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/ 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF 

AMERICAN HISTORY 
I 783-1 789 



BY 



JOHN FISKE 



A^7 



I am uneasy and apprehensive, more so than during the war. 
Jay to Washington, ^une 27, 1786. 



THIRTIETH THOUSAND 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

1899 



Copyright, 1888, 
By JOHN FISKE. 

All riyhts reserved. 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S A 
Electrotyped and Printed by U. O. Houghton & Co. 



To 

MY DEAR CLASSMATES, 

FRANCIS LEE HIGGINSON 

AND 

CHARLES CABOT JACKSON, 

/ DEDICATE THIS BOOK. 



PBEFAOE. 



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 the 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 Nortji 
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. vii 

tone by perpetual warfare, like tlie 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 



Viii PREFACE. 

has followed the deadly struggle, we may well be- 
lieve it to be the index of such a stride toward the 
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. 



CONTEl^TS. 



CHAPTER I. 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 



Fall of Lord North's ministry ...... 1 

Sympathy between British Whigs and the revolutionary 

party in America ........ 2 

tt weakened the Wliig party in England .... 3 

Character of Lord Shelburne 4 

Political instability of the Rockingham ministry . . 5, 6 

Obstacles in the way of a treaty of peace . . . . 7, 8 

Oswald talks with Franklin 9-11 

Grenville has an interview with Vergennes .... 12 

Effects of Rodney's victory ...... 13 

Misunderstanding between Fox and Shelburne ... 14 

Fall of the Rockingham ministry 15 

Shelburne becomes prime minister 16 

Defeat of the Spaniards and French at Gibraltar . . 17 

French policy opposed to American interests ... 18 

The valley of the Mississippi ; Aranda's prophecy . . 19 

The Newfoundland fisheries ...... 20 

Jay detects the schemes of Vergennes .... 21 

And sends Dr. Vaughan to visit Shelburne .... 22 

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 ........ 25 

2. Fisheries ; commercial intercourse ... 26 

3. Private debts 27 

4. Compensation of loyalists 28-32 

Secret article relating to the Yazoo boundary ... 33 

Vergennes does not like the way in which it has been done 33 
On the part of the Americans it was a great diplomatic 

victory 34 



X CONTENTS. 

Whicli tlie commissioners won by disregarding the instruc- 
tions of Congress and acting on their own responsibility 35 
The Spanish treaty ........ 36 

The French treaty 37 

Coalition of Fox with North 38-42 

They attack the American treaty in Parliament . . 43 

And compel Shelbnrne 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 adopts and ratifies the American treaty . . 45 
The coalition ministry is wrecked upon Fox's India Bill 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, was 
really a death-blow to his system of personal govern- 
ment 48,49 

CHAPTER II. 

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 

Cessation of hostilities in Anaerica . . . . , 50 

Departure of the British troops . . . . . 51 

Washington resigns his command ..... 52 

And goes home to Mount Vernon ..... 53 

His " legacy " to the American people .... 54 

The next five years were the most critical years in Amer- 
ican history ......... 55 

Absence of a sentiment of imion, and consequent danger of 

anarchy ........ 56, 57 

European statesmen, whether hostile or friendly, had little 

faith in the stability of the Union .... 58 

Fiilse historic analogies ....... 59 

Influence of railroad and telegraph upon the perpetuity of 

the Union ........ 60 

Difficulty of travelling a hundred years ago ... 61 
Local jealousies and antip.atliies, an inheritance from prime- 
val savagery ........ 62, 63 

Conservative character of the American Revolution . . 64 
State governments remodelled ; assemblies continued from 

colonial times ........ 65 

Origin of the senates in the govenior's council of assistants 66 

Governors viewed with suspicion . . . • . 67 



CONTENTS. XI 

Analogies with British institutions ..... 68 

The 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 toward religious freedom ..... 76, 77 

Church and state in Virginia ..... 78, 79 

Persecution of dissenters ...... 80 

Madison and the Religious Freedom Act ... o 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 the changes described 
in this chapter were favourable to the union of the 

states .......... 88 

But while the state governments, in all these changes, are 
seen working smoothly, we have next to observe, by 
contrast, the clumsiness and inefficiency of the federal 

government ......... 89 

CHAPTER ni. 

THE LEAGUE OP FRIENDSHIP. 

The several states have never enjoyed complete sovereignty 90 
But in the very act of severing their connection with Great 

Britain, they entered into some sort of xmion . . 91 

Anomalous character of the Continental Congress . . 92 
The articles of coirfederation ; they sought to establish a 

" league of friendship " between the states . . 93-97 

But failed to create a federal government endowed with 

real sovereignty ....... 98-100 

MUitary weakness of the government . . . 101-103 

Extreme difficulty of obtaining a revenue . . . 104, 105 
Congress, being unable to pay the 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 Washing-ton .... 110, 111 

Congress driven from Philadelphia by mutinous soldiers . 112 ~— r 



xii CONTENTS. 

The Commutation Act denounced in New England . . 113 

Order of the Cincinnati 114-117 

Reasons for the diead which it inspired . . . . 118 
Congress finds itself unahlo to carry out the provisions of 

the treaty with Great Britain 119 

Persecution of the loyalists 120, 121 

It was especially severe in New York .... l22 
Trespass Act of 1784 directed against the loyalists . . 123 
Character and early career of Alexander Hamilton . 124-126 
The case of Rutgers v. Waddington .... 127, 128 
Wholesale emigration of Tories .... 129, 130 

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 

ti-ade were 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 ........ 141 

But any^ such reprisal was impracticable, for the several 

states imposed conflicting duties ..... 142 

Attempts to give Congress the power of regulating com- 
merce were unsuccessful ..... 143, 144 

-j — 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 

X -^ The quarrel betrween Connecticut and Pennsylvania over the 

possession of the valley of Wyoming . . . 148-150 



CONTENTS. xin 

The quarrel between New York and New Hampshire oyer 

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 " f~ 

Failure of American credit ; 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 ........ 165 

Cost of the war in money 166 

Robert Morris and his immense services .... 167 

The craze for paper money ....... 168 — ^ 

Agitation in the southern and middle states . . 169-171 

Distress in New England ....... 172 

Imprisonment for debt . . . . . . . 173 

Rag-money victorious in Rhode Island; the "Know Ye" , 

measures ........ 174-176 

Rag-money defeated in Massachusetts ; the Shays insurrec- 
tion 177-181 

The insurrection suppressed by state troops . . . 182 

Conduct of the neighbouring states 183 

The rebels pardoned 184 

Timidity of Congress 185, 186 

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 ......... 191 

Maryland's novel and beneficent suggestion . . . 192 1 

The several states yield their claims in favour of the United 

States 193, 194 

Magnanimity of Virginia ....... 195 

Jefferson proposes a scheme of government for the north- 
western territory ........ 196 



> 



xiv CONTENTS. 

Names of the proposed ten states 197 

Jeffei-son wishes to prohibit slavery in the national domain 198 
North Carolina's cession of western lands . . . 199 

John Sevier and the state of Franklin .... 200, 201 

The nortliwestern territory 202 

Origin of the Ohio company 203 

The Ordinance of 1787 204-206 

Tlieory of folk-land upon which the ordinance was based . 207 
Sjiain, hearing of the secret article in the treaty of 1783, 
loses her temper and threatens to shut ujj the Missis- 
sippi Eiver 208, 209 

Gardoqui and Jay 210 

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 

the Potomac ......... 214 

The Madison-Tyler motion in the Virginia legislature . 215 
-Convention at Annapolis, Sept. 11, 1786 .... 216-7x 

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 
Sudden 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, 225 

Character of James Madison 226, 227 

The other leading members 228 

Washington chosen president of the convention . . . 229 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

Why the proceedings of the convention were kept secret for 

so many years ........ 230 

Difficulty of the problem to be solved . . . . 231 

Symptoms of cowardice repressed by Washington's impas- 
sioned speech ........ 232 

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 of war - 233-235 



CONTENTS. XV 

Tlie Virginia plan, of wliieh Madison was the chief author, 

offered a radical cure ...... 236 

And was felt to be revolutionary in 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 the New Jersey plan; not a 

radical cure, but a feeble palliative .... 245 

Struggle between the Virginia and New Jersey plans . 246-249 
The Comiectieut 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 ....... 252 

And proves a decisive victory for Madison and his methods 253 
A few irreconcilable members go home in dudgeon . . 254 
But the small states, having been propitiated, are suddenly 

converted to Federalism, and make the victory complete 255 
Vague dread of the future west ...... 255 

The struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties 
began in the convention, and was quieted by two com- 
promises ......... 256 

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 . . 260 
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 New England and South 
Carolina as to the foreign slave-trade and the power of 
the federal government over commerce . . . 263 
George Mason calls the slave-trade an " infernal traffic" . 264 
And the compromise offends and alarms Virginia . . 265 
Belief in the moribund condition of slavery . . . 266 

The foundations of the Constitution were laid in compromise 267 
Powers granted to the federal government .... 268 
Use of federal troops in suppressing insurrections . . 269 



xvi CONTENTS. 

"Various federal powers ....... 270 

Provision for a federal city under federal jurisdiction . 271 
The Federal CongTess might compel the attendance of mem- 
bers 272 

Powers denied to the several states ..... 272 
Should the federal government be allowed to make its 
promissory notes a legal tender in payment of debts ? 
powerful speech of Gouverneur Morris . . . 273 

Emphatic and unmistakable condemnation of paper money 

by all the leading delegates 274 

The convention refused to grant to the federal government 
the power of issuing inconvertible paper, but did not 
think an express prohibition necessary .... 275 

If they could have foreseen some recent judgments of the 
supreme court, they Avould doubtless have made the 
prohibition explicit and absolute .... 276 

Debates as to the federal executive ..... 277 

Sherman's suggestion as to the true relation of the execu- 
tive to the legislature ....... 278 

There was to be a single chief magistrate, but how should 

he be chosen ?........ 279 

Objections to an election by Congress .... 280 

Ellsworth and King suggest the device of an electoral col- 
lege, which is at first rejected ..... 281 

But afterwards adojjted ....... 282 

Provisions for an election by Congress in the case of a failure 

of choice by the electoral college ..... 283 

Provisions for counting the electoral votes . . . 284 
It was not intended to leave anything to be decided by the 

president of the Senate ...... 285 

The convention foresaw imaginary dangers, but not the real 

ones 286 

Hamilton's opinion of the electoral scheme . . . 287 

How it has actually worked ...... 288 

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 .... 290 

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 



CONTENTS. xvii 

Circiimstances whieh 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 the delegates . 303 
And the convention breaks up . . . . . • 304 
With a pleasant remark from Franklin .... 305 

CHAPTER VII. 

CROWNING THE WORK. 

Franklin lays the Constitution before 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 
the people 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 .... 319 

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 .... 325, 326 

Attitude of Samuel Adams 326, 327 

Meeting of mechanics at the Green Dragon .... 327 

Charges of bribery ........ 328 

Washington's fruitfid 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 

eyes are turned upon South Carolina .... 332 



xviii CONTENTS. 

Objections of Rawlins Lowndes answered by Cotesworth 

Piuckney .......... 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 Providence and Albany 339 

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 ....... 346 

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 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF AMERI- 
CAN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 
RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

The 20th of March, 1782, the day which wit- 
nessed the £aU of Lord North's ministry, was a 
day of good o^ien 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 successfnlly 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, 
Sympathy be- ^Gcause they were in the right. Charles 
wwkL and^lhe ^^x spokc of General Howe's first vic- 
plrty"" Amer- ^o^T '^^ " tlic terrible news from Long 
'*'*• 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 tlie 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 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 3 

attempt upon the liberties of America. Looking 
beyond the quarrels of the moment, they preferred 
to have fx-eedom 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 

It weakened 

the chief source of the weakness or the the wings in 

. England. 

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 o^overnment 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 



i 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 esj)ecially obnoxious to the king. On the 
other hand, the Earl of Shelburne was, 

Character of . , ... 

Lord shei- in a ccrtam sense, the political heir of 

burne. 

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 and commercial 
monopolies which had been so largely instrumental 
in brincfino- about the American Revolution. But 
being in 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 kinff, 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 5 

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 wovild 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 ponticai insta> 
little. Though a good party leader, he RockinVlm 
was below mediocrity as a statesman, ™""^ ^^' 
and his health was failing, so that he could not at- 



6 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

tend to business. Tlie master spirits were the two 
secretaries of state, Fox and Shelburne, and they 
wrangled perpetually, while Thurlow carried the 
news of all their quai'rels to the king, and in cabi- 
net meetings usually voted with Shelburne. The 
ministry had not lasted five weeks when Fox began 
to jjredict its downfall. On the great question of 
parliamentary reform, which was brought up in 
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 come 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 ©Imposition. It contained great adminis- 
trative talent, which made itself felt in the most 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 7 

adverse circumstances. To add to the difficulty, 
the ministry came into office at the ci-itical moment 
of a great agitation in Ireland. In less than three 
months, not only was the 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 
man}^ 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 the war. 
Seldom has there been a more oddly obstacles in 
complicated situation. Peace was to be treat7^o£°^ ** 
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 



8 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

the duties which they entailed upon the combat- 
ants. Spain, though at war with England for pur- 
poses of her own, was bitterly hostile to the United 
States ; and France, 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 jjolitically and 
personally hostile to each other. Fox, as 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 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 9 

for. Informal negotiations began between Shel- 
burne and Franklin, who for many years had been 
warm friends. In view of the 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 ^ , , . „ 

Oswald talks 

conversations Franklin suggested that, ^'*^ Frantiin. 
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 
their 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. 

America unjustly, and liad 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 Fi'anklin 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 exjjressed 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 17G3, Great Britain would be will- 
ing to recognize the independence of the United 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 11 

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 Shelburne'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 



12 RESULTS OF YORK TOWN. 

of. 2. To jprevent future wars. — Answer. It is 
to be hoped that some more friendly method will 
be found. 3. As a fund of indem?iiJication 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 Bi-itish 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 w^ith Vergennes, 
Grenviiie has ^ud told him that, if England recognized 
with ver-*'"^ the independence of the United States, 
gennes. ^j^^ should cxpcct Fraucc 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, nearl}^ 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 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 13 

much if favoured by fortune ; and, recurring to the 
instanco which rankled most deeply in the memories 
of Frenchmen, he cited the events of the 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 Enoiand 

• 1 • 1 -1 * • • 1 1 1 Effects of 

rang with jubilee. Again it had been Rodney's vic- 
shown that " Britannia rules the wave ; " 
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, the ministry decided " to 



14 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

propose the independence of America in tlie 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, and 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- 
rninded 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 
naturaUy puzzled him and made him angry, for the 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 15 

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 duplicity, 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 ^^11 of the 
would probably of itself have broken S°':^;tr|;'Xiy 
up the ministry, but, by a curious co- ^' ^'^■'' 
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 



16 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

a party leader, and his connections were not suffi- 
ciently aristocratic. Fox Avas 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. Tn this embari'assment, 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 

Shelburne . i i , -r> • i i • i • 

prime minis- resigned, Dut Kichmoucl remained m 
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 

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 tha.t 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 th@ 
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 fortvmate 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 Guadalouj^e. 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 ^^^s, and did not wish to see them be- 
Amerk!ii°in- come too powcrf ul. France had strictly 
terests. 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 by 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 

Creeks. Several thousand pioneers from North 
Carolina and Virginia had already set- ^he vaiiey of 
tied beyond the mountains, and the sippt^'Tran- 
white population was rapidly increasing. ^^'^ prophecy. 
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- 



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 AUeghanies, 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- 
TheNew- icau interests. The right to catch fish 
fisheries. ou the bauks 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 \)&o- 
ple, but they were the training-school of a splendid 
race of seamen, the nursery of naval hei'oes whose 
exploits were by and by to astonish the world. 
To de^jrive the Americans of their share in these 




MAP OF NORTH AMERICA, 

Showing the Boundaries of the UNITED STATES, CANADA, and the 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 Pai-is 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 France 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. 

a dispatch from Marbois, the French secretary of 
lescation at Philadelphia, to Vero;enues, 

Jaydetectsthe ° . i » • ^ • ^ 

Eciiemesof opposiDg 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 Vergenues, 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. 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 23 

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 the 
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 Its 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 

, • 1 1 r ^ Franklin over- 

make peace without the consent or the ruled 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. 

gemies, 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 in this respect. At the same 
time, in regard to matters not expressly stipulated, 
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 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 25 

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. The principal questions 
had ali-eady been discussed between Franldiu 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 Alleglianies and the 

^ / . . . . , , , The separate 

Mississippi, the torts in which were al- American trea- 

ready held by American soldiers, and upon : i. 

