan; and
Hamilton's address now urged that com- Hlumlton.a Bd.
missioners be appointed by all the S^'ad.
states, to meet in convention at Phila- T"nC6*
delphia on the second Monday of the following
May, " to devise such further provisions as shall
appear to them necessary to render the constitution
of the federal government adequate to the exigen
cies of the Union, and to report to Congress such
an act as, when agreed to by them, and confirmed
by the legislatures of every state, would effectually
provide for the same." The report of the commis
sioners was brought before Congress in October, in
the hope that Congress would earnestly recommend
to the several states the course of action therein
suggested. But Nathan Dane and Rufus King of
Massachusetts, intent upou technicalities, suc
ceeded in preventing this. According to King, a
convention was an irregular body, which had no
right to propose changes in the organic law of the
land, and the state legislatures could not properly

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218 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
confirm the acts of such a body, or take notice of
them. Congress was the only source from which
such proposals could properly emanate. These ar
guments were pleasing to tho self-love of Congress,
and it refused to sanction the plan of the Annapo
lis commissioners.
In an ordinary season this woidd perhaps have
ended the matter, but the winter of 1786-87 was
not an ordinary season. All the troubles above de
scribed seemed to culminate just at this moment.
The paper-money craze in so many of the states,
the shameful deeds of Rhode Island, the riots in
Vermont and New Hampshire, the Shays rebel
lion in Massachusetts, the dispute with Spain, and
the consequent imminent danger of separation be
tween north and south had all come together ; and
the feeling of thoughtful men and women through
out the country was one of real consternation. The
last ounce was now to be put upon the camel's back
in the failure of the impost amendment. In 1783,
when the cessions of western lands were creating a
New York de- national domain, a promising plan had
port^en^" been devised for relieving the country
ment* of its load of debt, and furnishing Con
gress with money for its current expenses. All
the money coming from sales of the western folk-
land was to be applied to reducing and wiping out
the principal of the public debt. Then the interest
of this debt must be provided for ; and to that end
Congress had recommended an impost, or system
of custom-house duties, upon liquors, sugars, teas,
coffees, cocoa, molasses, and pepper. This impost
was to be kept up for twenty-five years only, and

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 219
the collectors were to be appointed by the several
states, each for its own ports. Then for the cur
rent expenses of the government, supplementary
funds were needed ; and these were to be assessed
upon the several states, each of which might raise
its quota as it saw fit. Such was the original plan ;
but it soon turned out that the only available source
of revenue was the national domain, which had
thus . been nothing less than the principal thread
which had held the ¦ Union together. As for the
impost, it had never been possible to get a suffi
cient number of states to agree upon it, and of the
quotas for current expenses, as we have seen, very
little had found its way to the federal treasury.
Under these difficulties, it had been proposed that
an amendment to the articles of confederation
should endow Congress with the power of levying
customs-duties and appointing the collectors ; and
by the summer of 1786, after endless wrangling,
twelve states had consented to the amendment.
But, in order that an amendment should be
adopted, unanimous consent was necessary. The
one delinquent state, which thus blocked the wheels
of the confederacy, was New York. She had her
little system of duties all nicely arranged for what
seemed to be her own interests, and she would not
surrender this system to Congress. Upon the
neighbouring states her tariff system bore hard,
and especially upon New Jersey. In 1786 this lit
tle state flatly refused to pay her quota until New
York should stop discriminating against her trade.
Nothing which occurred in that troubled year
caused more alarm than this, for it could not be

220 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
denied that such a declaration seemed little less
than an act of secession on the part of New Jersey.
Tho arguments of a congressional committee at last
prevailed upon the state to rescind her declaration.
At the same time there came the final struggle in
New York over the impost amendment, against
which' Governor Clinton had firmly set his face.
There was a fierce fight, in which Hamilton's most
strenuous efforts succeeded in carrying the amend
ment in part, but not until it had been clogged
with a condition that made it useless. Congress,
it was declared, might have the revenue, but New
York must appoint tho collectors; she was not
going to have fedoral officials rummaging about
her docks. The legislature well knew that to grant
the amendment in such wise was not to grant it at
all, but simply to reopen the whole question. Such
was the result. Congress expostulated in vain. On
the 15th of February, 1787, the matter was recon
sidered in the New York legislature, and the im
post amendment was defeated.
Thus, only three months before the Federal
Convention was to meet, if indeed it was ever to
meet, Congress was decisively informed that it
woidd not be allowed to take any effectual meas
ures for raising a revenue. There now seemed noth
ing left for Congress to do but adopt the recom
mendation of the Annapolis commissioners, and
give its sanction to the proposed convention. Mad
ison, however, had not waited for this, but had
prevailed upon the Virginia legislature to go on
and appoint its delegates to the convention. The
events of the year had worked a change in the

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 221
popular sentiment in Virginia ; people were more
afraid of anarchy, and not quite so much afraid
of centralization ; and now, under Madison's lead,
Virginia played her trump card and chose George
Washington as one of her delegates. 8udd
As soon as this was known, there was CJlM,Ke8 ln . ,
' popular senti-
an outburst of joy throughout the land. mcnt-
All at once the people began everywhere to feel
an interest in the proposed convention, and pres
ently Massachusetts changed her attitude. Up to
this time Massachusetts had been as obstinate in
her assertion of local independence, and as unwill
ing to strengthen the hands of Congress, as any of
the thirteen states, except New York and Rhode
Island. But the Shays rebellion had served as a
useful object-lesson. Part of the distress in Massa
chusetts could be traced to the inability of Con
gress to pay debts which it owed to her citizens.
It was felt that the time had come when the ques
tion of a national revenue must be seriously con
sidered. Every week saw fresh converts to the
party which called for a stronger government.
Then came the news that Virginia had chosen dele
gates, and that Washington was one of them ; then
that New Jersey had followed the example ; then
that Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Delaware, had
chosen delegates. It was time for Massachusetts
to act, and Rufus King now brought the matter up
in Congress. His scruples as to the legality of the
proceediug had not changed, and accordingly he
moved that Congress should of itself propose a
convention at Philadelphia, identical with the one
which the Annapolis commissioners had already

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222 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
recommended. The motion was carried, and in
this way Congress formally approved and adopted
what was going on. Massachusetts immediately
chose delegates, and was followed by New York.
In April, Georgia and South Carolina followed
suit. Connecticut and Maryland came on in May,
and New Hampshire, somewhat tardily, in June.
Of the thirteen states, Rhode Island alone refused
to take any part in the proceedings.
The convention held its meetings in that plain
brick building in Philadelphia already immortal
ized as the place from which the Declaration of In
dependence was published to the world.
convention The work which these men were under-
meetsatPhila- ... i . • -, , ,
deiphia, May taking was to determine whether that
14-25 1787. Declaration had been for the blessing
or the injury of America and of mankind. That
they had succeeded in assembling here at all was
somewhat remarkable, when we think of the curi
ous medley of incidents that led to it. At no time
in this distressed period would a frank and abrupt
proposal for a convention to remodel the govern
ment have found favour. Such proposals, indeed,
had been made, beginning with that of Pelatiah
Webster in 1781, and they had all failed to break
through the crust of a truly English conservatism
and dread of centralized power. Now, through
what some might have called a strange chapter of
accidents, before the element of causal sequence in
it all had become so manifest as it is to us to-day,
this remarkable group of men had been brought
together in a single room, while even yet but few
of them realized how thoroughly and exhaustively

Y
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GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.

223

reconstructive their work was to be. To most of
them it was not clear whether they were going
merely to patch up the articles of confederation,
or to strike out into a new and very different path.
There were a few who entertained far-reaching
purposes; the rest were intelligent critics rather
than constructive thinkers ; the result was surpris
ing to all. It is worth our while to pause for a
moment, and observe the character and composition
of one of the most memorable assemblies the world
has ever seen. Mr. Gladstone says that just " as
the British Constitution is the most subtle organ
ism which has proceeded from progressive history,
so the American Constitution is the most wonder
ful work ever struck off at a given time by the
brain and purpose of man." x Let us now see who
the men were who did this wonderful work, — this
Iliad, or Parthenon, or Fifth Symphony, of states
manship. We shall not find that they were all
great geniuses. Such is never the case in such an
assembly. There are not enough great geniuses to
go around ; and if there were, it is questionable if
the result would be satisfactory. In such discus
sions the points which impress the more ordinary
and less far-sighted members are sure to have great
value ; especially when we bear in mind that the
object of such an assembly is not merely to elabo
rate a plan, but to get the great mass of people,
including the brick-layers and hod-carriers, to un-
1 It would be in tbe bigbest degree erroneous, however, to
suppose that tho Constitution of the United States is not, as
ranch as any other, an instance of evolution from precedents.
See, in this conneotion, the very able articlo by Prof. Alexander
Johnston, New Princeton Review, Sept., 1887, pp. 175-100.

224 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
derstand it well enough to vote for it. An ideally
perfect assembly of law-makers will therefore con
tain two or three men of original constructive
genius, two or three leading spirits eminent for
shrewdness and tact, a dozen or more excellent
critics representing various conflicting interests,
and a rank and file of thoroughly respectable, com
monplace men, unfitted for shining in the work of
the meeting, but admirably competent to proclaim
its results and get their friends and neighbours to
adopt them. And in such an assembly, even if it be
such as we call ideally perfect, we must allow some
thing for the presence of a few hot-headed and
irreconcilable members, — men of inflexible mind,
who cannot adapt themselves to circumstances, and
will refuse to play when they see the game going
against them.
All these points are well illustrated in the as
semblage of men that framed our Federal Consti
tution. In its composition, this group of men left
nothing to be desired.. In its strength and in its
^weakness, it was an ideally jperfect assembly.
m There were fifty-five men, all of them
The men who *i ,
weroassem- respectable for family and for personal
qualities, — men who had been well ed
ucated, and had done something whereby to earn
recognition in these troubled times. Twenty-nine
were university men, graduates of Harvard, Yale,
Columbia, Princeton, William and Mary, Oxford,
Glasgow, and Edinburgh. Twenty-six were not
university men, and among these were Washington
and Franklin. Of the illustrious citizens who, for
their public services, would naturally have been

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GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 225
here, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were in
Europe ; Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Rich
ard Henry Lee disapproved of tho convention, and
remained at home ; and the greatest man of Rhode
Island, Nathanael Greene, who — one likes to think
— might have succeeded in bringing his state into
the convention, had lately died of a sun-stroke, at
the early age of forty-four.
Of the two most famous men present little need
be said. The names of Washington and Franklin
stood for supreme intelligence and consummate
tact. Franklin had returned to this country two
years before, and was now president of Pennsyl
vania. He was eighty-one years of age, the oldest
man in the convention, as Jonathan Dayton of New
Jersey, aged twenty-six, was the youngest. The
two most profound and original thinkers in the
company were but little older than Dayton. Alex
ander Hamilton was thirty, James Madison thirty-
six. Among political writers, these two men must
be ranked in the same order with Aristotle, Mon
tesquieu, and Locke; and the "Federalist," their
joint production, is the greatest treatise on govern
ment that has ever been written. John Jay, who
contributed a few pages to this immortal volume,
had not been sent to the convention, because New
York did not wish to have it succeed. Along with
Hamilton, New York sent two commonplace men,
Robert Yates and John Lansing, who were ex
treme and obstinate Antifederalists ; and the ac
tion of Hamilton, who was thus prevented from
carrying the vote of his own state for any measure
which he might propose, was in this way sadly em-

V /

226 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
barrassed. For another reason, Hamilton failed
to exert as much influenco in tho convention as one
would have expected from his profound thought
and his brilliant eloquence. Scarcely any of these
men entertained what we should now call extreme
democratic views. Scarcely any, perhaps, had
that intense faith in the ultimate good sense of the
people which was the most powerful characteristic
of Jefferson. But Hamilton went to tho other ex
treme, and expressed his distrust of popular gov
ernment too plainly. His views were too aristo
cratic and his preference for centralization was too
pronounced to carry conviction to his hearers.
The leading part in the convention fell, therefore,
to James Madison, a young man somewhat less
brilliant than Hamilton, but superior to him in so
briety and balance of powers. Madison
used to be called the " Father of tho
Constitution," and it is true that the government
under which we live is more his work than that
of any other one man. From early youth his life
had been devoted to the study of history and the
practice of statesmanship.. He was a graduate of
Princeton College, an earnest student, familiar
with all the best literature of political science from
Aristotle down to his own time, and he had given
especial attention to the history of federal govern
ment in ancient Greece, and in Switzerland and
Holland. At the age of twenty-five he had taken
part in the Virginia convention which instructed
the delegates from that state in Congress to bring
forward the Declaration of Independence. Dur
ing the last part of the war he was an active and

JamcB Madi
son.

VV /

~\

y

OERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 227
influential member of Congress, where no one
equalled or approached him for knowledge of Eng
lish history and constitutional law. In 1784 he
had returned to the Virginia legislature, and been
foremost in securing the passage of the great act
which gave complete religious freedom to the peo
ple of that state. No man understood better than
he the causes of the alarming weakness of the fed
eral government, and of the commercial disturb
ances and popular discontent of the time ; nor
had any one worked more zealously or more
adroitly in bringing about the meeting of this con
vention. As he stood here now, a leader in the
debate, there was nothing grand or imposing in his
appearance. He was small of stature and slight
in frame, like Hamilton, but he had none of Ham
ilton's personal magnetism. His manner was shy
and prim, and blushes came often to his cheeks.
At the same time, he had that rare dignity of un
conscious simplicity which characterizes the earnest
and disinterested scholar. He was exceedingly
sweet-tempered, generous, and kind, but very hard
to move from a path which, after long reflection,
he had decided to be the right one. He looked at
politics judicially, and was so little of a party man
that on several occasions he was accused (quite
wrongfully, as I hope hereafter to prove) of gross
inconsistency. The position of leadership, which
he won so early and kept so long, he held by sheer
force of giant intelligence, sleepless industry, and
an integrity which no man ever doubted. But he
was above all things a man of peace. When in
after years, as president of the United States, he

228 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
was called upon to manage a great war, he was out
of place, and his reputation for supreme ability
was temporarily lowered. Here in the Federal
Convention we are introduced to him at the noblest
and most -useful moment of his life.
Of the fifty-five men here assembled, Washington,
Franklin, Hamilton, and Madison were of the first
order of ability. Many others in the room were
gentlemen of more than ordinary talent and culture.
other leading There was John Dickinson, who ' had
moved from Pennsylvania into Delaware,
and now came to defend the equal rights of the
smaller states. There was James Wilson of Penn
sylvania, born and educated in Scotland, one of the
most learned jurists this country has ever seen.
Beside him sat the financier, Robert Morris, and his
namesake Gouverneur Morris of Morrisania, near
the city of New York, the originator of our decimal
currency, and one of the far-sighted projectors of
the Erie Canal. Then there was John Rutledge
of South Carolina, who ever since the Stamp Act
Congress had been the mainstay of his state ; and
with him were the two able and gallaut Pinckneys.
Caleb Strong, afterward ten times governor of
Massachusetts, was a typical Puritan, hard-headed
and supremely sensible ; his colleague, Rufus
King, already distinguished for his opposition to
negro slavery, was a man of brilliant attainments.
And there were George Wythe, the chancellor of
Virginia, and Daniel Carroll of Maryland, who had
played a prominent part in the events which led to
the creation of a national domain. Oliver Ells
worth of Connecticut, afterward chief justice of

\i

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 229
the United States, was one of the ablest lawyers
of his time ; with him were Roger Sherman and
William Johnson, the latter a Fellow of the Royal
Society, and afterward president of Columbia Col
lege. The New Jersey delegation, consisting of
William Livingston, David Brearly, William Pat
erson, and Jonathan Dayton, was a very strong
one ; and as to New Hampshire, it is enough to
mention the name of John Langdon. Besides all
these there were some twenty of less mark, men
who said little, but listened and voted. And then
there were the irreconcilables, Yates and Lan
sing, the two Antifederalists from New York ; and
four men of much greater ability, who took an im
portant part in the proceedings, but could not bo
induced to accept the result. These four were
Luther Martin of Maryland ; George Mason and
Edmund Randolph of Virginia; and Elbrldge
Gerry of Massachusetts.
When these men had assembled in Independence
Hall, they chose George Washington president of
the convention. The doors were locked, and an
injunction of strict secrecy was put upon every one.
The results of their work were known in the fol
lowing September, when the draft of the Federal
Constitution was published. But just what was
said and done in this secret conclave was not re
vealed until fifty years had passed, and the aged
James Madison, the last survivor of those who sat
there, had been gathered to his fathers. Ho kept
a journal of the proceedings, which was published
after his death, and upon the interesting story told
in that journal we have now to enter.

CHAPTER VI.
THE FEDEBAL CONVENTION.
lt was felt ft. A ¦ W,IedSe °* «¦» people.
celled, and ^'7,*^ be m<"e -"-"
•xmntry a" the lit ?"" °°8i" '" «° W<>« fc
thereat,,, C°SC "™ ^,™»imous voice of
™ to be done II J .r,5'?'°C'ive "°* «""
and ftat for -jr^X'S f X°'
-erned *. its f0tmtion ^ZttfZ™
EStS". t™ 'i W*S SeMra% corned that a svs.
«.-i"» MO* government ne,v in some im„;,.
coave„ti„„,':nlrxot;^I^b<, proi,ose<i ¦»*¦

w ! '

^/

\ /

rZT£T FEDERAL CONVENTION. 231
found their way across the ocean, and hopes were
itrghttuaEngIand that- shouM ; ***%£%
it might be a younger son of George III It was
2\ r/lpjf aIarm: r ' «"4n g»*-ae™
the croT , ' W6 might be Persuade«i *<» offer
the crown to some member of the royal family of
etrT at ^ th°^tS "» enteSineXt;!
SofZr?1'*' in the convention.
oome of the delegates came with the clesi-m of
Sg aim tt r r cm we's £
pnbhe m „hieh the genera, ^ »
dneetly („poa the people. Th<J dimci|ll bl^
-Moment tn afflict fj ££„££ ft
and h,l(T ™ e°SS^ted that palliative.
and half „ea,ures wollM ^ fcp 1 ™»
,7°"' T w t*01"8 "»' -J- 'IwoogSo „ .1
MaZ " dti zr f jrvb;cb °"gbt *> »•
novate a candidate, „ dele .' X™
a W, so lonE as the weakness of Li J™

232

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

233

shall endure. Rising from his president's chair, his
. wMi,h,|;to„>B tall figure drawn up to its full height, he
Boieiuuftppeai. e3CClaime(i m tones unwontedly solemn
with suppressed emotion, " It is too probable that
no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps an
other dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to
please the people, we offer what wo ourselves disap
prove, how can we afterward defend our work?
Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the
honest can repair; the event is in the hand of
God." This outburst of noble eloquence carried con
viction to every one, and henceforth we do not hear
that any attempt was avowedly made to avoid the
issues as they came up. It was a most w'holesome
tonic. It braced up the convention to high resolves,
and impressed upon all the delegates that they were
in a situation where faltering or trifling was both
wicked and dangerous. From that moment the
mood in wliich they worked caught something from
the glorious spirit of Washington. There was
need of such high purpose, for two" plans were pres
ently laid before the meeting, which, for a moment,
brought out one of the chief elements of antago
nism existing between the states, and which at first
seemed irreconcilable. It was the happy compro
mise which united and harmonized these two plans
that smoothed the further work of the convention,
and made it possible for a stable and powerful
government to be constructed.
The first of these plans was known as the Vir
ginia plan. It was agreed upon in a committee of
the delegates of that state, and was brought for-

v

'V

y

ward by Edmund Randolph, governor of Virginia,
in the name of the state, but its chief author was
Madison. It struck instantly at the root of the
difficulties under which the country had been stag
gering ever since the Declaration of Independence.
The federal government had possessed no means
of enforcing obedience to its laws. Its The root of ail
° . J j.1 * tho difficulties.
edicts were without a sanction; and tins
was because they operated upon states, and not
upon individuals. When an individual defies the
law, you can lock him up in jail, or levy an execu
tion upon his property. The immense force of the
community is arrayed against him, and he is as
helpless as a straw on the billows of the ocean.
He cannot raise a militia to protect himself. But
when the law is defied by a state, it is quite other
wise. You cannot put a state into jail, nor seize
its goods ; you can only make war on it, and if you
try that expedient you find that the state is not
helpless. Its local pride and prejudices are aroused
against you, and its militia will turn out in full
force to uphold the infraction of law. Against
this obstinate and exasperated military force what
superior force can you bring? Under some raro
combination of circumstances you might get the
military force of several of the other states ; but
ordinarily, when what you are trying to do is simply
to enforce every-day laws, and when you simply
represent a distrusted general government in con
flict with a local government, you cannot do this.
The other states will sympathize with the delinquent
state ; they will feel that the very same condition
of things which leads you to attack that state to-

234

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

235

day will lead you to attack some other state to
morrow. Hence you cannot get any military help,
and you are powerless.
Such was the case with the Continental Congress.
A novel and distrusted institution, it was called
upon to enforce its laws upon long-established com
munities, full of sturdy independence and obstinate
local prejudices. It was able to act, though with
clumsy slowness, as long as there was an enemy in
the field who was even more dreaded. But as soon
as this enemy had been beaten out of sight it could
not act at all. This had been because it did not
represent the American people, but only the Amer
ican states. The vital forco which moved it was
not the resistless force of a whole people, but only
a shadowy semblance of force, derived from a theo
retical consent of thirteen corporate bodies, which
in their corporate capacity could never be compelled
to agree about anything under the sun ; and unless
compelled they would nrot agree. Four years of
disturbance in every part of the country, in the
course of which troops had been called out in sev
eral states, and civil war had been narrowly averted
at least half a dozen times, had proved this beyond
all cavil. With almost any other people than the
Amerieaus civil war would have come already.
With all the vast future interests that were in
volved in these quarrels looming up before their
keen, sagacious minds, it was a wonder that they
had been kept from coming to blows. Such self-
restraint had been greatly to their credit. It was
the blessed fruit of more than a century of govern
ment by free discussion, while yet these states were

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colonies, peopled by the very cream of English free
men who had fought the decisive battle of civil and
religious freedom for mankind in that long crisis
when tho Invincible Armada was overwhelmed and
the Long Parliament won its triumphs. Such self-
restraint had this people shown in days of trial,
under a vicious government adopted in a time of
hurry and sore distress. But late events had gone
far to show that it could not endure.
The words of Randolph's opening speech aro
worth quoting in this connection. " The confed
eration," he said, " was made in the infancy of the
science of constitutions, when the inefficiency of
requisitions was unknown; when no commercial
discord had arisen among states ; when no rebel
lion like that in Massachusetts had broken out;
when foreign debts were not urgent; when the
havoc of paper money had not been foreseen;
when treaties had not been violated; and when
nothing better could have been conceded by states
jealous of their sovereignty. But it offered no
security against foreign invasion, for Congress
could neither prevent nor conduct a war, nor pun
ish infractions of treaties or of the law of nations,
nor control particular states from provoking war.
The federal government has no constitutional
power to check a quarrel between separate states ;
nor to suppress a rebellion in any one of them ;
nor to establish a productive impost ; nor to coun
teract the commercial regulations of other nations ;
nor to defend itself against the encroachments of
the states. From the mauuer in which it has been
ratified in many of the states, it cannot be claimed

236

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

to be paramount to the state constitutions ; so that
there is a prospect of anarchy from the inherent
laxity of the government. As the remedy, the
government to be established must have for its
basis the republican principle."
Having thus tersely stated the whole problem,
Randolph went on to present the Virginia plan.
To make the federal government operate directly
upon individuals, one provision was absolutely
necessary. It did not solve the whole
p^nT aginia problem, but it was an indispensable be-
radicalc.ro. ^^ rjaj^ wa3 tlie prop0sal that
there should be a national legislature, in which the
American people instead of the American states
should be represented. For the purposes of fed
eral legislation, there must be an assembly elected
directly by the people, and with its members appor
tioned according to population. There must be
such an assembly as our present House of Repre
sentatives, standing in the same immediate relation
to the people of the whole country as was sustained
by the assembly of each separate state to the peo
ple of that state. Without such direct representa
tion of the whole people in the Federal Congress,
it would be impossible to achieve one secure step
toward the radical reform of the weaknesses and
vices of the confederation. It was the only way in
which the vexed question of one nation or thirteen
could be made to yield a satisfactory answer. At
the same time it could not be denied that such a
proposal was revolutionary in character. It paved
the way for a national consolidation which might
go further than any one could foresee, and much

\

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

237

r
i

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S

r.

r

further than was desirable. The moribund Con
gress of the Confederation, with its delegates chosen
by the state assemblies, and casting its vote simply
by states, had utterly failed to serve as a national
legislature. There was a good deal of. truth in
what John Adams once said of it, that it was more
a diplomatic than a legislative body. It was, in
deed, because of this consciously felt diplomatic
character that it was called a Congress, and not a
Parliament. In its lack of coercive power it re
sembled the international congresses of Europe
rather than the supreme legislature of any country.
To substitute abruptly for such a body a truly
national legislature, based not upon states but
upon population, was quietly to inaugurate a revo
lution of no less magnitude than that which had
lately severed us from G reat Britain. So bold a
step, while all-essential in order to complete that
revolution, and make its victorious issue fortunate
instead of disastrous to the American people, was
sufficiently revolutionary to awaken the fears of
many members of the Federal Convention. To
the familiar state governments which had so long
possessed their love and allegiance, it was super
adding a new and untried government, which it
was feared would swallow up the states and every
where extinguish local independence. Nor can it
be said that such fears were unreasonable. Our
federal government has indeed shown a strong ten
dency to encroach upon the province of the state
governments, especially since our late Civil War.
Too much centralization is our danger to-day, as
the weakness of the federal tie was our danger a

238

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

century ago. The rule of the Federalist party was
needed in 1789 as the rule of tho Republican party
was needed in 1861, to put a curb upon the centrif
ugal tendencies. But after Federalism had fairly
done its great work, at the beginning of the nine
teenth century, it was well that the administration
of our national affairs should pass into the hands
of the party to which Thomas Jefferson and Samuel
Adams belonged, and which Madison, in his calm
statesmanlike wisdom, had come to join. And now
that, in our own day, the disruptive forces have
been even more thoroughly and effectually over
come, it is time for the principles of that party to
be reasserted with fresh emphasis. If the day
should ever arrive (which God forbid !) when the
people of the different parts of our country shall
allow their local affairs to be administered by pre
fects sent from Washington, and when the self-
government of the states shall have been so far
lost as that of the departments of France, or even
so far as that of the counties of England, — on
that day the progressive political career of the
American people will have come to an end, and
the hopes that have been built upon it for the fu
ture happiness and prosperity of mankind will be
wrecked forever.
I do not think that the historian writing at the
present day need fear any such direful calamity,
for the past century has shown most instructively
how, in such a society as ours, the sense of political
dangers slowly makes its way through the whole
mass of the people, until movements at length are
made to avert them, and the pendulum swings in

