limited and short duration, and who are amenable for every action, recallable at any moment, and subject to all the evils which they may be instrumental in producing,-sufficient powers to order and direct the affairs of the same. By such policy as this, the wheels of government are clogged, and our brightest prospects, and that high expectation which was entertained of us by the wondering world, are turned into astonishment; and from the high ground on which we stood, we are descending into the vale of confusion and darkness. “That we have it in our power to become one of the most respectable nations upon earth, admits, in my humble opinion, of no doubt, if we would but pursue a wise, just, and liberal policy towards one another, and would keep good faith with the rest of the world:-that our resources are ample and increasing, none can deny; but while they are grudgingly applied, or not applied at all, we give a vital stab to public faith, and will sink in the eyes of Europe, into contempt." CHAPTER IV. Differences between Great Britain and the United States.-Mr. Adams appointed minister to Great Britain.-Discontents excited by the commercial regulations of Britain.-Parties in the United States.-The convention at Annapolis.-Virginia appoints deputies to a convention at Philadelphia.-General Washington chosen one of them.-Insurrection at Massachusetts.-Convention at Philadelphia.-A form of government submitted to the respective states, as ratified by eleven of them. -Correspondence of General Washington respecting the chief magistracy.—He is elected president.-Meeting of the first congress. WHILE the friends of the national government were making these un1783 to availing efforts to invest it with a revenue which might ena1787. ble it to preserve the national faith, many causes concurred to prepare the public mind for some great and radical change in the political system of America. Scarcely had the war of the revolution terminated, when the United States and Great Britain reciprocally charged each other with violations of the treaty of peace. On the construction of that part of the seventh article which stipulates against the "destruction or carrying away of any negroes, or other property of the American inhabitants," a serious difference of opinion prevailed which could not be easily accommodated. As men seldom allow much weight to the reasoning of an adversary, the construction put upon that article by the cabinet of London was generally treated in America as a mere evasion; and the removal of the negroes who had joined the British army on the faith of a proclamation offering them freedom, was considered as a flagrant breach of faith. In addition to this circumstance, the troops of his Britannic Majesty still retained possession of the posts on the American side of the great lakes. As those posts gave their possessors a decided influence over the warlike tribes of Indians in their neighbourhood, this was a subject to which the United States were peculiarly sensible. On the other hand, the United States were charged with infringing the fourth, fifth, and sixth articles, which contain agreements respecting the payment of debts, the confiscation of property, and prosecution of individuals for the part taken by them during the war. On the 14th of January, 1784, the day on which the definitive articles were ratified, congress passed a resolution containing a recommendation in the words of the treaty, respecting confiscated property, which was transmitted without delay to the several states. They considered this resolution as merely formal; and contended that neither the American nor the British government expected from it any beneficial results. But other stipulations which are explicit, the performance of which was not to rest on the recommendation of the government, especially that respecting the payment of debts, were also neglected. These causes of mutual complaint being permitted to rankle for some time in the bosoms of both nations, produced a considerable degree of irritation. The British merchants had large credits in America. Those engaged in the colonial trade had been nearly ruined by the rupture between the two countries; and, without taking into the account the embarrassments in which the war had involved their debtors, they calculated, after the restoration of peace, on the prompt collection of the vast sums which were due to them. But the impediments to the recovery of debts were, in many instances, permitted to remain; and the dispositions manifested by those states in which they were chiefly due, did not authorize a belief that any favourable change of measures was about to take place. The complaints of the creditors were loud and incessant. They openly charged the American government with violating the most solemn obligations which public and private contract could create; and this charge affected the national character the more seriously, because the terms of the treaty were universally deemed highly advantageous to the United States. The recriminations on the part of individuals in America, were also uttered with the angry vehemence of men who believe themselves to be suffering unprovoked injuries. The negroes in possession of the British armies at the restoration of peace, belonged, in many cases, to actual debtors; and in all, to persons who required the labour of which they were thus deprived, to repair the multiplied losses produced by the war. To the detention of the posts on the lakes was ascribed the hostile temper manifested by the Indians; and thus, to the indignity of permitting a foreign power to maintain garrisons within the limits of the nation, were superadded the murders perpetrated by the savages, and the consequent difficulty of settling the fertile and vacant lands of the west.