XLVI. controlling power was needed to regulate the commerce CHAPTER of the Union, not only to meet foreign nations on equal terms, but to prevent injurious competition and conflict- 1784. ing legislation among the states themselves, symptoms of which began to appear. Influenced by these considerations, Congress asked for a limited power, to be con- April 31. ceded by the state Legislatures, to regulate foreign commerce for the period of fifteen years. Jefferson drew up, and Congress approved, a plan for the negotiation of commercial treaties on principles of reciprocity; and Jay having given notice of his intended return, Jefferson was sent to Europe in his place, as May. joint commissioner with Franklin and Adams, to negotiate treaties on that basis. A treaty with Sweden had 1783. been already signed by Franklin, under special powers April 30. for that purpose. The military force retained at the peace amounted to less than seven hundred men, under the command of Knox, placed in garrison at West Point and Pittsburg. Even these were discharged before the termination of the session, except twenty-five men to guard the stores at Pittsburg, and fifty-five for West Point and the other magazines; no officer being retained in service above the rank of captain. Whenever the western posts might be surrendered by the British, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were to furnish their quotas of seven hundred twelve months' men to do garrison duty. The military establishment thus reduced, the total federal expenses for the current year were estimated at the moderate sum of $457,525. But an additional million was needed to meet outstanding deficiencies of the past year, and $3,022,203 to pay up the over-due interest on the public debt. Even this calculation supposed that XLVI. CHAPTER the $1,200,000 specially called for in 1782, to pay the interest on the domestic debt, had been fully applied to 1784. that purpose by the respective states under the authority contained in the requisition-an assumption which facts did not justify. It thus appeared that, on the most moderate calculation, $4,480,203 were required to square the federal accounts to the end of the current year. This amount, if obtained at all, must be raised by taxes in the several states, in addition to the large amounts needed to meet their own separate engagements for interest and current expenses. Apart from the exhaustion and actual poverty of the country, the methods of taxation then generally employed were such as to make the whole burden felt. Duties on imports, now so fruitful a source of revenue, were but little in use, and very unpopular. To raise money in that way was esteemed by many judicious persons-perhaps not altogether without reason -as unequal and anti-republican, giving the government too easy access to the pockets of the people, and enabling the rich to escape from contributing in proportion to their It was partly on these grounds that so much difficulty was experienced in persuading the states to invest Congress with the proposed power of collecting a customs duty for federal purposes. Excise duties were still more unpopular. The heavy sums needed for federal and state purposes were levied by a direct contribution, one third of the whole, in Massachusetts and some other states, by a personal poll-tax. Under these circumstances, Congress was content with. attempting to pay up the interest on the domestic debt to the beginning of the year. The estimate was thus reduced to $3,112,589. Since the repudiation of the old tenor, the return to specie payments, the abandonment of specific supplies, and the organization, under Morris, of XLVI. the existing system of finance, two requisitions had been CHAPTER made upon the states, one for eight millions of dollars for the service of the year 1782, the other of two millions 1784. for the service of 1783. The whole sum paid in on these two requisitions had amounted to only $1,486,511, the deficiency having been met, as in the two preceding years, by contracting new debts at home, and by the produce of loans obtained abroad. To avoid making new requisitions with these old ones outstanding, and to bring up the specie payments of the states to the same level, Congress asked, toward meeting the amount now needed, April 27. the payment by the states of their respective quotas of the first half of the eight million requisition. Even if this call were fully paid up, there would still be a deficiency, for which, however, no provision was made. As a further means of easing the payment, a quarter part of it might be made in indents, or certificates, which the respective loan offices were authorized to issue for the over-due interest on the domestic debt. Disgusted and discouraged by the multiplied difficulties of his department, Morris gave notice of his intended resignation, and, unable to find any body competent or willing to fill his place, Congress passed an ordinance for putting the treasury under the care of three commissioners. Livingston and Lincoln had already resigned their respective departments of foreign affairs and of war. Jay, then on his way home from Europe, had been appointed to succeed Livingston; till his arrival, the department of state was committed to an under secretary. As there was now no military force, no minister of war seemed to be necessary. The Articles of Confederation, in contemplation of an annual recess of Congress, had provided for the appointment of a committee, of one delegate from each state, to XLVI. CHAPTER Sit during the interval. Such a committee was now appointed and its powers defined, after which Congress ad1784. journed. But the members of the committee soon split June 1. into two parties, and presently abandoned their post, leaving the federal government without any visible head. The experiment of a Committee of States was not again attempted. The remaining sessions of the Continental Congress were protracted through the entire year, business being much delayed, and a great deal of time lost, for want of a sufficient number of delegates to form a quorum. After a recess of five months, the annual session was Nov. 1. opened at Trenton. Richard Henry Lee was chosen president. A resolve was carried to appoint commissioners to lay out a federal city and erect public buildings near the falls of the Delaware, toward which the sum of $100,000 was appropriated. It was voted inexpedient to attempt, at this time, to erect public buildings in more than one place. Till the new federal city should be ready, 1785. Congress adjourned to New York, and there the remainder of the present session was held, and all the future ones. The want of funds, and obstinate differences of opinion in Congress, prevented any thing effectual being done toward the building of the proposed federal city. Jan. Having now been abroad for nine years, the aged Franklin solicited a recall, and Jefferson was presently March 10. appointed to fill his place. Franklin had concluded a consular convention with the French government; but, on account of the extensive, and, in some respects, independent powers which it conferred upon consuls, Congress was very unwilling to ratify it. Jefferson labored hard to procure some modifications, but without much success, and, after a delay of two or three years, the convention was reluctantly ratified by Congress. The em XLVI. barrassments anticipated from it were fully realized—its CHAPTER provisions becoming the occasion, a few years after, of very serious difficulties with the French revolutionary 1785. government. A Negotiations for commercial treaties, on the basis suggested by Jefferson, were commenced by the commissioners with Prussia, Denmark, Portugal, and Tuscany. treaty was presently concluded with Prussia, remarkable July. for its provisions, that in case of war between the contracting parties, privateering should not be allowed, and that free ships should make free goods. Prussia, very little of a maritime state, was the more ready on that account to assent to these novelties. A treaty under this same commission was negotiated two or three years after with the Emperor of Morocco, through the agency of Barclay, the consul at Paris. The negotiations with the other states came to no results. Great Britain complained that several of the states, notwithstanding an express provision of the treaty, continued to put insuperable obstacles in the way of the collection of British debts due before the commencement of hostilities. Until satisfied on that point, she refused to give up the northwestern posts. Virginia, on the other hand, complained that, contrary to the stipulations of the treaty, certain slaves had been carried off by the evacuating British army-an action which Jay applauded as no more than justice and honor had demanded, but for which, nevertheless, under the treaty, he thought indemnity to be due. A few days before the appointment of Feb. 24 Jefferson as Franklin's successor at the French court, John Adams, who still remained in Holland, had been appointed minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain. The first person to wait upon him after his arrival at London was the aged Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia. The |