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

239

the opposite direction. The history of political.
parties in the United States is especially rich in
lessons of this sort. Compared with the statesmen
of the Federal Convention, we are at a great ad
vantage in studying this question of national con
solidation ; and we have no excuse for failing to
comprehend the attitude of the men who dreaded
the creation of a national legislature as the enter
ing wedge which would by and by rend asunder
the structure of our liberties. The great mind of
Madison was one of the first to entertain distinctly
the noble conception of two kinds of government
operating at one and the same time upon the same
individuals, harmonious with each other, but each
supreme in its own sphere. Such is the funda
mental conception of our partly federal, partly
national, government, which appears throughout
the Virginia plan as well as in the Constitution
which grew out of it. It was a political concep
tion of a higher order than had ever before been
entertained ; it took a great deal of discussion to
make it clear to the minds of the delegates gen
erally ; and the struggle over this initial measure
of a national legislature was so bitter as to come
near breaking up the convention.
In its original shape the Virginia plan went
much further toward national consolidation than
the Constitution as adopted. The reaction against
tho evils of the loose-jointed confederation, which
Randolph so ably summed up, was extreme. Ac
cording to the Virginia plan, the national legisla
ture was to be composed of two houses, like the
legislatures of the several states. The members of

240 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.
the lower house should be chosen directly by the
people ; members of the upper house, or Senate,
should be elected by the lower house out of per
sons nominated by the state legislatures. In both
the lower and the upper branches of this national
legislature the votes were to be tho votes of indi
viduals, and no longer the votes of states, as in the
Continental Congress. Under the articles of con
federation each state had an equal vote, and two
thirds were required for every important measure.
Under the proposed Constitution each state was to
have a number of representatives proportionate
either to its wealth or to the number of its free
inhabitants, and a bare majority of votes was to
suffice to pass all measures in the ordinary course
of business ; and these rules were to apply both to
the lower house and to the Senate. To adopt such
a plan would overthrow the equality of the states
altogether. It would give Virginia, the greatest
state, sixteen representatives, where Georgia, the
smallest state, had but one ; and besides, as the
votes were no longer- to be taken by states, indi
vidual members could combine in any way they
pleased, quite irrespective of state lines. It was
not strange that to many delegates in the conven
tion such a beginning should have seemed revolu
tionary. This impression was deepened when it
was further proposed not only to clothe this na
tional legislature with original powers of legislation
in all cases to which the several states are incom
petent, but also to allow it to set aside at discretion
such state laws as it might deem unconstitutional.
It is interesting to find Madison, whose Federalism

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

241

¦y

afterward came to be so moderate, now appearing
as the earnest defender of this extreme provision,
so incompatible with state rights. But in Madi
son's mind at this moment, in the actual presence
of the anarchy of the confederation, the only alter
native which seemed to present itself was that of
armed coercion. " A negative on state laws," he
said, " is the mildest expedient that can be de-vised
for enforcing a national decree. Should no such
precaution be engrafted, the only remedy would be
coercion. The negative would render the use of
force unnecessary. This prerogative of the general
government is the great pervading principle that
must control the centrifugal tendency of the states,
which, without it, will continually fly out of their
proper orbits, and destroy the order and harmony
of the political system." But these views were not
destined to find favour with the convention, which
finally left the matter to be much more satisfacto
rily adjusted through the medium of the federal ju
diciary. Such were the fundamental provisions of the
Virginia plan with regard to the national legisla
ture. To carry out the laws, it was proposed that
there should be a national executive, to be chosen
by the national legislature for a short term, and
ineligible a second time. Whether the executive
power should be invested in a single person or in
several was not specified. As will be seen here
after, this was regarded as an extremely delicate
point, with which it was thought best not to em
barrass the Virginia plan at the outset. Passing
lightly over this, it was urged that, in order to com-

242 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.
plete the action of the government upon individu
als, there must be a national judiciary to determine
cases arising under the Constitution, cases in ad
miralty, and cases in which different states or their
citizens appear as parties. The judges wero to be
chosen by the national legislature, to hold office
during good behaviour.
Such, in its main outlines, was the plan which
First reception Randolph laid before the convention,
otuie Virginia m the name of the Virginia delegation.
An audacious scheme I exclaimed some
of the delegates ; it was enough to take your breath
away. If they were going to begin like this, they
might as well go home, for all discussion would be
time wasted. They were not sent there to set on
foot a revolution, but to amend and strengthen the
articles of confederation. But this audacious plan
simply abolished the Confederation in order to sub
stitute for it a consolidated national government.
Foremost in urging this objection were Yates and
Lansing of New York, with Luther Martin of
Maryland. Dickinson said it was pushing things
altogether too far, and his colleague, George Read,
hinted that the delegation from Delaware might
feel obliged to withdraw from the convention if the
election of representatives according to population
should be adopted. By the tact of Madison and
Gouverneur Morris this question was postponed for
a few days. After some animated discussion, the
issues became so narrowed and defined that they
could be taken up one by one. It was first decided
that the national legislature should consist of two
branches.' Then came a warm discussion as to

?,. .¦'

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 243
whether the members of the lower house should be
elected directly by the people. Curiously enough,
in a country where the principle of popular elec
tion had long since taken such deep root, where
the assemblies of the several states had been chosen
by the people from the very beginniug, there was
some doubt as to whether the same principle could
safely be applied to the national House of Repre
sentatives. Gerry, with his head full of the Shays
rebellion and the "Know Ye" measures of the
neighbouring state, thought the people could not
be trusted. « The people do not want virtue,"
said he, « but are the dupes of pretended patriots."
Roger Sherman took a similar view, and was sup
ported by Martin, Rutledge, and both the Pinck-
neys ; but the sounder opinion prevailed. On this
point Hamilton was at one with Mason, Wilson,
and Dickinson. The proposed assembly, said Msi
son, was to be, so to speak, our House of Commons,
and ought to know and sympathize with every part
of the community. It ought to have at heart the
rights and interests of every class of the people,
and in no other way could this end be so com
pletely attained as by popular election. " Yes,"
added Wilson, " without the confidence of the peo
ple no government, least of all a republican gov
ernment, can long subsist. ... The election of the
first branch by the people is not the corner-stone
only, but the foundation of the fabric." " It is es
sential to the democratic rights of the community "
said Hamilton, « that the first branch be directly
elected by the people." Madison argued power
fully on the same side, and the question was finally
decided in favour of popular election.

244

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

245

It was now the 4th of June, when the great
question came up which nearly wrecked the con
vention before it was settled, after a whole month
of stormy debate. This was the question as to
how the states should be represented in the new
Antagonism Congress. On the Virginia plan, the
between large smaller states would be virtually
states and v
email states, swamped. Unless they could have
equal votes, without regard to wealth or popula
tion, they would be at the mercy of the great
states. In tho division which ensued, the four
most populous states — Virginia, Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, and North Carolina — favoured tho
Virginia plan; and they succeeded in carrying
South Carolina with them. Georgia, too, which,
though weak at that moment, possessed considera
ble room for expansion, voted upon the same side.
On the other hand, the states of Connecticut, New
Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland — which were not
only small in area, but were cut off from further
expansion by their geographical situation — were
not inclined to give up their equal vote in either
branch of the national legislature. At this stage
of the proceedings the delegation from New Hamp
shire had not yet arrived upon the scene. On sev
eral occasions the majority of the Maryland dele
gation went with the larger states, but Luther
Martin, always opposed to the Virginia plan, usu
ally succeeded in dividing the vote of the delegation.
Of the New York members, Yates and Lansing,
here as always, thwarted Hamilton by voting with
the smaller states. Their policy throughout was
one of obstruction. The members from Connecti-

"-

r

cut were disposed to be conciliatory ; but New Jer
sey was obstinate and implacable. She knew what
it was to be tyrannized over by powerful neighbours.
The wrongs she had suffered from New York and
Pennsylvania rankled in the minds of her dele
gates. Accordingly, in the name of the smaller
states, William Paterson laid before the conven
tion tbe so-called "New Jersey plan" TneNewJor.
for the amendment of the articles of ^bifpahfa.
confederation. This scheme admitted tlT0'
a federal legislature, consisting of a single house,
an executive in the form of a council to be chosen
by Congress, and likewise a federal judiciary, with
powers less extensive than those contemplated by
tho Virginia plan. It gave to Congress the power
to regulate foreign and domestic commerce, to levy
duties on imports, and even to raise internal rev
enue by means of a Stamp Act. But with all this
apparent liberality on the surface, the New Jersey
plan was vicious at bottom. It did not really give
Congress the power to act immediately upon indi
viduals. The federal legislature which it proposed
was to represent states, and not individuals, and
the states were to vote equally, without regard to
wealth or population. If things were to be left
in this shape, there was no security that the pow
ers granted to Congress could ever be really exer
cised. Nay, it was almost certain that they could
not be put into operation. It was easy enough on
paper to give Congress the permission to levy du
ties and regulate commerce, but such a permission
would amount to nothing unless Congress were
armed with the power of enforcing its decrees upon

246

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

individuals. And it could in no wise acquire such
power unless as the creature of the people, and not
of the states. The New Jersey plan, therefore,
furnished no real remedy for the evils which af
flicted the country. It ¦ was vigorously opposed by
Hamilton, Madison, Wilson, arid King. Hamil
ton, indeed, took this occasion to offer a plan of
his own, which, in addition to Madison's scheme of
a purely national legislature, contained the fea
tures of a tenure for life or good behaviour, for tho
executive and the members of the upper house.
But to most of the delegates this scheme seemed
too little removed from a monarchy, and Hamil
ton's brilliant speech in its favour, while applauded
by many, was supported by none. Tho weighty
arguments of Wilson, King, and Madison pre
vailed, and the New Jersey plan lost its original
shape when it was decided that Congress should
consist of two houses. The principle of equal
state representation, however, remained as a stum
bling-block. ?' Paterson, supported by his able col
league Brearley, as well as by Martin and tho two
irreconcilablcs from New York, stoutly maintained
that to depart from this principle would be to ex
ceed the powers of the convention, which assuredly
was not intended to remodel the government from
beginning to end. But Randolph answered,
" When the salvation of the republic is at stake, it
would be treason to our trust not to propose what
we find necessary ; " and Hamilton pithily re
minded the delegates that as they were there only
for the purpose of recommending a scheme which
would have to be submitted to the states for accept-

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 247*
nnce, they need not be deterred by any false scruV
pics from using their wits to the best possible ad
vantage. The debate on the merits of the question'
was an angry one. According to the Virginia
plan, said Brearly,- the three states of Virginia,
Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania will carry every
thing before them. " It was known to him, from
facts within New Jersey, that where large and
small counties were united into a district for elect
ing representatives for the district, the large coun
ties always carried their point, and consequently
the large states would do so. . . . Was it fair,
on the other hand, that Georgia should have an
equal vote with Virginia ? He would not say it
was. What remedy, then? One only: that a
map of the United States be spread out, that all
the existing boundaries bo erased, and that a new
partition of the whole be made into thirteen equal
parts." "Yes," said Paterson, "a confederacy
supposes sovereignty in the members composing it,
and sovereignty supposes equality. If we are to
be considered as a nation, all state distinctions
must be abolished, tho whole must bo thrown into
hotchpot, and when an equal division is made then
there may be fairly an equality of representation."
This argument was repeated with a triumphant
air, as seeming to reduce the Virginia plan to ab
surdity. Paterson went on to say that "there
was no more reason that a great individual state,
contributing much, should have more votes than a
small one, contributing little, than that a rich indi
vidual citizen should have more votes than an in
digent one. If the ratable property of A was to

248

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

(wiit of B as forty to one, ought A, for that reason,
to have forty times as many votes as B ? . . . Give
the large states an influence in proportion to their
magnitude, and what will be the consequence?
Their ambition will be proportionally increased,
and the small states will have everything to fear.
It was once proposed by Galloway [in the first
Continental Congress] that America should be rep
resented in the British Parliament, and then be
bound by its laws. America could not have been en
titled to more than one third of the representatives
which would fall to the share of Great Britain :
would American rights and interests have been.
safe under an authority thus constituted ? " Then,
warming with the subject, he exclaimed, If the
great states wish to unite on such a plan, " let
them uuite if they please, but let them remember
that they have no authority to compel the others
to unite. . . . Shall I submit the welfare of New
Jersey with five votes in a council where Virginia
has sixteen ? . . . I will never consent to the pro
posed plan. I will not only oppose it here, but on
my return home will do everything in my power to
defeat it there. Neither my state nor myself will
ever submit to tyranny."
Paterson was ably answered by James Wilson,
of Pennsylvania, who pointed out the absurdity of
giving 180,000 men in one part of the country as
much weight in the national legislature as 750,000
in another part. It is unjust, he said. "Tho
gentleman from New Jersey is candid. He de
clares his opinions boldly. I commend him for it.
I will be equally candid. ... I never will con-

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION!

im

federate on his principles." The convention gT'. ¦ W-
ncrvous and excited over this seemingly irreconcil
able antagonism. The discussion was kept up with
much learning and acuteness by Madison, Ells
worth, and Martin, and history .was ransacked for
testimony from the Amphiktyonic Council to Old
Sarum, and back again to the Lykian League.
Madison, rightly reading the future, declared that
if once the proposed union should be formed, the
real danger would come not from the rivalry be
tween large and small states, but from the antago
nistic interests of the slaveholding and non-slave-
holding states. Hamilton pointed out that in the
state of New York five counties had a majority of
the representatives, and yet tho citizens of the other
counties were in no danger of tyranny, as the laws
have an equal operation upon all. Rufus King
called attention to the fact that the rights of Scot
land were secure from encroachments, although
her representation in Parliament was necessarily
smaller than that of England.)', But New Jersey and
Delaware, mindful of recent grievances, were not
to be argued down or soothed. Gunning Bedford
of Delaware was especially violent. " Pretences
to support ambition," said he, "are never wanting.
The cry is, Where is the danger ? and it is insisted
that although the powers of the general government
will bo increased, yet it will be for the good of the
whole ; and although the three great states form
nearly a majority of the people of America, they
never will injure the lesser states. Gentlemen, 1
do not trust you. If you possess the power, the
abuse of it could not be checked ; and what then

250

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

woidd prevent you from exercising it to our de
struction ? . . . Sooner than be ruined, there arc
foreign powers who will take us by the hand. I
say this not to threaten or intimidate, but that we
should reflect seriously before we act." This lan
guage called forth a rebuke from Rufus King. " I
am concerned," said he, " for what fell from the
gentleman from Delaware, — take a foreign power
by the hand ! I am sorry he mentioned it, and I
hope he is able to excuse it to himself on the score
of passion."
The situation had become dangerous. "The
convention," said Martin, " was on the verge of dis
solution, scarce held together by the strength of a
hair." When things were looking darkest, Oliver
Ellsworth and Roger Sherman suggested a com
promise. " Yes," said Franklin, " when a joiner
wishes to fit two boards, he sometimes pares off a bit
from both." The famous Connecticut compromise
led the wav to the arrangement which
The Connect!- J ° ,.
cutcompro- was ultimately adopted, according to
which the national principle was to pre
vail in the House of Representatives, and the federal
principle in the Senate. But at first the compromise
met with little favour. Neither party was willing
to give way. " No compromise for us," said Lu
ther Martin. " You must give each state an equal
suffrage, or our business is at an end." " Then we
are come to a full stop," said Roger Sherman. " I
suppose it was never meant that we should break
up without doing something." When the question
as to allowing equality of suffrage to the states in
the Federal Senate was put to vote, the result was

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

251

a tie. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Dela
ware, and Maryland — five states — voted in the
affirmative ; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vir
ginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina — five
states — voted in the negative ; the vote of Georgia
was divided and lost. It was Abraham Baldwin, a
nativo of Connecticut and lately a tutor in Yale
College, a recent emigrant to Georgia, who thus
divided the vote of that state, and prevented a de
cision which would in all probability have broken
up the convention. His state was the last to vote,
and the house was hushed in anxious expectation,
when this brave and wise young man yielded his
private conviction to what he saw to be the para
mount necessity of keeping the convention together.
All honour to his memory !
The moral effect of the tie vote was in favour of
the Connecticut compromise ; for no one could doubt
that the little states, New Hampshire and Rhode
Island, had they been represented in the division,
would have voted upon that side. The matter was
referred to a committee as impartially constituted
as possible, with Elbridge Gerry as chairman ; and
on the 5th of July, after a recess of three days, the
committee reported in favour of the compromise.
Fresh objections on the part of the large states
were now offered by AVilson and Gouverneur Mor
ris, and gloom again overhung the convention.
Gerry said that, while he did not fully approve of
the compromise, he had nevertheless supported it,
because he felt sure that if nothing wei*e done war
and confusion must ensue, the old confederation
being already virtually at an end. George Mason

252

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

253

observed that " it could not be more inconvenient
for any gentleman to remain absent from his pri
vate affairs than it was for him ; but he would bury
his bones in that city rather than expose his country
to the consequences of a dissolution of the conven
tion." Mason's subsequent behaviour was hardly
in keeping with the promise of this brave speech,
and in Gerry we shall observe like inconsistency.
At present a timely speech from Madison soothed
the troubled waters ; but it was only after eleven
clays of somewhat moro tranquil debate that the
compromise was adopted on the 16th of July. Even
then it was but narrowly secured. The ayes were
Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland,
and North Carolina, — five states ; the noes were
Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Geor
gia, — four states ; Gerry and Strong against King
and Gorham divided the vote of Massachusetts,
which was thus lost. New York, for reasons pres
ently to be stated, was absent. It is accordingly to
Elbridge Gerry and Caleb Strong that posterity
are indebted for here preventing a tie, and thus
bringing tho vexed question to a happy issue.
According to the compromise secured with so
much difficulty, it was arranged that in the lower
house population was to be represented, and in the
upper house the states, each of which, without re
gard to size, was forever to be entitled to two sena
tors. In the lower house there was to be one rep
resentative for every 40,000 inhabitants, but at
Washington's suggestion the number was changed
to 30,000, so as to increase the house, which then
seemed likely to be too small in numbers. Some

one suggested that with the growth of population
that rate would make an unwieldy house within a
hundred and fifty years from that time, whereat
Gorham of Massachusetts laughed to scorn the
idea that any system of government they could
devise in that room could possibly last a hun
dred and fifty years. The difficulty has been sur
mounted by enlarging from time to time the basis
of representation. It now seemed inadvisable that
the senators should be chosen by the lower house
out of persons nominated by the state legislatures ;
and it was accordingly decided that they should
be not merely nominated, but elected, by the state
¦ legislatures. Thus the Senate was made quite in
dependent of the lower house. At the same time,
the senators were to vote as individuals, and thus
the old practice of voting by states, except In cer
tain peculiar emergencies, was finally done away
with. It is seldom, if ever, that a political compromise
leaves things evenly balanced. Almost every such
arrangement, when once set working, weighs down
the scales decidedly to the one side or the other.
The Connecticut compromise was really a decisive
victory for Madison and his party, although it
modified the Virginia plan so considerably. They
could well afford to defer to the fears and preju
dices of the smaller states in the struc
ture of the Senate, for by securing a slve Tiotory (or
1 , . . , J ^ Madison's
lower nouse, which represented the 8cu™o-
American people, and not the American states,
they won the whole battle in so far as the question
of radically reforming the government was con-

254

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

255

cerned. As soon as the foundation was thus laid
for a government which should act directly upon
individuals, it obviously became necessary to aban
don the articles of confederation, and work out a
new constitution in all its details. Tho plan, as
now reported, omitted the obnoxious adjective
" national," and spoke of the federal legislature
and federal courts. But to the men who were still
blindly wedded to the old confederation this sooth
ing change of phraseology did not conceal their
defeat. On the very day that the compromise was
favourably reported by the committee, Yates and
Lansing quit the convention in disgust, and went
home to New York. After the departure of these
uncongenial colleagues, Hamilton might have acted
with power, had he not known too well that the
sentiment of his state did not support him. As a
mere individual he could do but little, and accord
ingly he went home for a while to attend to press
ing business, returning just in time to take part in
the closing scenes. His share in the work of fram-
irreconciiabies iuS tli0 Federal Constitution was very
go homo. small. About the time that Hamilton
returned, Luther Martin, whose wrath had waxed
hotter every day, as he saw power after power ex
tended to the federal government, at length gave
way and went back to Maryland, vowing that he
would have nothing more to do with such high
handed proceedings.
While the Connecticut compromise thus scat
tered a few scintillations of discontent, and re
lieved the convention of some of its most discordant
elements, its general effect was wonderfully har-

y ""V

A

monizing. The men who had opposed the Virginia
plan only through their dread of the larger states
were now moro than conciliated. The concession
of equal representation in the Senate turned out
to have been a master stroke of diplomacy. As
soon as the little states were assured of an equal
share in the control of one of the two central legis
lative bodies, they suddenly forgot their scruples
about thoroughly overhauling the government, and
none were readier than they to intrust extensive
powers to the new Congress. Paterson of New
Jersey, the fiercest opponent of the Virginia plan,
became from that time forth to the end of his life
the most devoted of Federalists.
That first step which proverbially gives the most
trouble had now been fairly taken. But other
compromises were needed before the work of con
struction could properly be carried out. As the
antagonism between great and small states disap
peared from the scene, other antagonisms appeared.
It is worth noting that just for a moment there was
revealed a glimmering of jealousy and dread on
the "part of the eastern states toward othor ant1fr0.
those of which the foundations were laid Sread oi'the0
in the northwestern territory. Many future W08t'
people in New England feared that their children
would be drawn westward in such numbers as to
create immense states beyond the Ohio ; and thus
it was foreseen that the relative political weight of
New England in the future would be diminished.
To a certain extent this prediction has been justi
fied by events, but Roger Sherman rightly main
tained that it afforded no just grounds for dread.

256

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

King and Gerry introduced a most illiberal and
mischievous motion, that the total number of rep
resentatives from new states must never be allowed
to exceed the total number from the original thir
teen. Such an arrangement, which would surely
have been enough to create that antagonism be
tween east and west which it sought to forestall
and avoid, was supported by Massachusetts and
Connecticut, with Delaware and Maryland ; but it
was defeated by the combination of New Jersey
with the four states south of Maryland. The
ground was thus cleared for a very different kind
of sectional antagonism, — that wliich, as Madison
truly said, would prove the most dccp-scatcd and
enduring of all, — - the antagonism between north
and south. The first great struggle between the
Antagonism pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties be-
rta^dtee0 gan in the Federal Convention, and it
states. resulted in the first two of the long series
of compromises by which the irrepressible conflict
was postponed until the north had waxed strong
enough to confront the dreaded spectre of secession,
and, summoning all its energies in one stupendous
effort, exorcise it forever. From this moment down
to 1865 we shall continually be made to realize
how the American people had entered into the
shadow of the coming Civil War before they had
fairly emerged from that of the Revolution ; and
as we pass from scene to scene of the solemn story,
we shall learn how to be forever grateful for the
sudden and final clearing of the air wrought by
that frightful storm which men not yet old can still
so well remember.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

257

V

The first compromise related to the distribution
of representatives between north and south. Was
representation in the lower house of Congress to
be proportioned to wealth, or to population ; and
if the latter, were all the inhabitants, or only all
the free inhabitants, to be counted ? It was soon
agreed that wealth was difficult to reckon and pop
ulation easy to count ; and to an extent sufficient
for all ordinary purposes, population might serve
as an index of wealth. A state with 500,000 in
habitants would be in most cases richer than one
with 400,000. In those days, when cities were
few and small, this was approximately true. In
our day it is not at all true. A state with large
commercial and manufacturing cities is sure to be
much richer than a state in which the population
is chiefly rural. The population of Massachusetts
is somewhat smaller than that of Indiana ; but her
aggregate wealth is more than double that of In
diana. Disparities like this, which do not trouble
us to-day, would have troubled the Federal Con
vention. We no longer think it desirable to give
political representation to wealth, or to anything
but persons. We have become thoroughly demo
cratic, but our great-grandfathers had not. To
them it seemed quito essential that wealth should
be represented as well as persons; but they got
over the main difficulty easily, because under the
economic conditions of that time population could
serve roughly as an index to wealth, and it was
much easier to count noses than to assess the value
of farms and stock.
But now there was in all the southern states,

258

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

259

and in most of the northern, a peculiar species of
collective existence, which might be described
were slaves to either as wealth or as population. As
Spcrsko°nSeor human beings the slaves might *be de-
as chattels? scribed as population, but in the eye of
the law they were chattels. In the northern states
slavery was rapidly disappearing, and the property
in negroes was so small as to be hardly worth con
sidering ; while south of Mason and Dixon's line
this peculiar kind of property was the chief wealth
of the states. But clearly, in apportioning repre
sentation, in sharing political power in the federal
assembly, the same rule should have been applied
impartially to all the states. At this point, Pierce
Butler and Cotesworth Pinckney of South Caro
lina insisted that slaves were part of the popula
tion, aud as such must be counted in ascertaining
the basis of representation. A fierce and compli
cated dispute ensued. The South Carolina pro
posal suggested a uniform rule, but it was one that
would scarcely alter the political weight of the
north, while it would vastly increase the weight of
the south ; and it would increase it most in just
the quarter where slavery was most deeply rooted.
The power of South Carolina, as a member of the
Union, would be doubled by such a measure.
Hence the northern delegates maintained that
slaves, as chattels, ought no more to be reckoned
as part of the population than houses or ships.
"Has a man in Virginia," exclaimed Paterson,
" a number of votes in proportion to the number
of his slaves ? And if negroes are not represented
in the states to which they belong, why should they

\
i e
\

V

V

be represented in the general government? . . .
If a meeting of the people were to take place in a
slave state, would the slaves vote? They would
not. Why then should they be represented in a
federal government?" "I can never agree," said
Gouverneur Morris, "to give such encouragement
to the slave-trade as would be given by allowing
the southern states a representation for their ne
groes. ... I would sooner submit myself to a tax
for paying for all the negroes in the United States
than saddle posterity with such a constitution."
The attitude taken by Virginia was that of
peace-maker. On the one hand, such men as
Washington, Madison, and Mason, who were ear
nestly hoping to see their own state soon freed
from the curse of slavery, could not fail to perceive
that if Virginia were to gain an increase of politi
cal weight from the existence of that institution,
the difficulty of getting the state legislature to
abolish it would be enhanced. But on the other
hand, they saw that South Carolina was inexorable,
and that her refusal to adopt the Constitution for
this reason would certainly carry Georgia with
her, and probably North Carolina, also. Even
had South Carolina alone been involved, it was not
simply a question of forming a Union which shoidd
either include her or leave her out in the cold.
The case was much more complicated than that.
It was really doubtful if, without the cordial as
sistance of South Carolina, a Union could bo
formed at all. A Federal Constitution had not
only to be framed, but it had to be presented to
the thirteen states for adoption. It was by no

260

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

261

means clear that enough states would ratify it to
enable the experiment of the new government to go
into operation. New York and Rhode Island were
known to be bitterly opposed to it ; Massachusetts
could not be counted on as sure ; to add South
Carolina to this list would be to endanger every- ^"
thing. The event justified this caution. We shall
hereafter see that it was absolutely necessary to
satisfy South Carolina, and that but for her ratifi- ;.
cation, coming just at the moment when it did, the
work of the Federal Convention would probably
have been done in vain. It was a clear perception
of the wonderful complication of interests involved
in the final appeal to the people that induced the
Virginia statesmen to take the lead in a compro- ^
mise. Four years before, in 1783, when Congress
was endeavouring to apportion the quotas of rev
enue to be required of the several states, a similar y
dispute had arisen. If taxation were to be distri- •;„
buted according to population, it made a great dif
ference whether slaves were to be counted as popu- -
lation or not. If slaves were to be counted, the v, ;
southern states would have to pay more than their > /
equitable share into the federal treasury ; if slaves *v
were not to be counted, it was argued at the north
that they would be paying less than their equitable |
share. Consequently, at that time the north had
been inclined to maintain that the slaves were pop
ulation, while the south had preferred to regard
them as chattels. Thus we see that in politics, as '-v
well as in algebra, it makes all the difference in _,
the world whether you start with plus or with
On that occasion Madison had offered a \*-.

