1788, when it was permanently established by act of Parliament.

Difficulties with Great Britain were not confined to regulations respecting commerce. Serious disputes soon arose concerning the execution of the treaty of peace; and each nation complained of infractions by the other.

Congress, in order to remove the difficulties complained of, in March, 1787, unanimously declared that all the acts, or parts of acts, existing in any of the States, repugnant to the treaty of peace, ought to be repealed; and they recommended to the States to make such repeal by a general law. They at the same time unanimously resolved "that the legislatures of the several States cannot of right pass any act or acts for interpreting, explaining, or construing a national treaty or any part or clause of it; nor for restraining, limiting, or in any manner impeding, retarding, or contracting the operation and execution of the same; for that, on being constitutionally made, ratified, and published, they become, in virtue of the Confederation, part of the law of the land, and are not only independent of the will and power of such legislatures, but also binding and obligatory on them."

In consequence of these declarations the States having laws against the treaty abolished these, save Virginia, which did so provisionally upon Great Britain fulfilling her obligations, and South Carolina, which observed that the subjects of Great Britain had encountered no other difficulties, or impediments, in the recovery of their debts, than had the citizens of America; that such was the situation of the State the legislature had conceived it necessary to pass laws tantamount to shutting the courts.

The British court was not yet disposed to enter into any commercial treaty with the United States, the ministers being, no doubt, satisfied that the advantages they enjoyed under their own regulations were greater than could be obtained by any treaty they could make with America.

ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY

The people of the United States had viewed the Western lands as a fund to aid in the payment of the national debt. Congress, therefore, in April, 1783, called upon those States who had not yet complied with their former requests on this subject to make liberal cessions of their territorial claims.

After a great deal of controversy the States claiming Western lands ceded these to the Federal Government; and Congress, in July, 1787, organized the North-West Territory, composed of the region now occupied by the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, establishing an ordinance for its government. This ordinance remains the basis of the governments established by Congress in all the Territories of the United States. By it Congress established certain articles of compact, between the original States and the people in the territory, and which were to remain unalterable, unless by common consent. By these no person in the territory was ever to be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments; and every person was entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, trial by jury, and all those other fundamental rights usually inserted in American bills of rights. Schools and the means of education were forever to be encouraged, and the utmost good faith to be observed toward the Indians; particularly their lands and property were never to be taken from them without their consent. The territory, and the States that might be formed therein, were forever to remain a part of the American confederacy; but not less than three nor more than five States were to be established.

It was also provided that, whenever in any of those States there should be sixty thousand free inhabitants, such State was to be admitted into the Union, on the same footing with the original States in all respects whatever; and be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State government; such constitution and government, however, was to be republican and conformable to the principles of the articles. If consistent

with the general interest of the confederation, such State, however, might be admitted as a member of the Union with a less number than sixty thousand free inhabitants.

By the last article it was provided there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the Territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, of which the party should have been duly convicted.1

FINANCIAL DISTRESS OF THE STATES

While Congress was thus forming a government for the Territory and laying the foundation of future new States at the west, it had lost all authority over the old States at the east. Many causes combined, at this period, to produce great distress, discontent, and disaffection in different parts of the Union. The General Government, as before stated, was totally inefficient, and the authority of the State governments greatly weakened, and in some instances almost destroyed.

In addition to the debts of the Union, the States individually had also incurred large debts during the war, for the payment of which they were called upon by their creditors. Immediately after peace, in consequence of large importations of foreign goods, particularly from Great Britain, large debts were contracted by individuals, and which, from the want of internal as well as external resources, they were unable to pay. The people were pressed at the same time for the payment of the debts of the Union, of the individual States, and of their own private debts. The courts of justice, which had been shut during the war, were filled with private suits. Under these circumstances, some of the States had recourse to the desperate expedient of paper money; others made personal property a tender, at an appraised value, in satisfaction of debts; and, in Massachusetts, not only were the judges in several counties prevented from holding courts, but the Government itself, in other respects, was set at defiance by an open and formidable insurrection of the people (Shay's Rebellion).

1

1 Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, was the author of this article.

WASHINGTON ON FAILURE OF THE CONFEDERACY

The enemies of the Revolution, who had predicted that the Americans, when separated from their parent country, would be unable to govern themselves, but fall into confusion, now secretly rejoiced at the verification of their predictions. Its friends began almost to despair of the commonwealth, and at times were led to doubt whether the people of America were indeed capable of self-government. Some, indeed, suggested that it might be necessary for the country to adopt a monarchical form of government. In reference to this suggestion General Washington said in a letter to John Jay:

What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing! I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for our enemies to verify their predictions! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious!

God that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend.

CHAPTER X

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

[PLANS OF GOVERNMENT]

First Proposal of the Constitution-Pelatiah Webster [Pa.] on Defects of the Confederation-Webster's Comparison of the Adopted Constitution with That Which He Had Proposed-George Washington on the Necessary Change in the Federal Government-Resolutions of Virginia-Suggestion of John Jay to Call a Convention to Revise the Articles of Confederation-The Annapolis Convention-It Issues Call for a Constitutional Convention-New York Legislature Votes upon Alexander Hamilton's Resolution to Give Congress Power to Levy Federal Duties on Imports-His Speech: "On Granting Taxing Powers to Congress'— Resolve of Constitutional Convention to Form an Entirely New Government Plans of Government by Edmund Randolph and Charles Pinckney-Letter of James Madison to Randolph-The Plans Are Referred to a Committee-Its Resolutions-Plan of William Paterson.

HE Articles of Confederation were the result of an old order of what might be called colonial statesmanship that was admirably adapted to secure the independence of the several States, but was woefully inadequate for the still greater task of welding them into a nation. To save the country from the anarchy into which it had fallen required a new order of what might be called national statesmanship in which the lead was taken by young men and those older persons whose political activities had begun with the movement for national independence. Of the younger men of this order, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Charles Pinckney were the most influential in devising plans of government in which the principle of federation was subordinated to that of nationality. Of the older representatives, the most influential was a man with a type of mind new to the country, the politico-economic as distinguished from the purely political, and whose genius, therefore,