* On the north-eastern frontier too, the British were charged with making encroachments on the territory of the United States. On that side, the river St. Croix, from its source to its mouth in the bay of Passamaquoddy, is the boundary between the two nations. Three rivers of that name empty into the bay. The Americans claimed the most eastern, as the real St. Croix, while settlements were actually made under the authority of the government of Nova Scotia to the middle river, and the town of St. Andrews was established on its banks. * See note, No. III. at the end of the volume. But the cause of most extensive disquiet was the rigorous commercial system pursued by Great Britain. While colonists, the Americans had carried on a free and gainful trade with the British West Indies. Those ports were closed against them as citizens of an independent state; and their accustomed intercourse with other parts of the empire also was interrupted by the navigation act. To explore new channels for the commerce of the nation was, in the actual state of things, opposed by obstacles which almost discouraged the attempt. On every side they met with rigorous and unlooked for restrictions. Their trade with the colonies of other powers, as well as with those of England, was prohibited; and in all the ports of Europe they encountered regulations which were extremely embarrassing. From the Mediterranean, they were excluded by the Barbary powers, whose hostility they had no force to subdue, and whose friendship they had no money to purchase. Thus, the characteristic enterprise of their merchants, which, in better times, has displayed their flag in every ocean, was then in a great measure restrained from exerting itself by the scantiness of their means. These commercial difficulties suggested the idea of compelling Great Britain to relax the rigour of her system, by opposing it with regulations equally restrictive; but to render success in such a conflict possible, it was necessary that the whole power of regulating commerce should reside in a single legislature. Few were so sanguine as to hope that thirteen independent governments, jealous of each other, could be induced to concur for a length of time, in measures capable of producing the desired effect. With many, therefore, the desire of counteracting a system which appeared to them so injurious, triumphed over their attachment to state sovereignty; and the converts to the opinion that congress ought to be empowered to regulate trade, were daily multiplied. Meanwhile, the United States were unremitting in their endeavours to form commercial treaties in Europe. Three commissioners had been appointed for that purpose; and at length, as the trade with England was peculiarly important, and the growing misunderstandings between the two countries threatened serious consequences should their adjustment be much longer delayed, Mr. John Adams was appointed minister plenipotentiary to the court of St. James. His endeavours to form a commercial treaty were not successful. His overtures were declined by the cabinet of London, because the government of the United States was unable to secure the observance of any general commercial regulations; and it was deemed unwise to enter into stipulations which could not be of reciprocal obligation. In fact, it is not probable that, had even this difficulty been surmounted, Britain could have been induced to grant advantages that would have been satisfactory to America. The latter expected great relaxations of the navigation act, and a free admission into the colonies of the former; and believed its commerce of sufficient importance to obtain these objects, if it could be regulated by a single legislature. The reflecting part of America did not require this additional evadeace of the sacrifice which had been made of national interest on the altars of state jealousy, to demonstrate the defectiveness of the existing system. On the mind of no person had this impression been more strongly made, that sa that of General Washington. His extensive correspondence bears anque testimony to the solicitude with which he contemplated the proceedings of the states on this interesting subject. The opinion he sought to inculcate was, that the trade between the United States and Great Britain was equally important to each: and therefore, that a commercial intercourse between the two nabors might be established on equal terms, if the political arrangements in America would enable its government to guard its interests; but without such ar rangements, those interests could not be protected, and America mat appear in a very contemptible point of view to those with wire se was endeavouring to form commercial treaties, without presseng te means of carrying them into effect:-who must see and feel that the union, or the states individually are sovereign as best sits fer pr. poses:-in a word, that we are one nation to day, and row. Who," he added, "will treat with us on such terms either literary or About this time, General Washington received a long and affectionate letter from the Marquis de Lafayette, who had just returned from a tour through the north of Europe. In communicating the oceans a de courts he had visited, and especially at that of Prussia, wins and ant distinguished monarch, uniting the acquirements of the whiar and he statesman with the most profound skill in the art of war, snit couler military fame, he dwelt with enthomas on the plan dits which were universally bestowed on his military patron and paternal friend. “I wish,” he added, "the other sentiments I have had oe casion to discover with respect to America, were spally maskemory with those that are personal to yourself. I need not say that he spen, the firmness, with which the revolution was ontucted, has cannot HIL versal admiration:—That every friend to the rights of mantné a a enthusiast for the principles on which those conscious as wit but I have often had the mortification to hear, that the wast of powen in congress, of union between the states, of energy a ter game would make the confederation very insignificant - By their sader a they” he added, “the citizens of Amenca have commanded 7 |