minus.

successful compromise, in which a slave figured as
three fifths of a freeman; and Rut- ^
led^e of South Carolina, who was now rutiw compro-
t> • i ¦¦ i miso ; a Re
present in the convention, had supported nine English
I -, solution, it
the measure. Madison now proposed ever there wae
the same method of getting over the diffi
culty about representation, and his compromise
was adopted. It was agreed that in counting pop
ulation, whether for direct taxation or for repre
sentation in the lower house of Congress, five slaves
should be reckoned as three individuals.
.All this was thoroughly illogical, of course ; it
left the question whether slaves are population or
chattels for theorizers to wrangle over, and for
future events to decide. It was easy for James
Wilson to show that there was neither rhyme nor
reason in it : but he subscribed to it, nevertheless,
just as the northern abolitionists, Rufus King and
Gouverneur Morris, joined with Washington and
Madison, and with the pro-slavery Pinckneys, in
subscribing to it, because they all believed that
without such a compromise tho Constitution would
not be adopted ; and in this there can be little
doubt that they were right. The evil consequences
were unquestionably very serious indeed. Hence
forth, so long as slavery lasted, the vote of a south
erner counted for more than the vote of a north
erner ; and just where negroes were most numerous
the power of their masters became greatest. In
South Carolina there soon came to be more blacks
than whites, and the application of the rule there
fore went far toward doubling the vote of South
Carolina in the House of Representatives and in

262 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.
the electoral college. Every five slaveholders
down there were equal in political weight to not
less than eight farmers or merchants in the north ;
and thus this troublesome state acquired a power
of working mischief out of all proportion to her
real size. At a later date the operation of the rule
in Mississippi was similar ; and in general it was
just the most backward and barbarous parts of the
Union that were thus favoured at the expense of
the most civilized parts. Admitting all this, how-
in other words, ever, it remains undeniable that the Con-
it was tho best (.i-'a j.' ip
solution at- summon saved us from anarchy; and
tainablo under j_i , , . , , . , , , J
thocircum- tliere can be little doubt that slavery
stances. l,i *^
and every other remnant of barbarism
in American society would have thriven far more
lustily under a state of chronic anarchy than was
possible under the Constitution. Four years of
concentrated warfare, animated by an intense and
lofty moral purpose, could not hurt the character
or mar the fortunes of the people, like a century of
aimless and miscellaneous squabbling over a host
of petty local interests. The War of Secession was
a terrible ordeal to pass through ; but when one
tries to picture what might have happened in this
fair land without the work of the Federal Conven
tion, the imagination stands aghast.
The second great compromise between north-
Compromise ern arid southern interests related to
England anT the abolition of the foreign slave-trade
South Carolina „_J a.1 /. , , - ,
astothoforoign antt tue power ot the federal covern-
slave-trade. w  i ... b
ment over commerce. All the states
except South Carolina and Georgia wished to stop
the importation of slaves ; but the physical condi-

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

263

-w*

V

Y

tions of rice and indigo culture exhausted the
negroes so fast that these two states felt that their
industries would be dried up at the very source
if the importation of fresh negroes were to be
stopped. Cotesworth Pinckney accordingly de
clared that South Carolina would consider a vote
to abolish the slave-trade as simply a polite way of
telling her that she was not wanted in the Union.
On the other hand, the three New England states
present in the convention had made up their minds
that it would not do to allow the several states any
longer to regulate commerce each according to its
own whim. It was of vital importance that this
power should be taken from the states and lodged
in Congress; otherwise, the Union would soon be
rent in pieces by commercial disputes. The policy
of New York had thoroughly impressed this lesson
upon all the neighbouring states. But none of the
southern states were in favour of granting this power
unreservedly to Congress. If a navigation act
could be passed by a simple majority in Congress
it was feared that the New Englanders would get
all the carrying trade into their own hands, and
then charge ruinous freights for carrying rice, in
digo, and tobacco to the north and to Europe. On
this point, accordingly, the southern delegates acted
as a unit in insisting that Congress should not be
empowered to pass navigation acts, except by a two
thirds vote of both houses. This would have tied
the hands of the federal government most unfortu
nately ; and the New Englanders, enlightened by
their own interests, saw it to be so. Here were tho
materials ready for a compromise, or, as the stout

264

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

265

abolitionist, Gouverneur Morris, truly called it, a
" bargain " between New England and the far
south. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Con
necticut consented to tho prolonging of the foreign
slave-trade for twenty years, or until 1808 ; and in
return South Carolina and Georgia consented to
the clause empowering Congress to pass navigation
acts and otherwise regulate commerce by a simple
majority of votes. At the same time, as a conces
sion to rice and indigo, the New Englanders agreed
that Congress should be forever prohibited from
taxing exports ; and thus one remnant of mediaeval
political economy was neatly swept away.
This compromise was carried against the sturdy
opposition of Virginia. The language of George
Mason of Virginia is worth quoting, for it was
such as Theodore Parker might have used. He
called the slave-trade " this infernal traffic." " Slav-
This last com- ery," said he, "discourages arts and
^0mak°B8tneni8 manufactures. The poor despise la-
vtgbiuTdoubt- hour when performed by slaves. They
M' prevent the immigration of whites, who
really strengthen and enrich a country. They pro
duce the most pernicious effect on manners. Every
master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They
bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. As
nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next
world, they must be in this. By an inevitable
chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes
national sins by national calamities." But these
prophetic words were powerless against the combi
nation of New England with the far south. One
thing was now made certain, — that the vast in-

y

V

fluence of Rutledge aud the Pinckneys would be
thrown unreservedly in behalf of the new Consti
tution. " I will confess," said Cotesworth Pinck
ney, " that I had prejudices against the eastern
states before I came here, but I have found them
as liberal and candid as any men whatever." But
this compromise, which finally secured South Caro
lina and Georgia, made Virginia for the moment
doubtful ; for Mason and Randolph were so dis
gusted at the absolute power over commerce con
ceded to Congress that, when the Constitution was
finished and engrossed on paper, they refused to
sign it.
It is difficult to read this or any other episode in
our history whereby negro slavery was extended
and fostered without burning indignation. But
this is not the proper mood for the historian, whose
aim is to interpret men's actions by the circum
stances of their time, in order to judge their mo
tives correctly. In 1787 slavery was the cloud like
unto a man's hand which portended a deluge, but
those who could truly read the signs were few.
From north to south, slavery had been slowly
dying out for nearly fifty years. It had become
extinct in Massachusetts, it was nearly so in all the
other northern states, and it had just been forever
prohibited in the national domain. In Maryland
and Virginia there was a strong and growing party
in favour of abolition. The movement had even
gathered strength in North Carolina. Only the
rice-swamps of the far south remained wedded to
their idols. It was quite generally believed that
slavery was destined speedily to expire, to give

266

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

267

place to a better system of labour, without any
great danger or disturbance ; and this opinion was
distinctly set forth by many delegates in tho con
vention.1 Even Charles Pinckney went so far as
to express a hope that South Carolina, if not too
much meddled with, would by and by voluntarily
rank herself among tho emancipating states ; but
his older cousin declared himself bound in candour
to acknowledge that there was very little likelihood
indeed of so desirable an event. Not even these
South Carolinians ventured to defend slavery on
principle. This belief in the moribund condition
of slavery prevented the convention from realizing
the actual effect of the concessions which were
made. Scarcely any cotton was grown at that time,
and none was sent to England. The industrial
revolution about to be wrought by the inventions
of Arkwright and Hargreaves, Cartwright and
Watt and Whitney, could not be foreseen. Nor
could it be foreseen that presently, when there
should thus arise a great demand for slaves from
Virginia as a breeding-ground, the abolitionist
1 The slave-population of the United States, according to the
census of 1700, was thus distributed among the states : —

North.

South.

New Hampshire

. . 158

Delaware . . .

. 8,887

Vermont . . . .

. . 17

Maryland . . .

103,030

Massachusetts . .

. . —

Virginia . . .

203,127

Rhode Island

. . 952

North Carolina .

100,572

Connecticut . .

. 2,750

South Carolina .

107,004

New York . . .

. 21,324

. 29,264

New Jersey . . .

. 11,423

Kentucky . .

. 11,830

Pennsylvania . ¦

. 3,737

Tennessee . .

. 3,417

40,370

V

v

I

657,527

Total  697,897.

party in that state would disappear, leaving her to
join in the odious struggle for introducing slavery
into tho national domain. Though theso things
were so soon to happen, the wisest man in 1787
could not foresee them. The convention hoped
that twenty years would see not only the end of the
foreign slave-trade, but the restriction and diminu
tion of slavery itself. It was in such a mood that
they completed the compromise by recommending
a tariff of ten dollars a head upon all negroes im
ported, while at the same time a clause was added
for insuring the recovery of fugitive slaves, quite
similar to tho clause in the ordinanco for the gov
ernment of the northwestern territory.
It was tho three great compromises here de
scribed that laid the foundations of our Federal
Constitution. The first compromise, by conceding
equal representation to the states in the Senate,
enlisted the small states in favour of the n,, f0unda-
new scheme, and by establishing a na- cX&tion.
tional system of representation in the mecSmrro-la'id
lower house, prepared the way for a gov- ml8e"
eminent that could endure. This was Madison's
great victory, secured by the aid of Sherman and
Ellsworth, without which nothing could have been
effected. The second compromise, at the cost of
giving disproportionate weight to the slave states,
gained their support for the more perfect union
that was about to be formed. The third compro
mise, at the cost of postponing for twenty years
the abolition of the foreign slave-trade, secured ab
solute free-trade between the states, with the sur
render of all control over commerce into the hands

268

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

of the federal government. After these steps had
been taken, the most difficult and dangerous part
of the road had been travelled; the remainder,
though extremely important, was accomplished far
moreeasily. It was mainly the task of building on
the foundations already laid.
In the grants to the federal government of
powers hitherto reserved to the several states, the
diversity of opinion among the members of the
convention was but slight compared to the pro
found antagonism which had been allayed by the
three initial compromises. It was admitted, as a
matter of course, that the federal government alone
could coin money, fix the standard of
ed to tho fed- wei<rhts and measures, establish post
men*0™'" offices and post-roads, and grant patents
and copyrights. To it alone was naturally in
trusted the whole business of war and of interna
tional relations. It could define and punish felonies
committed on the high seas ; it could maintain a
navy and issue letters of marque and reprisal ; it
could support an army and provide for calling
forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union,
to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions.
But in relation to this question of the army and
the militia there was some characteristic discussion.
It was at first proposed that Congress should have
the power " to subdue a rebellion in any state on
the application of its legislature." The Shays re
bellion was then fresh in the memory of all the
delegates, and their arguments simply reflected
the impression which that unpleasant affair had
left upon them. Charles Pinckney, Gouverneur

T

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

269

Morris, and John Langdon wished to have the
power given to Congress unconditionally, without
waiting for an application from the legislature.
But Gerry, who had been on the ground, spoke
sturdily against such a needless infraction of state
rights. He was utterly opposed, he said, to " let
ting loose the myrmidons of the United States on
a state without its own consent. Tbe states will be
the best judges in such cases. More blood would
have been spilt in Massachusetts in the late insur
rection if the general authority had intermeddled."
Ellsworth suggested that Congress should use its
discretion only in cases where the legislature of the
state could not meet ; but Randolph forcibly re
plied that if Congress is to judge whether a state
legislature can or cannot meet, the difficulty is in
no wise surmounted. Gerry's view at last pre
vailed, and in accordance therewith it was decided
that the federal power shoidd guarantee to every
state a republican form of government, and should
protect each of them against invasion ; and on ap
plication of the legislature, or of the executive (if
the legislature could not be convened), it should
protect them against domestic violence. This ar
rangement did not fully provide against such an
emergency as that of rival and hostile executives
in the same state, as under the so-called " carpet-
ban- " governments which followed after the War
of Secession, but it was doubtless as sound a provi
sion as any general constitution could make.
The federal government was further empowered
to borrow money on the credit of the United States ;
aud it was declared that all debts contracted and

270

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

engagements entered into before the adoption of
this constitution should be as valid against the
United States under this constitution as under the
confederation. There was to be no repudiation or
readjustment of debts on the ground of inability to
pay. Congress was further empowered to establish
a uniform rule of naturalization and a uniform law,
of bankruptcy. But it was prohibited from passing
bills of attainder or ex post facto laws, or suspend
ing the writ of habeas corfius, except under the
stress of rebellion or invasion. It was provided
that all duties, imposts, or excises should be uni
form throughout the United States. The federal
government could not give preference to one state
over another in its commercial regulations. It
could not tax exports. It could not draw money
from the treasury save by due process of appro
priation, and all bills relating to the raising of
revenue must originate in the lower house, which
directly represented the people. Congress was
empowered to admit new states into the Union,
but it was not allowed to interfere with the terri
torial areas of states already existing without the
express consent of the local legislatures. To insure
the independence of the federal government, it was
provided that senators and representatives should
be paid out of the federal treasury, and not by
their respective states, as had been the case under
the confederation. Except for such offences as
treason, felony, or breach of the peace, they should
be " privileged from arrest during their attendance
at the session of their respective houses, and in
going to or returning from the same ; and for any

•,/

V

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

271

t

-, r
r

speech or debate in either house " they were not to
bo " questioned in any other place." It was fur
ther provided that a territory not exceeding ten
miles square should be ceded to the United States,
and set apart as the site of a federal city, in which
the general government should ever after hold its
meetings, erect its buildings, and exercise exclusive
jurisdiction. During the past four years the Con
tinental Congress had skipped about from Phila
delphia to Princeton, to Annapolis, to Trenton, to
New York, until it had become a laughing-stock,
and the newspapers were full of squibs about it.
Verily, said one facetious editor, the Lord shall
make this government like unto a wheel, and keep
it rolling back and forth betwixt Dan and Beer-
sheba, and grant it ' no rest this side of Jordan.
This inconvenience was now to be remedied. Con
gress was hereafter to have a federal police force
at its disposal, and was never more to be reduced
to the humiliation of a fruitless appeal to the pro
tecting arm of a state government, as at Philadel
phia in the summer of 1783. Furthermore, the
Continental Congress had of late years commanded
so little respect, and had offered so few tempta
tions to able men in quest of political distinction,
that its meetings were often attended by no more
than eight or ten members. It was actually on the
point of dying a natural death through sheer lack
of public interest in it. To prevent any possible
continuance of such a disgraceful state of things,
it was agreed that the Federal Congress should be
"authorized to compel the attendance of absent
members, in such manner and under such penalties

272 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.
as each house may provide." Had the political
life of tho country continued to go on as under the
confederation, it is very doubtful whether such a
provision as this would have remedied the evil.
But the new Federal Congress, drawing its life
directly from the people, was destined to afford far
greater opportunities for a political career than
were afforded by the feeble body of delegates which
preceded it ; and a penal clause, compelling mem
bers to attend its meetings, was hardly needed
under the new circumstances which arose.
While the powers of the federal government
were thus carefully defined, at the same time sev
eral powers were expressly denied to the states. No
state was allowed, without explicit authority from
Congress, to lay any tonnage or custom-
SSTSto house duties, " keep troops or ships of
8tate8- war in time of peace, enter into any
agreement or compact with another state or with
a foreign power, or engage in war unless actually
invaded, or in such imminent danger as wdl not
admit of delays." The following clause provided
against a recurrence of some of the worst evils
which had been felt under the "league of friend
ship • " " No state shall enter into any treaty,
alliance, or confederation ; grant letters of marque
and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit;
make anything but gold and silver com a tender m
payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex
post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of
contracts ; or grant any title of nobility." Hence
forth there was to be no repetition of such dis
graceful scenes as had lately been witnessed in

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 273
Rhode Island. So far as the state legislatures
were concerned, paper money was to be ruled out
forever. But how was it with the federal govern
ment ? By the articles of confederation the United
States were allowed to issue bills of credit, and
make them a tender in payment of debts. In the
Federal Convention the committee of detail sug
gested that this permission might remain under
the new constitution ; but the suggestion was al
most unanimously condemned. All the ablest men
in the convention spoke emphatically against it.
Gouverneur Morris urged that the federal govern
ment, no less than the state governments, ^^ ^
should be expressly prohibited from «™cJ
issuing bills of credit, or in any wise
making its promissory notes a legal tender. He
went over the history of the past ten years ; he
called attention to the obstinacy with which the
wretched device had been resorted to again and
again, after its evils had been thrust before every
body's eyes ; and he proved himself a true prophet
when he said that if the United States should ever
again have a great war to conduct, people would
have forgotten all about these things, and would
call for fresh issues of inconvertible paper, with
similar disastrous results. Now was the time to
stop it once for all. " Yes," echoed Roger Sher
man, "this is the favourable crisis for crushing
paper money." " This is the time," said his col
league, Ellsworth, " to shut and bar the door against
paper money, which can in no case be necessary.
Give the government credit, and other resources
will offer. The power may do harm, never good."

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

There was no way, he added, in which powerful
friends could so soon be gained for the new consti
tution as by withholding this power from the gov
ernment. James Wilson took the same view. " It
Will have the most salutary influence on the credit
of the United States," said he, " to remove the pos
sibility of paper money." " Rather than grant the
power to Congress," said John Langdon, " I would
reject the whole plan." " The words which grant
this power," said George Read of Delaware, " if
not struck out, will be as alarming as the mark of
the Beast, in the Apocalypse." On none of the
subjects that came up for discussion during that
summer was the convention more nearly unanimous
than in its condemnation of paper money. The
only delegate who ventured to speak in its favour
was Mercer of Maryland. What Hamilton would
have said, if he had been, present that day, we may
judge from his vigorous words published some time
before. The power to emit an inconvertible paper
as a sign of value ought never hereafter to be used ;
for in its very nature, said he, it is " pregnant with
abuses, and liable to be made the engine of impo
sition and fraud, holding out temptations equally
pernicious to the integrity of government and to
the morals of the people." Paterson called it
" sanctifying iniquity by law." The same views
were entertained by Washington and Madison.
There were a few delegates, however, who thought
it unsafe to fetter Congress absolutely. To use
Luther Martin's expression, they did not set them
selves up to be " wise beyond every event.'! George
Mason said he " had a mortal hatred to paper

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

275

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money, yet, as he could not foresee all emergencies,
ho was unwilling to tie the hands of the legislature.
The late war," he thought, " could not have been
carried on had such a prohibition existed." Ran
dolph spoke to the same effect. It was finally de
cided, by the vote of nine states against New Jersey
and Maryland, that the power to issue inconvertible
paper should not be granted to the federal govern
ment. An express prohibition, such as had been
adopted for the separate states, was thought unnec
essary. It was supposed that it was enough to
withhold the power, since the federal government
would not venture to exercise it unless expressly
permitted in the Constitution. " Thus," says Madi
son, in his narrative of the proceedings, " the pre
text for a paper currency, and particularly for
making the bills a tender, either for public or pri
vate debts, was cut off." Nothing could be more
clearly expressed than this. As Mr. Justice Field
observes, in his able dissenting opinion in the re
cent case of Juilliard vs. Greenman, " if there be
anything in the history of the Constitution which
can be established with moral certainty, it is that
tho frainors of that instrument intended to prohibit
the issue of legal-tender notes both by the general
government and by the states, and thus prevent
interference with the contracts of private parties."
Such has been the opinion of our ablest constitu
tional jurists, Marshall, Webster, Story, Curtis,
and Nelson. There can be little doubt that, ac
cording to all sound principles of interpretation,
the Legal Tender Act of 1862 was passed in fla
grant violation of the Constitution. Could Ells-

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

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worth and Morris, Langdon and Madison, have
foreseen the possibility of such extraordinary judg
ments as have lately emanated from the Supreme
Court of the United States, they would doubtless
have insisted upon the express prohibition, instead
of leaving it to posterity to root out the plague,
as it will apparently some time have to do, by the
cumbrous process of an amendment to the Consti
tution. The work of the convention, as thus far con
sidered, related to the legislative department of the
new government. While those discussions were
going on, much attention had been paid, from time
to time, to the characteristics of the proposed fed
eral executive. The debates on this question,
though long kept up, were far less acrimonious than
the debates on representation and the power of
Congress over trade, because here there was no
obvious clashing of local interests. But for this
very reason the convention had no longer so clear
a chart to steer by. On the question of the slave-
trade, the Pinckneys knew accurately just what
South Carolina wanted, how much it would do to
claim, and how far it would be necessary to yield.
As to the regulation of commerce by a bare ma
jority of votes in Congress, King and Sherman on
the one hand, Mason and Randolph on the other,
were able to pursue a thoroughly definite course of
action in behalf of what were supposed to be the
special interests of New England or of Virginia.
Consequently, the debates kept close to the point ;
the controversy was keen, and sometimes, as we
have seen, angry.

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It was very different with the question as to tho
federal executive. Upon this point the discussions
were guided rather by general speculations as to
what would be most likely to work well, and accord
ingly they wandered far and wide. Some of the
delegates seemed to think we should sooner or later
come to adopt a hereditary monarchy, and that the
chief thing to be done was to postpone the event as
long as possible. Many wild ideas were broached :
such, for example, as a triple-headed executive, to
represent the eastern, middle, and southern states,
somewhat as associated Roman emperors ^^ ^ u
at times administered affairs in the dif- ««£;*rai
ferent portions of an undivided empire.
The Virginia plan had not stated whether its pro
posed executive was to be single or plural, because
the Virginia delegates could not agree. Madison
wished it to be single, to insure greater efficiency,
but to Randolph and Mason a tyranny seemed to
lurk in such an arrangement. When James Wil
son and Charles Pinckney suggested that the execu
tive power should be intrusted into the hands of
one man, a profound silence fell upon the conven
tion. No one spoke for several minutes, until
Washington, from the chair, asked if he should put
the question. Franklin then got up, and said it
was an interesting subject, and he should like to
hear what the members had to say ; and so the ball
was set rolling. Rutledge said there was no need
of their being so shy. A man might frankly ex
press his opinions, and afterwards change them if
he saw good reason for so doing. For his part, he
was in favour of vesting the executive power in a

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

279

single person, to secure efficiency of administration
and concentration of responsibility ; but he would
not give him the power to declare war and make
peace. Sherman then made the far-reaching sug
gestion, that the executive magistracy was really
" nothing more than an institution for carrying the
will of the legislature into effect ; that the person
or persons ought to be appointed by and account
able to the legislature only, which was the deposi
tory of the supreme will of the society. As they
were the best judges of the business wliich ought
to be done by the executive department, ... he
wished the number might not be fixed, but that
the legislature should be at liberty to appoint one
or more, as experience might dictate." It would
greatly have astonished the convention had they
been told that this suggestion of Sherman's was a
move in tho very same line of development which
the British government had been following for
more than half a century; yet such, as we shall
presently see, was the case. Had this point been
understood then as we understand it now, the pro
ceedings of the convention could not have failed to
be profoundly affected by it. As it was, the sug
gestion did not receive due attention, and the
stream of discussion was turned into a very differ
ent channel. Wilson argued powerfully in favour
of a single chief magistrate, and this view finally
prevailed. After it had been decided that there should be
one man set in so high a position, there was end
less discussion as to whether he should be elected
by the people or by Congress, and whether he

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should serve for one, or two, or three, or four, or
ten, or fifteen years. "Better call it ThoreBhould
twenty," said Rufus King, sarcastically; ^oSi
"it is the average reign of princes." ha bo eleotcd*
Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris would have had
him chosen for life, subject to removal for misbe
haviour; but the preference for a short term of
service was soon manifest. As to the method of
election, opinions oscillated back and forth for sev
eral weeks. Wilson said " he was almost unwilling
to declare the mode which he wished to take place,
being apprehensive that it might appear chimer
ical. He would say, however, at least, that in
theory he was for an election by tho people. Ex
perience, particularly in New York and Massachu
setts, showed that an election of the first magis
trate by the people at large was both a convenient
and a successful mode. The objects of choice in
such cases must be persons whose merits have gen
eral notoriety." Mason, Rutledge, and Strong
agreed with Sherman that the executive should
be chosen by the legislature ; but Washington,
Madison, Gerry, and Gouverneur Morris strongly
disapproved of this. Morris argued that an elec
tion by the national legislature would be the work
of intrigue and corruption, like the election of the
king of Poland by a diet of nobles ; but Mason
declared, on the other hand, that " to refer the
choice of a proper character for a chief magistrate
to the people would be as unnatural as to refer a
trial of colours to a blind man." A decision was
first reached against an election by Congress, be
cause it was thought that if the chief magistrate

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

should prove himself thoroughly competent he
ought to bo ineligible ; but if reeligiblo ho would
be exposed to the temptation of truckling to the
most powerful party or cabal in Congress, in order
to secure his reelection. It did not occur to any
one to suggest that under ordinary circumstances
the executive ought to follow tho policy of the most
powerful party in Congress, and that he might at
the same time preserve all needful independence
by being clothed with the power of dissolving Con
gress and making an appeal to the people in a new
election. It is interesting to consider what might
have come of such a suggestion, following upon the
heels of that made by Roger Sherman. As we
shall presently see, it would have immeasurably
simplified the machinery of our government, be
sides making the executive what it ought to be, the
arm of the legislature, instead of a separate and
coordinate power. Upon this point the minds of
nearly all the members were so far under the sway
of an incorrect theory that such an idea occurred
to none of them. It was decided that the chief
magistrate ought to be reeligible, and therefore
should not be elected by Congress.
An immediate choice by the people, however,
snggestiono, did not meet with general favour. To
X-f"1 obviate the difficulty, Ellsworth and
King suggested the device of an electoral col
lege, in which the electors should be chosen by
the state legislatures, and should hold a meeting
at the federal city for the sole purpose of deciding
upon a chief magistrate. It was then objected
that it would be difficult to find competent men

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 281
who would be willing to undertake a long journey
simply for such a purpose. The objection was felt
to be a very grave one, and so the convention re
turned to the plan of an election by Congress, and
again confronted the difficulty of the chief magis
trate's intriguing to secure his reelection. Wilson
thought to do away with this difficulty by introdu
cing the element of blind chance, as in some of the
states of ancient Greece, and choosing the execu
tive by a board of electors taken from Congress
by lot; but the suggestion found little support.
Dickinson thought it would be well if the peoplo of
each state were to choose its best citizen, — in
modern parlance, its " favourite son ; " then out of
these thirteen names a chief magistrate might be
chosen, either by Congress or by a special board
of electors. At length, on the 26th of July, at
the motion of Mason, the convention resolved
that there should be a national executive, to con
sist of a single person, to be chosen by the na
tional legislature for the term of seven years,
and to be ineligible for a second term. He was
to be styled President of the United States of
America. This decision remained until the very end of Au
gust, when the whole question was reopened by a
motion of Rutledge that the two houses of Congress,
in electing the president, should proceed by " joint
ballot." The object of this motion was to prevent
either house from exerting a negative on the choice
of the other. It was carried in spite of the oppo
sition of some of the smaller states, which might
hope to exercise a greater relative influence upon

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282

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

the choice of presidents, if the Senate were to vote
separately. At this point the fears of Gouverneur
Morris, that an election by Congress would result
in boundless intrigue, were revived ; and in a pow
erful speech he persuaded the convention to return
to the device of the electoral college, which might
be raado equal in number and similar in composi
tion to tho two houses of Congress sitting together.
It need not be required of the electors, after all,
that they should make a long journey to the seat
of the federal government. They might meet in
their respective states, and vote by ballot for two
persons, one of whom must be an inhabitant of a
different state. By this provision it was hoped to
diminish tho chances for extreme sectional partial
ity. A list of these votes might be sent under
seal to the presiding officer of the Senate, to be
counted. Should no candidate turn out to have a
majority of the votes, the Senate 'might choose a
president from the five highest candidates on the
list. The candidate having the next highest num
ber of votes might be declared vice-president, and
preserve the visible continuity of the government
in case of the death of the president during his
term of office. By these changes the method of
electing the president, as finally decided upon, was
nearly completed. But Mason, Randolph, Gerry,
King, and Wilson were not satisfied with the pro
vision that the Senate might choose the president
in case of a failure of choice on the part of the
electoral college : they preferred to give this power
to the House of Representatives. It was thought
that the Senate would be likely to prove an aristo-

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

283

cratio body, somewhat removed from the people in
its sympathies, and there was a dread of intrust
ing to it too many important functions. Mason
thought that the sway of an aristocracy would be
worse than an absolute monarchy ; and if the Sen
ate might every now and then elect the president,
there would bo a risk that the dignity of his office
might degenerate, until he should become a mere
creature of the Senate. On the other hand, the
small states, in order to have an equal voice with
the large ones, in such an emergency as the failure
of choice by the electoral college, wished to keep
the eventual choice in the hands of the Senate.
Among tho delegates from the small states, only
Langdon and Dickinson at first supported the
change, and only New Hampshire voted for it. At
length Sherman proposed a compromise, which was
carried. It was agreed that tho eventual choice
should be given to the House of Representatives,
and not to the Senate, but that in exercising this
function the vote in the House of Representatives
should be taken by states. Thus the humours of
the delegates from the small states, and of those
who dreaded the accumulation of powers into the
hands of an oligarchy, were alike gratified. This
arrangement was finally adopted by the votes of
ten states against Delaware.
But in spite of all the minute and anxious care
that was taken in guarding this point, the contin
gency of an election being thus thrown into the
hands of the national legislature was not regarded
as likely often to occur. In point of fact, it has
hitherto happened only twice in the century, in the

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

285

elections of 1800 and of 1824. It was recognized
that the work would ordinarily be done through
the machinery of the electoral college, and that
thus the fear of intrigue between the president and
Congress, as it had originally been felt by the con
vention, might be set aside. To make assurance
doubly sure, it was provided that " no person shall
be appointed an elector who is a member of the
legislature of the United States, or who holds any
office of profit or trust under the United States."
It then appeared that the arguments which had
been alleged against the eligibility of the president
for a second term had lost their force ; and he was
accordingly made reeligible, while his term of ser
vice was reduced from seven years to four.
The scheme had thus arrived substantially at its
present shape, except that the counting of the
electoral vote still remained in the hands of the
Senate. On the 6th of September this provision
was altered, and it was decided that " the president
of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate
how to count anCl- tne House of Representatives, open
the votes. an ^q certificates, and the votes shall
then be counted." The object of this provision'
was to take the office of counting away from the
Senate alone, and give it to Congress as a whole ;
and while doing so, to guard against the failure of
an election through the disagreement of the two
houses. The method of counting was not pre
scribed, for it was thought that it might safely be
left to joint rules established by the two houses of
Congress themselves, after analogies supplied by
tho experience of the several state legislatures.