,. • 1 1 n 1 • • m.1 Boundaries; 

she relinquished all claim upon it. llie 
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 the 



26 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

Woods, thence to the source of the Mississippi, 
which was supposed to be west of this Like. 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 Gidf 
of St. Lawrence, but lost the right of drying their 
2. Fisheries; fish ou the Newfoundland coast. On 

commercial i i i i • • 

intercourse ; the otlicr hand, uo pcrmissiou 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 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 27 

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 o£ Great Britain 
such exclusive use and trade, and the respective 
ports and establishments, as neither the other sub- 
jects of Great Britain nor any the 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 pi'operty and general rough treatment 
which they had suffered. There were many old 
debts outstanding from American to ^ ^ . . 

o 3. Pnvate 

British merchants. These had been for ^^^^^' 
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. Franklin, 
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. 

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 injuiy, 
and, if pi'acticable, 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 witli 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 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 29 

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 



30 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

not be indemnified by Congress. First, as Fi'ank- 
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 wliich 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 friends 
who had suffei^ed 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. 81 

the separate states. The question could not for a 
moment be 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 o£ 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 tlieir 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. 
The British commissioners accejjted this comjjro- 
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 

suggestion involved, tlie British commissioners gave 
way and acceiDted 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 80th of November, 
six days before the meeting of Parliament. Hos- 
tilities in America were to cease at once, and upon 
the completion of the treaty the British fleets and 
ai'mies 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 east from the mouth of the Yazoo River 
to the Chattahoochee. 

Thus by skilful diplomacy the Americans had 
gained all that could reasonably be asked, while 
the work of making a general jDeace 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, 

Vergennes 

that at the worst they could only be does not uko 
charged with want of diplomatic cour- wwoh it has 

• 1 1 T been done. 

fcesy, has sometimes been condemned as 
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. 

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 jjart of the Americans the treaty of Paris 
A great dipio- ^^^ ^^^ ®^ ^^^® most brilliant triumi:)hs 
matic victory, jj^ ^^^ yfihole history of modern diplo- 
macy. Had the affair been managed by men of 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 35 

ordinary ability, some of the greatest results of the 
Kevolutionary 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 
etacle 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. 

from Robert Livingston. As Adams said, in his 
vehement way, " Congress surrendered their own 
sovereignty into the hands of a Fi-ench minister. 
Bhish ! blush ! ye guilty records ! blush and perish ! 
It Js gloxy 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 Fi-ance, 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 the sujoport of 
treaty. Fraucc slic sccmcd 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 the 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 unwiJling to 
give further assistance, and the matter was settled 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 37 

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. TUe French 
Lucia and ceded Tobago to France. "^^^' 
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 ^ncient rival ; but be^^ond 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- 



38 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

meanour and seeming want of confidence in them. 
In December several of tlie ministers resigned. 
The strength of parties in the House of Commons 
was thus quaintly reckoned by Gibbon : " Minis- 
ter 140 ; Eeynard 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 

Coalition of p • i i t- i i 

Fox with another more terociouslv than 1 ox had 

North. 1 n TL.- 1 1-1 

attacked JNorth durnig 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 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 39 

that Fox had himself clone 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 di-opped off 
to sleep. Gibbon, who was the friend of both 



40 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

statesmen, expressly declares that they bore each 
other no ill will. But while thus alike indi^jposed 
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 strong 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 no\v to try the 
effect of a coalescence of Old Whigs and Tories. 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 41 

Such was doubtless tlie chief motive of Fox in 
this extraordinary move. The conduct of North 
seems harder to explain, but it was j^robably 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 Barre, 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 could 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 Shelbui-ne 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 jDublic 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 the 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 wlio had conducted 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 43 

the unsuccessful war, was bound to oppose tlie 
treaty, in any case. It would not do for him to 
admit that better terms could not have 

Fall of Shel- 

been made, i he treaty was also very bume's mmis- 

• try. 

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 
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 
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 
the war ; and since it had come to this, he said, 
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 
were quite right there can now be little doubt. 
But argument was of no avail against the resistless 
power of the coalition. On the 17tli of February 
Lord John Cavendish moved an amendment to the 



44 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

ministerial address on tlie treaty, refusing to ap- 
prove it. On the 21st he moved a further amend- 
ment condemning the treaty. Both motions were 
carried, and on tlie 24th Lord Shelburne resigned. 
lie 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 
huntino; for some one who would consent to be his 
prime minister. He was determined not to submit 
The kin 's ^^ ^^^ coalitiou. He was naturally cu- 
wrath. raged at Lord North 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, 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 45 

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 as 
chancellor of the exchequer, and Keppel as first 
lord of the admiralty. The only Tory in the 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 the 
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 nothinsr. The a,. ^ ^ . 

o The treaty is 

definitive treaty which was finally signed af^b^^thfcr 
on the 3d of September, 1783, was an tjj) whkh^'' 
exact transcript of the treaty which presently faus. 
Sbelburne 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. 

conservative and constitutional country. Early in 
the winter session of Parliament Fox brousrht in 
his famous bill for organizing the government of 
the great empire which Clive and Hastings had 
built up in India. Popular indignation at the 
ministry had been strengthened by its adopting 
the same treaty of peace fop 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. 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 47 

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 hour was constitutional 
come. He was more than any one else ^'^j^^^ over^^ 
the favourite of the people. Fox's polit- fo^y of^pltt?*'' 
ical reputation was eclipsed, and North's ^^^' ^''^^• 
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 he 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 constitutioual duty to dissolve Parliament 



48 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

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, 
and all its advantages accrued to the 

Overthrow of ^^ ttt tt* 

George III. 'a pCOplc, and UOt tO (jrCOrgC ill. xllS lU- 
systera of per- . „ . ^-.... 

sonai govern- geuious systcm ot wcak 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 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 49 

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. 



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 anniversar}^ 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 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 51 

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 array 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 ajkhome, 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 fuU discharge, for on the 3d 
of September the definitive treaty was departure of 
signed, and the country was at peace. troopsfNov. 
On the 3d of November the army was ^^' ^'^^• 
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- 
co^and'f ^^^ gavc up his comtuaud, and requested 
^°'^^" as an "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 theatxe of action 
with the 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 he 
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 



54 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"ie ac " ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^ independent power. First, 
to the Ameri- there must be an indissoluble union of 

can peoi)le, 

June s, 17S3. ^iM the states under a single federal 
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. 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 55 

The unparalleled grandeur of Washington's char- 
acter, his 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 years fol- 
lowing the peace of 1783 was the most critical 
moment in all the history of the American people. 
The dangers from which we were 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 Absence of a 
even while their flesh was withering in u^o'^anV^ 
the relentless flames. In 1783 the love dangToT* 
of union, as a sentiment for which men ^^^"^^^^y- 
would fight, had scarcely come into existence 



56 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 sevei-e 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 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS, hi 

reason to fear that as soon as the 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 one 
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 sta,tesmanship 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 jsrey 
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 
suffer 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. He 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, he said, had ever long existed on so great 
False iiistoric ^ scale. The Roman republic had been 
analogies. transformed into a despotism mainly by 
tlje 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- 
SCi-ee 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- 
influenceof tivc was to follow in Icss than half a 

railroad and 

teiegrapii ccnturv. Evcu witli all other conditions 

upon perpetu- '' 

ity of the favourable, it is doubtful if the Ameri- 

American 

Union. can Uniou 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, we 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 
the 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 down and lift the clumsy wheels hundred^yeara 
out of deep ruts, the progress was much ^^"^ 
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 one 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 
states were inconsiderable. The occupation of the 
people was chiefly agriculture. Cities were few 
and small, and each little district for the most 
part supported 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- slavc-holding South Carolina, or English 
ihie'^"'in"inl'''' Counccticut aud Dutch New York, that 
primevar^sa" misuudcrstood and ridiculed each the 
^^^^^- 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 



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 in 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 the 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 

Conservative . , , , i i i • 

character of proprietary governors, the work had in 

the Revolution. . , , . . . 

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 

Declaration of Independence there were three kinds 
of government 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 projjrietary appointed their 
governors, or in some instances acted as governors 
themselves. In Maryland the office of lord pro- 
prietary was hereditary in the Calvert g^ate govern- 
family ; in Delaware and Pennsylvania, ^i^d! asTemI 
which, though distinct commonwealths from'cSai*^ 
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 lesral doc- 
uments ; and their charters, which dated from the 
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- 



■ X 



66 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 

bers were chosen each yeai', 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 excejjt Pennsylvania a property qualification 
was required of them. 

In addition to this House of Representatives all 
the legislatures excejJt__those of Pennsylvania and 
Georgia contained a second or ufjperTibuse known 
Origin of the ^^ the Senate. The origin of the senate 
senates. j^ ^^ ^^ fouud in the govcmor'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 the 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 Maryland 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. Idl 
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 unpopidar in those days. There 
was too much flavour of royalty and high preroga- 
tive aboiat them. Except in the two republics of 
Rhode Island and Connecticut, American political 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 67 

history during the eighteenth century was chiefly 
the 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 

- - suspicion. 

sachusetts, the governor was at nrst 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. The 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 ii governor elected by the peo- 



68 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 

pie for a term of three years, and twice reeligible. 
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 amovuit 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 THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 69 

In all the thirteen states the common law of 
England remained in force, as it does 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. Tlie 
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 Jersey, 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- 

1 \l 1 • 1 + T^. '^''^ judiciary. 

ei^nor 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,^ — 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 

^ In recent years Georgia has been one of the first states to 
abandon this bad practice. 



70 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 

this subject. In New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, 
The limited Delaware, and South Carolina, all resi- 
Buflrage. dent freemen who paid taxes could vote. 

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 
j^ossess 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. 
i-A/V^/^At the time of the Revolution the succession to 
V( 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- 

. . ture, entails, 

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 
possible for the different states to take measures 
for the gradual abolition of slavery and the imme- 
diate abolition of the foreign slave-trade. On this 
great question the state of public opinion in 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 "^ 

the abolition there was not the slightest hope that 

of slavery and , o i 

thesiave- the trade in 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 ! 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 contemj)orary Thurlow, who in 
1799 poured out the vials of his wrath upon " the 
altogether miserable and contemjitible " 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 eJimi" 



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 sentrmeiTTin" favour of emancipation. In 
North Carolina, which contained a large Quaker 
population, and in which estates w^ere 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 underwent 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-enlai*ging 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 X5 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 
Hampshire 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 kidnapj^ing 
or selling into slavery any free person should suffer 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 75 

death on the gallows. Summing up all these facts, 
we see that within two years after the 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 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 j)ort 
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 nev/ 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 <» • t tit i 

ward freedom callv OU an CQUal lOOtUlg. lu Kliode 
in religion. tiiiit-» • i i 

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 heres)^, 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 the 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 Til I RT KEN COMMONWEALTHS. 

tor, olectcd by their own conj^rcgatioiis iustc^ud of 
bein<!^ :i])pointocl to their livings by a patron, were 
thoron^lily independent, and in the hite war tlielr 
pow(nl"ul inlUienee had been mainly exerted in 
behalf of the patriot eause. Ilenco, while they 
retained their inlhienec^ after tlie (^lose of the war, 
thtu'o was no dii'lienlty in disestaldishing the elnireh. 
It felt itself able to stand withont goviu-nmont snp- 
j)ort. As soon as tlu^ ])olitieal separation from 
England was effeeted, the Ei)iseopal ehnreh was 
aeeordingly separated from the state, not oidy in 
Sonth Carolina, Imt in all the states in whieh it 
had hitherto been npheld by the anthoi-ity of the 
British governm(>nt ; and in the tH)nstitniions of 
New Jersey, Georgia, and the two Carolinas, no 
less than in those of Delaware and Pennsylvania, 
it was explieitly providinl that no man should be 
obliged to pay any church rate or attend any reli- 
gions service save according to his own free and 
unhami)ered will. 

The case of Virginia was peculiar. At first the 
Church of England had talten dei^p root there 
because of the consickn-able inuuigration of nnan- 
bers of the Cavalier ])arty after the downfall of 
Charles I. Most of the great statesmen of Vir- 
ginia in the Ivevolution — such as Washington, 
Madison, Mason, .Jefferson, I'endleton, Henry, the 
Lees, and the lvandol])hs — were de- 

Cliuroh and c / i i • i i n 

state in vir- scencuiuts ot I avaluM's and members oi 

giiiiu. 

the Church of England. l>ut foi- a long 
time th(^ E])iscoj)al clergy had betui falling into 
discredit. Many of them were a})})ointed by the 
British government and ordained by the IJishoj) 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 79 

of Loudon, and they were affected by the irreli- 
gious listlessness and low moral tone of the English 
church in the eighteenth century. The Virginia 
legislature thought it necessary to jiass 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. J jut 
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 antagonism 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 ])e 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 



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 ! " 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 Madison and 
parish rates abolished, and still more, Freedom Act, 
all religious tests were done away with. ^"^■ 
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 neero 
slavery. Nearly all the states still imposed reli- 
gious tests upon civil office-holders, from simply 
declaring a general belief in the infallibleness of 



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- 



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 o£ 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 

■' HI- Mason Weema 

from Maryland, named Mason Weems, aufi samuei 

"^ . . Seabury. 

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.i 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 ^^^^ uou-juriug Jacobite bishops of the 
1784. 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 

^ 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. 465-472 ; 
V. 85-90. At first an eccentric 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 rector of Mount Vernon Parish," — which Bishop 
Meade calls preposterous. The book is a farrago of absurdities, 
reminding one, alike in its text and its illustrations, of an over- 
grown English eliap-book of the olden time. It has had an enor- 
mous sale, and lias very likely contributed more than any other 
single book toward foi'ming 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, which 
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 feelins", to act as liis 

Francis As- . ■, ... 

bury and the assistant and representative in this coun- 

Methodists. » i • 

try. At that time tliere were not more 
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 3^ears after this the Presbyterians, who 
were most numerous in the middle states, organ- 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 87 

ized their government in a general assembly, 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 sprino' up soon after the close 
of the Revolution. The revolt against Roman catuo- 

. lies. 

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 sejjarated from the 
English establishment and placed upon an inde- 
pendent footing in the new world. From another 
Exce t in the P^"^^ ^^ vicw it may be observed that all 
instance of tlicsc chang^es, cxccpt in the instance of 

slavery, all o ' x 

were^ favorable slavcry, tcudcd to assimilatc the states 
to union. ^q q-^q anothcr 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. 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. 89 

A.t the same time tliis 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. 



