CHAPTER exerted for their defense, they prevailed against all opXLV. position, and form the basis of thirteen independent 1783. states." The opportunity was now presented so the address went on to urge of trying a great experiment of republicanism under more favorable circumstances than ever before. For the judicious and fair trial of that experiment the states would be held responsible in the eyes of the world. May 7. A week or two after, another urgent appeal was made to the states to provide means for the three months' pay to the furloughed soldiers. This pay was to be advanced, meanwhile, in treasury notes a new species of paper currency, payable in six months from date, and receivable for all Continental taxes; all Continental receivers who had money on hand-if such were any where to be found -being also authorized to redeem it at sight. At these preparations for disbanding the army while their dues still remained unsettled, symptoms of uneasiness again made their appearance among the officers in the camp at Newburgh; but, by the judicious interference of Washington, they were again pacified. John Greaton and Rufus Putnam, of Massachusetts, and Elias Dayton, of New Jersey, had been lately made brigadier generals, the last promotions to that rank in the Continental army. Some delay which occurred in preparing the notes for the three months' pay led to a humiliating insult to Congress. A body of Pennsylvania soldiery, some three hundred in number, lately arrived from the Southern department, had already given signs of insubordination by sending an insolent letter to Congress. News presently arrived that part of a corps stationed at Lancaster had marched for Philadelphia, leaving their officers behind. It afterward appeared, however, that two of the officers XLV. were at the bottom of the whole business. Congress sug- CHAPTER gested to President Dickinson and the council of Pennsylvania to call out the militia to stop these revolters, 1783. new recruits, who did not exceed eighty in number. But the Pennsylvania authorities expressed the opinion that the militia would not be willing to act unless some positive outrage were first committed. Having reached the city, the mutineers from Lancaster were presently joined by the troops in the barracks, and, under the command of seven sergeants, without their muskets, but wearing side-arms, they beset, for three hours, the doors of the State House, in which both Congress and the Pennsylvania council were in session, sending in demands for immediate payment. A committee of Congress, appointed to consult with the Pennsylvania council, reported, as the opinion of that body, that nothing was to be expected from the city militia, who were ill provided for service, and disinclined to interfere except in case of actual violence on the part of the mutineers. A great many creditors of the United States residing at Philadelphia were not unwilling, perhaps, to see Congress subjected to some coercion and disgrace. St. Clair, the commanding officer in Philadelphia, endeavored to pacify the mutineers by allowing them to choose a committee to state their grievances. Congress sent word to Washington of the revolt, and, disgusted at the conduct of the Pennsylvania council, adjourned to Princeton, where they were received with great respect, and accommodated in the College. Washington sent fifteen hundred men to Philadelphia, by whose presence the revolt was speedily suppressed. Several of the mutineers were tried by court-martial and sentenced to death; but all were presently pardoned. The question where the permanent residence of Con CHAPTER gress should be fixed had already been raised, and, after XLV. the adjournment to Princeton, it excited much interest and 1783. a good deal of local feeling. One party was in favor of July. a federal city on the Delaware; another wished to have one on the Potomac. Maryland offered to cede Annapolis for that purpose; New York offered Kingston, on the Hud son. The council of Pennsylvania, anxious to bring Congress back to Philadelphia, apologized for their timid and hesitating conduct on occasion of the late mutiny. After much debate, it was finally agreed, that, so soon as suitable sites could be obtained, two federal cities should be erected, at which the sessions of Congress should be alternately held, one near the Falls of the Delaware, the other near the Falls of the Potomac. Committees were Until the cities appointed to negotiate for these sites. Efforts on both sides to procure some modification of the preliminary articles delayed for some months the final treaty of peace. These preliminaries, especially those with France and Spain, occasioned a violent debate in the British Parliament, and enabled the famous but shortlived coalition under Fox and North to overthrow the ministry of Shelburne. In consequence of that change, Oswald was superseded by David Hartley as negotiator on the British side. The claims of the Loyalists, whose property had been confiscated and their persons banished, were pressed anew, and with much urgency. The British ministry desired also to secure by the treaty some favorable commercial arrangement with the late colonists. The Americans, on their side, were not a little troubled at the idea of being called upon to pay old debts to British merchants, which, as they had fondly hoped, the war had wiped out forever. Against this article of the pre- CHAPTER liminary treaty the Assembly of Virginia and the Council XLV. of Pennsylvania had made warm remonstrances. Mary- 1783. land and Virginia had specially confiscated British debts, and a considerable amount of them had been paid into the treasuries of those states in the depreciated paper. But no changes could be effected on either side, and the treaty, as finally signed, did not differ from the prelimin- Sept. 3. ary articles. The soldiers of Burgoyne and Cornwallis had been marched to New York; a general release of prisoners had taken place on both sides; but the necessity of finding transports for the numerous Loyalists assembled there protracted the evacuation of New York. In consequence of laws still in force against them, several thousand Americans found it necessary to abandon their country. A considerable proportion of these exiles belonged to the wealthier class; they had been officials, merchants, large landholders, conspicuous members of the colonial aristocracy. In spite of the confiscations decreed against them, many still had money, which they had increased or accumulated during the war by privateering, as sutlers to the British army, or by commercial operations carried on in spite of the American laws. Those from the north settled principally in Nova Scotia or Canada, provinces the politics of which they and their descendants continued to control till quite recently. Those from the south found refuge in the Bahamas and other British West India islands. Still objects of great popular odium, these Loyalists had little to expect from the stipulated recommendations of Congress in their favor. Some of the states, whose territory had been longest and most recently occupied by the enemy, were even inclined to enact new confiscations. Such was the so-called Tres XLV. CHAPTER pass Act of New York, authorizing the owners of real estate in the city to recover rents and damages against 1783. such persons as had used their buildings under British authority during the war. This act had been passed before news arrived of the terms of the preliminary treaty; another act, subsequently to the evacuation, disfranchised all who had held any British commission, civil or military, or had been concerned in fitting out privateers. June 8. During the invasions of Virginia and the Carolinas a considerable number of slaves had joined the British under promise of protection. When reminded by Washington of the clause which Laurens had procured to be inserted in the treaty, prohibiting the carrying away of slaves or other property, Carleton refused to understand that article as stipulating the surrender of any slaves who had taken refuge under the British flag-a surren der which, as he conceived, would be in the highest degree dishonorable to Great Britain. He took care to secure the safety of these negroes by sending them away in the very first embarkation; but, not to put any obstacle in the way of claims for indemnity, he caused an accurate list of them to be taken. These liberated slaves were carried to Nova Scotia, whence many of them emigrated to Sierra Leone. Their descendants, as merchants and traders, now constitute the wealthiest and most intelligent population of that African colony. Washington had already addressed a farewell letter to the governors of the states, in which he had urged obliv ion of local prejudices and policies, indissoluble union, a proper peace establishment, and a sacred regard to public justice; in other words, provision for the public debt. Aug. 26. On the point of a peace establishment he also had an Oct. 18. interview with Congress. That body presently published Nov. 2. a proclamation for disbanding the troops; and on the day |