^

The case of double returns, sent in by rival gov
ernments in the same state, was not contemplated
by the convention ; and thus the door was left open
for a danger considerably greater than many of
those over which the delegates were agitated. It
may safely be said, however, that not even the
wildest license of interpretation can find any sup
port for the ridiculous doctrine suggested by some
persons blinded by political passion in 1877, that
the business of counting the votes and deciding
upon the validity of returns belongs to the presi
dent of the Senate. No such idea was for a mo
ment entertained by the convention. Any such
idea is completely negatived by their action of the
6th of September. The express purpose of the
final arrangement made on that clay was to admit
the House of Representatives to active participation
in the office of determining who should have been
elected president. It was expressly declared that
this work was too important to be left to the Sen
ate alone. What, then, would the convention ha,ve
said to the preposterous notion that this work
might safely be left to the presiding officer of the
Senate ? The convention were keenly alive to any
imaginable grant of authority that might enable
the Senate to grow into an oligarchy. What would
they have said to the proposal to create a monocrat
ad hoc, an official permanently endowed by virtue
of his office with the function of king-maker ?
In this connection it is worth our while to ob
serve that in no respect has the actual working of
the Constitution departed so far from the inten
tions of its framers as in the case of their provi-

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287

sions concerning the executive. Against a host of
possible dangers they guarded most elab-
HonioSv orately, but the dangers and inconven-
g«fhu7no7 iences against which we have actually
the real ones. ^ ^ contend they did not foresee.
It will be observed that Wilson's proposal for a di
rect election of the president by the people found
little favour in the convention. The schemes that
were seriously considered oscillated back and forth
between an election by the national legislature and
an election by a special college of electors. Tho
electors might be chosen by a popular vote, or by
the state legislatures, or in any such wise as each
state might see fit to determine for itself. In
point of fact, electors were chosen by the legisla
ture in New Jersey till 1816 ; in Connecticut till
1820 ; in New York, Delaware, and Vermont, and
with one exception in Georgia, till 1824 ; in South
Carolina till 1868. Massachusetts adopted vari
ous plans, and did not finally settle down to an
election by the people until 1828. Now there
were several reasons why the Federal Convention
was afraid to trust the choice of the president di
rectly to the people. One was that very old objec
tion, the fear of the machinations of demagogues,
since people were supposed to be so easily fooled.
As already observed, the democratic sentiment in
tho convention was such as we should now call
weak. Another reason shows vividly how wide the
world seemed in those days of slow coaches and
mail-bags carried on horseback. It was feared
that people would not have sufficient data where
with to judge of the merits of public men in states

X

y.

remote from their own. The electors, as eminent
men exceptionally well informed, and screened
from the sophisms of demagogues, might hold little
conventions and select the best possible candidates,
using in every case their own unfettered judgment.
In this connection the words of Hamilton are
worth quoting. In the sixty-eighth number of the
" Federalist " he says : " The mode of appointment
of the chief magistrate of the United States is al
most the only part of the system which has escaped
without severe censure, or which has received the
slightest mark of approbation from its opponents.
The most plausible of these who has appeared in
print has even deigned to admit that the election
of the president is well guarded. ... It was de
sirable that the sense of the people should operate
in the choice of the person to whom so important
a trust was to be confided. ... It was equally
desirable that the immediate election should be
made by men capable of analyzing the qualities
adapted to the station, and acting under circum
stances favourable to deliberation and to a judi
cious combination of all the reasons and induce
ments that were proper to govern their choice. A
small number of persons, selected by their fellow-
citizens from the general mass, will be most likely
to possess the information and discernment requi
site to so complicated an investigation. ... It
was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little op
portunity as possible to tumult and disorder. This
evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of
a magistrate who was to have so important an
agency in the administration of the government."

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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

Actual work
ing ol the
electoralscheme.

Such was the theory as set forth by a thinker
endowed with rare ability to follow out in imagina
tion the results of any course of political action.
It is needless to say that the actual working of the
scheme has been very different from what was ex
pected. In our very first great struggle of parties,
in 1800, the electors divided upon party
lines, with little heed to the "compli
cated investigation " for which they were
supposed to be chosen. Quite naturally, for the
work of electing a candidate presupposes a state of
mind very different from that of serene delibera
tion. In 1800 the electors acted simply as autom
ata recording the victory of their party, and so it
has been ever since. In our own time presidents
and vice-presidents are nominated, not without
elaborate intrigue, by special conventions quite
unknown to the Constitution ; the people cast their
votes for the two or three pairs of candidates thus
presented, and the electoral college simply registers
the results. The system is thus fully exposed to
all the dangers which our forefathers dreaded from
the frequent election of a chief magistrate by the
people. Owing to the great good-sense and good
nature of the American people, the system does
not work so badly as might be expected. It has,
indeed, worked immeasurably better than any one
would have ventured to predict. It is nevertheless
open to grave objections. It compels a change
of administration at stated astronomical periods,
whether any change of policy is called for or not;
it stirs up the whole country every fourth year with
a furious excitement that is often largely factitious;

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

289

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and twice within the century, in 1801 and again in
1877, it has brought us to tho verge of the most
foolish and hopeless species of civil war, in view
of that thoroughly monarchical kind of accident, a
disputed succession.1
The most curious and instructive point concern
ing the peculiar executive devised for the United
States by the Federal Convention is the fact that
the delegates proceeded upon a thoroughly false
theory of what they were doing. As already ob
served, in this part of its discussions the convention
had not the clearly outlined chart of local interests
to steer by. It indulged in general speculations
and looked about for precedents ; and there was
one precedent which American statesmen then
always had before their eyes, whether they were
distinctly aware of it or not. In creating an exec
utive department, the members of the convention
were really trying to copy the only constitution of
which they had any direct experience, ^ ,.<»„„„„,
and which most of them agreed in think- ?upp°sed itself
© to bo copying
ing the most efficient working constitu- f^c"^^^
tion in existence, — as indeed it was. tion-
They were trying to copy tho British Constitution,
modifying it to suit their republican ideas : but
curiously enough, what they copied in creating the
office of president was not the real English exec
utive or prime minister, but the fictitious English
executive, the sovereign. And this was associated
1 Since this was written, this last and most serious danger
would seem to have been removed hy the acts of 1886 and 1887
regulating the presidential succession and the counting of elec
toral votes.

290

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

in their minds with another profound misconcep
tion, which influenced all this part of their work.
They thought that to keep the legislative and exec
utive offices distinct and separate was the very pal
ladium of liberty ; and they all took it for granted,
without a moment's question, that the British Con
stitution did this thing. England, they thought,
is governed by King, Lords, and Commons, and
the supreme power is nicely divided between the
three, so that neither one can get the whole of it,
and that is tho safeguard of English liberty. So
they arranged President, Senate, and Representa
tives to correspond, and sedulously sought to divide
supreme power between the three, so that they
might operate as checks upon each other. If either
one should ever succeed in acquiring the whole
sovereignty, then they thought there would be an
end of American liberty.
Now in the earlier part of the work of the Fed
eral Convention, in dealing with the legislative
department, the delegates were on firm ground,
because they were dealing with things of which
they knew something by experience ; but in all
this careful separation of the executive power from
the legislative they went wide of the mark, because
they were following a theory which did not truly
describe things as they really existed. And that
was because the English Constitution was, and still
is, covered up with a thick husk of legal fictions
which long ago ceased to have any vitality. Black
stone, tho great authority of the eighteenth cen
tury, set forth this theory of the division of power
between King, Lords, and Commons with clear-

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ness and force, and nobody then understood Eng
lish history minutely or thoroughly enough to see
its fallaciousness. Montesquieu also, the ablest
and most elegant political writer of the Influenco of
age, with whose works most of the states- Mo,n^e.artVicu
*-' t ana liiack-
men in the Federal Convention were Btono-
familiar, gave a similar description of the English
Constitution, and generalized from it as the ideal
constitution for a free people. But Montesquieu
and Blackstone, in their treatment of this point,
had their eyes upon the legal fictions, and were
blind to the real machinery which was working
under them. They gave elegant expression to what
the late Mr. Bagehot called the " literary theory "
of the English Constitution. But the real thing
differed essentially from the "literary theory"
even in their day. In our own time the divergence
has become so conspicuous that it would not now
bo possible for well-informed writers to make the
mistake of Montesquieu and Blackstone. In our
time it has come to be perfectly obvious that so
far from the English Constitution separating the
executive power from the legislative, this is pre
cisely what it does not do. In Great Britain the
supreme power is all lodged in a single body, the
House of Commons. Tho sovereign has come to
be purely a legal fiction, and the House of Lords
maintains itself only by submitting to the Com
mons. The House of Commons is absolutely
supreme, and, as we shall presently see, it really
both appoints and dismisses the executive. The
English executive, or chief magistrate, is ordinarily
the first lord of the treasury, and is commonly

292

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

293

styled the prime minister. He is chairman of the
most important committee of the House of Com
mons, and his cabinet consists of the chairmen of
other committees.
To make this perfectly clear, let us see what our
machinery of government would be, if it were
really like the English. The presence or absence
of the crowned head makes no essential difference ;
it is only a kind of ornamental cupola. Suppose
for a moment the presidency abolished, or reduced
what our gov. to the political nullity of the crown in
b?nnwT°eUd England ; and postpone for a moment
of oreatBriu* the consideration of the Senate. Sup-
ttin* pose that in our House of Representa
tives the committee of ways and means had two
chairmen, — an upper chairman who looks after
all sorts of business, and a lower chairman who at
tends especially to the finances. This upper chair
man, we will say, corresponds to the first lord of
the treasury, while the lower one corresponds to
the chancellor of the exchequer. Sometimes, when
the upper chairman is a great financier, and capa
ble of enormous labour, he will fill both places at
once, as Mr. Gladstone was lately first lord of the
treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. The
chairmen of the other committees on foreign, mili
tary, and naval affairs will answer to the English
secretaries of state for foreign affairs and for war,
tho first lord of the admiralty, and so on. This
group of chairmen, headed by the upper chairman
of the ways and means, will then answer to the
English cabinet, with its prime minister. To
complete the parallel, let us suppose that, after

V

a new House of Representatives is elected, it
chooses this prime minister, and he appoints the
other chairmen who are to make up his cabinet.
Suppose, too, that he initiates all legislation, and
executes all laws, and stays in office three weeks
or thirty years, or as long as he can get a major
ity of the house to vote for his measures. If he
loses his majority, he can either resign or dis
solve the house, and order a new election, thus
appealing directly to the people. If the new
house gives him a majority, he stays in office ; if
it shows a majority against him, he steps down
into the house, and becomes, perhaps, the leader
of the opposition.
Now if this were the form of our government, it
would correspond in all essential features to that
of England. The likeness is liable to be obscured
by the fact that in England it is the queen who is
supposed to appoint the prime minister ; but that
is simply a part of the antiquated " literary the
ory " of the English Constitution. In reality the
queen only acts as mistress of the ceremonies.
Whatever she may wish, the prime minister must
be tho man who can command the best working
majority in the house. This is not only tested by
the first vote that is taken, but it is almost invari
ably known beforehand so well that if the queen
offers the place to the wrong man he refuses to
take it. Should he be so foolish as to take it, he
is sure to be overthrown at the first test vote, and
then the right man conies in. Thus in 1880 the
queen's manifest preference for Lord Granville or
Lord Hartington made no sort of difference. Mr.

294

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

Gladstone was as much chosen by the House of
Commons as if the members had sat in their seats
and balloted for him. If the crown were to be
abolished to-morrow, and the house were hence
forth, on the resignation of a prime minister, to
elect a new one to serve as long as he could com
mand a majority, it would not be doing essentially
otherwise than it does now. The house then dis
misses its minister when it rejects one of his im
portant measures. But while thus appointed and
dismissed by the house, he is in no wise its slave ;
for by the power of dissolution he has the right to
appeal to the country, and let the general election
decide the issue. The obvious advantages of this
system are that it makes anything like a deadlock
between the legislature and the executive impossi
ble ; and it insures a concentration of responsibil
ity. The prime minister's bills cannot be disre
garded, like the president's messages; and thus,
too, the house is kept in hand, and cannot degen
erate into a debating club.1
A system so delicate and subtle, yet so strong
and efficient, as this could no more have been in
vented by the wisest of statesmen than a chemist
could make albumen by taking its elements and
mixing them together. In its practical working it
is a much simpler system than ours, and still its
principal features are not such as would be likely
to occur to men who had not had some actual ex-
1 The history of President Cleveland's tariff message of 1887,
however, shows that, where a wise and courageous president calls
attention to a living issue, his party, alike in Congress and in the
country, is in a measure compelled to follow his lead.

j 1

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 295
perience of them. It is the peculiar outgrowth of
English history. As we can now see, its
° .... In the BritiBh
chief characteristic is its not separating government,
.... tho executive
the executive power from the legislative, department i»
1 , not separated
As a member of Parliament, the prime from the legia.
minister introduces the legislation which
he is himself expected to carry into effect. Nor
does the English system even keep the judiciary
entirely separate, for the lord chancellor not only
presides over the House of Lords, but sits in the
cabinet as the prime minister's legal adviser. It
is somewhat as if the chief justice of the United
States were ex officio president of the Senate and
attorney-general ; though here the resemblance is
somewhat superficial. Our Senate, although it
does not represent landed aristocracy or the church,
but the federal character of our government, has
Btill a superficial resemblance to the House of
Lords. It passes on all bills that come up from
the lower house, and can originate bills on most
matters, but not for raising revenue. Its func
tion as a high court of impeachment, with the chief
justice for its presiding officer, was directly copied
from the House of Lords. But here the resem
blance ends. The House of Lords has no such
veto upon the House of Commons as our Senate
has upon the House of Representatives. Between
our upper and lower houses a serious deadlock is
possible ; but the House of Lords can only reject
a bill until it sees that the House of Commons is
determined to have it carried. It can only enter
a protest. If it is obstinate and tries to do more,
the House of Commons, through its prime minis-

296

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

297

aspoct of tho
case a a
ago,

ter, can create enough new peers to change the
vote, — a power so formidable in its effects upon
the social position of the peerage that it does not
need to be used. The knowledge that it exists is
enough to bring the House of Lords to terms.
These features of the English Constitution are
so prominent since tho reform of Parliament in
1832 as to be generally recognized. They have
been gradually becoming its essential features ever
circumstances since the Revolution of 1688. Before
^OTcd'thctrne that time the crown had really been the
:entury executive, and there had really been a
separation between the executive and
legislative branches of the government, which on
several occasions, and notably in the middle of the
seventeenth century, had led to armed strife.
What the Revolution of 1688 really decided was
that henceforth in England the executive was to be
the mighty arm of the legislature, and not a sepa
rate and rival power. It ended whatever of real
ity there was in the old system of King, Lords,
and Commons, and by the time of Sir Robert Wal
pole the system of cabinet government had become
fairly established ; but men still continued to use
the phrases and formulas bequeathed from former
ages, so that the meaning of the changes going on
under their very eyes was obscured. There was
also a great historical incident, after Walpole's
time, which served further to obscure the meaning
of these changes, especially to Americans. From
1760 to 1784, by means of the rotten borough sys
tem of elections and the peculiar attitude of politi
cal parties, the king contrived to make his will felt

*v i
\

V

\r

in the House of Commons to such an extent that
it became possible to speak of the personal govern
ment of George III. The work of the Revolution
of 1688 was not really completed till the election
of 1784 which made Pitt the ruler of England, and
its fruits cannot be said to have been fully secured
till 1832. Now as our Revolutionary War was
brought on by the attempts of George III. to es
tablish his personal government, and as it was ac
tually he rather than Lord North who ruled Eng
land during that war, it was not strange that
Americans, even of the highest education, should
have failed to discover the transformation which
the past century had wrought in the framework of
the English government. Nay, more, during this
century the king had seemed even more of a real
institution to the Americans than to the Brit
ish. He had seemed to them the only link which
bound the different parts of the empire together.
Throughout the struggles which culminated in the
War of Independence, it had been the favourite
American theory that while the colonial assemblies
and the British Parliament were sovereign each in
its own sphere, all alike owed allegiance to the
king as visible head of the empire. To people wdio
had been in the habit of setting forth and defend
ing such a theory, it was impossible that the crown
should seem so much a legal fiction as it had really
come to be in England. It is very instructive to
note that while the members of the Federal Conven
tion thoroughly understood the antiquated theory
of the English Constitution as set forth by Black
stone, they drew very few illustrations from the

298

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

299

modern working of Parliament, with which they
had not bad sufficient opportunities of becoming
familiar. In particular they seemed quite uncon
scious of the vast significance of a dissolution of
Parliament, although a dissolution had occurred
only three years before under such circumstances
as to work a revolution in British politics without
a breath of disturbance. The only sort of dissolu
tion with which they were familiar was that in
which Dunmore or Bernard used to send the colo
nial assemblies home about their business when
ever they grew too refractory. Had the signifi
cance of a dissolution, in the British sense, been
understood by the convention, the pregnant sug
gestion of Roger Sherman, above mentioned, could
not have failed to give a different turn to the whole
series of debates on tho executive branch of the
government. Had our Constitution been framed a
few years later, this point would have had a better
chance of being understood. As it was, in trying
to modify the English system so as to adapt it to
our own uses, it was the archaic monarchical fea
ture, and not the modern ministerial feature, upon
which we seized. The president, in our system,
irremovable by the national legislature, does not
answer to the modern prime minister, but to the
old-fashioned king, with powers for mischief cur
tailed by election for short terms.
The close parallelism between the office of presi
dent and that of king In the minds of the framers
of the Constitution was instructively shown in the
debates on the advisablcness of restraining the
president's action by a privy council. Gerry and

i
v

v /

<

V

Sherman urged that there was need of such a coun
cil, in order to keep watch over the presi- n( A01Grican
dent. It was suggested that the privy cf^fn%a^1'
council should consist of " the president th?.B™ti?h,. .•
1 cabinet, but to
of the Senate, the speaker of the House ^urS7
of Representatives, the chief justice of
the supreme court, and the principal officer in each
of five departments as they shall from time to time
be established ; their duty shall be to advise him in
matters which he shall lay before them, but their
advice shall not conclude him, or affect his respon
sibility." The plan for such a council found favour
with Franklin, Madison, Wilson, Dickinson, and
Mason, but did not satisfy the convention. When
it was voted down Mason used strong lamjuasre.
" In rejecting a council to the president," said he,
" we are about to try an experiment on which the
most despotic government has never ventured ; the
Grand Seignior himself has his Divan." It was
this failure to provide a council which led the con
vention to give to the Senate a share in some of the
executive functions of the president, such as the
making of treaties, the appointment of ambassa
dors, consuls, judges of the supreme court, and other
officers of the United States whose appointment
was not otherwise provided for. As it was objected
to the office of vice-president that he seemed to have
nothing provided for him to do, he was disposed of
by making him president of the Senate. No cabi
net was created by the Constitution, but since then
the heads of various executive departments, ap
pointed by the president, have come to constitute
what is called his cabinet. Since, however, the

300

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

members of it do not belong to Congress, and can
neither initiate nor guide legislation, they really
constitute a privy council rather than a cabinet in
the modern sense, thus furnishing another illustra
tion of the analogy between the president and the
archaic sovereign.
Concerning the structure of the federal judiciary
little need be said here. It was framed with very
The federal little disagreement among the delegates.
judiciary. i-j^ work was chieny done in committee
by Ellsworth, Wilson, Randolph, and Rutledge,
and the result did not differ essentially from the
scheme laid down in the Virginia plan. It was
indeed the indispensable completion of the work
which was begun by the creation of a national
House of Representatives. To* make a, federal
government immediately operative upon individual
citizens, it must of course be armed with federal
courts to try and federal officers to execute judg
ment in all cases in which individual citizens were
amenable to the national law. But for this system
of United States courts extended throughout the
states and supreme within its own sphere, the fed
eral constitution could never have been put into
practical working order. In another respect the
federal judiciary was the most remarkable and
original of all the creations of that wonderful con
vention. It was charged with the duty of inter
preting, in accordance with the general principles
of common law, the Federal Constitution itself.
This is the most noble as it is the most distinctive
feature in the government of the United States.
It constitutes a difference between the American

'-,/ i

\ -

V i

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 301
and British systems more fundamental than the
separation of the executive from the legislative de
partment. In Great Britain the unwritten consti
tution is administered by the omnipotent House of
Commons ; whatever statute is enacted by Parlia
ment must stand until some future Parliament may
see fit to repeal it. But an act passed by both
houses of Congress, aud signed by the president,
may still be set aside as unconstitutional by the su
preme court of the United States in its judgments
upon individual cases brought before it. It was
thus that the practical working of our Federal Con
stitution during the first thirty years of the nine
teenth century was swayed to so great an extent
by the profound and luminous decisions of Chief
Justice Marshall, that he must be assigned a fore
most place among the founders of our Federal
Union. This intrusting to the judiciary the whole
interpretation of the fundamental instrument of
government is the most peculiarly American feature
of the work done by the convention, and to the
stability of such a federation as ours, covering as
it does the greater part of a huge continent, it was
absolutely indispensable.
Thus, at length, was realized the sublime concep-
¦ tion of a nation in which every citizen lives under
two complete aud well-rounded systems of laws, —
the state law and the federal law, — each with its
legislature, its executive, and its judiciary moving
one within the other, noiselessly and without fric
tion. It was one of the longest reaches of construc
tive statesmanship ever known in the world. There
never was anything quite like it before, and in Eu-

V

302

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

803

rope it needs much explanation to-day even for
educated statesmen who have never seen its work
ings. Yet to Americans it has become so much a
matter of course that they, too, sometimes need to
be told how much it signifies. In 1787 it was the
substitution of law for violence between states that
were partly sovereign. In some future still grander
convention we trust the same thing will be done
between states that have been wholly sovereign,
whereby peace may gain and violence be diminished
over other lands than this which has set the example.
Great as was the work which the Federal Con
vention had now accomplished, none of the members
supposed it to be complete. After some discussion,
it was decided that Congress might at any time, by
a two thirds vote in both houses, propose amend
ments to the constitution, or on the application of
the legislatures of two thirds of the states might
call a convention for proposing amendments ; and
such amendments should become part of the consti
tution as soon as ratified by three fourths of the
states, either through their legislatures or through
special conventions summoned for the purpose.
The design of this elaborate arrangement was to
guard against hasty or ill-considered changes in the
fundamental instrument of government; and its
effectiveness has been such that an amendment has
come to be impossible save as the result of intense
conviction on the part of a vast majority of the
whole American people.
Finally it was decided that the Federal Consti
tution, as now completed, should be presented to
the. Continental Congress, and then referred to,

y

a

special conventions in all tho states for ratification ;
and that when nine states, or two thirds of the
whole number, should have ratified, it should at
once go into operation as between such ratifying
states. When the great document was at last drafted
by Gouverneur Morris, and was all ready for the
signatures, the aged Franklin produced a paper,
which was read for him, as his voice was weak.
Some parts of this Constitution, he said, Si . the
he did not approve, but he was aston- constitution.
ished to find it so nearly perfect. Whatever opin
ion he had of its errors he would sacrifice to the
public good, and he hoped that every member of the
convention who still had objections would on this
occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and
for the sake of unanimity put his name to this in
strument. Hamilton added his plea. A few mem
bers, he said, by refusing to sign, might do infinite
mischief. No man's ideas could be more remote
from the plan than his were known to be ; but was
it possible for a true patriot to deliberate between
anarchy and convulsion, on the one side, and the
chance of good to be expected from this plan, on
the other ? From these appeals, as well as from
Washington's solemn warning at the outset, wre see
how distinctly it was realized that the country was
on the verge of civil war. Most of the members
felt so, but to some the new government seemed
far too strong, and there were three who dreaded
despotism even more than anarchy. Mason, Ran
dolph, and Gerry refused to sign, though Randolph
sought to qualify his refusal by explaining that ha

304

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

could not yet make up his mind whether to oppose
or defend the Constitution, when it should be laid
before the people of Virginia. He wished to re
serve to himself full liberty of action in the matter.
That Mason and Gerry, valuable as their services
had been in the making of the Constitution, would
now go home and vigorously oppose it, there was
no doubt. Of the delegates who were present on
the last day of the convention, all but these three
signed the Constitution. In the signatures the
twelve states which had taken part in the work
were all represented, Hamilton signing alone for
New York.
Thus after four months of anxious toil, through
the whole of a scorching Philadelphia summer,
after earnest but sometimes bitter discussion, in
which more than once the meeting had seemed on
the point of breaking up, a colossal work had at
last been accomplished, the results of which were
most powerfully to affect tho whole future career
of the human race so long as it shall dwell upon
the earth. In spite of the high-wrought intensity
of feeling which had been now and then displayed,
grave decorum had ruled the proceedings; and
now, though few were really satisfied, the approach
to unanimity was remarkable. When all was over,
it is said that many of the members seemed awe
struck. Washington sat with head bowed in sol
emn meditation. The scene was ended by a char
acteristic bit of homely pleasantry from Franklin.
Thirty-three years ago, in the days of George II.,
before the first mutterings of the Revolution had
been heard, and when the French dominion in

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

305

^

n (

\

America was still untouched, before the banish
ment of the Acadians or the rout of Braddock,
while Washington was still surveying lands in the
wilderness, while Madison was playing in the
nursery and Hamilton was not yet born, Franklin
had endeavoured to bring together the thirteen
colonies in a federal union. Of the famous Al
bany plan of 1754, the first complete outline of a
federal constitution for America that ever was
made, he was the principal if not the sole author.
When he signed his name to the Declaration of
Independence in this very room, his years had
rounded the full period of threescore and ten.
Eleven years more had passed, and he had been
spared to see the noble aim of his life accom
plished. There was still, no doubt, a chance of
failure, but hope now reigned in the old man's
breast. On the back of the president's quaint
black armchair there was emblazoned a half-sun,
brilliant with its gilded rays. As the meeting
was breaking up and Washington arose, Franklin
pointed to the chair, and made it the text for
prophecy. " As I have been sitting here all these
weeks," said he, " I have often wondered whether
yonder sun is rising or setting. But now I know
that it is a rising sun I "

CROWNING THE WORK.