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 w^as 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, 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 91 

and were held together, juxtaposed rather than 
united, only throuijh their alleg-iance to The several 

\ , "^ ° ° . states have 

the British crown. Plad that allegiance "ever enjoyed 

^ complete sov- 

been maintained there is no telling how ereignty. 
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 su.ch as Canada now enjoys, we might per- 
haps have 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 the 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. 

"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 the 
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- Cougrcss. For the vicissitudcs through 
toe^iTraordl' wliich it passcd, there is perhaps no 
nary character. ^^^^^ revolutionary body, savc 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 ; 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 93 

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- r^^ articles of 
federation ; but as the work of the com- •^"'^ederation. 
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, while Greene was leading Corn- 
wallis on his fatal chase across North Carolina, the 
confederation proposed at the time of the Declara- 
tion of Independence was finally consummated. 

According to tL 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 the 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 Congi-ess, 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 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. 

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 alliapce, 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 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 97 

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 aj)- 
point all naval officers, but also to establish courts 
of admiralty. 

Several essential attributes of sovereignty were 
thus withheld from the 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. 

more than that o£ the deliberative head of a league. 
For the most fundamental of all the at- 

The articles ., ; "„ • , ,^ « 

failed to create triDutes ot Sovereignty — tlie power or 

a federal gov- . i • , n\ 

ernment en- taxatiou — was uot giveu to Cougress. 
reaisover- 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 was 
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 the 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 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 99 

presently arose it led the distressed people to seek 
some otlier method of relief, and thus prepared the 
way for the Convention of 1787, which destroyed 
the whole 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 
tall for troojjs 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 

L.ofC. 



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 he said, that 
" a knowledge that this j3ower 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 the 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 could 
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 

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 Pelatiah Webster 
that as early as May, 1781, he published an able 
pamphlet, vu'ging 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 orijanization may be 11- 

° ^ , 1 (• Military weak- 

lustrated by comparing the number of uess of the 

^ ' ^ r^ ^ t government. 

regular troops which Congress was able 
to keep in the field during the 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 
midtlle 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 the 
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 coidd make liberal offers of 
bounties, a demand was made upon the states for 
80,000 men, or nearly one fifth of the adult male 
population, 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 Washington and Greene, working with desper- 
ate energy and most pitiful resources, to save the 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 103 

country. A more impressive contrast to the readi- 
ness with which 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 
miffht 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 ulti-a- 
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." ^ 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 oeneral 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 
of the earlier war and the energetic conduct of the 
later. 

1 History of England in the Eighteenth Century, iii. 447. 



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 
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 

Extreme diffl- ^ Tii /-i ,• , i 

cuity of obtain- CongTess. llic 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 the 
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 -$4,000,000 might 
be raised by a loan, and the other f 5,000,000 were 
demanded of the states. At the end of the year 
f 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 been 
paid by the middle of 1785. And the worst of it 
was that no one could point to a remedy for 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 „ ^ ,., 

Dread of the 

frontier posts. But Congress could not =^™^y- 
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 the 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 s„ppoge^ 
time, and urging him to come forward ^akh!" wash- 
as a saviour of society, and accept the "igto^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 Macdougall, " 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. TV hen 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 ! " 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 
w^ould 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 

had lately emerged from the retirement in which 
he had been fain to hide himself after Camden, 
and had rejoined the army where there was now 
snch a field for intrigue. An odious ax'oma 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 aj^peal 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 

•^ -^ rf • The danger- 

seven long- years vour sutternie: cour- ousNewburgh 

'^ "^ '' . ^ address, 

age has conducted the United States of March ii, 

^ . 1783. 

America through a doubtful and bloody 
war ; and peace returns to bless — whom ? A 
country willing to redress your wrongs, 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 be 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. Appeal from 
the justice to the fears of government, and sus- 



\Hvt tho umu who WouUl u*l\ l^o to lonx^oi 1\m l>i'a»v 

ut '\\\ tlu> hyat souUmum^ gx4 UolU of tho j»^4>or uo\( 
Urtv, just uv t'uu»\ «!* ho !*nuh " t\> nri'xvst tho toot 
thut >»t\>vHl wuvoviu^ii iV4» i\ jv\voi|vuv," Tho uu^u\ory 
of tho \tJV\4t of tho IVunHvlvuu'u'V H\u\ whioh \\m\ 
so t>.\avuusl tho jM^'jvlo iu 1781, wus v**till t'lvjih lu 
u\ou\h miwvls I u»ul hovt> »«>» }U> u»v\tHtiv»u t\» ^uolt^ 
\vh\vlojijUo uuitiuv, whioh v^mKl hju\Uv tuil tv» oiul 
i» IvK^vnUhtHh M\d uu^^ht ^MtH-^vUnto tho j>orivh^\ovl 
tuul ouv\v{U'»'«sH>io\l \H»u»vtvY into olvil wur, \\ ujJi- 

wuH> ^vf thti \u««UWvv, Init ovt>vruhu^if it so tW ns 
to rtj>>\Hviut tho \uootiu^if t\vv » \ntor da\\ with tho 
sK^vvioi" lui^jo^iivuoi'ivl, who hnp^H^uo^l t\» K^ (inttvs 
t\» |v\tv^iUo, Thi* ^v»\lo\\ whioh ut^itht^^' ilisioijUiuo 
Uivi' <Hmvtt\H\ iHn\hi vliswjiuwh iu h \uoasmv titnl 
(vnt^v'i'H hnvuls whiW it ^hyo \\"us.lii»v^^tvui tiiuo to 

a^»^Hviutt^l Uhv h<^ sAiuhlowlv o»u\o ii\tv^ tho iwwtiujj, 
HwU tuul\l ^vv\vt\xu»uloj*t ?i.ihnuH> hvwko t'ovrh in a 
»w\\a| ^Usju^ut iuui tvnu^Jiiii^^ sjvt^tnvh, Sviu^vnthiaix*^' 
K^'t^wly with tho jiwtYovixv^^s of his ht^uvvs, juul fviUv 
iuluuuiug thoiv ohiiius, ho u^'jhwUsI tv> thoiv K>ttov 
fvH4i»v^>», »Aul wiwi^ultnl tht^iu \vf tlu» ttniiMo Uit>l« 
oultitv^ vvwvh'^i' whioh l.\n»^iv.vs InKnutHh »iul ivf tl\o 
fvvllv of ^nUtiuii thoiusolvovs i« tho wixm^^, Uo still 
KXHuxst^lUnl fvuUv^vmiuv »s tho ^x\>4U^\^t wf \iotvxvit\s 
a«vl with auisuuimnto skill ho ohi»Vs^>otoviAHl tho 
tiuvuuiuous vH^^^Hwl s*s luulouht^Hllv tho wvuk of svmu> 



'////'; i.KAtjiiic ni' i'iiii':Nh!Hiii' Jii 

\.\tt: tiiiiiy y/)/i';)j ilny \i;oi iioi \ft*an ti\)U^ Uf v;tn/jui«)<. 

I'l'Sui-A'A ;J) j>;iy, wj)jj<t i'lAnnny^ mom iUnn H.uy </Umi?«' 
man iti Ui« loom^ j/;ty<^ fuhit'A )v^i^ii;\^i Utavmy word, 
in j/roof of t)/<5 f^oo'l f;ti(,|j of Conp; «<'.«« Ij<j Sn^/^an 
ii'/.tAUipi; a Ji;U<^/' f/orii on<5 of tlu* i»''*nfy'^r«, wiM^«, 
li/i'Jinp5 l»j« sslj^ljt <ii»/», l)i', j>aij»<^^J Hhd to<>k frow* )<i» 
poclii^t i\ni /«{W pair of ^n'j'X'.wXoa wii'mli iltf, asjtro/*.- 
o/jM^r Davi'l iihU'iili^mmi, U'.ui just svi^nf/ )<im, \U*, 
Ji;m1 tii;vt:r won* ii\ii'A'XiU;U'H \n puMi'?, an<i aw la^ j;;»jt 
tlxjiu on h<'. »ai<i, itt \th mu\>U'. mmmt^i' atui with 
jji« j>|j',awant ««nif<^, " / ljav<? grown j^ray in youi' 
iii',i-\ii',i'., an<l »»ow (in'J tny>>i'M' 'i/rnwhtp^ (;)in/J." 
VVIiiJ/', al) ln'Sii'Ui s^i'.vi', mtfU'JuA Un v^i'.l^i on n'/4/i\uy^ 
tl«; U'XU'i; an<l Ux^n witl</lr<^w, U'uvUr^ ih<'. mi-MJttp; 
Ut iia tU',\'t\)i',r.iiltfUii. 'lUiitu wa« a, aiAii'^ti mn\ 
tn't'/liiy r<iViilsiou of fm'Mn^, A m</i]on was »'«- 
[totU'.ti <J<'.<',)arinj^ " nn«halw« OAniMtttvA', in tfj<'. jus- 
ti<'^5 of </ongr<'/»« ; " aiul it v/a» haUUA that " U«^ 
oifiU'Aua of tlM^ Aumr'u'/^n su'tny vU',w with tA>\nn'i'iihi'M 
a/i<l ft'/y'A'X with 'lisv'lain tfj<'. infanjou« |>roj>04-;al« '^'//n- 
Ui'moA in a Ja(/<-, ano/*yn»//ii« iuUi tf.i'.a Ut iin-in." 'I ha 
cr<j»tf allien (iiiUi», a» ^Jiairnian, I/jkI nothinj^ to 'il/> 
hut put th<'/ <|u<'-«tion an«J r^^port it ^'/.tt/nA unanl- 
jnofii'jjy ; for if any i^tiJ) j'<;njain<-.'l <AAiniiU', th<-;y n/> 
Untiicj' ihii't'Ai in tilnfW it. Wa»hi/iJ4t'/n hfnittniiaUily 
fA'X fo/th th<', urj^<^n/;y of th/'. '?as^? in an niirnHai 
hXiA'j' Ut ('yon'^i't'MH, an<J on<i w<'^-k kf^tr tit*'. timiU-:!' 
was* «<^tt)i;<J hy an sKst I'Anumni'm^ \t:Ai-\M.y Uiv I'tfa 
'ittU) a j^roi^w «un< <i<jua) </> fiy<t y<^tr»' fuJJ pay, i/> \>*i 
<i't>A:\i:ii'ii^<'A\ at on^'^i hy fA-j-iMU'/diA'a h<',ari*jj/ lnU'j'*^t 
at »ix p<ir <'^;nt. Hu<;h j>o</; \,:i\H'.f was* ail tJiat 



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 o£ 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 distrust with 
which the army was regarded on general principles. 
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 paj^, 
broke from their camp at Lancaster and 

Congress a 

.irivenfrom marchcd dowu to Philadelphia, led by 
by mutinous ^ sersTeant or two. They drew up in 

soldiers, June o j i 

21, 1783. \\y^Q 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 
«at in the same building, and so the federal gov- 
ernment appealed to the state government for pro- 
tection. The appeal was fruitless. President 
Dickinson bad a few state militia at his disposal, 
but did not dare to summon them, for fear they 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 113 

should side with the rioters. The 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 g'ovei-nment 
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 eno-ao-e- 
ments, and did not the sacred Scriptures say of an 
honest man that, though he sweareth to his own 
hurt, he changefch not? Such plain truths j^re- 
vailed in the Boston town-meeting, which voted 
that " the commutation is wisely blended with the 
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 take into account 
another incident of the summer of 1783, which 
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 j^assionate lan- 
guage against the wicked and dangerous society 
of the Cincinnati. Just before the army was dis^ 
banded, the officers, at the suggestion of Genera] 
Knox, formed themselves into a secret society, for 
the purpose of keeping up their friendly inter. 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 115 

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 the 
Cincinnatus, who was taken from the c^'^^^"- 
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 the 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 orplian 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 ! cried the 
men of Massachusetts. Have we 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, ^danus 
Burke, a judge of the Supreme Court of South 
Carolina, wrote a violent pamphlet against the 
society of the Cincinnati under the pseudonym of 



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 in the presence of 
graver questions the much-dreaded brotherhood 
gradually ceased to occupy popular attention. 



118 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 

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 
fliofht of Cougress 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, in 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 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 119 

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 uneasy 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. ^ 

•' '' Congress nnds 

As an offset to these liberal concessions, itseu unable to 

carry out the 

of which the most considerable was the provisions of 

the treaty. 

acknowledgment of the American claim 
to the 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, 



120 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 

should be indetunified 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 the 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 
that Congress was powerless to carry out the joro- 
visions of the treaty upon either of these points. 
The recommendations concerning the Tories were 
greeted with a storm of popular indignation. Since 
the beginning of the war these unfortunate persons 
Persecution of had bccu 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 the 
" Massachusetts Chronicle " expressed the common 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 121 

feeling : " As Hannibal swore never to be at peace 
with the Romans, so let every Whig swear, by 
his abhorrence of slavery, by liberty and religion, 
by the 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 the rubbish 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 home, 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 fi-ontier 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 wei'e 
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 the city, it was felt that a 
great day of reckoning had an-ived. 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 
severit3% 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 ^^ ^ 

•' The Trespass 

abetted the enemy. It was voted that y'^^^j.^*^^ 

no Tory who had left the state should 

be permitted to return ; and a bill was passed 



124 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 

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 bi'ought 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 ^^ ^^^ bom on the island of Nevis, in 
Hamilton. ^hc Wcst ludics, iu 1757. His father 
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 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 125 

his parents. To the shrewdness and persistence, 
the 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 
the American government is moving to-day along 
the lines which he was the first to mark out. 
As an economist he shared to some extent in the 
shortcomings of the 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 eminent 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 Caesar-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. Plamilton 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 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 127 

law, and in 1782, at the age of twenty-five, was 
chosen a deleoate to Cono-ress. 

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 i). 

-f . , . , , , WaUdiugton. 

It was a case ni which popular sympath}^ 
was naturally and strongly enlisted in behalf of the 
poor widow. That she should have been turned 
out of house and home was one of the many gross 
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 " the 
fruits of immovables belong to the captor as long 
as he remains in actual possession of them." The 
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 
leo'islation ajjainst the Tories. On larsfe 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 Phocion, 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 
pamjihlets 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 cliallenge Hamilton to mortal com- 
bat, until some one of them should have the good 
fortune to kill him ! The scheme met with general 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 129 

favour, but was defeated by the exertions of Ledyard 
liiraself, whose zeal was not ardent enough to eon- 
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 Hamilton, 
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 ; the 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 „ . ^. 

Emigration 

emigration which took place between of Tories. 
1783 and 1785 was very large. It has been esti- 



130 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 

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 parliamentary 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 the wrong individuals who 
suffer. We could well afford to dispense with the 
border-ruffians who abetted the Indians in their 
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 increased 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 131 

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 
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. ^.^^ ^^^.g 
On this point also Congress was power- "o°ce''' a°ment 
less to enforce the treaty. Massachu- BritL^ifcredit- 
setts. New York, Pennsylvania, Mary- retkiiatefby'^ 
land, Virginia, and South Carolina had sur"ender'the 
all enacted laws obstructing the collec- western posts. 
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 
were aware that such conduct needed an excuse, 
and one was soon forthcoming. Many negroes 
had left the country with the British fleet : some 
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 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 

sumably a freeman, and lie could not lend liis 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 the 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- 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP. 133 

lent excuse, while the weakness of Congress made 
any kind o£ 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. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 

At the close of the eighteenth century the bar- 
barous superstitious 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 • 

perstitions tics trade both must be gamers, or one 

about trade. . ° 

would soon stop tradnig, 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 in its being a customer 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 135 

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, im- 
derstood the animus of the theoiy 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 the 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 o£ 
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. 

The carrying trade to the West Indies had been 
one of the most important branches of American 
industry. The men of New Enojland 

/ 11, Shipbuilding 

were famous lor seamanship, and bet- i" 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 twenty-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- 
ine: 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 Bi'itish 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- Wcst India sugar trade with the North 
ord" rThi coun- American colonies and with Great Brit- 
againsTAmeii- ^iu had bceu of immense value to all 
can commerce, pg^j.^jgg^ g^jjjj r^\\ j^g^j bccu scriously 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 eiTorts 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 

- . , . , . -p, Jolin Adams 

was obstinately set against nun. ±>ut tries in vain to 

P 1 TVT • • A 11 1 negotiate a 

tor the JNavigation 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 j^rivileges 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 Americans 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 was 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 

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 distx-ess 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 shou^ld 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 vip war- 
fare by commercial instead of military methods, 
and there was danger that it might lead to a re- 
newal of armed conflict. Nevei-theless, 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 imtil 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 Yoi-k laid a double duty on 

Reprisal im- . t • t-» • • i 

possible; the all goods wliatcvcr imported in British 

states impose i . x i 

conflicting sliips. In the samc year Pennsvlvania 

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 

»-. were instructed to recommend a general conven- 
tion of the states for the purpose of revising and 
amending the articles of confederation ; but the 
delegates refused to comply with their instructions, 
and set forth their reasons in a paper which was 
approved by Samuel Adams, and caused the legis- 
lature to reconsider its action. It was feared that 
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 
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, 
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 
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 



Ill nini'liNc lowAun ANAiicnv. 

uiiilrtl iicrnin. Ill iJio Vii(',iiiin. jiMHoiiiMy, ii liol- 

liriiih'il iiiImi-, iuiiikmI 'riiiiiHl.oll, «lcrliii('(l liiiiiKrir 

ill tlolllil. ■•' wlirllicr ill Wmild iml, lie lirllcr Id cil- 

«Mtiiiii|;(i I.Ih^ hriliiiii nil.lirr Miiiii l.ln' i-jihIimii iiiii- 
rliir;" IhiI, I.Ik* rminiK vvmh {.nndtMl wilJi liinMrn jind 
j^roiiiri, Miitl IIh- it|M'iil*rr vv.'i;i i(|Mc(|ily |iiil <l<»\\ii 
Amid Hiicli iiiiiliiiii! ir:il(HiHii>H niid iiMM^i viiif;it, diir 
ill/; l.lir yonr ITHf* iicTh wnt^ piiHHcd l»y ten Ht.'ilfM 
Ifninliili^' I/O ( loiifj;iTnii l.ln' |io\\» red" iri^iilniiii/.', imhii 
liM>r«io r«ii' iJio ('iiHiiin;;' iJiiilcni yniirH. TImi Mii<>»i 
HinicH wliii'li rrlrjiiiHMl I'loin iu'l.in|.j;' wrrc ( ir(»i|'iii, 
Soiil.li ( 'Miuliii.'), .'Mid I ><'l!ivv!ii'('. 'riiif :i*-tii ul iJio 
(•llicr It'll \v»>r<', !iti ini/^dil. iiiivo JMirii (^x|MM'l(•(l, a 
jiinddr ul' iiiroiii' ;i'uil,i<>H. Norlli < 'iiroliiiii ;.';i!inliMl 
nil llii' |Hi\M'i' lli.il. \v:iu iimIu'iI, ImiI. Mli|Md:il.('d lli.'it, 
vvlirii idl tlu^ HiiiitMi idioidd liiivr d(iii<' liKivviM*^ llirir 
ncTM slioidd Im< HiiiiiiiitMJ ii|i in :i iitvv .'iilirh^ <d coti- 
IVdn.'iiiuii. ( '(iiiiircl.iciil, rciiii;iy I v;iiii;i, ;iiid Miiry- 
l.'iiid li;id li\i>d llii^ <ln.r<^ ill vvliirli |jii> |.;i':iiir w:iH l.o 
tuhr t'lTrrl., wliilc IMkhIo Irthiiid |M-i>vidrd tJi.'ii ii> 
MliiMild iiiil, ('\|iii(^ iiiilil mIIi'I' IIic I:i|);ic oI Iwriily- 
livo y(*iiiM. Tlio f;r;iiil. I»y New ll;iiii|»;iiiii(' Jillowrd 
lilt* |M)\v<U' to 1m* iiMi'd (tidy ill one H|MMilicd way, — 
by n*Hlri<iiiii!; Ilio dnlic:! iiii|M»M!il»l<i l»y Ilic Hrvcrnl 
Htiii«<H. Tlio fj^riiiilH ol" MnHHjicliiiH«'l,l,H, N<nv V<»ih, 
N(*\v tl(>rH('y, iiiid Virj^iiiin. \vor<' iinl, lo l,;du' rllci'l, 
iinl/il nil I III' uIJkth hIioiiM ^'o iiilo o|M>i-:il,i<iii. Tlio ' 
only lliinj;' wliicli ( '<tn/;r(«HH could do willi IJichc jicI.h 
www l(> ri'lVr llii'in Icick to iJio Hrvcr.'il K'^mmImIiiim'S, 
williii |>(tlili' nM|ii(<'4|, l,(> Iry to rcdiicr llinii to Homo- 
tliin;; liKr iiiiiloiniity. 

Mt'imwliilr, Mir dilTdit'iit ntjitcu, willi tlicir dif- 
It'i'ciil, tiirifl' iiiid toiiMii|j;'o JK^IiH, lirptii to mimUo <-oni- 



hi'.ll'l i:ifi 'l(}WAI'.h ANAH/JIY \\'> 

HKjrrrial w;>,r m^iku <>ui; fuifft.hhr. So ■^>*)fifir ha/J t.Uh 
(Ahtff iiircM Sew V^w^Vfiuii *tat>;» virtuaJly <:\(At-A 
i)tMr X}f/rt,n t/> i'/rithh ahjj/jrtng than 
i^(/rin(-/',iu^ni thr^^w h^rrs wuit: ot>*;T», an ■»** i-,*!f,w*>i5» 
w^, much ^hh Jol\f>wt-A up r/y Jaying 

«ylvarija <\'imi'\unuii,U'A agaln-it iMlawar*;, an/l New 
Jf-jM^y, pjllag*;/! at, ^/n/^; by V/th h^rr ^rCdXnr nfjigli- 
iM/arn^ was«t r^>wi|/ar*;/] f/; a cank tapjjf^l at ly/tli f^fl», 
Hx; cjmAiK^, (4 Saw Yf/rk Uyaroe t;9,\}fj^'^\y ^-MVAi 
an/1 \>\'<tmhW(frthj. That rapi/J 'growth which wa» 
»o «/x/Ti to carry th/j r?ity and th/; »tatfe to a p(mlum 
r/f \fr\iu'<ij(',y in th'; I'ii'kiti ha/l 'An-AiAy \)(','/rm, Afu^ 
th<} <\c\f^riMrc of th*; i'n'hhh ihh rhv'iv'A (A hmtnhHfi 
wfjnt on with leap* an'l J^/un/ln. The fe^jlJng of 
l/x>al fifttnV/tiHTri waxe/1 ?,\,r(>it'^., and in no one wan it 
more c/)in\>\(^/:]y rnanifent^;/! than in G*y/rge (y'lin- 
t^rti, the ilevolatiz/nary gen*?ral, wh//rn the j>f50ple 
(i]f-/!:i4-A governor for nine nuc/'/cmivh U-.tj/ih. From 
ahumhle origin, 1/y dint of nhrewflner-iH and nntir- 
fng jxtish, Ci'mi/m ha^l e^^we V; f/<3 for the mornffnt 
the n/'/o-t [K/'z/erfuI ;rian in th<', Ht^te of \ew York. 
He ha/J '///me t/j )/»^/k njx^n the .Htat>; almost an if 
it were hi» own j/rirat*; manor, and hia life wa<» de- 
vr;t<;^l t/; furthering it» mU-Jc-iiA an he nnder-it/xxl 
th'rm. It wan hi.H firnt ai-tiele of faith that New 
Vof k mu.Ht he the greateJit »tat^ in the Union, 
iiut }»i:-t (umcAi\f\'unt'i>, <A Htat/;?iman»hip we're eot- 
treniely narrow. Jn hi» mind, the welfare of New 
York meant tl»e prdling down and throating aaide 
of all her n<;ighhonr'-jand rivals. He wa» the vigor- 
</rj5» and Htf'/r>AfH.9A. arl v^^/jat/j of every \]h\>*;ni] and 
exchmva manmirn^ 'Atul the most uucj/inyroiuln'tng 



146 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 

enemy to a closer union of the states. His great 
popular 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 shijJs from London or 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 147 

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. 

by a special federal court, appointed in accord- 
ance with the articles of confederation, 
temt'or^fdi^- The prize was adjudged to Pennsylva- 

asters in the . -, .^ i p r^ 

vaueyofwyo- ma, and the government ot 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 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 149 

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 as 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-doors, and burned 
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 the 
settlers. Patterson disobeyed, however, and with- 
drawing his 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. 

]\Ien 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 handcuifed 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 in 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 the people set 
great store by the latter peculiar institution, public 
sympathy was gradually awakened for the sufferers. 
The wickedness of the. affair began to dawn upon 



DRIFTING TOWARD AJVARCHY. 151 

people's minds, and they were ashamed of what had 
been done. Patterson and Armstrong were frowned 
down, the legislature disavowed their acts, and it 
was ordered that full reparation should be made to 
the persecuted settlers of Wyoming. ^ 

In the Green Mountains and on the upper waters 
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 Troubles in 
state, and applying to the Continental fountains 
Congress for admission into the Union. ^'^"'^-^■ 
The New York delegates in Congress succeeded iu 
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, was chosen governor, and held that position 
for many years. 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 

^ A very interesting account of these troubles may be found in 
the first volume of Professor McMaster's History of the People of 
the United States. 



152 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 

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 II. , 
New Hampshire extended only sixty miles from 
the coast. Vei-mont 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 lihine, — 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 River, but also as- 
serted sovereignty over the towns in 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 



DRIFTING- TOWARD ANARCHY. 153 

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 
way, they show us a glimpse of the untold dangers 
and horrors from which the adoption of our Fed- 
eral Constitution has so thoroughly freed us that 
we can only with some effort realize how narrowly 
we have escaped them. It is fit that they should 
be borne in mind, that we may duly appreciate the 
significance of the reign of law and order which 
has been established on this continent during the 
greater part of a century. When reported in 
Europe, such incidents were held to confirm the 
opinion that the American confederacy was going 
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 ^'^^^^^d the questiou 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 made 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 
Failure of cxpenscs. It was sickcuing work. Just 
wTd^^Tohn before John Adams had been appointed 
Adams beg- minister to Eng-land, and while he was 

gmg m Hoi- o ^ 

land, 1784. visitiug in London, he suddenly learned 
that drafts upon him had been presented to his 
bankers in Amsterdam to the 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 thi'ee hundred thousand dollars. 
The members of the 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 he mournfully 
confessed, that American credit was dead. Such 
were the trials of our American ministers in Europe 
in the dai^k days 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 

The Barbary ' 

pirates. g^ pandcnionium of robbery and murder 

as has scarcely been equalled in historic times the 
pirate states of Morocco and Algiers, Tunis afiid 
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 vipon 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 of 
their favourite practices was the kidnapping of 
eminent or wealthy persons, in the hope of extort- 
in «; ransom. Cervantes and Vincent de Paul were 
among the celebrated men who thus tasted the hor- 
rors of Moorish slavery ; but it was a calamity that 
might fall to the lot of any man or woman, and it 
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 
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 un- 
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 
navy in the Mediterranean at the beginning of the 
present century form an interesting episode in 
American history, but in the weak days 

[, ,, ^ » T , . American citi- 

ot the Coniederation our commerce was zens kid- 
plundered with impunity, and American 
citizens were seized and sold into slavery in the 
markets of Algiers and Tripoli. One reason for 



IGO DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 

the long- survival of tliis villainy was the low state 
of humanity among European nations. An Eng- 
lishman's sympathy was but feebly aroused by the 
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 on 
the commerce of the United States, in which 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 Euroj3e 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. The envoy's love Tripoli de- 
f or mankind was so great that he could mali, Feb.''*' ' 
not bear the thought of hostility between 
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- 



162 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 

miny when it confesses its inability to protect the 
lives and property of its citizens. A government 
Congress un- wliicli lias couic to this has failed in dis- 
Anredcrrcfu- charging the primary function of govern- 
''®"^" ment, and forthwith ceases to have any 

reason for existing. In March, 178G, Grayson 
wrote to Madison that several members of Congress 
thought seriously of recommending a general con- 
vention for remodelling the governmento " 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 wc know not of. I am, however, in no 
doubt about the wealoiess 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, resj^ectable, 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 Kevolution 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 
tatesturpoiit- ^^d deep-seated was not to be denied. 
At the beginning of the war the amount 
of accumulated capital in the country had been 



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 povei-ty 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 
siseculation and extravagance in living, followed by 
sudden collaj)se 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 monej'' 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 



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 circidating 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 gtateofthe 
and fourpence-ha'-pennies, there were coinage. 
bits and half-bits, pistareens, picayunes, and fips. 
Of gold pieces there were the Johannes, or joe, the 
doubloon, the 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 the 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 ovir 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, the 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 every moderately cautious person, in taking 
payment in hard cash, felt it necessary to keep a 
small pair of scales beside him and carefully weigh 
each coin, after narrowly scrutinizing its stamj) 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 f 170,000,000 — 
a huge sum if we consider the circumstances of the 
country at that time. To meet this crush- 

Costofthe . .111 

war; Robert ing indebtedness Mr. Hildreth reckons 

Morris and liis 

inimenseser- the total amouut raiscd by the states, 

vices. •' ^ 

whether by means of repudiated paper 
or of taxes, down to 1784, as not more than |30,- 
000,000. No wonder if the issue of such a strug- 
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- 



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 wliich 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 iU omen for the fortunes of 



168 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 

the weak and disorderly Confederation that in 1784, 
after tlu-ee years of herculean struggle with unpos- 
sibilities, this stont heart and sagacious head could 
no longer weather the storm. The task of creating 
wealth out of nothing had become too arduous and 
too thanldess 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 dirty 
remedies, had f idl control of the field. In the very 
face of miseries so plaiidy traceable to the deadly 
paper currency, it may seem strange that peojsle 
should now have begun to clamour for a renewal 
of the experiment which had worked so much evil. 
Yet so it was. As starving men are said to dream 

of dainty banquets, so now a craze for 
paper-mouey, fictitious Wealth iu tlic sliapc of paper 

money ran like an epidemic through the 
country. There was a Barmecide feast of economic 
vagaries ; 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 ujjon men's 
minds more forcibly than ever the wretched and 
disorderly condition of the country, and went far 
toward calling into existence the needfid popidar 
sentiment in favour of an overruling central govern- 
ment. 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 169 

The disorders assumed very different forms in 
tlie 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 ijaper at its southern and' 

, ^ ■■• midcUe 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 was 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 pajDcr by dint of 
threats and forcing acts, the faster its value fell. 
Virginia had issued hills 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 biU 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 23oi3ular in- 
terest. Pennsylvania had warily begun in May, 
1785, to issue a million dollars in bills of credit, 
which 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 sj^ecie 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 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. l71 

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 j^assed 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 a.t 
Elizabethtown, which 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- 
cidty 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 himseK 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 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 

was the swift and certain renewal of bankruptcy 
which so many states were prej)aring for them- 
selves. 