307

'^ ;¦

CHAPTER VII.

CROWNING THE WORK.

It was on the 17th of September, 1787, that the
Federal Convention broke up. For most of the
delegates there was a long and tedious journey
home before they could meet their feUow-citb-.ens
and explain what had been done at Philadelphia
during this anxious summer. Not so, however,
with Benjamin Franklin and the Pennsylvania
delegation. At eleven o'clock on the next morn
ing, radiant with delight at seeing one of the most
cherished purposes of his life so nearly accom
plished, the venerable philosopher, attended by his
seven colleagues, presented to the legislature of
Pennsylvania a copy of the Federal Constitution,
and in a brief but pithy speech, characterized by
his usual homely wisdom, begged for it their most
favourable consideration. His words fell upon
willing ears, for nowhere was the disgust at the
prevailing anarchy greater than in Philadelphia.
But still it was not quite in order for the assembly
to act upon the matter until word should come
from the Continental Congress. Since its igno
minious flight to Princeton, four years ago, that
migratory body had not honoured Philadelphia with
its presence. It had once flitted as far south as
Annapolis, but at length had chosen for its abiding-

V

place the city of New York, where it was now in
session. To Congress the new Constitution must
be submitted before it was in order for the several
states to take action upon it. On the 20th of
September the draft of the Constitution „
r , The now Con-
was laid before Congress, accompanied j^'j"0^9
by a letter from Washington. The congress and
J ° submitted
forces of the opposition were promptly £|rtj},^f0
mustered. At their head was Richard states for rati
fication.
Henry Lee, who eleven years ago had
moved in Congress the Declaration of Indepen
dence. He was ably supported by Nathan Dane
of Massachusetts, and the delegation from New
York were unanimous in tlieir determination to
obstruct any movement toward a closer union of
the states. Their tactics were vigorous, but the
majority in Congress were against them, especially
after the return of Madison from Philadelphia.
Madison, aided by Edward Carrington and young
Henry Lee, the famous leader of light horse, suc
ceeded in every division in carrying the vote of
Virginia in favour of the Constitution and against
the obstructive measures of the elder Lee. The
objection was first raised that the new Constitution
would put an end to the Continental Congress, and
that in recommending it to the states for consid
eration Congress would be virtually asking them
to terminate its own existence. Was it right or
proper for Congress thus to have a hand in signing
its own death-warrant? But this flimsy argument
was quickly overturned. Seven months before
Congress had recognized the necessity for calling
the convention together; whatever need for its

^

308

CROWNING THE WORK.

work existed then, there was tho same need now ;
and by refusing to take due cognizance of it Con
gress would simply stidtify itself. The opposition
then tried to clog the measure by proposing amend
ments, but they were outgeneralled, and after eight
days1 discussion it was voted that the new Consti
tution, together with Washington's letter, "be
transmitted to the several legislatures, in order to
be submitted to a convention of delegates in each
state by the people thereof, in conformity to the
resolves of the convention."
The submission of the Constitution to the people
of the states was the signal for the first formation
of political parties on a truly national issue. Dur
ing the war there had indeed been Whigs and
Tories, but their strife had not been like the ordi
nary strife of political parties ; it was actual war
fare. Irredeemably discredited from the outset,
the Tories had been overridden and outlawed from
one end of the Union to the other. They had
never been able to hold up their heads as a party
in opposition. Since the close of the war there
had been local parties in the various states, divided
on issues of hard and soft money, or the impost,
or state rights, and these issues had coincided in
many of the states. During the autumn of 1787
all these elements were segregated into two great
political parties, whose character and

Federalists and Antifed
eralists.

lean parties, views are sufficiently described by their
names. Those who supported the new
Constitution were henceforth known as
Federalists ; those who were opposed to strength
ening the bond between the states were called

CROWNING THE WORK.

309

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Antifederalists. It was fit that their name should
havo this merely negative significance, for their
policy at this time was purely a policy of negation
and obstruction. Care must be taken not to con
found them with the Democratic-Republicans, or
strict constructionists, who appear in opposition to
the Federalists soon after the adoption of the Con
stitution. The earlier short-lived party furnished
a great part of its material to the later one, but
the attitude of the strict constructionists under the
Constitution was very different from that of the
Antifederalists. Madison, the second Republican
president, was now the most energetic of Feder
alists ; and Jefferson, soon to become the founder
of the Democratic-Republican party, wrote from
Paris, saying, " The Constitution is a good canvas,
on which some strokes only want retouching."
He found the same fault with it that was found
by many of the ablest and most patriotic men in
the country, — that it failed to include a bill of
rights; but at the same time he declared that
while he was not of the party of Federalists, he
was much further from that of the Antifederalists.
The Federal Convention he characterized as " an
assembly of demi-gods."
The first contest over the new Constitution came
in Pennsylvania. The Federalists in that state
wrere numerous, but their opponents had one point
in their favour wliich they did not fail to make the
most of. The constitution of Pennsylvania was
peculiar. Its legislature consisted of TiieemUult ta
a single house, and its president was Pennsylvania.
chosen by that house. Therefore, said the Anti-

310

CROWNING THE WORK.

CROWNING THE WORK.

311

federalists, if we approve of a federal constitution
which provides for a legislature of two houses and
chooses a president by the device of an electoral
college, we virtually condemn the state constitution
under which wa live. This ory was raised with no
little effect. But some of the strongest immediate
causes of opposition to the new Constitution were
wanting in Pennsylvania. The friends of paper
money were few there, and the objections to the
control of the central government over commerce
were weaker than in many of the other states.
The Antifederalists were strongest in the moun
tain districts west of the Susquehanna, where the
somewhat lawless population looked askance at
any plan that savoured of a stronger government
and a more regular collection of revenue. In
the eastern counties, and especially in Philadel
phia, the Federalists could count upon a heavy
majority. The contest began in the legislature on the 28th
of September, the very day on which Congress de
cided to submit the Constitution to the states, and
before the news of the action had reached Phila
delphia. The zeal of the Federalists was so in
tense that they could wait no longer, and they
hurried the event with a high-handed vigour that
was not altogether seemly. The assembly was on
the eve of breaking up, and a new election was to
be held on the first Tuesday of November. The
Antifederalists hoped to make a stirring campaign,
and secure such a majority in the new legislature
as to prevent the Constitution from being laid be
fore the people. But their game was frustrated

<

l

by George Clymer, who had sat in the Federal
Convention, and now most unexpectedly moved
that a state convention be called to consider the
proposed form of government. Great was the
wrath of the Antifederalists. Mr. Clymer was
quite out of order, they said. Congress had not
yet sent them the Constitution ; and besides, no
such motion could be made without notice given
beforehand, nor could it be voted on till it had
passed three readings. Parliamentary usage was
doubtless on the side of the Antifederalists, but the
majority were clamorous, and overwhelmed them
with cries of " Question, question ! " The question
was then put, and carried by 43 votes against 19,
and the house adjourned till four o'clock. Before
going to their dinners the 19 held an indignation
meeting, at which it was decided that they would
foil these outrageous proceedings by staying away.
It took 47 to make a quorum, and without these
malcontents the assembly numbered but 45. When
the house was called to order after dinner, it was
found there were but 45 members present. The
sergeant-at-arms was sent to summon the delin
quents, but they defied him, and so it became nec
essary to adjourn till next morning. It was now
the turn of the Federalists to uncork the vials of
wrath. The affair was discussed in the „
... . . , How to make
taverns till after midnight, the 19 were ai"or"™-
abused without stint, and soon after breakfast,
next morning, two of them were visited by a crowd
of men, who broke into their lodgings and dragged
them off to the state house, where they were for
cibly held down in their seats, growling and mut-

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313

tering curses. This made a quorum, and a state
convention was immediately appointed for the 20th
of November. Before these proceedings were con
cluded, an express-rider brought the news from
New York that Congress had submitted the Con
stitution to the judgment of the states.
And now there ensued such a war of pamphlets,
broadsides, caricatures, squibs, and stump-speeches,
as had never yet been seen in America. Cato and
Aristides, Cincinnatus and Plain Truth, were out
in full force. What was the matter with the old
confederation ? asked the Antifederalists. Had it
not conducted a glorious and triumphant war?
Had it not set us free from the oppression of Eng
land? That there was some trouble now in the
country could not be denied, but all would be right
if people would only curb their extravagance, wear
homespun clothes, and obey the laws. There was
government enough in the country already. This
Philadelphia convention ought to be distrusted.
Some of its members, such as John Dickinson and
Robert Morris, had opposed the Declaration of In
dependence. Pretty men these, to be offering us
a new government 1 You might be sure there was
a British cloven foot in it somewhere. Their con
vention had sat four months with closed doors, as
if they were afraid to let people know what they
were about. Nobody could tell what secret con
spiracies against. American liberty might not have
been hatched in all that time. One thing was
sure : the convention had squabbled. Some mem
bers had gone home in a huff ; others had refused
to sign a document fraught with untold evils to the

¦y<

\

/

country. And now came James Wilson, making
speeches in behalf of this precious Constitution,
and trying to pull the wool over people's eyes and
persuade them to adopt it. Who was James Wil
son, any way? A Scotchman, a countryman of
Lord Bute, a born aristocrat, a snob, a patrician,
Jimmy, James do Caledonia. Beware of any form
of government defended by such a man. And as
to the other members of the convention, there was
Roger Sherman, who had signed the articles of
confederation, and was now trying to undo his
own work. What confidence could be placed in a
man who did not know his own mind any better
than that? Then there were Hamilton and Madi
son, mere boys ; and Franklin, an old dotard, a
man in his second childhood. And as to Washing
ton, he was doubtless a good soldier, but what did
he know about politics ? So said the more mod
erate of the malcontents, hesitating for the moment
to speak disrespectfully of such a man-; but pres
ently their zeal got the better of them, and in a
paper signed "Centinel" it was boldly declared
that Washington was a born fool I
From the style and temper of these arguments
one clearly sees that the Antifederalists in Pennsyl
vania felt from the beginning that the day was
going against them. Sixteen of the men wdio had
seceded from the assembly, headed by Robert
Whitehill of Carlisle, issued a manifesto setting
forth the ill-treatment they had received, and sound
ing an alarm against the dangers of tyranny to which
the new Constitution was already exposing them.
They were assisted by Richard Henry Lee, who

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315

published a series of papers entitled "Letters from
the Federal Farmer," and scattered thousands of
copies through the state of Pennsylvania. Ho did
not deny that the government needed reforming,
but in the proposed plan he saw the seeds of aris
tocracy and of centralization. The chief objections
to the Constitution were that it created a national
legislature in which the vote was to be by individ
uals, and not by states; that it granted to this
body an unlimited power of taxation ; that it gave
too much power to the federal judiciary ; that it
provided for paying the salaries of members of
Congress out of the federal treasury, and would
thus make them independent of their own states;
that it required an oath of allegiance to the federal
government ; and finally, that it did not include a
bill of rights. These objections were very elabo
rately set forth by the leading Antifederalists in
the state convention ; but the logic and eloquence
of James Wilson bore down all opposition. The
Antifederalists resorted to filibustering. Five days,
it is said, were used up in settling the meanings of
the two words " annihilation " and " consolidation."
In this way the convention was kept sitting for
nearly three weeks, when news came from "the
Delaware state," as it used then to be called in
Pennsylvania. The concession of an equal repre
sentation in the federal Senate had re-
Delaware rati- „ . .
nesthocon- moved the only ground ot opposition
stitution, Dec. ,. -ni t a i 1
e, "87 i jn Delaware, and the federalists had
Pennsylvania, . T
Dec. 12 1 New evervthms: their own way there, in a
Jersey, Doe. . , , •. , -r-> ii
18- convention assembled at Dover, on tne
6th of December, the Constitution was ratified with-

,~r

out a single dissenting voice. Thus did this little
state load the way in the good work. The news
was received with exultation by the Federalists at
Philadelphia, and on the 12th Pennsylvania rati
fied the Constitution by a two thirds vote of 46 to
23. The next day all business was quite at a
standstill, while the town gave itself up to proces
sions aud merry-making. The convention of New
Jersey had assembled at Trenton on the 11th, and
one week later, on the 18th, it ratified the Consti
tution unanimously.
A most auspicious beginning had thus been
made. Three states, one third of the whole number
required, had ratified almost at the same moment.
Two of these, moreover, were small states, which
at the' beginning of the Federal Convention had
been obstinately opposed to any fundamental change
in the government. It was just here that the Fed
eralists were now strongest. The Connecticut com
promise had wrought with telling effect, not only
in the convention, but upon the people of the states.
When the news from Trenton was received in
Pennsylvania, there was great rejoicing in the east
ern counties, while beyond the Susquehanna there
were threats of armed rebellion. On the day after
Christmas, as the Federalists of Carlisle were about
to light a bonfire on the common and fire a salute,
they were driven off the field by a mob armed with
bludgeons, their rickety old cannon was spiked,
and an almanao for the new year, containing a
copy of the Constitution, was duly cursed, and then
burned. Next day the Federalists, armed with
muskets, came back, and went through their cere-

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317

monies. Their opponents did not venture to molest
them ; but after they had dispersed, au Antifed-
eralist demonstration was made, and effigies of
James Wilson and Thomas McKean, another prom
inent Federalist, were dragged to the common,
and there burned at the stake.
The action of Delaware and New Jersey had
shown that the Antifederalists could not build any
hopes upon the antagonism between large and small
states. It was thought, however, that the southern
states would unite in opposing the Constitution
from their dread of becoming commercially sub
jected to New England. But the compromise on
the slave-trade had broken through this opposition.
On tho 2d of January, 1788, the Constitution was
ratified in Georgia without a word of dissent. One
week later Connecticut ratified by a vote of 128 to
40, after a session of only five days.
The hopes of the Antifederalists now
rested upon Massachusetts, where the
state convention assembled on the 9th
of January, the same day on which that
of Connecticut broke up. Should Massachusetts
refuse to ratify, there would be no hope for the
Constitution. Even should nine states adopt it
without her, no one supposed a Federal Union
feasible from which so great a state should be
excluded. Her action, too, would have a marked
effect upon other states. It could not be denied
that the outlook in Massachusetts was far from
encouraging. The embers of the Shays rebellion
still smouldered there, and in the mountain coun
ties of Worcester and Berkshire were heard loud

Georgia rati
fies, Jan. 2,
1788; Con
necticut, Jan.
9. The out
look in Massa
chusetts.

V

V

murmurs of discontent. Laws impairing the ob
ligation of contracts were just what these hard-
pressed farmers desired, and by the proposed Con
stitution all such laws were forever prohibited.
The people of the district of Maine, which had
formed part of Massachusetts for nearly a century,
were anxious to set up an independent government
for themselves ; and they feared that if they were
to enter into the new and closer Federal Union
as part of that state, they might hereafter find it
impossible to detach themselves. For this reason
half of tbe Maine delegates were opposed to the
Constitution. In none of the thirteen states, more
over, was there a more intense devotion to state
rights than in Massachusetts. Nowhero had local
self-government reached a higher degree of effi
ciency ; nowhere had the town meeting flourished
with such vigour. It wa3 especially characteristic
of men trained in the town meeting to look with
suspicion upon all delegated power, upon all author
ity that was to be exercised from a distance. They
believed it to be all important that people should
manage their own affairs, instead of having them
managed by other people; and so far had this
principle been carried that the towns of Massachu
setts were like little semi-independent republics,
and the state was like a league of such republics,
whose representatives, sitting in the state legisla
ture, were like delegates strictly bound by instruc
tions rather than untrammelled members of a delib
erative body. To men trained in such a school, it
would naturally seem that the new Constitution
delegated altogether too much power to a govern-

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r. »

CROWNING THE WORK.

319

ing body which must necessarily be remote from
most of its constituents. It was feared that some
sort of tyranny might grow out of this, and such
fears were entertained by men who were not in tho
slightest degree infected with Shaysism, as tho polit
ical disease of the inland counties was then called.
Such fears wcro entertained by one of tho greatest
citizens that Massachusetts has ever produced, tho
man who has been well described as preeminently
" the man of the town meeting," — Samuel Adams.
The limitations of this great man, as well as his
powers, were those which belonged to him as chief
among the men of English race who have swayed
society through the medium of the ancient folk
mote. At this time he was believed by many to be
hostile to the new Constitution, and his influence in
Massachusetts was still greater than that of any
other man. Besides this, it was thought that the
governor, John Hancock, was half-hearted in his
support of the Constitution, and it was in every
body's mouth that Elbridge Gerry had refused to
set his name to that document because he felt sure
it would create a tyranny.
Such symptoms encouraged the Antifederalists
in the hope that Massachusetts would reject the
Constitution and ruin the plans of the " visionary
young men " — as Richard Henry Lee called them
— who had swayed the Federal Convention. But
there were strong forces at work in the opposite
direction. In Boston and all the large coast towns,
even those of the Maine district, the dominant feel
ing was Federalist. All well-to-do people had been
alarmed by the Shays insurrection, and merchants,

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v

shipwrights, and artisans of every sort wore con
vinced that thero v^as no prosperity in store for
them until the federal government should have
control over commerce, and be enabled to make its
strength felt on the seas and in Europe. In these
views Samuel Adams shared so thoroughly that his
attitude toward tho Constitution at this moment
was really that of a waverer rather than an oppo
nent. Amid balancing considerations he found it
for some time hard to make up his mind.
In tho convention which met on the 9th of Jan
uary there sat Gorham, Strong, and King, who
had taken part in the Federal Convention. There
were also Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin ; the
revolutionary generals, Heath and Lincoln ; and
the rising statesmen, Sedgwick, Parsons, and Fisher
Ames, whose eloquence was soon to become so
famous. There were twenty-four clergymen, of
various deuominations, — men of sound scholar
ship, and several of them eminent for worldly wis
dom and liberality of temper. Governor Hancock
presided, gorgeous in crimson velvet and finest
laces, while about the room sat many browned and
weatherbeaten farmers, among whom were at least
eighteen who hardly a year ago had marched over
the pine-clad mountain ridges of Petersham, under
the banner of the rebel Shays. It was a whole
some no less than a generous policy that let these
men come in and freely speak their minds. The
air was thus the sooner cleared of discontent ; the
disease was thus the more likely to heal itself. In
all there were three hundred and fifty-five dele
gates present, — a much larger number than took

P

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321

part in any of the other state conventions. The
people of all parts of Massachusetts were very
thoroughly represented, as befitted the state which
was preeminent in the active political life of its
town meetings, and the work done here was in
some respects decisive in its effect upon the adop
tion of the Constitution.
The convention began by overhauling that docu
ment from beginning to end, discussing it clause
by clause with somewhat wearisome minuteness.
Some of the objections seem odd to us at this time,
with our larger experience. It was sev-
MaJsaciniBetts eral days before the minds of the coun
try members could be reconciled to the
election of representatives for so long a period as
two years. They had not been wont to delegate
power to anybody for so long a time, not even to
their selectmen, whom they had always under their
eyes. How much more dangerous was it likely to
prove if delegated authority were to be exercised
for so long a period at some distant federal city,
such as the Constitution contemplated! There
was a vague dread that in some indescribable way
the new Congress might contrive to make its sit
tings perpetual, and thus become a tyrannical oli
garchy, which might tax the people without their
consent. And then as to this federal city, there
were some who did not like the idea. A district
ten miles square 1 Was not that a great space to
give up to the uncontrolled discretion of the federal
government, wherein it could wreak its tyrannical
will without let or hindrance ? One of the dele
gates thought he could be reconciled to the new

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Constitution if this district could only be narrowed
down to one mile square. And then there was the
power granted to Congress to maintain a standing
army, of which the president was to be ex officio
commander-in-chief. Did not this open the door
for a Cromwell ? It was to be a standing army
for at least two years, since this was the shortest
period between elections. Why, even the British
Parliament, since 1688, did not keep up a stand
ing army for more than one year at a time, but
renewed its existence annually under what waa
termed the Mutiny Act. But what need of a
standing army at all? Would it not be sure to
provoke needless disorders? Had they already
forgotten the Boston Massacre, in spite of all the
orations that had been delivered in the Old South
Meeting-House? A militia, organized under the
town -meeting system, was surely all-sufficient.
Such a militia had won glorious triumphs at Lex
ington and Bennington ; and at King's Mountain,
had not an army of militia surrounded and cap
tured an army of regulars led by one of England's
most skilful officers? What more coidd you ask ?
Clearly this plan for a standing army foreboded
tyranny. Upon this point Mr. Nason, from the
Maine district, had his say, in tones of inimitable
bombast. " Had I the voice of Jove," said he, " I
would proclaim it throughout the world ; and had
I an arm like Jove, I would hurl from the globe
those villains that would dare attempt to establish
in our country a standing army ! "
Next came the complaint that the Constitution
did not recognize the existence of God, and pro-

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vided no religious tests for candidates for federal
offices. But, strange to say, this objection did not
come from tho clergy. It was urged by some of
the country members, but the ministers in the con
vention were nearly unanimous in oppos-
Liberal atti- . J * 1
tudeottne ing it. ihere had been a remarkable
change of sentiment among the clergy
of this state, which had begun its existence as a
theocracy, in which none but ehurch members could
vote or hold office. The seeds of modern liberal
ism had been planted in their minds. When Amos
Singletary of Sutton declared it to be scandalous
that a Papist or an infidel should be as eligible to
office as a Christian, — a remark which naively as
sumed that Roman Catholics were not Christians,
— the Rev. Daniel Shute of Hingham replied
that no conceivable advantage could result from a
religious test. Yes, said the Rev. Philip Payson
of Chelsea, " human tribunals for the consciences
of men are impious encroachments upon the pre
rogatives of God. A religious test, as a qualifica
tion for office, would have been a great blemish."
" In reason and in the Holy Scripture," said the
Rev. Isaao Backus of Middleborough, " religion is
ever a matter between God and the individual ; the
imposing of religious tests hath been the greatest
engine of tyranny in the world." With this lib
eral stand firmly taken by the ministers, the re
ligious objection was speedily overruled.
Then the clause which allows Congress to regu
late the times, places, and manner of holding fed
eral elections was severely criticised. It was feared
that Congress would take advantage of this pro-

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323

-(

V

vision to destroy the freedom of elections. It was
further objected that members of Congress, being
paid their salaries from the federal treasury, would
become too independent of their constituents. Fed
eral collectors of revenue, moreover, would not be
so likely to act with moderation and justice as col
lectors appointed by the state. Then it was very
doubtful whether the people could support the ex
pense of an elaborate federal government. They
were already scarcely able to pay their town, county,
and state taxes ; was it to be supposed they could
bear the additional burden with which federal tax
ation would load them ? Then the compromiso on
the slave-trade was fiercely attacked. They did
not wish to have a hand in licensing this nefarious
traffic for twenty years. But it was urged, on the
other hand, that by prohibiting the foreign slave-
trade after 1808 the Constitution was really deal
ing a death-blow to slavery ; and this opinion pre
vailed. During the whole course of the discussion, ob
served the Rev. Samuel West of New Bedford, it
seemed to be taken for granted that the federal
government was going to be put into the hands of
crafty knaves. " I wish," said he, " that the gen
tlemen who have started so many possible objec
tions would try to show us that what they so much
deprecate is probable. . . . Because power may be
abused, shall we be reduced to anarchy? What
hinders our state legislatures from abusing their
powers ? . . . May we not rationally suppose that
the persons we shall choose to administer the gov
ernment will be, in general, good men ? " General

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325

Thompson said he was surprised to hear suck an
argument from a clergyman, who was profession
ally bound to maintain that all men were totally
depraved. For his part he believed they were so,
and he could prove it from the Old Testament.
"I would not trust them," eohoed Abraham White
of Bristol, " chough every one of them should be a
Moses." The feeling of distrust was strongest among the
farmers from the mountain districts. As Rufus
King said, they objected, not so much to the Con
stitution as to the men who made it and the men
who sang its praises. They hated lawyers, and
were jealous of wealthy merchants. " These law
yers," said Amos Singletary, "and men of learn
ing, and moneyed men that talk so finely and gloss
over matters so smoothly, to make us poor illiterate
people swallow the pill, expect to get into Congress
themselves. They mean to be managers of the
Constitution. They mean to get all tho money
into their hands, and then they will swallow up us
little folk, like the great Leviathan, Mr. President ;
yes, just as the whale swallowed up Jonah." Here
a more liberal-minded farmer, Jonathan Smith of
Lanesborough, rose to reply with references to the
Shays rebellion, wliich presently called forth cries
of " Order I " from some of the members. Samuel
Adams said the gentleman was quite in order, —
let him go on in his own way. "I am a plain
man," said Mr. Smith, "and am not
SSSta" used to speak in public, but I am going
,armer' to show the effects of anarchy, that
you may see why I wish for good government.