Nowhere did the warning come so quickly or so 
sharply as in New England. Connecticut, indeed, 
as already obsei'ved, came off scot-free. She had 
issued a little paper money soon after the battle 
of Lexington, but had stojjped it about the time 
of the surrender of Burgoyne. In ] 780 she had 
wisely and 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- 
DistressinNew ncutly tlic maritime states of the Union, 
England. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^j^^ \Aow9^ ahucd 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 machinery 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, jjerhaps, 
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 some- 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 173 

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 kinder 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 178G, 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 overwhelmins: 
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 stamj) they dismissed as 
an idle crotchet, a wire-drawn theory, worthy only 
of "literary 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 
rapidit}', they were at first astonished, and then en- 
raged. The trouble, as they truly said, was with 
the wicked merchants, who would not 

Raff money in i • c 

victorious in take tlic paiscr dollars at their face value. 

Rhode Island ; ■"• ^ 

tiie"Know Tlicsc uicu wcrc tlius thwarting the 2:0 v- 

Te " measures. ^ •--' '-' 

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 

business was at a standstill in Newport and Prov- 
idence, except in tlie 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. 

heavy discount. Ti-evett ^yent 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 infonuer. 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 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 177 

and alarm among sensible people in all the other 
states, and Rhode Island was everywhere reviled 
and made fun of. One clause of the foreina: 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 the 
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- 

-. 1 ■, . 1 ^ • ^ ^^o money de- 

mated that the private debts in the featedinMas- 

sachusetts ; 

state amounted to some i7, 000,000, and theShaysmsur- 

rection, Aug. 

the states arrears to the federal erov- nsc-Feb. 

° 1787. 

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 '150 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 wei^e 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 di-essed 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 j^eti- 
tioners admitted that such money was sure to de- 
teriorate in value, and they doubted the wisdom of 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 179 

trying to keep it up by forcing acts. Instead of 
this they woukl 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 soft 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 watch 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 ! " 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 aoi- 
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 sx)me 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 have 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- 



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 insvirgents. 
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- 
uaiy Shays attacked him with a force of somewhat 
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 

tion suppresTe'd two stecp hiUs protccted at the bottom 

by state troops. ,, itj. T*ii i 

by liu<je snowdriits. liincoln 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 ofticers. 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 

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 Stockbri dge and carried off the 
leading citizens as hostages. He was pursued as 
far as Sheffield, defeated there in a sharp skirmish, 
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- 

, . ,,,..,.,.* Conduct of 

bouring states to lend their aid m bring- neighbouring 

, . . . Ill states. 

ing 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 ! 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 rejirieve 
for a few weeks. At the annual election in Aj^ril 
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 whose enei-getic measures the 
jjrompt 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 rule 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 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY. 185 

though the legislature are firmly persuaded that 
... in all probability they will be able speedily 
and effectively to suppress the 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 county 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 troojjs 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 

1111 * Congress 

that would run through the land. Ac- afraid to in- 

. 11 1 terfere. 

cordingly Congress m 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 ! National hiimiliation 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. 



CHAPTER V. 

GEEMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 

While tlie 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 a 

I . , . (, , national do- 

sucn ancient lines oi precedent as to main beyond 
take ready hold of people's minds, al- ies! ^^^^^ 
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 AUeglianies, — 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, we 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 lie volution ary 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 have 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 Smterru 
the Revolutionary War the Americans ^°^^' 
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 
colonies 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 eachusetts and 

-^ , -ff 1 1 • 1 1 Connecticut. 

Charles 11. conquered this colony and 

bestowed it upon his brother, the 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 
Claims of New Conuecticut. In the seventeenth cen- 

York. 

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 j)i'etty 
much everything north of the Ohio and east of the 
Miami. 

But according to Virginia, it made little differ- 
ence what Massachusetts and Connecticut and New 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 191 

York thought about the matter, for every acre of 
land, from the Ohio River up to Lake Superior, 
belonged to her. Was not she the lordly Virginia's 
" Old Dominion," out of which every <=iaims. 
one of the states had been carved ? Even Cape 
Cod and Cape Ann were said to be 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 which 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 noveiandbe- 
neighbours. But of these protesting gestion, oct. 
states it was only Mainland that fairly ' 
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.^ 
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 confedei-ation were then just about to be 
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 the boundary so ascertained into 
sej)arate and independent states, from time to time, 
as the numbers and circumstances of the people 
may require." To carry OTit 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 

^ This subject has been treated in a masterly manner by Mr. 
H. B. Adams, in an essay on Maryland's Influence upon Land Ces- 
sions to the United States, published in the Third Series of the 
admirable Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Pali- 
ttcs. 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- ™ , 

O The several 

ern claims to cede them to the United states yield 

their claims m 

States. In October, Congress, still pur- united "states 
suing the Maryland idea, went farther, ^'^^o-ss. 
and declared that all such lands as might be ceded 
should be sold in lots to immigrants and the money 
used for federal purposes, and that in due 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 11,200,000, in aid of schools and colleges. 

In January, 1781, Vii'ginia 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 Vii-ginia 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 
pi-eparcd men's minds for the work of the Federal 
Convention. Great credit is due to Maryland for 



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 the 
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 the 
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 Ma^animity 
trouble, just as, at the beginning of the °^ Virgima. 
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 the 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, 
Jefferson pro- undcr the authority of Congress ; and 
of gTwrmnent wlicu in any one of them the population 
wJst^rn terri- should comc to cqual that of the least 
tory, 1' • 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 me- 
diaeval things, and try to build our houses after old 
English models, and jjrefer 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 Caesar, 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 X stood for 
" Licking," while os signified " mouth," anti " 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 were Sylvania, Michigania, Cher- 



198 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 

sonesus, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, lUinoia, 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 

He wishes to ... 

prohibit siav- year 1800, but at the same time his anti- 

ery in tlie na- '' 

tionai do- slavcry ardour led him to try to extend 

main. *' ^ ^ ^ '' 

the national dominion southward. He 
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 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 199 

moment, the proposal to exclude slavery from the 
uorthwestern 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- 
ever 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 the 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 
ofFrankto,^ ^ constitutiou and elect a legislature 
with 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 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 201 

Congress, sent a delegate to that body, requesting 
that the new state 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 members 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 j)arent 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 exj^ected. 
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 life 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. 



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 Rnfus 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 "o company. 
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. The matter was then formally 
taken up by Holden Parsons of Connecticut, and 
Eufus 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 



■•fvA 



204 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 

its settlei's 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 centur}'^ 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 1787, 
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 
Theordinance territory 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 (;qual shares to children 
of both sexes. Public schools were to be estab- 



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 the 
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 the 
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 should 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- 
ins: 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 



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 the 
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, land upon 

-, . ■, 1 1 T • 1 which the Gr- 

and in each case the pubhc interest was dmaucewas 

so unmistakable that the people con- 
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 
AUeghanies 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 the 



208 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 

southern than by the northern states. In the 
north the westward emigration was only just be- 
ginning to pass the AUeghanies ; in the south, as 
we have seen, it had gone be^^ond 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 !L, . ^ 

of the secret iLast and VV cst t lorida were ceded by 

article in the _^ o • -itt- t-' • 

treaty of 1783, Ji,ngland to fepaiu. West Florida was 

loses her tern- . , . 

per and threat- tllC TCglOU lying bctwceu tllC Appalach- 

enstoshutup . ° -JO JTl 

tiie Anssissippi icola aiid the MississijjjDi 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 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 209 

were willing to yield the one to tlie 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 the 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 heaixl 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, ai^rived 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 confcr one favour u23on 
^'^^' them, but could not confer two. He 

was ready to enter into a treaty of commerce with 
us, but not until we should have 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 the settlements south of the 
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 Viucennes 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 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 211 

dangerous threat was made. Should the north- 
eastern states desert them and. adopt Jay's sugges- 
tion, they vowed they would, secede, and throw 
themselves upon Great Britain for protection. On 
the other hand, there was g-i^eat aoitation 

Tlireats of 

in the seaboard towns of Massachusetts, secession in 

rm T T •1111 Kentucky and 

ihey were disgusted with the back- inNewEng- 
woodsmen for making such a fuss about 
nothing, and with the people of the 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 overtlii'owing 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 the 
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 twccu cast and wcst, as " the .channel 
hnporrance^of of convcyancc of the extensive and val- 
tweeli east and uable trade of a rising empire." Just 
^***' 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 ^mental 
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 teU what complications may arise from this, 



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 he 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 meeting of the Fed- 
eral Convention he was largely occupied with this 
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, alfd^sen^devch 
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 his 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 Maryland con- 
Maryland to act in concert ; and early gi^^aregardTng 
in 1785 a joint commission of the two ofX'poto"°" 
states met for consultation at Washing- "^''' ^"®^" 
ton's house at Mount Vernon. A compact insur- 



214 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 

ing harmonious cooperation was prepared by the 
commissioners ; and then, as Washington's scheme 
involved the connection of the head waters of the 
Potomac with those of the Ohio, it was fonnd nec- 
essary to invite Pennsylvania to become a party to 
the compact. Then Washington took the occasion 
to suggest that Maryland and Virginia, while they 
were about it, should agree upon a uniform system 
of 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- *■ . . 

tion ; a step in motiou to the effect that commissioners 

advance, 1785. 

from all the states should hold a meet- 
ing, and 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 



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 furthei*, 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 
better 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 
meetins: 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 wlien the convention was gathered 

Convention at*' ^^^^rr1 

Annapolis, at Aunapolis, ou tlic 11th of oeptember, 

Sept. 11, 17SG. j ' T , 

the outlook was most discouraoinof. 
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 their 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 ref ei-ence 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- Hamuton's ad- 
missioners be appointed by all the therstepln'ad. 
states, to meet in convention at Phila- ^^'^°''- 
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 upon 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 



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 the self-love of Congress, 
and it refused to sanction the plan of the Annapo- 
lis commissioners. 

In an ordinary season this would 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- ^i^-tional domaiu, a promising jslan had 
postVmend^ bccu dcvised for relieving the country 
ment. of j^jg \on.(\. 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 wliich 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. 
The 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 the collectors ; she was not 
going to have federal 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. Ou 
the 15th of Februar}', 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 
would 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 qnite 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, g^^jg^ 
As soon as this was known, there was popXr senti- 
an outburst of joy throughout the land. ™''"*- 
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 liufus King now brought the matter up 
in Congress. His scruples as to the legality of the 
proceeding had not changed, and accordingly he 
moved that Congress should of itself projDose a 
convention at Philadelphia, identical with the one 
which the Annapolis commissioners had already 



^^■2 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 Tlic work wliicli tliesc mcu were under- 
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 projDosals, 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 chajiter 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 



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." ^ 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- 

^ It -would be in the hig-liest degree erroneous, however, to 
suppose that the Constitution of the United States is not, as 
much as any other, an instance of evohition from precedents. 
See, in this connection, the very able article by Prof. Alexander 
Johnston, New Princeton Review, Sept., 1887, pp. 175-190. 



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 cii-cumstances, 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, tliis group of men left 
nothing to be desired. In its strength and in its 
weakness, it was an ideally perfect assembly. 
There were fifty-five men, all of them 

The men wlio , i i c p -i i i? i 

wereassem- respcctablc lor lamily and tor 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 



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 the 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 thii^ty, 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. Jolin 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- 



226 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 

barrassed. For another reason, Hamilton failed 
to exert as much influence in the 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, j^erhaps, had 
that intense faith in the ultimate good sense of the 
people which was the most powerful characteristic 
of Jefferson. But Hamilton went to the 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 hearei'S. 
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- 
jamesMadi- bricty and balance of powcrs. Madison 
®''"- used to be called the " Father of the 

Constitution," and it is true that the government 
vmder 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= 
'jient 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 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 221 

influential member of Congress, where no one 
equalled or approached him for knowledge of Eng- 
lish histoi-y 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- 
pie 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 Tlicrc was Jolm Diclvinson, who had 
mem ers. movcd f rom 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 Putledge 
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 gallant Pinckneys. 
Caleb Strong, afterward ten times governor of 
Massachusetts, was a tyjjical Puritan, hard-headed 
and supremely sensible ; his colleague, Rufus 
King, ah'eady 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 



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 Koyal 
Society, and afterward president of Columbia Col- 
lege. The New Jersey delegation, consisting of 
William Livingston, David Brearley, 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 be 
induced to accept the result. These four were 
Luther Martin of Maryland ; George Mason and 
Edmund Randolph of Virginia ; and Elbridge 
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. He 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 FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

The Federal Convention did wisely in withhold- 
ing its debates from the knowledge of the people. 
It was felt that discussion would be more untram- 
melled, and that its result ought to go before the 
country as the collective and unanimous voice of 
the convention. There was likely to be wrangling 
enough among themselves ; but should their scheme 
be unfolded, bit by bit, before its parts could be 
viewed in their mutual relations, popular excite- 
ment would become intense, there might be riots, 
and an end would be put to that attitude of mental 
repose so necessary for the constructive work that 
was to be done. It was thought best that the 
scheme should be put forth as a completed whole, 
and that for several years, even, until the new sys- 
tem of government should have had a fair trial, 
the traces of the individual theories and preferences 
concerned in its formation should not be revealed. 
For it was generallv assumed that a sys- 

Difflcult prob- ° "^ . . *^ 

lem before the tem of government new in some nnpor- 

convention. ^ i i i 

tant respects would be j)roposed by the 
convention, and while the people awaited the result 
the wildest speculations and rumours were current. 
A few hoped, and many feared, that some scheme 
of monarchy would be established. Such surmises 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 231 

found their way across the ocean, and hopes were 
expressed in England that, should a king be chosen, 
it might be a younger son of George III. It was 
even hinted, with alarm, that, through gratitude to 
our recent allies, we might be persuaded to offer 
the crown to some member of the royal family of 
France. No such thoughts were entertained, how= 
ever, by any person present in the convention. 
Some of the delegates came with the design of 
simply amending the articles of confederation by 
taking away from the states the power of regulat- 
ing commerce, and intrusting this power to Con- 
gress. Others felt that if the work were not done 
thorouglily now another chance might never be of- 
fered ; and these men thought it necessary to abol- 
ish the confederation, and establish a federal re- 
public, in which the general government should act 
directly upon the people. The difficult problem was 
how to frame a plan of this sort which people could 
be made to understand and adopt. At the very 
outset some of the delegates began to exhibit symp- 
toms of that peculiar kind of moral cowardice 
which is wont to afflict free governments, and of 
which American history furnishes so many instruc- 
tive examples. It was suggested that palliatives 
and half measures would be far more likely to find 
favour with the people than any thorough-going re- 
form, when Washington suddenly interposed with 
a brief but immortal speech, which ought to be 
blazoned in letters of gold, and posted on the wall 
of every American assembly that shall meet to 
nominate a candidate, or declare a policy, or pass 
a law, so long as the weakness of human nature 



232 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

shall endure. Rising from his president's chair, his 
Washington's tall figure drawu up to its full height, he 
solemn appeal, exclaimed in tones unwontedly solemn 
I 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 we 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 wholesome 
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 which 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 btought for- 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 233 

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 aii 
edicts were without a sanction ; and this 
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 pi'operty. 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 
s^uperior force can you bring? Under some rare 
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 e very-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. 

day will lead you to attack some other state to- 
morrow. Hence you cannot get any military help, 
and you are jDowerless. 

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 force 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 not 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 
Americans 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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 235 

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 the Invincible Armada was overv/helmed 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 are 
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. Rut 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 manner 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 Vii-giuia plan. 