Lasi winter people took up arms, and then, if you
went to speak to them, you had the musket of death
presented to your breast. They would rob you of
your property, threaten to burn your houses, oblige
you to be on your guard night and day. Alarms
spread from town to town, families were broken
up ; the tender mother would cry, ' Oh, my son is
among them » What shall I do for my child ? '
Some were taken captive; children taken out of
their schools and carried away. . . . How dread
ful was this ! Our distress was so great that we
should have been glad to snatch at anything that
looked like a government. . . . Now, Mr. Presi
dent, when I saw this Constitution, I found that it
was a cure for these disorders. I got a copy of it,
and read it over and over. ... I did not go to
any lawyer, to ask his opinion ; we have no lawyer
in our town, and we do well enough without. My
honourable old daddy there [pointing to Mr. Single
tary] won't think that I expect to be a Congress
man, and swallow up the liberties of the people. I
never had any post, nor do I want one. But I
don't think the worse of the Constitution because
lawyers, and men of learning, and moneyed men
are fond of it.: I am not of such a jealous make.
They that are honest men themselves are not apt
to suspect other people. . . . Brother farmers, let
us suppose a case, now. Suppose you had a farm
of 50 acres, and your title was disputed, and there
was a farm of 5,000 acres joined to you that be
longed to a man of learning, and his title was in
volved in the same difficulty: would you not be
glad to have him for your friend, rather than to

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327

6tand alone in the dispute ? Well, the case is tho
same. These lawyers, these moneyed men, thesd
men of learning, are all embarked in the same
cause with us, and we must all sink or swim to
gether. Shall we throw the Constitution over
board because it does not please us all alike?
Suppose two or three of you had been at the pains
to break up a piece of rough land and sow it with
wheat: would you let it lie waste because you
could not agree what sort of a fence to make ?
Would it not be better to put up a fence that did
not please every one's fancy, rather than keep dis
puting about it until the wild beasts came in and
devoured the crop? Some gentlemen say, Don't
be in a hurry ; take time to consider. I say, There
is a time to sow and a time to reap. We sowed our
seed when we sent men to the Federal Convention,
now is the time to reap the fruit of our labour ;
and if we do not do it now, I am afraid we shall
never have another opportunity."
It may be doubted whether all the eloquence of
Fisher Ames could have stated the case more for
cibly than it was put by this plain farmer from the
Berkshire hills. Upon Ames, with King, Parsons,
Bowdoin, and Strong, fell the principal work in
defending the Constitution. For the first two
weeks, Samuel Adams scarcely opened
Attitude of ' .. , . . .
Samuel his mouth, but listened with anxious care
Adams. . , . .
to everything that was said on either
side. The convention was so evenly divided that
there could be no doubt that his single voice would
decide the result. Every one eagerly awaited his
opinion. In the debate on the two years' term of

\ J

members of Congress, he had asked Caleb Strong
the reason why the Federal Convention had decided
upon so long a term ; and when it was explained
as a necessary compromise between the views of so
many delegates, he replied, " I am satisfied." " Will
Mr. Adams kindly say that again ? " asked one of
the members. " I am satisfied," he repeated ; and
not another word was said on the subject in all
those weeks. So profound was the faith of this
intelligent and skeptical and independent people
in the sound judgment and unswerving integrity of
the Father of the Revolution ! As the weeks went
by, and the issue seemed still dubious, the work-
ingmen of Boston, shipwrights and brass-founders
and other mechanics, decided to express their opin
ion in a way that they knew Samuel Adams would
heed. They held a meeting at the Green Dragon
tavern, passed resolutions in favour of the Con
stitution, and appointed a committee, with Paul
Revere at its head, to make known these resolu
tions to the great popular leader. When Adams
had read the paper, he asked of Paul Revere,
" How many mechanics were at the Green Dragon
when these resolutions passed?" "More, sir, than
the Green Dragon could hold." " And where were
the rest, Mr. Revere?" "In the streets, sir."
"And how many were in the streets?" "More,
sir, than there are stars in the sky."
Between Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson
there were several points of resemblance, the chief
of which was an intense faith iu the sound com
mon sense of the mass of the people. This faith
was one of the strongest attributes of both these

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great men. It has usually been supposed that it
was this incident of the meeting at the Green
Dragon that determined Adams's final attitude in
the state convention. Unquestionably, such a dem
onstration must have had great weight with him.
But at the same time the affair was taking such a
turn as would havo decided him, even without the
aid of this famous mass-meeting. The long delay
in the decision of the Massachusetts convention
had carried the excitement to fever heat through
out the country. Not only were people from New
Hampshire and New York and naughty Rhode
Island waiting anxiously about Boston to catch
every crumb of news they could get, but intrigues
were going on, as far south as Virginia, to influence
the result. On the 21st of January the " Boston
Gazette" came out with a warning, headed by
enormous capitals with three exclamation-points :
" Bribery and Corruption 1 ! ! The most diabol
ical plan is on foot to corrupt the members of the
convention who oppose the adoption of the new
Constitution. Large sums of money have been
brought from a neighbouring state for that pur
pose,0 contributed by the wealthy. If so, is it not
probable there may be collections for the same
accursed purpose nearer home?" No adequate
investigation ever determined whether this charge
was true or not. We may hope that it was ill-
founded ; but our general knowledge of human
nature must compel us to admit that there was
probably a grain of truth in it. But what was un
deniable was that Richard Henry Lee wrote a let
ter to Gerry, urging that Massachusetts should not

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329

adopt the Constitution without insisting upon sun
dry amendments ; and in order to consider these
amendments, it was suggested that there should
be another Federal Convention. At this anxious
crisis, Washington suddenly threw him- Wnahington,9
self into the breach with that infallible fruitful Eug-
judgment of his which always saw the
way to victory. " If another Federal Convention
is attempted," said Washington, " its members will
be more discordant, and will agree upon no general
plan. The Constitution is the best that can be
obtained at this time. . . . The Constitution or
disunion are before us to choose from. If the
Constitution is our choice, a constitutional door is
open for amendments, and they may be adopted in
a peaceable manner, without tumult or disorder."
When this advice of Washington's reached Bos
ton, it set in motion a train of events which soon
solved the difficulty, both for Massachusetts and
for the other states which had not yet made up
their mind. Chief among the objections to the
Constitution had been the fact that it did not con
tain a bill of rights. It did not guarantee religious
liberty, freedom of speech and of tlie press, or the
right of the people peacefully to assemble and
petition the government for a redress of grievances.
It did not provide against the quartering of sol
diers upon the people in time of peace. It did not
provide against general search-warrants, nor did it
securely prescribe the methods by which individ
uals should be held to answer for criminal offences.
It did not even provide that nobody should be
burned at the stake or stretched on tho rack, for

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holding peculiar opinions about the nature of God
or the ori-rin of evil. That such objections to the
Constitution seem strange to us to-day is partly
due to the determined attitude of the men who,
amid all the troubles of the time, would not con
sent to any arrangement from which such safe
guards to free thinking and free living should be
omitted. The friends of the Constitution in Bos
ton now proposed that the convention, while adopt
ing it, should suggest sundry amendments contain
ing the essential provisions of a bill of rights. It
was not intended that the ratification should be
conditional. Under tho circumstances, a condi
tional ratification might prove as disastrous as
rejection. It might lead to a second Federal Con
vention, in which the good work already accom
plished might be undone. The ratification was to
be absolute, and the amendments were offered in
the hope that action would be taken upon them as
soon as the new government should go into opera- ¦
tion. There could be little doubt that the sugges
tion would be heeded, not only from tbe importance
of Massachusetts in the Union, but also from the
fact that Virginia and other states would be sure
to follow her example in suggesting such amend
ments. This forecast proved quite correct, and it
was in this way that the first ten amendments
originated, which were acted on by Congress in
1790, and became part of the Constitution in 1791.
As soon as this plan had been matured, Hancock
proposed it to the convention ; the hearty support
of Adams was immediately insured, and within a
week from that time, on the 6th of February, the

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331

Constitution was ratified by the narrow majority of
187 votes against 168. On that same „ , „
° t Massachusetts
day Jefferson, in Paris, wrote to Madi- ratines, Pro-
•J ' ' posing amend-
son : " I wish with all my soul that the ™™is< *,ob* 6>
nine first conventions may accept the
new Constitution, to secure to us the good it con
tains ; but I equally wish that the four latest, which
ever they may be, may refuse to accede to it till a
declaration of rights be annexed ; but no objection
to the new form must produce a schism in our
Union." But as soon as he heard of the action of
Massachusetts, he approved it as preferable to his
own idea, and he wrote home urging Virginia to
follow the example.
Massachusetts was thus the sixth state to ratify
the Constitution. On that day the name of the
Long Lane by the meeting-house where the con
vention had sat was changed to Federal Street.
The Boston people, said Henry Knox, had quite
lost their senses with joy. The two counties of
Worcester and Berkshire had given but 14 yeas
against 59 nays, but the farmers went home de
claring that they should cheerfully abide by the de
cision of the majority. Not a murmur was heard
from any one.
About the time that the Massachusetts conven
tion broke up, that of New Hampshire assembled
at Exeter ; but after a brief discussion it was de
cided to adjourn until June, in order to see how
the other states would act. On the 21st of April
the Maryland convention assembled at Annapolis.
All the winter Patrick Henry had been busily at
work, with the hope of inducing the southern states

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to establish a separate confederacy; but he had
made little headway anywhere, and none at all in
Maryland, where his influence was completely coun
teracted by that of Washington. Above all things,
said Washington, do not let the convention adjourn
till the matter is decided, for the Antifederalists
are taking no end of comfort from the postpone
ment in New Hampshire. Their glee was short
lived, however. Some of Maryland's strongest
men, such as Luther Martin and Samuel Chase,
were Antifederalists ; but their efforts were of no
a . avail. After a session of five days the
He's, April is. Constitution was ratified by a vote of 63
to 11. Whatever damage New Hampshire might
have done was thus more than made good. The
eyes of the whole country were now turned upon
the eighth state, South Carolina. Her convention
was to meet at Charleston on the 12th of May, the
anniversary of the day on which General Lincoln
had surrendered that city to Sir Henry Clinton ;
but there had been a decisive preliminary struggle
in the legislature in January. The most active
of the Antifederalists was Rawlins Lowndes, who
had opposed the Declaration' of Independence.
Lowndes was betrayed into silliness. " We are
now," said he, " under a most excellent constitu
tion, — a blessing from Heaven, that has stood the
test of time [! 1], and given us liberty and inde
pendence; yet we are impatient to pull down that
fabric which we raised at the expense of our blood."
This was not very convincing to the assembly, most
of the members knowing full well that the fabric
had not stood the test of time, but had already

CROWNING THE WORK.

333

tumbled in by reason of its vicious construction.
A more effective plea was that which referred
to the slave-trade. "What cause is there," said
Lowndes, " for jealousy of our importing negroes ?
Why confine us to twenty years ? Why limit us
at all ? This trade can bo justified on the prin
ciples of religion and humanity. They Dobate3intno
do not like our having slaves because n™',1^!,!"
they have none themselves, and there- tura-
fore want to exclude us from this great advantage."
Cotesworth Pinckney replied : " By this settlement
we have secured an unlimited importation of ne
groes for twenty years. The general government
can never emancipate them, for no such authority
is granted, and it is admitted on all hands that the
general government has no powers but what are
expressly granted by the Constitution. We have
obtained a right to recover our slaves in whatever
part of the country they may take refuge, which is
a right we had not before. In short, considering
all circumstances, we have made tho best terms in
our power for the security of this species of prop
erty. We woidd have made better if we could ;
but, on the whole, I do not think them bad." Per
haps Pinckney would not have assumed exactly
this tone at Philadelphia, but at Charleston the
argument was convincing. Lowndes then sounded
the alarm that the New England states would
monopolize the carrying-trade and charge ruinous
freights, and he drew a harrowing picture of ware
houses packed to bursting with rice and indigo
spoiling because the owners could not afford to pay
the Yankee skippers' prices for carrying their

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335

goods to market. But Pinckney rejoined that a
Yankee shipmaster in quest of cargoes would not
bo likely to ruin his own chances for getting them,
and he called attention to the great usefulness of
the eastern merchant marine as affording material
for a navy, and thus contributing to the defence of
the country. Finally Lowndes put in a plea for
paper money, but with little success. The result
of the debate set the matter so clearly before the
people that a great majority of Federalists were
elected to the convention. Among them were
Gadsden, the Rutledges aud the Pinckneys, Moul
trie, and William Washington, who had become a
citizen of the state from which he had helped to
expel the British invader. The Antifederalists
were largely represented by men from the upland
counties, belonging to a population in which there
was considerable likeness all along the Appalachian
chain of mountains, from Pennsylvania to the south
ern extremity of the range. There were among
them many " moonshiners," as they were called, —
distillers of illicit whiskey, — and they did not
relish the idea of a federal excise. At their head
was Thomas Sumter, a convert to Patrick
South Caro-
Una ratifies, Henry s scheme for a southern conf ed-
May23. ¦'
eracy. Their policy was one of delay
and obstruction, but it availed them little, for on
the 23d of May, after a session of eleven days,
South Carolina ratified the Constitution by a vote
of 149 against 73.
The sound policy of the Federal Convention in
adopting the odious compromise over the slave-trade
was now about to bear fruit. In Virginia there

had grown up a party which favoured the establish
ment of a separate southern confederacy. By the
action of South Carolina all such schemes were now
nipped in the bud. Of the states south of Mason
and Dixon's line, three had now ratified the Con
stitution, so that any separate confederacy could
now consist only of Virginia and North
Carolina. The reason for this short- &tfectuPon
lived separatist feeling in Virginia was ir8""
to be found in the complications which had grown
out of the attempt of Spain to close the Mississippi
River. It will be remembered that only two years
before Jay had actually recommended to Con
gress that the right to navigate the lower Mis
sissippi be surrendered for twenty-five years, in
exchange for a favourable commercial treaty -with
Spain. The New England states, caring nothing
for the distant Mississippi, supported this measure
in Congress ; and this narrow and selfish policy
naturally created alarm in Virginia, which, in her
district of Kentucky, touched upon the great river.
Thus to the vague dread of the southern states in
general, in the event of New England's controlling
tho commercial policy of the government, there was
added, in Virginia's case, a specific fear. If the
New England people were thus ready to barter
away the vital interests of a remote part of the
country, what might they not do ? Would they
ever stop at anything so long as they could go on
building up their commerce ? This feeling strongly
influenced Patrick Henry in his desire for a sepa
rate confederacy ; and we have seen how Randolph
and Mason, in the Federal Convention, were so

336

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337

disturbed at the power given to Congress to regu
late commerce by a simple majority of votes that
they refused to set their names to tho Constitution.
They alleged further reasons for their refusal, but
this was the chief one. They wanted a two thirds
vote to be required, in order that the south might
retain the means of protecting itself. Under
these circumstances the opposition to the Constitu
tion was very strong, and but for the action of
South Carolina the party in favour of a separate
confederacy might have been capable of doing much
mischief. As it was, since that party had actively
intrigued both in South Carolina and Maryland,
the ratification of the Constitution by both thcso
states was a direct rebuff. It quite demoralized
tho advocates of secession. The paper-money men,
moreover, were handicapped by the fact that two
of the most powerful Antifederalists, Mason and
Lee, were determined opponents of a paper cur
rency, so that this subject had to be dropped or
very gingerly dealt with. Tho strength of the
Antifederalists, though impaired by these causes,
was still very great. The contest was waged with
all the more intensity of feeling because, since
eight states had now adopted the Constitution, the
verdict of Virginia would be decisive. The con
vention met at Richmond on the 2d of June, and
Edmund Pendleton was chosen president. Fore
most among the Antifederalists was Patrick Henry,
whose eloquence was now as zealously
Debates in the . J
Virginia Con- employed against the new government
as it had been in bygone days against
the usurpations of Great Britain. He was sup-

V /

ported by Mason, Lee, and Grayson, as well as by
Benjamin Harrison and John Tyler, the fathers of
two future presidents ; and ho could count on the
votes of most of the delegates from the midland
counties, from the south bank of the James River,
and from Kentucky. But the united talents of the
opposition had no chance of success in a conflict
with the genius and tact of Madison, who at one
moment crushed, at another conciliated, his oppo
nent, but always won the day. To Madison, more
than any other man, the Federalist victory was due.
But he was ably seconded by Governor Randolph,
whom he began by winning over from the opposite
party, and by the favourite general and eloquent
speaker, " Light-Horse Harry." Conspicuous in
the ranks of Federalists, and unsurpassed in debate,
was a tall and gaunt young man, with beaming
countenance, eyes of piercing brilliancy, and an in
describable kingliness of bearing, who was by and
by to become chief justice of the United States, and
by his masterly and far-reaching decisions to win
a place side by side with Madison and Hamilton
among the founders of our national government.
John Marshall, second to none among all the illus
trious jurists of the English race, was then, at the
age of thirty-three, the foremost lawyer in Virginia.
He had already served for several terms in the state
legislature, but his national career began in this
convention, where his arguments with
those of Madison, reinforcing each other, Marshall pre-
bore down all opposition. Ihe details ginia ratifies,
r. -. , June 25. ,
ot the controversy were much the same
as in the states already passed in review, save

338

CROWNING THE WORK.

in so far as coloured by the peculiar circumstances
of Virginia. After more than three weeks of de
bate, on the 25th of June, the question was put to
vote, and the Constitution was ratified by the nar
row majority of 89 against 79. Amendments were
offered, after the example of Massachusetts, which
had already been followed by South Carolina and
the minority in Maryland ; and, as in Massachu
setts, the defeated Antifederalists announced their
intention to abide loyally by the result.
The discussion had lasted so long that Virginia
lost the distinction of being the ninth state to ratify
the Constitution. That honour had been reserved
NewHamp- for New Hampshire, whose convention
roadyhratified, had met on the anniversary of Bunker
Juno 21. HiU, and after a four days' session, on
the 21st of June, had given its consent to the new
government by a vote of 57 against 46. The
couriers from Virginia and those from New Hamp
shire, as they spurred their horses over long miles
of dusty road, could shout to each other the joyous
news in passing. Though the ratification of New
Hampshire had secured the necessary ninth state,
yet the action of Virginia was not the less signifi
cant and decisive. Virginia was at that time, and
for a quarter of a century afterward, the most popu
lous state in the Union, and one of the greatest in
influence. Even with the needed nine states all in
hand, it is clear that the new government coidd not
have gone into successful operation with the lead
ing state, the home of Washington himself, left out
in the cold. The New Roof, as men were then
fond of calling the Federal Constitution, must

CROWNING THE WORK.

339

speedily have fallen in without this indispensable
prop. When it was known that Virginia had rati
fied, it was felt that the victory was won, and the
success of the new scheme assured. The 4th of
July, 1788, witnessed such loud rejoicings as have
perhaps never been seen before or since on Ameri
can soil. In Philadelphia there was a procession
miles in length, in which every trade was repre
sented, and wagons laden with implements of in
dustry or emblematic devices alternated with bands
of music and gorgeous banners. There figured
the New Roof, supported by thirteen columns, and
there*was to be seen the Ship of State, the good
ship Constitution, made out of the barge which
Paul Jones had taken from the shattered and
blood-stained Serapis, after his terrible fight. As
for the old scow Confederacy, Imbecility master,
it was proclaimed she had foundered at sea, and
" the sloop Anarchy, when last heard from, was
ashore on Union Rocks." All over tho country
there were processions and bonfires, and in some
towns there were riots. In Providence the Feder
alists prepared a barbecue of oxen roasted whole,
but a mob of farmers, led by three members of the
state legislature, attempted to disperse them, and
were with some difficulty pacified. In Albany the
Antifederalists publicly burned the Constitution,
whereupon a party of Federalists brought out an
other copy of it, and nailed it to the top of a pole,
which they planted defiantly amid the ashes of the
fire their opponents had made. Out of these pro
ceedings there grew a riot, in which knives were
drawn, stones were thrown, and blood was shed.

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341

Such incidents might have served to remind one
that the end had not yet come. The difficulties
were not yet surmounted, and the rejoicing was in
some respects premature. It was now settled that
the new government was to go into operation, but
how it was going to be able to get along without
the adhesion of New York it was not easy to see.
It is true that New York then ranked
in Kew fork. only as fifth among the states in popula
tion, but commercially and militarily she was the
centre of the Union. She not only touched at once
on the ocean and the lakes, but she separated N«w
England from the rest of the country. Ifr was
rightly felt that the Union could never be cemented
without this central state. So strongly were peo
ple impressed with this feeling that some went so
far as to threaten violence. It was said that if
New York did not come into the Union peacefully
and of her own accord, she should be conquered
and dragged in. That she would come in peace
fully seemed at first very improbable. When the
state convention assembled at Poughkeepsie, on
the 17th of June, more than two thirds of its
members were avowed Antifederalists. At their
kead was the governor, George Clinton, hard-headed
and resolute, the bitterest hater of the Constitution
that could be found anywhere in the thirteen states.
Foremost among his supporters were Yates and
Lansing, with Melanchthon Smith, a man familiar
with political history, and one of the ablest de
baters in the country. On the Federalist side
were such eminent men as Livingston and Jay;
but tho herculean task of vanquishing this great

*- - >

hostile majority, and converting it by sheer dint of
argument into a majority on the right side, fell
chiefly upon the shoulders of one man. But for
Alexander Hamilton the decision of New York
would unquestionably have been adverse to tbe
Constitution. Nay, more, it is very improbable
that, but for him, the good work would have made
such progress as it had in the other states. To get
the people to adopt the Constitution, it was above
all things needful that its practical working should
be expounded, in language such as every one could
understand, by some writer endowed in the highest
degree with political intelligence and foresight.
Upon their return from the Federal Convention,
Yates and Lansing had done all in their power to
bring its proceedings into ill-repute. Pamphlets
and broadsides were scattered right and left. The
Constitution was called the "triple-headed mon
ster," and declared to be "as deep and wicked a
conspiracy as ever was invented in the darkest ages
against the liberties of a free people." It soon oc
curred to Hamilton that it would be well worth
while to explain the meaning of all parts of the
Constitution in a series of short, incisive essays.
He communicated his plan to Madison and Jay,
who joined him in the work, and the result was
the "Federalist," perhaps the most famous of
American books, and undoubtedly the most pro
found and suggestive treatise on government that
has ever been written. Of the eighty-five numbers
originally published in tho " Indepen- The^.F8d.
dent Gazetteer," under the common sig- e™*ist-"^
nature of "Publius," Jay wrote five, Madison

-\ /"

842

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343

twenty-nine, and Hamilton fifty-one. Jay's papers
related chiefly to diplomatic points, with which his
experience abroad had fitted him to deal. The
first number was written by Hamilton in the cabin
of a sloop on the Hudson, in October, 1787 ; and
they continued to appear, sometimes as often as
three or four in a week, through the winter and
spring. Madison would have contributed a larger
share than he did had he not been called early in
March to Virginia to fight the battle of the Con
stitution in that state. The essays were widely
and eagerly read, and probably accomplished more
toward insuring the adoption of the Constitution
than anything else that was said or done in that
eventful year. They were hastily written, — struck
out at white heat by men full of their subject.
Doubtless the authors did not realize the grandeur
of the literary work they were doing, and among
the men of the time there were few who foresaw
the immortal fame which these essays were to earn.
It is said of one of the senators in the first Con
gress that he made the memorandum, " Get the
' Federalist,' if I can, without buying it. It is n't
worth it." But for all posterity the " Federalist "
must remain the most authoritative commentary
upon the Constitution that can be found ; for it is
the joint work of the principal author of that Con
stitution and of its most brilliant advocate.
In nothing could the flexibleness of Hamilton's
intellect, or the genuineness of his patriotism, have
been more finely shown than in tbe hearty zeal and
transcendent ability with which he now wrote in
defence of a plan of government so different from

s

' 1

\ 0

y.

what he would himself have proposed. He made
Madison's thoughts his own, until he set them
forth with even greater force than Madison him
self could command. Yet no arguments could
possibly be less chargeable with partisanship than
the arguments of the "Federalist." The judgment
is as dispassionate as could be shown in a philo
sophical treatise. The tone is one of grave and lofty
eloquence, apt to move even to tears the render
who is fully alive to the stupendous issues that
were involved in the discussion. Hamilton was
supremely endowed with the faculty of imagining,
with all the circumstantial minuteness of concrete
reality, political situations different from those
directly before him ; and he put this rare power to
noble use in tracing out the natural and legitimate
working of such a Constitution as that which the
Federal Convention .had framed.
When it came to defending the Constitution
before the hostile convention at Poughkcepsie, he
had before him as arduous a task as ever fell to
the lot of a parliamentary debater. It was a case
where political management was out of the ques
tion. The opposition were too numerous to be
silenced, or cajoled, or bargained with. They
must be converted. With an eloquence scarcely
equalled before or since in America until Webster's
voice was heard, Hamilton argued week after week,
till at last Melanchthon Smith, the foremost debater
of Clinton's party, broke away, and came to the
Federalist side. It was like crushing the centre
of a hostile army. After this the Antifederalist
forces were confused and easily routed. The de-

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345

such a thing could never be done.

Hamilton wins
the victory,
and New York
ratifior, July
2G.

cisive struggle was over the question whether New
York could ratify the Constitution conditionally,
reserving to herself the right to withdraw from the
Union in case the amendments upon which she
had set her heart should not be adopted. Upon
this point Hamilton reinforced himself with the
advice of Madison, who had just returned to New
York. Could a state once adopt the Constitution,
and then withdraw from the Union if not satisfied ?
Madison's reply was prompt and decisive. No,
A state which
had once ratified was in the federal bond
forever. The Constitution could not pro
vide for nor contemplate its own over
throw. There could be no such thing
as a constitutional right of secession. When Me-
lanchthon Smith deserted the Antifederalists on
this point, the victory was won, and on the 26th of
July New York ratified the Constitution by the
bare majority of 30 votes against 27. Rejoicings
were now renewed throughout the country. In the
city of New York there was an immense parade,
and as the emblematic federal ship was drawn
through the streets, with Hamilton's name embla
zoned on her side, it was doubtless the proudest
moment of the young statesman's life.
New York, however, clogged her acceptance by
proposing, a few days afterward, that a second
Federal Convention be called for considering the
amendments suggested by the various states. The
proposal was supported by the Virginia legisla
ture, but Massachusetts and Pennsylvania opposed
it, as having a dangerous tendency to reopen the

_ y

whole discussion and unsettle everything. The
proposal fell to the ground. People were weary
of tho long dispute, and turned their attention to
electing representatives to the first Congress.
With the adhesion of New York all serious anxi
ety came to an end. The new government could
be put in operation without v/aiting for North
Carolina and Rhode Island to make up their
minds. The North Carolina convention Tho lag(tard
met on the 21st of July, and adjourned cfoLaand
on the 1st of August without coming to ahodo l3land*
any decision. The same objections were raised as
in Virginia ; and besides, the paper-money party
was here much stronger than in the neighbouring
state. In Rhode Island paper money was the chief
difficulty ; that state did not even take the trouble
to call a convention. It was not until the 21st of
November, 1789, after Washington's government
had been several months in operation, that North
Carolina joined the Federal Union. Rhode Island
did not join till the 29th of May, 1790. If she
had waited but a few months longer, Vermont, the
first state not of the original thirteen, would have
come in before her.
The autumn of 1788 was a season of busy but
peaceful electioneering. That remarkable body, the
Continental Congress, in putting an end to its
troubled existence, decreed that presidential elec
tors should be chosen on the first Wednesday of
January, 1789, that the electors should meet and
cast their votes for president on the first Wednes
day in February, and that the Senate and House
of Representatives should assemble on the first

346

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CROWNING THE WORK.

847

dcntial elec
tion, Jau. 7,
178D.