To make the federal government operate directly 

upon individuals, one provision was absolutely 

necessary. It did not solve the whole 

The Virginia ■,-,■,. . t , , , 

piau; a proolem, but it was an indispensable be- 

radical cure. ... 

ginning. This was the proposal that 
there should be a national legislature, in which the 
American jyeojile 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 

further than was desirable. The moi'ibund 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 Great 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 govei-nment, 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 tlie Federalist party was 
needed in 1789 as the rule of the 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 stndying 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 
the evils of the loose-jointed confederation, which 
Kandolph 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 
leo^islatures of the several states. The members of 



240 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

the lower house should be chosen directly by the 
people ; members o£ 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 the 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 

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 exj)edient that can be devised 
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 were to be 
chosen by the national legislature, to hold office 
during good behaviour. 

Such, in its main outlines, was the plan which 
Randolph laid before the convention, 

First reception . ^ . . , , 

of the Virginia m the name 01 the VirOTnia dele«fation. 

plan. . . , . 

An audacious scheme ! 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 uroring; this obiection 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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 243 

whether the members of the lower house should he 
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 beginning, 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 witli Mason, Wilson, 
and Dickinson. The proposed assembly, said Ma- 
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. 

It was now the 4*k^ 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 
Artagouism Cougrcss. On the Virginia plan, the 
stet'^fand''^^ smaller states would be virtually 
emau states. swampcd. Unlcss they could have 
equal votes, without regard to wealth or popula- 
tion, they would be at the mercy of the great 
states. In the division which ensued, the four 
most populous states — Virginia, Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania, and North Carolina — favoured the 
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 Connect!- 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 245 

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 the so-called "New Jersey plan" TheNewJer- 
for the amendment of the articles of feebie^paiiTa- 
confederation. This scheme admitted *'^®' 
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 
the 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 rej)resent 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 comlnorce, 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, and King. Hamil- 
ton, indeed, took this occasion to offer a plan of 
his o\vn, 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 the 
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. The weighty 
arguments of Wilson, King, and jMadison 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 IMartin and the two 
irreconcilablos 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 
woidd 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 

ance, they need not be deterred by any false serUf 
pies 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 be 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, the whole must be 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. 

that 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 unite 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. "The 
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. 249 

federate on his principles." The convention grew 
nervous 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 Aniphiktyonic 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 the citizens of the other 
counties wei'e 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 i-ecent 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 be 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, I 
do not trust you. If you possess the power, the 
abuse of it could not be checked ; and what then 



250 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

would prevent you from exercising it to our de- 
struction ? . . . Sooner than be ruined, there are 
foreignpormrs ivho will take us hy 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 Ruf us King. " I 
am concerned," said he, " for what fell from the 
gentleman from Delaware, — take a foreign power 
hy 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 way to the arrangement which 

TheConnecti- . -^ ° . 

cutcompro- was ultimately adopted, accordmg 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, Noi'th Carolina, and South Carolina — five 
states — voted in the negative ; the vote of Georgia 
was divided and lost. It was Abraham Baldwin, a 
native 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 
UJ5 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. 
\A.ll honour to his memory ! 

jThe 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 Wilson 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 were done war 
and confusion must ensue, the old confederation 
being already virtually at an end. George Mason 



252 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

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 haixUy 
in keeping with the promise of this brave speech, 
and in Gerry w^ shall observe like inconsistency. 
At present a timely speech from Madison soothed 
the troubled waters ; but it was only after eleven 
days of somewhat more 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 the 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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 253 

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 coidd 
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- ^. , . 

It was a deci- 

ture of the Senate, for by securing a MldlsonT ^""^ 
lower house, which represented the scheme. 
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. 

cernecl. 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. The plan, as 
now reported, omitted the obnoxious adjective 
"national," and spoke of the federal legislature 
2bndi 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 i»g ^^^ Federal Constitution was very 
go home. s,m?i\\. 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- 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 255 

moniziiig. The men who had opposed the Virginia 
plan only through their dread of the larger states 
were now more 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 ^^^^^^ antago- 
those of which the foundations were laid ^j,^™^ ouh^^ 
in the northwestern territory. Many ^"*"'''^ "'®**- 
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 Koger 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 nevr 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 which, as Madison 
truly said, would prove the most deep-seated and 
enduring of all, — the antagonism between north 
and south. The first great struggle between the 
Antagonism pi'O-slavcry and anti-slavery parties be- 
stotesandfree ^^^ ^^ *^® Federal Convcution, 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 

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 
aorwreo-ate 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 quite 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 aU the southern states, 



258 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

and in most of the northern, a peculiar species of 
collective existence, which might be described 
^ , ^ either as wealth or as population. As 

were slaves to a i 

be reckoned humau bein":s the slaves mioht be de- 

as persona or o o 

as chattels? scribcd 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, and 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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 259 

be represented In the general government? . . . 
If a meeting o£ 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 Vii'ginia 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 should 
either include her or leave her ovit 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 be 
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. 

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 
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 
southern states would have to pay more than their 
equitable share into the federal treasury ; if slaves 
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 
well as in algebra, it makes all the difference in 
the world whether you start with ^^Z^/s or with 
minus. On that occasion Madison had offered a 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 261 

successful compromise, in which a slave figured as 
three fifths of a freeman ; and Rut- 
ledge of South Carolina, who was now tilths compro- 
present in the convention, had supported ume English 
the measure. Madison now proposed ever there was 
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 the 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, ©vcr, it rcmaius undeniable that the Con- 
ioi^tfon'^a^t-^^^* stitution saved us from anarch}^ ; and 
thSuT-'^"" there can be little doubt that slavery 
stances. ^^^ evcry 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- 
Comproniise ^^^'^ ^^^1 southcm iutcrcsts related to 
England and t^c aboHtiou of the forcigu slave-trade 
astoth^forer^ ^-iid the powcr of the federal govern- 
siave-trade. ^^^^ ^^^^ commercG. All the states 

except South Carolina and Georgia wished to stop 
the importation of slaves ; but the physical condi- 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 263 

tions of rice and indio-o 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 Engianders would get 
all the carrying trade into their own hands, and 
then chai'ge 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 Engianders, enlightened by 
their own interests, saw it to be so. Here were the 
materials ready for a compromise, or, as the stout 



264 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

abolitionist, Gouverneur Morris, truly called it, a 
" bargain " between New England and the far 
south. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Con- 
necticut consented to the prolonging of the foreign 
slave-trade for twenty years, or until 1808 ; and in 
return South Carolina and Georgia consented to 
the clause emjjowering 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- Giy/' Said lie, " discouragcs arts and 
to°m!ake the"^ manufactures. The poor despise la- 

adhesion of i i e 111 rpi 

Virginia doubt- bour whcu periomied by slaves. Ihey 
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- 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 265 

fluence of Rutledge and the Pinckneys would be 
thrown unreservedly in behalf of the new Consti- 
tution. " I will confess," said Coteswortli 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. 



place to a better system of labour, without any 
great clanger or disturbance ; and this opinion was 
distinctly set forth by many delegates in the con- 
vention.^ Even Charles Pinckney went so far as 
to express a hope that South Carolina, if not too 
much meddled with, would by and h\ voluntarily 
rank herself among the 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 \vrought by the inventions 
of Arkwright and Hargreaves, Cartwright and 
Watt and AVhitney, 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 

^ Tlie slave-population of the United States, according to the 
census of 1T90, was thus distributed among- the states : — 



North. 




South. 




New Hampshire 


. . 158 


Delaware . 


. . 8,887 


Vermont .... 


. . 17 


Maryland . . 


. 103.036 


Massaehnsetts 


. . — 


Vii-ginia . . 


. 293,427 


Rhode Island . . 


. . 952 


North Carolina 


. 100.572 


Connecticut . . . 


. 2.750 


South Carolina 


. 107,094 


New York . . . 


. 21,324 


Georgia . . . 


. . 29,264 


New Jersey . . . 


. 11.423 


Kentucky 


, . 11.830 


Pemisylvania . . . 


. 3.737 


Tennessee . . 


. 3.417 




40,370 




657,527 


Total . . . 


. 


.... 697 


.897. 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 2C7 

party in that state would disappear, leaving lier to 
join in tlic odious struggle for introducing slavery 
into the national domain. Though these 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 the clause in the ordinance for the gov- 
ernment of the northwestern territory. 

It was the 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 The founda- 
new scheme, and by establishing a na- coustitution 
tional system of representation in the il'^compro- ^' 
lower house, prepared the way for a gov- '^'*®' 
ernment 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 
more easily. 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 
Powers grant- <?ould coiu moucy, fix the standard of 
erai Koveru-^' wciglits and mcasurcs, establish post- 
meut. 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 rejiel 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 



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. The 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 should 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- 
bag " governments which followed after the AV^ar 
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 ; 
and it was declared that all debts contracted and 



270 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

engagements entered into before tlie 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 corpus, 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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 271 

speech or debate in either house " they were not to 
be " 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 the 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- 
nied to the housc dutics, " kecj) troops or ships of 

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 will 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 coin a tender in 
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 



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, 

, 111 1 ^ •^ • , 1 p Emphatic con- 

should be expressly prohibited from demnation of 

. . 1-11 f i-i • • paper money. 

issuing bills or 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." 



274 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

There was no way, he added, in which powerful 
friends could so soon be gained for the new constl 
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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 275 

money, yet, as he could not foresee all emergencies, 
he 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 
the f ramers 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- 



276 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

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 these 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. 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 211 

It was very different with the question as to the 
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 

. . . , ^ Debates as to 

at times administered affairs in the dif- t^e federal 

, T • . executive. 

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 



278 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

single person, to secure efficiency of administration 
and concentration of responsibility ; but he would 
not give hiin 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 which 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 the 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 ai'gued 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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 279 

should serve for one, or two, or three, or four, or 
ten, or fifteen years.^^ " Better call it ^here should 
twenty," said Ruf us King, sarcastically ; {^„u,owlhouid 
"it is the Average reign of princes." iie be elected. 
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 the 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 



280 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

should prove himself thoroughly competent he 
ought to be reeligible ; but if reeligible he 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 the 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 ajjpeal 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 230wer. 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, 
Suggestion of did uot mcct witli general favour. To 

an electoral . . 

coUege. 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 



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 peoj)le 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 



282 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

the choice of })residents, 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 made equal in number and similar in composi- 
tion to the two houses of Congress sitting together. 
It need not be required of the electors, after all, 
that they should make a loug journey to the seat 
of the federal government. They might meet in 
their respective states, and vote by ballot for two 
persons, one bf whom must be an inhabitant of a 
different state. By this provision it was hoped to 
diminish the 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 ujDon, 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- 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 283 

cratic 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 be 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 the 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 the 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 6f 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 



284 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

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 
CongTCSs, 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 ^^^ *^^ House of Representatives, open 
the votes. j^]j ^]jg 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 throuo-h the disaijreement 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 
the experience of the several state legislatures. 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 285 

The case of double returns, sent in by rival gov- 
ernments in tlie 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 pi-esi- 
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 day 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 have 
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- 



286 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

sions concerning the executive. Against a host of 

possible dangers they guarded most elab- 

tion foresaw oratelv, tut the dangers and inconven- 

imaginary dan- , • , i • i i , ^^ 

gers, but not icuccs agaiust whicu wc havc actually 

the real ones. 

had to contend they did not loresee. 
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. The 
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 
j)oint 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 
the 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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 287 

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." 



288 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

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, 
Actual work- ^^^ 1800, tlic clectors divided upon party 
eifctora'r ^^^®^' ^^^*^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ t® the " compli- 
scheme. catcd 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 

and twice within the century, in 1801 and again in 
1877, it has brought us to the verge of the most 
foolish and hopeless species of civil war, in view 
of that thoroughly monarchical kind of accident, a 
disputed succession.^ 

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 jDroceeded 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, xhe convent- 
and which most of them agreed in think- supposed itself 

, " to be copying 

mg the most efficient workino- constitu- froni the Brit- 

. . , * ish Constitu- 

tion in existence, — as indeed it was. *'°"- 

They were trying to copy the British Constitution, 
modifying it to suit their republican ideas: but 
curiously enough, what tliey 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 

^ Since this was written, this last and most serious danger 
would seem to have been removed by 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 the 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 
dej)artment, 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 \x^ with a thick husk of legal fictions 
which long ago ceased to have any vitality. Black- 
stone, the great authority of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, set forth this theory of the division of power 
between King, Lords, and Commons with clear- 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 291 

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 influence of 
age, with whose works most of the states- ^d^Biact-^" 
men in the Federal Convention were ®*°°®' 
familiar, gave a similar description of the English 
Constitution, and generalized from it as the ideal 
constitution for a free people. But Montesquieu 
and Blackstoue, 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 Euglisli 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 
be 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. The 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. 

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- ^o the political nullity of the crown in 
beTfwIre'^'^ England ; and postpone for a moment 
of c'reat^Brit-* the Consideration of the Senate. Sup- 
*"'■ 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 upjier 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, 
the 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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 293 

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 
sujjposed 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 the 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 
ofPers 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 comes 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.^ 

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- 

^ The history of President Cleveland's tarifE 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. 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 295 

perience of them. It is the peculiar outgrowth of 
English history. As we can now see, its 

1 . /. 1 ,.,..., , , . In the British 

chiei characteristic is its not separating government, 

,-, .. p l^ 1 • ^ ,• the executive 

the executive powerirom the legislative, department is 

A, (• T-» T J , 1 • ii<'t separated 

s a mem ber oi r arliament, the prime from the legis. 

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 
still 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. 

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 the reform of Parliament in 
1832 as to be generally recognized. They have 
been gradually becoming its essential features ever 

Circumstances siuCC tllC Rcvolutiou of 1688. BcforG 

scure^ "the true that time the crown had really been the 
casracentMy cxecutivc, 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 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 297 

in the House of Commons to such an extent that 
it became possible to speak of tbe 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 who 
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. 

modern working of Parliament, with which they 
had not had 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 Dun more 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 the 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 advisableness of restraining the 
president's action by a privy council. Gerry and 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 299 

Sherman urged that there was need of such a coun- 
cil, in order to keep watch over the presi- 

'^ '^ ^ The American 

dent. It was sug-o-ested that the privy cabinet is auai- 

"^ '■ "^ ogous not to 

council should consist of " the president tiie British 

^ cabinet, but to 

of the Senate, the speaker of the House ""^ p^i'/y 

••■ ... council. 

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 hira 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 language. 
" 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 ajDpointment 
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, 
ju ciary. rpj^^ work was cliicfly 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 



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, and 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 and 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- 



302 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

rope it needs much explanation to-day even for 
educated statesmen who have never seen its work- 
insfs. 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 
tlie Continental Congress, and then referred to 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 303 

special conventions in all the 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, signing 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 tiian 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, we 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 he 



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 the 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. Washino-ton 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 

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 comj)lete 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 j)assed, 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 haK-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 ! " 



CHAPTER VII. 

CROWNING THE WORK. 

It was on the 17tli 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 fellow-citizens 
and explain what had been done at Philadelphia 
during this anxious smnmer. 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 
prevaihng 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- 



CROWNING THE WORK. 307 

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 

^ . The new Con- 

was laid before Congress, accompanied stitutionia 

^ ] m ^^^^ before 

by a letter from Washington. The congress and 

'' _ ^ '=' submitted 

forces of the opposition were promptly forthwith to 

'- ^ J. i ./ (;j,g several 

mustered. At their head was Richard ^}^^f? ^^^ '^.ti- 

ncation. 