Wednesday in March. This latter day fell, in 1789,
on the 4th of the month, and accordingly, throe
years afterward, Congress took it for a precedent,
and decreed that thereafter each new administra
tion should begin on the 4th of March. It was
further decided, after some warm debate, that until
the site for the proposed federal city could be
selected and built upon, the scat of the new gov
ernment should be the city of New York.
In accordance with these decrees, presidential
elections were held ou the first Wednesday in Jan
uary. The Antifederalists were still potent for
rirst prosi- mischief in New York, with the result
that, just as that state had not joined in
the Declaration of Independence until
after it had been proclaimed to the world, and just
as she refused to adopt the Federal Constitution
until after more than the requisite number of states
had ratified it, so now she failed to choose electors,
and had nothing to do with the vote that made
Washington our first president. Tho other ten
states that had ratified the Constitution all chose
electors. But things moved slowly and cumbrously
at this first assembling of the new government.
The House of Representatives did not succeed in
getting a quorum together until the 1st of April.
On the 6th, the Senate chose John Langdon for its
president, and the two houses in concert counted
the electoral votes. There wero 69 in all, and
every one of the 69 was found to be for George
Washington of Virginia. For the second name
on the list there was nothing like such unanimity.
It was to be expected that the other name would

k v. f

\ f
\ ¦'
- /

be that of a citizen of Massachusetts, a3 the other
leading state in the Union. The two foremost
citizens of Massachusetts bore the same name, and
were cousins. There would have been most strik
ing poetic justice in coupling with the name of
Washington that of Samuel Adams, since these
two men had been indisputably foremost in the
work of achieving the independence of the United
States. But for the hesitancy of Samuel Adams
in indorsing the Federal Constitution, he would
very likely have been our first vice-president and
our second president. But the wave of federalism
had now begun to sweep strongly over Massachu
setts, carrying everything before it, and none but
the most ardent Federalists had a chance to meet
in the electoral college. Voices were raised in
behalf of Samuel Adams. While we honour the
Amerioan Fabius, it was said, let us not forget the
American Cato. It was urged by some, with much
truth, that but for his wise and cautious action in
the Massachusetts convention, the good ship Con
stitution would have been fatally wrecked upon
the reefs of Shaysism. His course had not been
that of an obstructionist, like that of his old friends
Henry and Lee and Gerry; but at the critical
moment — one of the most critical in all that won
derful crisis — he had thrown his vast influence,
with decisive effect, upon the right side. All this
is plain enough to the historian of to-day. But in
the political fervour of the election of 1789, the
fact most clearly visiblo to men was that Samuel
Adams had hesitated, and perhaps made things
wait. These points came out most distinctly on

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the issue of his election to the Federal Congress,
in which he was defeated by the youthful Fisher
Ames, whose eloquence in the state convention had
been so conspicuous and useful ; but they serve to
explain thoroughly why he was not put upon the
presidential list along with Washington. His
cousin, John Adams, had just returned from his
mission to England, weary and disgusted with the
scanty respect which he had been able to secure
for a feeble league of states that could not make
good its own promises. His services during the
Revolution had been of the most splendid sort:
and after Washington, he was the second choice
of tho electoral college, receiving 34 votes, while
John Jay of New York, his nearest competitor,
received only 9. John Adams was accordingly
declared vice-president.
On the 14th of April Washington was informed
of his election, and on the next day but one he bid
adieu again to his beloved home at Mount Vernon,
where he had hoped to pass the remainder of his
days in that rural peace and quiet for which no
one yearns like the man who is burdened with
greatness and fame unsought for. The position to
which he was summoned was one of unparalleled
splendour, — how splendid we cau now realize
much better than he, and our grandchildren will
realize it better than we, — the position of first
ruler of what was soon to become at once the
strongest and the most peace-loving people upon
the face of the earth. As he journeyed toward
New York, his thoughts must have been busy with
the arduous problems of the time. Already, doubt-

CROWNING THE WORK.

349

less, he had marked out the two great men, Jeffer
son and Hamilton, for his chief advisers : the one
to place us in a proper attitude before the mocking
nations of Europe ; the other to restore our shat
tered credit, and enlist the moneyed interests of
all the states in the success of the Federal Union.
Washington's temperament was a hopeful one, as
befitted a man of his strength and dash. But In
his most hopeful mood he could hardly have dared
to count upon such a sudden and wonderful demon
stration of national strength as was about to ensue
upon the heroic financial measures of Hamilton.
His meditations on this journey we may well be
lieve to have been solemn and anxious enough.
But if he could gather added courage from the
often-declared trust of Ms fellow-countrymen, there
was no lack of such comfort for him. At every
town through which he passed, fresh evidences of
it were gathered, but at one point on the route his
strong nature was especially wrought upon. At
Trenton, as he crossed the bridge over the Assun-
pink Creek, where twelve years ago, at the darkest
moment of the Revolution, he had outwitted Corn
wallis in the most skilful of stratagems, and turned
threatening defeat into glorious victory, — at this
spot, so fraught with thrilling associations, he was
met by a party of maidens dressed in white, who
strewed his path with sweet spring flowers, while
triumphal arches in softest green bore inscriptions
declaring that he who had watched over the safety
of the mothers could well be trusted to protect the
daughters. On the 23d he arrived in New York,
and was entertained at dinner by Governor Clm-

350

CROWNING THE WORK.

Inauguration of Washing
ton, April 30.

ton. 1 One week later, on the 30th, came the inau
guration. It was one of those magnificent days of
clearest sunshine that sometimes make
one feel in April as if summer had come.
At noon of that day Washington went
from his lodgings, attended by a military es
cort, to Federal Hall, at the corner of Wall and
Nassau streets, where his statue has lately been
erected. The city was ablaze with excitement. A
sea of upturned eager faces surrounded the spot,
and as the hero appeared thousands of cocked hats
were waved, while ladies fluttered their white hand
kerchiefs. Washington came forth clad in a suit
of dark brown cloth of American make, with white
silk hose and shoes decorated with silver buckles,
while at his side hung a dress-sword. For a mo
ment all were hushed in deepest silence, while the
secretary of the Senate held forth the Bible upon
a velvet cushion, and Chancellor Livingston ad
ministered the oath of office. Then, before Wash
ington had as yet raised his head, Livingston
shouted, — and from all the vast company came
answering shouts, — " Long live George Washing
ton, President of the United States 1 "

a

!-\

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

The bibliography of the period covered in this book is
most copiously and thoroughly treated in the seventh volumo
of Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of North America,
Boston, 1888. For the benefit of the reader who may not
have ready access to that vast storehouse of information,
the following brief notes may bo of service.
The best account of the peace negotiations is to be found
in chapter ii. of Winsor's volume just cited, written by Hon.
John Jay, who had already discussed the subject quito thor
oughly in his Address before the New York Historical Society
on its Seventy-Ninth Anniversary, Nov. 27, 1883. Of the
highest value are Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's Life of Lord
Shelburne, 3 vols., London, 1875-76, and Adolphe de Cir-
court, Histoire de V action commune de la France et de VAme-
rique, etc., tome iii., Documents originaux inedits, Paris, 1876.
jSee also Sparks, Diplomatic Correspondence of the American
Revolution, 12 vols., Boston, 1829-30 ; Trescot's Diplomacy
ofthe American Revolution, N. Y., 1852 ; Lyman's Diplomacy
ofthe United States, Boston, 1826 ; Elliot's American Diplo
matic Code, 2 vols., Washington, 1834 ; Chalmers's Collection
of Treaties, 2 vols., London, 1790 ; Lord Stanhope's History
of England, vol. vii., London, 1853 ; Lecky's History of Eng
land, vol. iv., London, 1882 ; Lord John Russell's Memorials
of Fox, 4 vols., London, 1853-67 ; Albemarle's Rockingham
and his Contemporaries, 2 vols., London, 1852 ; Walpole's
Last Journals, 2 vols., London, 1859; Force's American
Archives, 4th series, 6 vols., Washington, 1S39-46 ; John
Adams's Works, 10 vols., Boston, 1850-56 ; Rives's Life of
Madison, 3 vols., Boston, 1859-68 ; Madison's Letters and
dther Writings, 4 vols., Phila., 1865 ; the lives of Franklin,

352

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

353

by Bigolow and Parton ; the lives of Jay, by Jay, Flanders,
and Whitelocke ; Morse's John Adams, Boston, 1885 ; Cor
respondence of George III. with Lord North, 2 vols., London,
18G7 ; Wharton's Digest of International Law, Washington,
1887, Appendix to vol. iii. ; Halo's Franklin in France, 2
vols., Boston, 1888. The view of the treaty set fortlr in
1830 by Sparks, according to which Jay and Adams were
quite mistaken in their suspicions of tho French court, we
may now regard ns disposed of by tho evidenco presented
by Circourt and Fitzmaurice. It has led many writers
astray, and even with all the lights which Mr. Bancroft has
had, the account in the last revision of his History of the
United States, vol. v., N. Y., 1886, though in some respects
one of tho best to bo found in tho general histories, still
leaves much to be desired.
The general condition of the United States under tho
articles of confederation is well sketched in the sixth volume
of Bancroft's final revision, and in Curtis's History of the
Constitution, 2 vols., N. Y., 1861. An excellent summary is
given in the first volume of Schouler's History of the United
States wider the Constitution, of which vols, i.-iii. (Washing
ton, 1882-85) have appeared. Mr. Schouler's book is sug
gestive aud stimulating. The work most rich in details is
Professor McMaster's History of the People of the United
States, of which the first volume rather more than covers
the period 1783-89. The author is especially deserving
of praise for tho diligenco with which he has searched tho
newspapers and. obscure pamphlets of tbe period. He has
thus given much fresh life to the narrative, besides throwing
valuable light upon the thoughts and feelings of tho men
who lived under the " league of friendship." I take plea
sure in acknowledging my indebtedness to Professor Mc-
Master for several interesting illustrative details, chiefly in
my third, fourth, and seventh chapters. At the same time
one is sorely puzzled at some of his omissions, as in tho
account of the Federal Convention, in which one finds no
allusion whatever to the all-important question of the rep
resentation of slaves, or to the compromise by which New
England secured to Congress full power to regulate com-

-v^

merce by yielding to Georgia and South Carolina in the
matter of the African slave-trade. So the discussion as to
tho national executive is carried on till July 26th, when
it was decided that tho president should bo chosen by Con-
gross for a single term of seven years ; then the subject
is dropped, and the reader is left to suppose that such
was the final arrangement. Instances of what seems like
carelessness arc sufficiently numerous to make tho book
in some places an unsafo guide to tho general reader, but
in spite of such defects, which a careful revision might
remedy, its valuo is great. Further general information
as to tho period of the Confederation may be found in
Morse's admirable Life of Alexander Hamilton, 3d ed., 2 vols.,
Boston, 1882 ; J. C. Hamilton's Republic of the United States,
7 vols., Boston, 1879; Frothingham's Rise 'of the Republic,
Boston, 1872, chapter xii. ; Von Hoist's Constitutional History,
5 vols., Chicago, 1877-85, chapter i. ; Pitkin's History of the
United States, 2 vols., New Haven, 1828, vol. ii. ; Marshall's
Life of Washington, 5 vols., Phila., 1805-07 ; Journals of
Congress, 13 vols., Phila., 1800 ; Secret Journals of Congress,
4 vols., Boston, 1820-21.
On the loyalists and their treatment, the able essay by
Rev. G-. E. Ellis, in Winsor's seventh volume, is especially
rich in bibliographical references. See also Sabine's Loyal
ists of the American Revolution, 2 vols., Boston, 1864 ; Ryer-
son's Loyalists of America, 2 vols., Toronto, 1880 ; Jones's
New York during the Revolution, 2 vols., N. Y., 1879. Al
though chiofly concerned with events earlier lhau 1780, the
Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen, 4th ed., Boston, 1864,
and especially the Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson,
2 vols., Boston, 1884-86, aro valuable in this connection.
For tho financial troubles the most convenient general
survey is to be found in A. S. Bolles's Financial History of
the United States, 1774-1789, N. Y., 1879 ; Sparks's Life of
Gouverneur Morris, 3 vols., Boston, 1832 ; Pelatiah Webster's
Political Essays, Phila., 1791 ; Phillips's Colonial and Con
tinental Paper Currency, 2 vols., Roxbury, 1865-66 ; Yar-
num's Case of Trevett v. Weeden, Providence, 1787; Arnold's
History of Rhode Island, 2 vols., N. Y., 1859-60. Tbe best

354

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

355

account of the Shays rebellion is G. R. Minot's History of
the Insurrections in Massachusetts, Worcester, 1788 ; see also
Barry's History of Massachusetts, 3 vols., Boston, 1855-57 ;
Austin's Life of Gerry, 2 vols., Boston, 1828-29. A new
and interesting account of the northwestern cessions and the
Ordinance of 1787 is B. A. Hinsdale's Old Northwest, N. Y.,
1888 ; see also Dmm's Indiana, Boston, 1888 ; Cutler's Life,
Journal, and Correspondence of Manasseh Cutler, 2 vols.,
Cincinnati, 1887.
In the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and
Political Science, the following articles bear especially upon
subjects here treated and are worthy of careful study : II.,
v., vi., H. C. Adams, Taxation in the United States, 1789-
1816; III., i., H. B. Adams, Maryland's Influence upon Land
Cessions to the United States ; HI., ix., x., Davis, American
Constitutions; IV., v., Jameson's Introduction to the Consti
tutional and Political History of the Individual States ; IV.,
vii.-ix., Shoshuko Sato's History of the Land Question in the
United States.
For the proceedings of tho Federal Convention ill framing
the Constitution, and of the several state conventions in rati
fying it, the great treasure-house of authoritative informa
tion is Elliot's Debates in the Conventions, 5 vols., originally
published under the sanction of Congress in 1830-45 ; new
reprint, Phila., 1888. The contents of the volumes are as
follows : —
I, Sundry preliminary papers, relating to tho ante-revo
lutionary period, and the period of the Confederation ;
journal of the Federal Convention ; Yates's minutes
of the proceedings ; the official letters of Martin,
Yates, Lansing, Randolph, Mason, and Gerry, in ex
planation of their several courses ; Jay's address to the
people of New York ; and other illustrative papers.
II., III., IV. Proceedings of the several state conven
tions ; with other documents, including the Virginia
and Kentucky resolutions of 1798, and data relating
thereto.
V. Madison's journal of debates in the Congress of the
Confederation, Nov. 4, 1782 -June 21, 1783, and

1 s

J

c ¦

Feb. 19 -April 25, 1787 ; Madison's journal of the
Federal Convention ; letters from Madison to Wash
ington, Jefferson, and Randolph, Sept. 1787 -Nov.
1788 ; and other papers.
Tho best edition of the " Federalist " is by H. C. Lodge,
N. Y., i888. See also Story's Commentaries on the Constitu
tion, 4th ed., 3 vols., Boston, 1873 ; the works of Daniel
Webster, 6 vols., Boston, 1851 ; Hurd's Theory of our Na
tional Existence, Boston, 1881. The above works expound
the Constitution as not a league between sovereign states
but a fundamental law ordained by the people of the United
States. The opposite view is presented in The Republic of
Republics, by P. C. Centz [Plain Common Sense, pseudonym
of B. J. Sage of New Orleans], Boston, 1881 ; the works of
Calhoun, 6 vols., N. Y., 1853-55 ; A. II. Stephens's War be
tween the States, 2 vols., Phila., 1868 ; Jefferson Davis's Rise
and Fall of the Confederate Government, 2 vols., N. Y., 1881.
Several volumes of the " American Statesmen " contain
interesting accounts of discussions in the various conventions,
as Tyler's Patrick Henry, Hosmer's Samuel Adams, Lodge's
Hamilton, Magruder's Marshall, Roosevelt's Morris. Gay's
Madison falls far below tho general standard of this excel
lent and popular series. No satisfactory biography of Madi
son has yet been written, though the voluminous work of
W. C. Rives contains much good material. For judicial
interpretations of the Constitution one may consult B. -R.
Curtis's Digest of Decisions, 1790-1854 ; Flandcrs's Lives of
the Chief Justices, Phila., 1858 ; Marshall's Writings on the
Federal Constitution, ed. Perkins, Boston, 1839 ; see also
Pomeroy's Constitutional Law, N. Y., 1868 ; Wharton's Com
mentaries, Phila., 1884 ; Von Hoist's Calhoun, Boston, 1882;
Tyler's Letters and Times of the Tylers, 2 vols., Richmond,
1884-85. Among critical and theoretical works, Fisher's
Trial of the Constitution, Phila., 1862, and Lockwood's Abo
lition ofthe Presidency, N. Y., 1884, are variously suggestive;
Woodrow Wilson's Congressional Government, Boston, 1885,
is a work of rare ability, pointing out the divergence which
has arisen between the literary theory of our government
and its practical working. Walter Bagehot's English Consti-

356

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

tution, revised ed., Boston, 1873, had alreadj-, in a most pro
found and masterly fashion, exhibited the divergence be
tween the literary theory and tho actual working of tho
British government. Some points of weakness in the British
system aro touched in Albert Stickney's True Republic,
N. Y., 1879 ; see also his Democratic Government, N. Y., 1885.
Tho constitutional history of England is presented, in its
earlier stages, with prodigious learning, by Dr. Stubbs, 3
vols., London, 1873-78, and in its later stages by Hallam,
2 vols., London, 1842, and Sir Erskine May, 2 vols., Bos
ton, 1862-63 ; see also Freeman's Growth of the English
Constitution, London, 1872 ; Comparative Politics, London,
1873 ; Some Impressions of the United States, London,
1883 ; Rudolph Gneist, History of ihe English Constitution, 2
vols., London, 1886 ; J. S. Mill, Representative Government,
N. Y., 1802 ; Sir H. Maine, Popular Government,?!. Y., 1886 ;
S. R. Gardiner's Introduction to the Study of English History,
London, 1881. In this connection I may refer to my own
book, American Political Ideas, N. Y., 1885 ; and my articles,
" Great Britain," " House of Lords," and " House of Com
mons," in Lalor's Cyclopaedia of Political Science, 3 vols.,
Chicago, 1882-84. It is always pleasant to refer to that
cyclopaedia, because it contains the numerous articles on
American history by Prof. Alexander Johnston. One must
stop somewhere, and I will conclude by saying that I do not
know where one can find anything more richly suggestive
than Professor Johnston's articles.

'(

~c

MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.

New Hampshire .
Massachusetts . .
Connecticut . .

*-

The names of those who for various reasons were absent
when the Constitution was signed are given in italics ; the
names of those who were present, but refused to sign, are
given in small capitals. , John Langdon.
Nicholas Gilman.
Elbridge Gerry.
Nathaniel Gorham.
Rufus King.
Caleb Strong.
. William Samuel Johnson,
Roger Sherman.
Oliver Ellsworth.
Now York  Robert Yates.
Alexander Hamilton.
John Lansing.
New Jersey  William Livingston.
David Brearly.
William Churchill Houston.
William Paterson.
Jonathan Dayton.
Benjamin Franklin.
Thomas Mifflin.
Robert Morris.
George Clymer.
Thomas Fitzsimmons.
Jared Ingersoll.
James Wilson.
Gouverneur Morris.

Pennsylvania

358 MEMBERS OF FEDERAL CONVENTION.

Delaware

Maryland

Virginia

North Carolina .

South Carolina .

Georgia

. George Read.
Gunning Bedford.
John Dickinson.
Richard Bassett.
Jacob Broom.
. James McHenry.
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer.
Daniel Carroll.
John Francis Mercer.
Luther Martin.
. George Washington.
Edmund Randolph.
John Blair.
James Madison.
George Mason.
George Wythe.
James McClurg.
. Alexander Martin.
William Richardson Davie.
William Blount.
Richard Dobbs Spaight.
Hugh Williamson.
. . John Rutledge.
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
Charles Pinckney.
Pierce Butler.
. . William Few.
Abraham Baldwin.
William Pierce.
William Houstoun.

U r1

<, /

V

^

Of those who signed their names to the Federal Constitu
tion, the six following were signers of the Declaration of
Independence : — Roger Sherman,
Benjamin Franklin,
Robert Morris,
George Clymer,
James Wilson,
George Read.

MEMBERS OF FEDERAL CONVENTION. 359
Tho ten following were appointed as delegates to the Fed
eral Convention, but never took their seats : —
New Hampshire . . . John Pickering.
Benjamin West.
Massachusetts ...... Francis Dana.
New Jersey ....... .. John Nelson.
Abraham dark.
Virginia  Patrick Henry (declined).
North Carolina . . . Richard Caswell (resigned).
Willie Jones (declined).
Georgia ....... George Walton.
Nathaniel Pendleton.
No delegates were appointed by Rhode Island. In a letter
addressed to " the Honourable the Chairman of the General
Convention," and dated "Providence, May 11, 1787," sev
eral leading citizens of Rhode Island expressed their regret
that their state should not be represented on so momentous
an occasion. At the same time, says the letter, "the result
of your deliberations ... we still hope may finally bo ap
proved and adopted by this state, for which we pledge our
influence and best exertions." The letter was signed by
John Brown, Joseph Nightingale, Levi Hall, Philip Allen,
Paul Allen, Jabez Bowen, Nicholas Brown, John Jinkes,
Welcome Arnold, William Russell, Jeremiah OIney, William
Barton, and Thomas Lloyd Halsey. The letter was pre
sented to the Convention on May 28th by Gouverneur Mor
ris, and, "being read, was ordered to lie on the table for
further consideration.'1 See Elliot's Debates, v. 125.
The Constitution was ratified by the thirteen states, as
follows : — 1. Delaware  Dec. 6, 1787.
2. Pennsylvania  Dec. 12, 1787.
3. Now Jersey  Dec. 18, 1787.
4. Georgia  J»n- "> 1788*
5. Connecticut  Jan. 9, 1788.
6. Massachusetts  Feb. 6, 1788.
7. Maryland  April 28, 1783.

360 PRESIDENTS OF THE CONGRESS.

8. South Carolina ..... May 23, 1788.
9. New Hampshire .... Juno 21, 1788.
10. Virginia  Juno 25, 1788.
11. New York  .July 26, 1788.
12. North Carolina  Nov. 21, 1789.
13. Rhode Island ...... May 29, 1790.

INDEX.

PRESIDENTS OF THE CONTINENTAL
CONGRESS.
1. Peyton Randolph of Virginia  Sept. 6, 1774.
2. Henry Middleton of South Carolina . . . Oct. 22, 1774.
Peyton Randolph ......... May 10, 1775.
3. John Hancock of Massachusetts  May 24, 1775.
4. Henry Laurens of South Carolina .... Nov. 1, 1777.
5. John Jay of New York  Dec. 10, 1778.
6. Samuel Huntington of Connecticut . . . Sept. 28, 1779.
7. Thomas McKean of Delaware  July 10, 1781.
8. John Hanson of Maryland  Nov. 5, 1781.
9. Elias Boudinot of New Jersey  Nov. 4, 1782.
10. Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania  Nov. 3, 1783.
11. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia  Nov. 30, 1784.
12. Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts . . . June 6, 1786.
13. Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania ..... Feb. 2, 1787.
14. Cyrus Griffin of Virginia  Jan. 22, 1788.

'-St

°<

Acadiaks, 205.
Adauis, Herbert B., 102.
Adams, John, arrives in Paris, 22 ;
hia indignation at the pusillanimous
instructions from Congress, 3G ;
condemns the Cincinnati, 11G ; tries
in vain to negotiate commercial
treaty with Grout Britain, 130-141 ;
negotiates a treaty with Holland,
155 ; obtains a loan there, 15G, 157 ;
his interview with the envoy from
Tripoli, 1G1; absent from the United
States at the time of tho Federal
Convention, 223; elected vice-presi
dent of tho United States, 343.
Adams, Samuel, lus devotion to local
self-government, 57, 318; his com
mittees of correspondence, 92 ; op
poses Washington's proposal for
pensioning officers, 10G ; but at
longth supports the Commutation
Act, 114; condemns tho Cincinnati,
11G, 113; approves the conduct of
tho Massachusetts delegates, 143 ;
opposes pardoning tho ringleaders
in the Shays insurrection, 184 ; not
a delegate to the Federal Conven
tion, 225; "the man of tho town
meeting," 313 ; in the Massachu
setts convention, 324, 32G-32S ; why
not solected for the vice-presidency,
317.
Albany, riot in, 339.
Amendments to Constitution, 302, 330,
338.
Ames, Fisher, 319, 32G, 348.
Amis, North Carolinian trader, 210.
Amphiktyouic council, 249.
Annapolis convention, 21G.
Antagonisms between large and small
states, 244-252 ; between oast and
west, 255 ; between north and south,
25G-267.
Antifodcralist party, 309; in Pennsyl
vania, 310; in Massachusetts, 317,
324 ; in South Carolina, 334 ; in
Virginia, 335-337 ; In New York, 340,
341, 346.
Antipathies between states, 62.
Aranda, Count, his prophecy, 19.
Ariatidos, pseudonym, 312.

Aristocracy, 283.
Aristotle, 225.
Arkwright, Sir Richard, 267.
Armada, the Invincible, 235.
Armstrong, John, 109, 150.
Army, dread of, 105, 321. '
Arnold, Benedict, 28, 106, 161.
Asbury, Francis, 85.
Ashburtnn, Lord, G,
Aehburtou treaty, 2G,
Assemblies, Go.
Asm i n pink Crook, 349.
Augustine, 158.
Backus, Rev. Isaac. 322.
Bagehot, Walter, 291.
Baldwin, Abraham, 251.
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 213.
Baptists persecuted in Virginia, 80.
Barbary pirates, 157-161.
Barrti, Isaac, 41.
Bedford, Gunning, 249.
Bennington, 321.
Bernard, Sir Francis, 298.
Biennial elections, 327.
Bill of rights demanded, 329.
Blackstone, Sir William, 290, 291,
297.
Bossuet on slavery, 72.
Boston Gazctto, quoted, 328.
Boundaries of United Btates as set
tled by the treaty, 25.
Bowdoin, James, 143, 130-184, 319,
324.
Boyd, Lieutenant, 122.
Braddock, Edward, 305.
Bradshaw's Railway Guide, 171.
Brearly, David, 229, 246.
Bribery, charges of, 328.
British army departs, 51.
British Constitution compared with
American, 299-298.
Buff and blue colours, 2.
Burgesses, House of, in Virginia, 65.
Burke, iEdanus, 110.
Burke, Edmund, his sj-mpathy with
the Americans, 2 ; could not see the
need for parliamentary reform, 6 j
his invective against Shelburno, 17 ;
on the slave-trade, 72.
Butler, Pierce, 258.

s,

362

INDEX.

INDEX.

3G3

Cabinet, the president's, 299.
Cabinet government, growth of, In
England, 296.
Camden, Lord, 5.
Canada, Franklin auggoats that It
should bo ceded to tko United States,
9,14.
Carleton, Sir Guy, 50, 131.
Carlisle, Pa., disturbances at, 316.
Carpet-bag goverumenta, 270.
Carr, Dabney, 92.
Carrington, Edward, 204, 307.
Carroll, Daniel, 228.
Carrying trade, 1G3, 2G3.
Cartwright, Edmund, 2G7.
Catalonian rebels indemnified, 29.
Cnthollca in the United States, 87.
Cato, pseudonym, 312.
Cavendish, Lord John, 6, 16.
Censors, council of, in Pennsylvania,
150.
Centincl, pseudonym, 313.
Cervantes, Miguel do, 159,
Charles II., 29.
Cliaso, Baninel, 322.
Chatham, Lord, 183.
Cherry Valley, 122.
Chosapealto and Ohio Canal, 213.
Chittenden, Thomas, 121.
Cincinnati, order ot the, 114-118.
Cincinnati, the city, original naino of,
197.
Clnclnnatus, psondonym, 312.
Clan system, 62.
Clergymen in the Maa8achuaetta con
vention, 31 9 i their liberal spirit, 322.
Cleveland, Grover, hia tariff ineaeage,
294.
Clinton, George, favours peraeoution
of Tories, 123 ; nn enemy to closer
union of the states, 145; defeats
Impost amendment, 220; opposes
the Constitution, 340 ; entertains
President Washington at dinner, 350.
Clinton, Sir Henry, 322.
Clymer, George, 311.
Coalition ministry, 33-46.
**pur-de-Lion and Saladin, 161.
Coinage, 165.
Colie, Thomas, 86.
Columbia College, 125.
Commorce, control of, givon to Con
gress, 263.
Common law in the United States, 69.
Commons, House of, in England, 68 ;
290-298 ; in North Carolina, 65.
Compromises of tho Federal Constitu
tion, 250-267.
Confederation, articlea of, 92-98.
Congress, Continental, its instructions
to the commissioners at Paris, 35 ;
its weakness, 56, 98, 102-113, 234 ;
its anomalouB character, 92; its
presidents, 96 ; driven from Phila
delphia by drunken soldiers, 112;
floes to Princeton, 113 ; unable to

cuforco tho provisions of the treaty,
119-131, 154 ; unable to rcgulato
oommorco, 140-144 ; afraid to inter
fere oponly iu tho Shays rebellion,
185 ; pasBOS ordinance for govern
ment of northwestern territory,
203-206 ; refuses to recommend a
convention for reforming tho gov
ernment, 218; roconalders its re
fusal, 221 ; in some respects a diplo
matic rather than a legislative body,
237; its migrations, 271, 306; de
bates on tho Constitution, 307 ;
submits it to tho states, 303 ; coinos
to an end, 345.
Congress, Federal, powers granted
to, 270 ; choice of prosident by,
282-234; counting eleotoral votes in,
284, 2S5, 289.
Connecticut, government of, 65 ; quar
rels with New York and Pennsylva
nia, 14G-151 ; keeps almost entirely
cloar of paper money, 172 ; western
claims of, 189, 194; ratifies tho
Constitution, 31G.
Connecticut compromise, tho, 250-
255.
Consorvatlvo character of tho Ameri
can Revolution, 64.
Constitution, einbloinatio fodoral ship,
339, 344.
Convention, tho Federal, 154, 222-
305.
Conway, Gen. Henry, 5.
Cooper, Dr. Myloe, 120.
Cornwallis, Lord, 22, 51, 349.
Council, privy, 299.
Cowardice of American politicians,
231.
Crawford, William, 51. ,
Curtis, B. R., 276.
Cutler, Manasseh, 203.
Dane, Nathan, 204, 217, 307.
Dayton, Jonathan, 225, 229.
Debt, imprisonment for, 173.
Debts to British creditors, 27, 131.
Delaware, government of, G5 ; ratifies
the Constitution, 314.
Democratic-Republican party, 309.
Dickinson, John, 93. 112, 228, 242,
243, 281, 283, 299, 312.
Dissolution of Parliament, 298.
Dollar, the Spanish, 165.
Dunmore, Lord, 298.
Flection by lot, 281 ; first presidential,
310-348. , „„
Electoral college in Maryland, 66;
device adopted for chooBing the
president, 281-287; its practical
working, 288.
Elliot, Sir Gilbert, 3.
Ellsworth, Oliver, 228, 249, 250, 267,
269, 274, 276, 280, 300.
Embargo acts, 142.

'V*

">-\

Eminent domain, 194.
Episcopal church, 77-85.
Erie Canal, 212, 228.
Executive, loderal, 241, 277; length
of term, 279; how elected, 279-
285; corresponds to sovureign, not
to prime minister, 290, 299.
Exports not to bo taxed, 264, 270.
"Federal," tho word preferred to
''national," 254.
Federal city under federal jurisdic
tion, 271, 320.
" Federal Farmer" (letters by R. U.
Leo), 314.
Federal Street In Beaton, 331.
"Federalist," the, 235, 341-343.
Federalist party, 238, 309.
Field, S. J., 275.
Fisheries, question of, 20, 26, 37, 139,
1G3.
Fitzhcrbert, Alleyne, 22, 45.
Florida surrendered by Great Britain
to Spain, 37 ; disputes about boun
dary of, 208.
Folkland, 187, 207.
Fox, C. J., his sympathy with tho
Americans, 2; quarrols with Shel
burne, G, 14 ; resigns, 15 ; wayward
ness of his early carcor, 16 ; coalition
with North, 38-42 ; miBtako in op
posing a dissolution, 48.
Franco, treaty of 1783 with Great
Britain, 37.
Franklin, Benjamin, negotiates with
Oswald, 9 ; overruled by Jay and
Adama, 23; his arguments against
compensating tho loyalists, 30 ; ridi
cules the Cincinnati, 116; returns
from France, 138 ; in tho Federal
Convention, 225, 250, 277, 299, 303,
305; laya the Constitution before
the Pennsylvania legislature, 30G ;
called a dotard by tbe Antifederal
ists, 313.
Franklin, state of, 200, 209,
Fredorick the Great, on republics,
58.
Free trade, 4, 134-139.
French army embarks at Boston, 51.
Froissart, 153.
Frontior posts to be surrendered by
Great Britain, 51 ; why not surren
dered, 152.
Fugitive slaves, 206, 267, 333.
Fur trade, 132, 164.
Gadsden, C, 122, 334.
Gallatin, A., 125, 134.
Galloway, Joseph, 248.
Gardoqul, Diego, 209.
Gates, Horatio, 108-11J, 180. _
George III. threatens to abdicate, 3 ;
his disgust at tho coalition, 44 ; re
buked by House of Commous, 46 ;
hia poraonal government over

thrown, 48; hopes the Americans
will repent of their folly, 58, 141 ;
resists tho movoment for abolishing
slave-trade, 72 ; his personal gov
ernment, 297.
Georgia takes the lead in making tho
judiciary elective, 69 ; abandons
that ovil practice, 69 ; iaaues paper
money, 109; ratifies tho Constitu
tion, 31G.
Germaine, Lord George, 39.
Gerry, Elbridge, 118, 229, 243, 251,
252, 256, 269, 279, 282, 298, 303, 304,
328 317. '
Gibbon, Edward, 38, 39.
Gibraltar, 17, 36.
Gladstone, W. E., 223, 292, 294.
Gorham, Nathaniel, 252, 253, 319.
Governors, colonial, unpopularity of,
67.
Gower, Lord, 44.
Grafton, Duko of, 5.
Grantham, Lord, 17.
Granville, Lord, 293.
Grasse, Count, defoatod by Rodney,
12, 13.
Grayson, Willi™, 162, 205, 337.
Green Dragon tavern, 327.
Greene, Nathanael, 94, 102, 108, 116,
122,225.
Grenville, Thomas, 11.
Qundaloupo, 36.
Guilford, Earl of, 44.
Half-pay controversy, 106.
Hamilton, Alexander, his early life,
121-126 ; attacks tho Trespass Act,
128 ; calls for a federal convention,
217 ; advocates the impost amend
ment, 220; in the Federal Conven
tion, 225, 226, 243, 244, 246, 219,
254, 279, 303, 304 ; on inconvertible
paper, 274 ; on the electoral college,
287 ; called a boy by the Antifed
eralists, 313; authorship of the
"Federalist," 341-343; supports
the Constitution in the New York
convention, 343, 314; his financial
measuros, 349.
Hancock, John, 104, 184, 318, 319,
330.
Hannibal, 158.
Hargrcavoa, Jamea, 267.
Harrington, James, 64.
Harrison, Benjamin, 337.
Hartington, Lord, 293.
Hartley, David, 45.
Hawks, F. L„ 82.
Heath, Gen. William, 319.
Henry, Patrick, 80, 225, 331, 335, 336,
347.
Hint Club, 109.
Impost amendment, 218-240.
India bill, 46.
Insurrections, suppression of, 269.

364

INDEX.

INDEX.

365

Intercitizcnahip, 94.
Iroquois league. 190.
Irreconcilablcs m thoFederol Conven
tion, 225, 242, 244, 246, 254.
Isolation of states a century ago, 02.

Jay, John, thwarts Vergcnues, 21, 35 ;
tries to establish freo trade between
United States and Great Britain,
20; condemns persecution ol lo
ries, 122; on compensation for
slaves, 132 ; consents to the closing
of the Mississippi River for twenty-
flvo years, 210; why uot sent aa
delegate to Federal Convention,
225; aupports tho Constitution in
New York convention, 340 ; con
tributes articles to the " Federal
ist," 341 ; receives nine electoral
votes for the vice-presidency, 348.
JefferBon, Thoman, opposed to slavery,
72 ; favours roligious freedom, 81 ;
minister to France, 138, 155 ; assists
Gouverneur Morris in arranging our
decimal currency, 106 ; his plan for
the government of tho northwestern
territory, 196; wishes to prohibit
Blavery in the national domain, 108,
205 ; his purcbaso of Louisiana, 207 ;
absent from United States at the
time of the Federal Convention,
225; his faith in the people, 226,
337; hia opinion of tho Constitu
tion, 309; approves the action of
the Massachusetts convention, 331.
Johnson, W. S., 229.
Johnston, Alexander, 223.
Jones, Paul, 339.
Jonesborough, convention at, 200.
Judiciary, olectivo, 69; federal, 242,
300, 301.
Juilliard tis. Grcenman, 275.
Kentucky, 18, 189, 199, 202, 209, 210.
Kennel, Lord, 5, 16, 45.
King, Rufus, 217, 221, 228, 246, 249,
260, 256, 261, 276, 279, 282, 324,320.
King's Mountain, 28, 200, 321.
Kings, election of, in Poland, 279.
Know Ye men and Know Ye meas
ures, 177, 243.
Knox, Henry, 114.
Lafayette, 60, 54. 
Langdon, John, 229, 269, 274, 276, 283,
3-1G
Lansing, John, 226, 242, 244, 246, 254,
3-10, 341.
Laurens, Henry, 2, 22.
Lecky, W., 103.
Ledyard, Isaac, 128.
Lee, Henry, 307, 337.
Lee Richard Henry, 67, 143, 204 205,
225, 307, 313, 318, 328, 336, 337, 347.
'" Lettors from n Federal Fanner," by
R. H. Loo, 314.

Lexington, 50, 321.
Lincoln, Abraham, 72, 193, 207. 
Lincoln Benjamin, 181-183, 319, 332.
Livingston, Robert, 30, 340, 350.
Livingston, William, 171, 229.
Locke, Jolin, G4, 225.
Long Lane becomes Federal Streot,
331.
Long Parliament, 92, 235.
Lords, Houso of, GO, 68; contrasted
with Senate, 295.
LowndcB, Rawlins, 332-334.
Loyalists, compensation of, 28-33 ;
persecution of, 120-130; did not
form, in any proper senae of tho
word, an opposition party, 308.
Luzerne, Chevalier de, 35, 54.
Lykian League, 249.

Mncdougall, Alexander, 107.
McDuthe, George, 60.
McKcan, Thomas, 316.
McMastor, J. li.,151. .
Madison, James, and the Religious
Freedom Act, 81 ; on right of coer
cion, 100 ; advocates five per cenl.
Impost, 104 ; on tho ordinanco of
1787, 200 ; moves that a convention
be held to secure a uniform commer
cial policy, 214; succeeds in getting
delegates appointed, 220 ; his char-
octer and aprearonce, 226, 227 ; his
journal of the proceedings, 229 ;
chief author of the Virginia plan,
233, 267 ; one of the first to arrive
at the fundamental conception of
our partly federal and partly na
tional government, 239 ; approves nt
first of giving Congress the power
to nnnul state laws, 211 ; opposes
tho New Jersey plan, 246 ; declares
that tho real antagonism i3 between
slave states and free states, 249,
256; author of the three fifths
compromise, 260, 261; condemns
paper money, 275 ; disapproves of
election of tho executive by the
legislature, 279 ; approves of a privy
council, 299 ; supports tho Constitu
tion in Congress, 307 ; called a boy
by the Antifederalists, 313; sup
ports the Constitution in the Vir
ginia convention, 337 ; part author
of the "Federalist," 341, 342; de
nies that there can bo a constitu
tional right of secession, 344.
Moino as rart of Massachusetts, 317.
Manchester, Duke of, 45.
Marbois, Francois do Barbe, 2V., do.
Marlon, Francis, 122. 
Marshall, John, 82, 276, 301, 337.
Martin, Luther, 229, 242-244, 246,
249,260,254,276,322.
Maryland, government of, 68 ; insists
upon cession of northwestern lands,
93, 192, 195 ; paper money in, 170 i

"N.

message to Virginia, 215; ratifies
tho Constitution, 332.
Mason, George, 229, 243. 252, 264,
205, 275, 276, 277, 279, 281. 282,283,
299, 303, 304, 335, 337.
Massachusetts, government of, 67 ;
abolishes slavery, 75 ; religious
bigotry, 76; on tho five per cent.
duty, 104 ; trios to propose a conven
tion for increasing the powers of
Congross, 142 ; lays claim to n small
part of Vermont, 152 ; paper money
in, 172-179 ; western claims of, 189 ;
changes her attitude, 221 ; local
Belf-government in, 317 ; debatoa on
the Constitution, 320-330 ; ratifies
it, suggesting amendments, 331.
Massachusetts Chronicle, quoted, 120.
Massacre, Boston, 321.
Mayhow, Jonathan, 92.
Meade, William, 79, 83.
Mentor and PhOcion, 128.
Mercer, J. F., 274.
Methodists, 85.
Middletown convention, 113.
Mifflin, Thomas, 62.
Minisink, 122.
Miraboau, Count do, 110.
Mississippi River, attempt to close it,
209-211, 335 ; valley of the, 18, 188.
Monroe, James, 216.
Montesquieu, C., 225, 291.
Moonshiners, 334.
Morris, Gouverneur, 108, 160, 228,
242, 251, 261, 264, 269, 273, 276, 279,
ooo 303
Morris, Robert, 108, 167, 228, 312.
Moultrie, William, 143, 331.
Muley Abdallah, 158.
Mutiny act, 321.
Names of persons and places, fashions
in, 197.
Nantucket, 163.
Nason, Samuel, 321.
Naval eminence of New England, 20,
139.
Navigation acts, 138-143, 164.
Negroes carried away by British fleet,
131.
Nelson, Samuel, 276.
New Connecticut, 152.
New Hampshire lays* claim to Ver
mont, 161-153 ; riots in, 133 ; hesi
tates to ratify the Constitution, 331 ;
ratifies It, 338.
Now Jorsey quarrels with Now York,
146 ; paper money in, 171 ; opposes
tho attempt to closo theMississippi,
211 ; instructs her delegates to the
Annapolis convention, 217 ; her plan
for amending the articles of confed
eration, 245 ; ratifies the Constitu
tion, 315.
New Roof, 338.
New York passes navigation and tariff

acts directed against neighbouring:
states, 146 ; lays claim to Vermont,
151-153; paper money In, 170 j
western claims of, 190, 193; defeats
tho impost amendment, 218-220 ;
debates on tho Constitution, 340-
314; ratifies it, 341; asks for a
second convention, 344 ; fails to
chooBe electors, 346.
Now York Central Railroad, 212.
Newburgh addresB, 108-112, 118.
Nicola, Louis, hia letter to Waahlng-
ton, 107, 118.
Non-importation agreement, 142.
North, Frederick, Lord, fall of his
ministry, 1 ; coalition with Fox, 38-
42 ; his blindness, 41 ; his proposals
after Saratoga, 91 • his subservience
to the king, 297.
North Carolina issues paper monoy,
169 ; cedes her western lands to tho
United States, 199 ; repeals the act
of cession, 201 ; delays hor ratifica
tion of the Constitution, 345.
Ohio, 203-206.
Old Sarum, 249.
Old South Church, 321.
Onslow, George, 2.
Ordinanco of 1787, 199, 203-206.
Oregon, 60.
Oswald, Richard, 9-14, 22-26, 32, 46.
Paine, Thomas, 60, 55, 191.
Paper currency, 163-179, 205, 218,
273-270.
Parker, Theodore, 264.
Parsons, Samuel Holden, 203.
Parsons, Theophilus, 319, 324.
Parties, formation of, 308.
Paterson, William, 229, 245-243, 255,
258, 274.
Patterson, militia officer in Wyoming,
149.
Payson, Rev. Philip, 322.
Pendleton, Edmund, 336.
Pennsylvania, govornmentof, 65; nrat
tariff act, 142 ; quarrels with Con
necticut, 148-150 ; paper money in,
170 ; opposes tho closing of tho
Miaaiasippi, 211 ; contost over the
Constitution, 309-314; ratifies it,
315.
Petersham, scene of Shaya'a defeat,
182, 319.
Philadelphia, Congress driven from,
112; Federal Convention meets at,
222 ; unparliamentary proceedings
in legislature, 311 ; celebrates rati
fication by ten states, 339.
Phocion and Mentor, 125.
Pinckney, Charles, 228, 243, 261, 265,
266, 269, 276, 277, 334.
Pinckney, Coteaworth, 228, 243, 258,
261, 2G3, 265, 266, 276, 333, 334.
Pitt, Thomas, 44,

366

INDEX.

Pitt, William, chancellor of excheq
uer, 16 ; denounces the coalition,
39 ; defends tho treaty, 43 j refuses
to form a ministry, 44 ; character,
47 ; primo minister, 47 ; wins a
great political victory, 48; favours
froe trado with tho United StateB,
136.
Polish kings, election of, 279.
Population as an indox of wealth,
267.
Portland, Duke of,16, 45.
Potomac, navigation ofj 213-216.
Poughkeepsio, convention at, 340-344.
Powers granted to fodoral govern
ment, 268.
Presbyterians, 81, 86.
Presidents of Continental CongreBS,
96.
Prevoat's march against Charleston,
27.
Prime minister contrasted with presi
dent, 292-294.
Primogeniture, abolition of, 71.
Proprietary governments, 66, 71.
Providence, R. I., barbecue and mob
at, 339.
Publio lands, 188.
Putnam, Israel, 151.
rutnam, Rufus, 203.
Quebec act, 18.
Quesnay, Francois, 141.
Quorum, how to make a, 311.

Railroads, political influence of, 60.
Randolph, Edmund, 229, 233,236,239,
242, 216, 265, 269, 275, 276,277,282,
300, 303, 335, 337.
Rayneval, Gerard de, 21.
Read, George, 242, 274.
Reform, parliamentary, 6.
Religious freedom, progress in, 76-87.
Religious teats opposed by Massachu
setts clergymen, 322.
Representation of slaves, 258-262.
Representatives, House of, 236, 252.
Republican party, 238.
Republics, old notion that they must
be small in area, 69.
Reserve, Connecticut's westorn, 194.
Revenue bills. 270.
Revere, Paul, 327.
Revolution, American, its conservative
character, 64 ; the French, 64, 118.
Rhode Island, government of, 65 ; ex
tends franchise to Catholics, 77 ; on
the five per cent, duty, 101 ; paper
money in, 172-177 ; opposes the
closing of tho Mississippi, 211 ; does
not send delegates to Philadelphia,
222 ; delays her ratification of the
Constitution, 345.
Richmond, Duko of, 2, 16.
Rittenhouso, David, 111.
Bocktngham, Marquis Of, 4 1 Instabil

ity of his ministry, 5 ; Its oxoollent
work, 7 ; his death, 15.
Rodney's victory over GraBBO, 12, 13.
Roman ropublio not liko the United
States, 69.
Rousseau, J. J., 64, 117.
Rutgers, Elizabeth, 127.
Rutlcdgo, John, 228, 243, 261,265,278,
279, 28i, 300, 334.
St. Clair, Arthur, 197, 206.
Saladin and Cceur-de-Lion, 161.
Sandy Hook light-house, 147.
Sargent, Wlnthrop, 203,
Schuyler, Philip, 120, 146, 151, 193.
Scott, 61r Walter, 153.
Scottish representation in Parliament,
249.
Seabury, Samuel, 84.
Secession, threats of, 211, 218 ; no con
stitutional right of, 344.
Secrecy of the debates in Federal
Convention, 230.
Sedgwick, Theodore, 122, 319.
Self-government, 57, 63, 88.
Senate, federal, mane independent of
lower house, 253 ; contrasted with
House of Lords, 295.
Senates, origin of, 66.
Soven Years' War, 13, 188.
Sevier, John, 200.
Shattuck, Job, 180.
Shays rebellion, 180-182, 218, 243,
316, 319, 325.
Sheffield, Lord, protectionist, 137 ; on
the Barbary pirates, 160.
Shelburne, William, Earl of, his char
acter, 4 ; his memorandum on pro
posed cession of Canada, 11 ; prime
minister, 16 ; approached by Ray
neval and Vaughan, 22 ; misjudged
by Fox, 40 ; defends tho treaty, 43 ;
resigns, 44 ; Iub conduct justified by
bis enemies, 45 ; understood the
principles of free trade, 4, 134.
Shepard, William, 180, 181.
Sherman, Roger, 229, 243, 250, 255,
267, 274, 276 279, 283, 299, 313 ; his
suggestion as to rolations of the ex
ecutive to the legislature, 278, 280,
298.
Shillings, 165.
Ship-building in New England, 137-
139.
Shute, Rev. Daniel, 322.
Sidney, Algernon, 64.
Singlotary, Amos, 322, 324, 325.
Six Nations, 190, 203.
Slave-trade, foreign, permitted for
twenty years, 204, 323, 333.
Slavery in tho several states, 72-75,
266 ; prohibited in northwestern
territory, 205 ; discussions about It
in Federal Convention, 257-267 ;
condemned by George Mason, 2G4.
Slaves, representation of, 268-202;

•' >

INDEX.

367

numbers of, in tho several states,
2GG.
Email fltatea converted to federalism
by tho Connecticut compromise,
253, 315.
Smith, Adam, 126, 134, 135.
Smith, Capt. John, 19 1.
Smith, Jonathan, 324-32G.
Smith, Molanchlhon, 3-tO, 313, 344.
Smugglers, 135.
South Carolina, Episcopal church in,
78, 82 : rovokoa five per cent. Im
post, 108 ; issues papor money, 169 j
absolulo need of conciliating her,
259, 2G0; makes bargain with New
England states, 202-267 ; debates
on tho Constitution. 332-334 ; rati
fies it, 334.
Sovereignty never belonged to sepa
rate states, 90.
Spain, treaty of 1733 with Great
Britain, 3G ; attempts to closo Mis
sissippi River, 208-211, 218, 335.
Spanish dollar, why it superseded
English pound as unit of value in
America, 1GG.
Spermaceti oil, 139, 103.
Springfield arsenal, 181, 185.
States, powers domed to, 272.
Stormont, Lord, 45.
Story, Joseph, 27G.
Strachey, Sir Henry, 22.
Strong, Caleb, 228, 252, 279, 324,
327.
Succession disputed, 289,
Suffrage, limitations upon, 70.
Sugar trade, 138.
Temple, Lord, 44, 46.
Teunessee, 18, 189, 199.
Thayendanegea, 50.
Thomas, Isaiah, 1G5.
Thompson, Gen., in Massachusetts con
vention, 324.
Thurlow, Lord, 5.
Thurston, member of Virginia legisla
ture, 344.
Tithing-men in New England, 76.
Tobacco as currency in Virginia, 165.
Tories, American ; see Loyalists.
Tories, British, 42.
Townshend, Thomas, 17.
Trade, barbarous suporstitions about,
134.
Travelling, difficulties of, ft century
ngo, 61.
Treaty of 1783, difficulties In the way
of, 8 ; strange character of, 24 ; pro
visions of, 25-33 ; a great diplomatic
victory for the Americans, 3-1, 1R9;
Regret article relating to Florida
boundary, 33, 203; adopted, 45;
news arrives in America, 50 ; Con
gress unable to carry out its pro
visions, 119-132, 154.
Trespass Act in New York, 123-128.

Trevett vs. Weeden, 176.
Tucker, JoBiah, 58, 141.
Tyler, John, tho older, 214, 337*
Union, sentiment of, 55.
Uuitarianism, 86.
University men in Federal CouTontioD|
22-1.
Vaughan, Benjamin, 22, 35.
Vergennes, Count de, 12 ; wishes to
satisfy Spain at tho expense of tho
United States, 18-21 ; thwarted by
Jay, 22 ; accuses tho Americans of
bad faith, 33 ; tired of sending loans,
104.
Vermont, troubles in, 151-153 ; riots
in connection with the Shaya rebel
lion, 183.
Vice-presidency, 282.
Victoria, Queen, 293.
Vincennes, riot in, 210.
Violenco of political invective, 39,
Virginia, church and state in, 78-85 ;
on five per cent, impost, 104; pnpor
money in, 170 ; takrs possession of
northwestern territory, 188-191 ;
cedes it to the United States, 194 ;
plan for new federal governmont,
233-242; its reception by the con
vention, 242 ; compromise as to
representation of slaves, 259-2G2 ;
resents the compromise between
South Carolina and tbe New Eng
land Btates, 265 ; debates on the
Constitution, 335-337 ; ratifies it,
337.
" Visionary young men," i. e,, Hamil
ton, Madison, Gouverneur Morris,
etc., 313.
Waddington, Joshua, 127.
Walpolo, Horace, 10.
Walpole, Sir Robert. 290.
War, the Civil, 55, 25G, 2G2; contrast
with Revolutionary, 101-303; cost
of Revolutionary, 1GG.
Washington, George, marches from
Yorktown to the Hudson River, 51 ;
disbands the army, 51 ; resigns his
command, 52; goes home to Mount
Vernon, 53; his "legacy" to the
American people, 54 ; on the right
of coercion, 100 ; urges half-pay for
retired officers, 106 ; supposed
scheme for making him king, 107 ;
his masterly speech at Newburgh,
110; president of tho Cincinnati,
115; on the weakness of the con
federation, 1G2 ; wishes to hnng
speculators in breadstuff's, 164 ;
disapproves of Connecticut's reser
vation of a tract of western land,
193; approves of Ohio Company,
203 ; his views on tho need for
canals between east and west, 212 ;

368

INDEX.

important meeting hold at his
houso, 214 ; Is chosen delegate to
tho Federal Convention, 221 ; presi
dent ol the convention, 229; his
solemn warning, 231, 303 ; his sug
gestion as to tho basis of represen
tation, 262 ] asks If he shall put tho
question on the motion of Wilson
and Pinckney, 277 j disapproves of
electing executive by the legisla
ture, 279; sends draft of the Con
stitution to Congress, 307 ; called a
fool by tho AntilodorallBts, 313 ;
approves of amendments, but op
poses a second convention, 329 ;
unanimously chosen president of
the United States, 348 ; his journey
to New York, 349 j his inaugura
tion, 350.
Washington, William, 334.
Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, 83.
Watt, James, 00, 2G7.
Wayne, Anthony, 60.
¦Wealth as a basis of representation,
257.
•Webster, Daniel, 60, 206, 270.

¦Webster, Pelatlah.101, 222.
Weeins, Mason, 83.
Wesley, John, 85.
West, Eev. Samuel, 322.
Wost India trade, 133, 104.
Whigs, British, sympathize with revo
lutionary party in America, 2.
"Whiskey as currency in North Caro
lina, 105,
White, Abraham, 324,
Whitefleld, George, 85.
Whitchill, Robert, 313.
Whitnoy, Ell, 207.
William tho Silent, 65.
Wilson, James, 228, 243, 246, 248,251,
201, 274, 277, 279, 281, 282, 299,300,
312, 313, 310.
Witenagemot, 66. _
Worcester Spy, 165.
Wraxall'B Memoirs, 2.
Wyoming, troubles in, 148-150.
Wytho, George, 228.
Yates, Robert, 226, 242, 244, 246, 254,
3-10, 341.
Yazoo boundary, 33, 208.

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