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 their 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 the same need now ; 
and by refusing to take due cognizance of it Con- 
gress would simply stultify itself. The opposition 
then tried to clog the measure by proposing amend- 
ments, but they were outgeneralled, and after eight 
days' 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 opj)osition. 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. Dviring the autumn of 1787 
all these elements were segregated into two great 
political parties, whose character and 

First Amer- ^ . ^ , m i i i • 

lean parties, vicws are Sufficiently described bv their 

Federalists -^ " 

and Antifed- namcs. Thosc who Supported the new 

eralists. _ ■■■ ^ 

Constitution were henceforth known as 
Federalists ; those who were opposed to strength- 
ening the bond between the states were called 



CROWNING THE WORK. 309 

Antifederalists. It was fit that their name should 
have 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 constrvictionists, who appear in opposition to 
the Federalists soon after the adojation 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 
were numerous, but their opponents had one point 
in their favour which they did not fail to make the 
most of. The constitution of Pennsylvania was 
peculiar. Its legislature consisted of Thecontestm 
a single house, and its president was Pennsylvania. 
chosen by that house. Therefore, said the Anti- 



310 CROWNING THE WORK. 

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 we live. This cry 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 28tli 
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 



CROWNING THE WORK. 311 

by George Clymer, who had sat in the Federal 
Convention, and now most nnexpectedly 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 ^^^ ^^ ^^^ 
taverns till after midnight, the 19 were » quorum. 
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- 



312 CROWNING THE WORK. 

tering curses. This made a quorum, and a state 
convention was immediately appointed for tlie 20th 
of November. Before these proceedings were con- 
chided, an ex25ress-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 stumj)-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 Antif ederalists. 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 ! 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 



CROWNING THE WORK. 313 

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 de 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 ! 

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 who 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 



314 CROWNING THE WORK. 

published a series of papers entitled "Letters from 
the Federal Farmer," and scattered thousands of 
copies through the state of Pennsylvania. He 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- 
T, , ,. sentation in the federal Senate had re- 

Delaware rati- 

stltutioif Dec ii^ovsd the only ground of opposition 
PenMyivania ^^ Dclawarc, and the Federalists had 
jeTsey^b^c!"^ everything their own way there. In a 
^^* convention assembled at Dover, on the 

6th of December, the Constitution was ratified with- 



CROWNING THE WORK. 315 

out a single dissenting voice. Thus did this little 
state lead the way in the good work. The news 
was received with exultation by the Fedei'alists 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 tovni gave itself up to proces- 
sions and 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 almanac 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- 



316 CROWNING THE WORK. 

monies. Their opponents did not venture to molest 
them ; but after they had dispersed, an 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 the 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. 

Georgia rati- c i a • c i t 

lies, Jan. 2, The hoDCS of the Antiiederalists now 

1788; Con- i ht i i , 

necticut, Jan. rcstcd uDOU Massachusctts, wlicrc the 

9. The out- ^ . 

look in Massa- state convcutiou asscmblcd on the 9th 

chusetts. I'll 

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 



CROWNING THE WORK. 317 

murmurs of discontent. Laws impairing tlie 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 the 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. Nowhere had local 
self-government reached a higher degree of effi- 
ciency ; nowhere had the town meeting flourished 
with such vigour. It was 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- 



318 CROWNING THE WORK. 

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 the 
slightest degree infected with Shaysism, as the polit- 
ical disease of the inland counties was then called. 
Such fears were entertained by one of the greatest 
citizens that Massachusetts has ever produced, the 
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, 



CROWNING THE WORK. 319 

shipwrights, and artisans of every sort were con- 
vinced that there was 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 the 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 the 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 denominations, — 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 fai"mers, 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 genei'ous 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 



320 CROWNING THE WORK. 

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- 

Debates in the ^ ^ •if, 

Massachusetts era! days beiore the minds oi 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 j^eriod 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 ! 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 



CROWNING THE WORK. 321 

Constitution i£ 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 was 
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 could 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- 



322 CROWNING THE WORK. 

vided no religious tests for candidates for federal 
offices. But, strange to say, this objection did not 
come from the clergy. It was urged by some of 
the country members, but the ministers in the con- 
vention were nearly unanimous in opjDos- 

Liberal atti- , , _, i i i 

tudeoftiie ing it. llicrc 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 church 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. Isaac 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- 



CROWNING THE WORK. 323 

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 compromise 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 jwohahle. . . . 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 



324 CROWNING THE WORK. 

Thompson said lie was surprised to hear such an 
argument from a clergyman, who was profession- 
ally bound to maintain that all men were totally 
dejsraved. For his part he believed they were so, 
and he could prove it from the Old Testament. 
"I would not trust them," echoed Abraham White 
of Bristol, " though 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 the 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, which presently called forth cries 
of " Order! " 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 

Speech of a , ,. itix 

Berkshire uscd to spcak lu public, Dut i am sroins: 

farmer. , ^, ..^ ' ■, ^ 

to show the ertects of anarchy, that 
you may see why I wish for good government. 



CROWNING THE WORK. 325 

Last 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- 
taryj 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 



326 CROWNING THE WORK. 

stand alone in the dispute ? Well, the case is the 
same. These lawyers, these moneyed men, these 
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 ' T . 1 . 

Samuel his moutli, 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 



CROWNING THE WORK. 327 

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 in the sound com- 
mon sense of the mass of the people. This faith 
was one of the strongest attributes of both these 



328 CROWNING THE WORK. 

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 have 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 tlie 
convention who oppose the adoption of the new 
Constitution. Large sums of money have been 
brought from a neighbouring state for that pur- 
pose, 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 



CROWNING THE WORK. 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- 
self into the breach with that infallible fmitfui'kug- 
judgiuent 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 the 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 the rack, for 



330 CROWNING THE WORK. 

holding peculiar opinions about the nature of God 
or the origin 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 the 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 the importance 
of Massachusetts in the Union, but also from the 
fact that Virg-inia 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 



CROWNING THE WORK. B31 

Constitution was ratified by the narrow majority of 
187 votes ao-ainst 168. On that same ,^ ^ ^^ 

° _ _ _ Massachusetts 

day Jefferson, in Paris, wrote to Madi- ratifies,- pro- 

•' posing amend- 

son : "I wish with all my soul that the j^ents, Feb. 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 wovdd 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 



332 CROWNING THE WORK. 

to establish a separate confederacy; but lie 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 Antif ederalists 
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 
Maryland rati- ^"^^^^' ^^^r a scssiou of fivc days the 
fles, April 28. Coustitutiou 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 [! !J, 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 be justified on the prin- 
ciples of religion and humanity.' They debates in the 
do not like our having slaves because aua*^}'eJi's^ia°' 
they have none themselves, and there- *'^'^- 
fore want to exclude us from this great advantage." 
Cotes worth 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 countiy they may take refuge, which is 
a right we had not before. In short, considering 
all circumstances, we have made the best terms in 
our power for the security of this species of prop- 
erty. We would 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 



334 CROWNING THE WORK. 

goods to market. But Pinckney rejoined that a 
Yankee shipmaster in quest of cargoes woukl not 
be 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 and 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 Apjsalachian 
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- tt ^ i i- 

lina ratifies, Hcnrv s schcmc f or 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 



CROWNING THE WORK. 335 

had grown up a party wliicli 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 Viro-inia and North 

r> T mi c 1-1 Important 

Carolma. ihe reason for this short- eflfectupon 
lived separatist feeling in Virginia was 
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 
the 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 CROWNING THE WORK. 

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 the 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 these 
states was a direct rebuff. It quite demoralized 
the 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. The 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 i i • i 

Virginia Con- emplovcd affainst the new gfovernment 

vention. .it,., n 

as it had been in bygone days against 
the usurpations of Great Britain. He was sup- 



CROWNING THE WORK. 337 

ported by Mason, Lee, and Grayson, as well as by 
Benjamin Harrison and John Tyler, the fathers of 
two future presidents ; and he 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 kingiiness 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 

. „__ .~. ,, Madison and 

those ot Madison, reinforcing each other, Marshall pre- 

1 1 1^ • • mi 1 •! ^'^^^ *"*' ^"' 

bore down all opposition. Ihe details ginia ratifies, 

1 , June 25. 

of 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- fo^ Ncw Hampshire, whose convention 
reldy^^aUfied, bad met ou tlic anniversary of Bunker 
June 21. YiMI, 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 could 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 rejjre- 
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 Confedei'acy, Imbecility master, 
it was proclaimed she had foixndered at sea, and 
"the sloop Anarchy, when last heard from, was 
ashore on Union Rocks." All over the 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 wei-e thrown, and blood was shed. 



340 CROWNING THE WORK. 

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. 

The stru le ^^ ^^ *^^^ *^^* ^ow York then ranked 
in New York, ^j^jy j^g f^f ^j^ among the statcs 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 New 
England from the rest of the country. It 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 jDeacefuUy 
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 
head 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 the herculean task of vanquishing this great 



CROWNING THE WORK. 341 

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 the 
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 the " Indepen- The "Fed- 
dent Gazetteer," under the common sig- eraiist." 
nature of "Publius," Jay wrote five, Madison 



342 CROWNING THE WORK. 

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 nothins: could the flexibleness of Hamilton's 
intellect, or the genuineness of his patriotism, have 
been more finely shown than in the hearty zeal and 
transcendent ability with which he now wrote in 
defence of a plan of government so different from 



CROWNING THE WORK. 343 

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 reader 
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 
workins: of such a Constitution as that which the 
Federal Convention had framed. 

When it came to defending the Constitution 
before the hostile convention at Poughkeepsie, 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- 



344 CROWNING THE WORK. 

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, 
such a thing could never be done. A state which 
had once ratified was in the federal bond 

Hamilton wins ^^ . . 

the victory, torcvcr. ihc Coustitutiou could uot pro- 

and New York . n <• i . 

ratifies, July vidc for uor coutcmplatc its own over- 

26. ^ 

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 2Gth 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 



CROWNING THE WORK, 345 

whole discussion and unsettle everything. The 
proposal fell to the ground. People were weary 
of the 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 i3ut in operation without waiting for North 
Carolina and Rhode Island to make up their 
minds. The North Carolina convention „. , , 

The laggard 

met on the 21st of July, and adjourned caroLa and 
on the Ist'of August without coming to ^^'^^^ island. 
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 CROWNING THE WORK. 

Wednesday in March. This latter day fell, in 1789, 
on the 4th of the month, and accordingly, three 
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 seat of the new gov- 
ernment should be the city of New York. 

In accordance with these decrees, presidential 
elections were held on the first Wednesday in Jan- 
uary. The Antifederalists were still potent for 
First presi- miscliicf iu Ncw York, with the result 
wcm'jan.^r 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. The 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 were 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 



CROWNING THE WORK. 347 

be that of a citizen of Massachusetts, as 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 
American 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 visible to men was that Samuel 
Adams had hesitated, and perhaps made things 
wait. These points came out most distinctly on 



348 CROWNING THE WORK. 

the issue of his election to the Federal Conaress, 
in which he was defeated hy 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 the 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 can 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 liad 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 finaneial 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 his 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 
ilaughters. On the 23d he arrived in New York, 
and was entertained at dinner by Governor Clin- 



350 CROWNING THE WORK. 

ton. One week later, on the 30tli, came the inau- 
guration. It was one of those magnificent days of 
clearest sunshine that sometimes make 

Inauguration r- 1 • A '1 •£ 1 i 

of Washing- ouc icel in April as it summer had come. 

ton, April 30. ^ i ttt i • 

At noon or 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 I " 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 



The bibliography of the period covered in this book is 
most copiously and thoroughly treated in the seventh volume 
of Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of 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 be 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 quite 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 l' action commune de la France et de I'Ame- 
rique, etc., tome iii., Docuynents originaux inedits, Paris, 1876. 
See also Sparks, Diplomatic Correspondence of the American 
Revolution, 12 vols., Boston, 1829-30 ; Trescot's Diplomacy 
of the American Revolution, N. Y., 1852 ; Lyman's Diplomacy 
of the 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, 1853-57 ; 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., Wasliington, 1839-46 ; John 
Adams's Works, 10 vols., Boston, 1850-56 ; Rives's Life of 
Madison, 3 vols., Boston, 1859-68 ; Madison's Letters and 
other Writings, 4 vols., Phila., 1865 ; tlie lives of Franklin, 



352 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 

by Bigelow and Partou ; 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, 
1867 ; Wharton's Digest of International Law, Washington, 
1887, Appendix to vol. iii. ; Hale's Franklin in France, 2 
vols., Boston, 1888. The view of the treaty set forth in 
1830 by Sparks, according to which Jay and Adams were 
quite mistaken in their suspicious of the French court, we 
may now regard as disposed of by the evidence 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 liis History of the 
United States, vol. v., N. Y., 1886, though in some respects 
one of the best to be found in the general histories, still 
leaves much to be desired. 

The general condition of the United States under the 
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 under the Constitution, of which vols, i.-iii. (Washing- 
ton, 1882-85) have appeared. Mr. Schouler's book is sug- 
gestive and 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 the diligence with which he has searched the 
newspapers and obscure pamphlets of the period. He has 
thus given much fresh life to the narrative, besides throwing 
valuable light upon the thoughts and feelings of the 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 the 
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- 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 353 

inerce by yielding to Georgia and South Carolina in the 
matter of the African slave-trade. So the discussion as to 
the national executive is carried on till July 2Gth, when 
it was decided that the president should be chosen by Con- 
gress 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 are sufficiently numerous to make the book 
in some places an unsafe guide to the general reader, but 
in spite of such defects, which a careful revision might 
remedy, its value is great. Further general information 
as to the 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 Wiusor'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 chiefly concerned with events earlier than 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, are valuable in this connection. 

For the 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 ; Var- 
num's Case of Trevett v. Weeden, Providence, 1787; Arnold's 
History of Rhode Island, 2 vols.^ y. Y,, 1859-60. The best 



354 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 

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 Dunn's Indiana, Boston, 1888 ; Cutler's Life, 
Journal, and Correspondence of Manasseh Cutler, 2 vols., 
Cincinnati, 1887. 

In the Johns Hophins Unioersity 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 
Cessio7is to the United States j III., ix., x., Davis, American 
Constitutions ; IV., v. , Jameson's Introduction to the Consti- 
tutional and Political History of the Individual States ; IV., 
vii.-ix., Shoshuke Sato's History of the Land Question in the 
United States. 

For the proceedings of the Federal Convention in framing 
the Constitution, and of the several state conventions in rati- 
fying it, the great treasure-house of authoritative infonna- 
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 the 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 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 355 

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. 
The best edition of the " Federalist" is by H. C. Lodge, 
N. Y., 1888. 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. H. 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 the 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 ; Flanders'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 Co7n- 
mentaries, Phila., 1884 ; Von Hoist's Calhoim, 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 Lock wood's Abo- 
lition of the 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 eel., Boston, 1873, had already, in a most pro- 
found and masterly fashion, exhibited the divergence be- 
tween the literary theory and the actual working of the 
British government. Some points of weakness in the British 
system are touched in Albert Stickney's True Republic, 
N. Y., 1879 ; see also his Democratic Government, N. Y., 1885. 
The 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 the English Constitution, 2 
vols., London, 1886 ; J. S. Mill, Representative Government, 
N. Y., 1862 ; Sir H. Maine, Popular Government, N. Y., 1886 ; 
S. R. Gardiner's Introduction to the Study of English History, 
London, 1881. Li 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 Cyclopcedia of Political Science, 3 vols., 
Chicago, 1882-84. It' is always pleasant to refer to that 
cyclopjedia, 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. 



MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 



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. 

New Hampshire . . . John Langdon. 

Nicholas Gilman. 
Massachusetts .... Elbridge Gerry. 

Nathaniel Gorham. 

Rufus King. 

Caleh Strong. 
Connecticut William Samuel Johnson. 

Roger Sherman. 

Oliver Ellsworth. 
New York Robert Yates. 

Alexander Hamilton. """' 

John Lansing. 
New Jersey William Livuigston. 

David Brearley. 

William Churchill Houston. 

William Paterson. 

Jonathan Dayton. 
Pennsylvania .... Benjamin Franklin. 

Thomas Mifain. 

Robert Morris. 

George Clymer. 

Thomas Fitzsimmons. 

Jared IngersoU. 

James Wilson. 

Gouverneur Morris. 



358 MEMBERS OF FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

Delaware George Read. 

Gunning Bedford. 

John Dickinson. 

Richard Bassett. 

Jacob Broom. 
Maryland James McHenry. 

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer. 

Daniel Carroll. 

John Francis Mercer. 

Luther Martin. 
Virginia George Washington. —'"" 

Edmund Randolph. 

John Blair. 

James Madison. 

George Mason. 

George Wythe. 

James McClurg. 
North Carolina . . . Alexander Martin. 

William Richardson Davie, 

William Blount. 

Richard Dobbs Spaight. 

Hugh Williamson. 
South Carolina .... John Rutledge. 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. 

Charles Pinckney. 

Pierce Butler. 
Georgia William Few. 

Abraham Baldwin. 

William Pierce. 

William Houstoun. 

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 

The 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 Clark. 

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 be 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 Olney, 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." 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. New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787. 

4. Georgia Jan. 2, 1788. 

5. Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788. 

6. Massachusetts Feb. 6, 1788. 

7. Maryland April 28, 1788. 



360 PRESIDENTS OF THE CONGRESS. 

8. South Carolina May 23, 1788. 

9. New Hampshire .... June 21, 1788. 

10. Virginia June 25, 1788. 

11. New York July 26, 1788. 

12. North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789. 

13. Rhode Island May 29, 1790. 



PRESIDENTS OF THE CONTINENTAL 
CONGRESS. 

1. Peyton Randolph of Virginia Sept. 5, 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 Grifflu of Virginia Jan. 22, 1788. 



INDEX. 



ACADIANS, 205. 

Adams, Herbert B., 192. 
Adams, John, arrives in Paris, 22 ; 
his indignation at the pusillanimous 
instructions from Congress, 3(> ; 
condemns the Cincinnati, 110; tries 
in vain to negotiate commercial 
treaty with Great Britain, 139-141 ; 
negotiates a treaty with Holland, 
155 ; obtains a loan there, 150, 157 ; 
his interview with the envoy from 
Tripoli, 161 ; absent from the United 
States at the time of tlie Federal 
Convention, 223 ; elected vice-presi- 
dent of the United States, 348. 

Adams, Samuel, his devotion to local 
self-government, 57, 318 ; his com- 
mittees of correspondence, 92 ; op- 
poses Washington's proposal for 
pensioning officers, 100; but at 
length supports the Commutation 
Act, 114; condenms the Cincimiati, 
116, 118; approves the conduct of 
the Massachusetts delegates, 143 ; 
opposes pardoning the ringleaders 
in the Shays insurrection, 184 ; not 
a delegate to the Federal Conven- 
tion, 225 ; " the man of the town 
meeting," 318 ; in the Massachu- 
setts convention, 324, 32G-328 ; why 
not selected for the vice-presidency, 
347. 

Albany, riot in, 339. 

Amendments to Constitution, 302, 330, 
338 

4mes", Fisher, 319, 326, 348. 

Amis, North Carolinian trader, 210. 

Amphiktyonic council, 249. 

Annapolis convention, 216. 

Antagonisms between large and small 
states, 244-252; between east and 
west, 255 ; between north and south, 
256-267. 

Antifederalist party, 309 ; in Pennsyl- 
vania, 310; in Massachusetts, 317, 
324 ; in Soutli Carolina, 334 ; in 
Virguiia, 335-337 ; in New York, 340, 
341, 346. 

Antipathies between states, 62. 

Aranda, Count, his prophecy, 19. 

Aristides, pseudonym, 312. 



Aristocracy, 283. 
Aristotle, 225. 

Arkwright, Sir Richard, 267. 
Armada, the Invincible, 235. 
Armstrong, Jolm, 109, 150. 
Army, dread of, 105, 321. 
Arnold, Benedict, 28, 100, 151. 
Asbury, Francis, 85. 
Ashburton, Lord, 5. 
Ashburton treaty, 20. 
Assemblies, 65. 
Assunpink Creek, 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. 

Barrt5, Isaac, 41. 

Bedford, Gunning, 249. 

Bennington, 321. 

Bernard, Sir Francis, 298. 

Biemiial elections, 327. 

Bill of rights demanded, 329. 

Blackstone, Sir William, 290, 291, 

297. 
Bossuet on slavery, 72. 
Boston Gazette, quoted, 328. 
Boundaries of United States as set- 

tied by the treaty, 25. 
Bowdom, James, 143, 180-184, 319, 

324. 
Boyd, Lieutenant, 122. 
Braddock, Edward, 305. 
Bradsliaw's Railway Guide, 171. 
Brearley, David, 229, 246. 
Bribery, charges of, 328. 
British army departs, 51. 
British Constitution compared witU 

American, 290-298. 
Buff and blue colours, 2. .... 
Burgesses, House of, in Virgima, b5. 
Burke, yEdanus, 110. 
Burke, Edmund, his sympathy with 

the Americans, 2 ; could not see the 

need for parliamentgiry reform, 6 ; 

his invective against Shelburne, 17 j 

on the slave-trade, 72. 
Butler, Pierce, 258. 



362 



England, 296 srowtii of, m 

Camden, Lord, 5. 
Canada, Fra?!!?!;., „ 
should be ced^dtnH^ff^^ ">at it 
9, U. ''^'^^'^ *° tlie United States, 
Carleton, Sir Guv nc -,^-, 

J^air, JJabney, 92 > -"w. 

t^arrington, Edward ''04 ^07 
CarroU, Daniel, 2^ ' ^• 

Carrying trade, 1G3,' 263 
Cartwnght, Edmund 267 

Cato,XdoS^^?:l^^«*=^'-.87 
Cavendish, Lord John' 5 ifi 
Censors, council Of, ^liy,,^^,^ 

Ceutmel, pseudonym, 313 

craStir^^:!^^: 

Chase, Samuel, 322 
t^hatham. Lord, 188 
Cherry Valley, 129 ' 

197. ^•5^' 0"ginal name of 



INDEX. 



vidu system, 62 

Sn',''3S*^L?J?--Y-tts eon- 
Cleveland GroVer h s S^^""' ^-■ 

294. ' "'^ ^'^nfl message, 

'''S'Torifs'^^^'. t'°»- persecution 
"nion of ' the 'sUteT?! ^^.'^^'^^^ 
impost amendment 'oon' '^'^'^^' 
the Constitution 340 lnf°Pr?<'' 
President Wa^hiw^ I entertams 
Clinton, SirS^^.°?^*d:nner,350. 

Z^r' ^'?''^*'' 311- ""■ 

Sagtl6r'"^^"^^-^'»'^61. 
Coke, Thomas, 86. 
Columbia College, 125 

g™263'=°"''*'^''^'^-entoCon- 

^o^TJr^Zl^^^,^^^ States, CO. 
290-298 In Nort/'r° England, 68; 

's:s^r^^^^^^c^titu. 

CoSrCo^'t-"'"^'*'^"^' 92-98. 

Ill ^eakness, 56, 98, 102-113 'J4' 
SsiTer'^- «^f-ter,"9l',.^t 
delphia by dnrnkir" f^?"" ^^a- 



nt^rt54TS:l*^--ty, 

185; PasseVordnance%' '""'^"'°'>. 

ment of nortW=f ^^"^ ?^overn' 
203-206; refuses t^"™ territory, 
convention for rpfn. ''?<=ommend a 
erument, 218 '^^I'^'^^Pg the gov- 
fusal, 221 ; in somp'°'''''^"''« "« rl 
matic rati er than a 7 "'Pf*' ^ ^'P^o- 

237; its mlgSnsT i-''°V' 
Dates on tho n„ ^..•^ ' "^"o; de- 

submits ft tolhe^tatf'ir' ^"^^ ' 
to an end, 345 *'"*'^es, 308 ; comes 

Congress, Fede'nl ^^ 
to. 270; choice 'nr'^^''^.^'-^'ited 

ma, 146-151 • kpe^« , ^eunsylva- 
clearof paper mre;'^7°o^* f^'T'^ 
clauns of, 189 laf.' ^'''i.^'estern 

^ ConstitutiOT, 316 ' ''^*'^<^« "»e 
C-^ecticut comp;omise, the, 250- 

rearKtStir^6r«^*heAmeri- 
Constitu^ion,embIematicfederalship. 
Co-ention, the Federal, 154, 222- 

Conway, Gen. Henrv 5 

Cooper, Dr. Myles, W" 

Cornwallis, Lord, 22, 51 340 

Council, privy, 999 ' ^^' ■^^^- 

C-ardice of Inierican politicians, 

Crawford, William, 51 
Curtis, B. R., 276 
Cutler, Maaasseh, 203. 

J>ane, Nathan, 204, 217 307 
Dajton, Jonathan, 225 '999^- 

^.243 28i;2S3,299,|i9"2' ^28, 242, 
&r"theS°'^-"lV'^t.298. 



E,ection^bylot,281;flrstpresidentiaI, 

""te'adSfd tn-^^-'^' ^«-- 
president, T81-287 1?^''"^ *^« 
workin<r 988 ' Practical 

Elliot, Sir Gilbert, 3. 

3"S;s:sbra. =«'•«•». 

iimbargo acts, 142. 



INDEX. 



367 



numbers of, in the several states, 
266. 

Small states converted to federalism 
by the Connecticut compromise, 
'.'55, 315. 

Smith, Adam, 125, 154, 135. 

Smith, Capt. John, 191. 

Smith, Jonathan, 324-326. 

Smith, Melanchthon, 340, 343, 344. 

Smugglers, 135. 

South Carolina, Episcopal church in, 
78, 82 ; revokes five per cent, im- 
post, 108 ; issues paper money, 109 ; 
absolute need of conciliating her, 
259, 200 ; makes bargain vpith New 
England states, 2G2-2G7 ; debates 
on the Constitution, 332-334 ; rati- 
fies it, 334. 

Sovereignty never belonged to sepa- 
rate st.ites, 90. 

Spain, treaty of 1783 with Great 
Britain, 36 ; attempts to close Mis- 
sissippi River, 208-211, 218, 335. 

Spanish doUar, why it superseded 
English pound as unit of value in 
America, 166. 

Spermaceti oil, 139, 163. 

Springfield arsenal, 181 , 185. 

States, powers denied to, 272. 

Stormont, Lord, 45. 

Story, Joseph, 270. 

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. 

Tennessee, IS, 189, 199. 

Thayendanegea, 50. 

Thomas, Isaiah, 165. 

Tliompson, Gen., in Massacliusetts con- 
vention, 324. 

Thurlow, Lord, 5. 

Ttuirstou, member of Virginia legisla- 
ture, 144. 

Tithing-men in New England, 76. 

Tobacco as currency in Virginia, 165. 

Tories, American ; see Loyalists. 

Tories, British, 42. 

Townshend, Tliomas, 17. 

Trade, barbarous superstitions about, 
134. 

Travelling, diflBculties of, a century 
ago, 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, 34, 189 ; 
secret article relating to Florida 
boundary, 33, 208; 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, Josiah, 58, 141. 

Tyler, John, the elder, 214, 337. 

Union, sentiment of, 55. 
Unitariauism, 86. 

University men in Federal Conventionj 
224. 

Vaughan, Benjamin, 22, 35. 

Vergemies, Count de, 12 ; wishes to 
satisfy Spain at the expense of the 
United States, 18-21 ; thwarted by 
Jay, 22 ; accuses the Americans of 
bad faith, 33 ; tired of sending loans, 
104. 

Vermont, troubles in, 151-153 ; riots 
in connection with the Shays rebel- 
lion, 183. 

Vice-presidency, 282. 

Victoria, Queen, 293. 

Viuceunes, riot m, 210. 

Violence of political invective, 39. 

Virginia, church and state in, 78-85 ; 
on five per cent, impost, 104 ; paper 
money in, 170 ; takes possession of 
northwestern territory, 188-191 ; 
cedes it to tlie United States, 194 ; 
plan for new federal government, 
233-242 ; its reception by the con- 
vention, 242 ; compromise as to 
representation of slaves, 259-262; 
resents the compromise between 
South Carolina and the New Eng- 
land states, 265 ; debates on tlie 
Constitution, 335-337 ; ratifies it, 
337. 

" Visionary young men," i. e., Hamil- 
ton, Madison, Gouverueur Morris, 
etc., 318. 

Waddington, Joslma, 127. 

Walpole, Horace, 16. 

Walpole, Sir Robert, 296. 

War, the Civil, 55, 256, 262 ; contrast 
with Revolutionary, 101-103; cost 
of Revolutionary, 106. 

Washington, George, marches from 
Yorktowu to the Hudson River, 51 ; 
disbands the army, 51 ; resigns his 
command, 52 ; goes home to Mount 
Vernon, 53 ; his " legacy " to tlie 
American people, 54 ; on the riglit 
of coercion, 100 ; urges half-pay for 
retired officers, 106; supposed 
scheme for making him king, 107 ; 
his masterly speech at Newburgli, 
110 ; president of the Cincinnati, 
115 ; on the weakness of the con- 
federation, 162 ; wislies to hang 
speculators in breadstuffs, 164 ; 
disapproves of Connecticut's reser- 
vation of a tract of western land, 
193 ; approves of Ohio Company, 
203; his views on the need for 
canals between east and west, 212 ; 



368 



INDEX. 



important meeting held at his 
house, 214 ; is chosen delegate to 
the Federal Convention, 221 ; presi- 
dent of the convention, 229 ; his 
solemn warning, 231, 303 ; his sug- 
gestion as to the basis of represen- 
tation, 252 ; asks if he shall put the 
(luestion on the motion of WUson 
and Pinokney, 277 ; disapproves of 
electuig executive by the legisla- 
ture, 279 ; sends draft of the Con- 
stitution to Congress, 307 ; called a 
fool by the Antifederalists, 313 ; 
approves of amendments, but op- 
poses a second convention, 329 ; 
unanimously chosen president of 
the United States, 346 ; his journey 
to New York, 349 ; his inaugura- 
tion, 350. 

Washington, William, 334. 

Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, 83. 

Watt, James, 60, 267. 

Wayne, Anthony, 50. 

Wealth as a basis of representation, 
2.57. 

Webster, Daniel, 56, 206, 276. 



Webster, Pelatiah, 101, 228. 

Weems, Mason, 83. 

Wesley, John, 85. 

West, Rev. Samuel, 322. 

West India trade, 138, 164. 

Whigs, British, sympathize with revo- 
lutionary party in America, 2. 

Whiskey as currency in North Caro- 
lina, 165. 

White, Abraham, 324. 

Whitefield, George, 85. 

Whiteliill, Robert, 313. 

Whitney, Eli, 267. 

William the Silent, 55. 

Wilson, James, 228, 243, 246, 248,251, 
261, 274, 277, 279, 281, 282, 299, 300, 
312, 313, 316. 

Witenagemot, 66. 

Worcester Spy, 165. 

Wraxall's Memoirs, 2. 

Wyoming, troubles in, 148-150. 

Wythe, George, 228. 

Yates, Robert, 225, 242, 244, 240, 254, 

340, 341. 
Yazoo boundary, 33, 208. 



^ 



LRBFelS