2

years of the war, laid down his office in despair, after a year of peace. His creation of a bank - the Bank of North America (1781). was recommended by Congress to the states, with the request that branches should be established; but in vain. Congress renewed its petition, as it may be styled, for power to lay a duty on imports, if only for a limited period, (1783.) After long delay, a fresh appeal was made with really piteous representations of the national insolvency. New York refused to comply upon the terms proposed, and Congress was again humiliated, (1786.) During its efforts on this point, Congress had roused itself upon another, and asked for authority over foreign commerce. Such was the urgency of the interests at stake, that Congress went so far as to appoint a commission for the purpose of negotiating commercial treaties with the European powers, (1784.)* But the supplications of Congress to the states were once more denied, (1784-86.)

Organization

of the north

On one point alone was Congress worthy to be called a government. It organized the western territory, after having prevailed upon the states, west ter- or most of them, to abandon their pretensions to ritory. regions so remote from themselves. Virginia having followed the earlier example of New York, a plan was brought forward by one of her delegates, Thomas Jefferson, for the division and constitution of the western territory. The plan, at first, embraced the organization of the entire western territory, out of which seventeen states, all free, were to be formed. The proposed prohibition of slavery was at once voted down; otherwise the project was adopted,

* A treaty was made with only one of them, (Prussia,) but it contained substance enough for a score of old treaties, in prohibiting privateering, and sustaining the liberty of neutral commerce in case of war, (1785.) See the next chapter.

(April, 1784.) But the cessions of the states not yet covering the whole of the region thus apportioned, its organization was postponed until the national title to the lands could be made complete. Massachusetts (1785) and Connecticut (1786) ceded their claims, the latter state, however, with a reservation. Treaties with various tribes disposed in part of the Indian titles to the western territories, (1784–86.) * All these cessions completing the hold of the nation upon the tract north-west of the Ohio,f that country was definitely organized as the North-west Territory, by an ordinance of Congress, (July 13, 1787) This intrusted the government of the territory partly to officers appointed by Congress, and partly to an assembly to be chosen by the settlers

as soon as they amounted to five thousand the inhabitants was

and the authorities being alike bound to the observance of certain articles of compact between the old states and the new ones that might arise within the territory. These articles provided for religious liberty; for habeas corpus, trial by jury, and kindred privileges; for the encouragement of religion and education, and for justice towards the Indians; for the equal rights and responsibilities of the new states and the old; for the division of the territory into states; and lastly, for the prohibition of slavery. Under so liberal an organization, surveys, sales, and settlements followed fast. A colony from Massachusetts was the first to occupy Ohio, at Marietta, (1788.)

Difficul

Singular enough, while Congress was taking these ties with steps to preserve the western domains, it was taking Spain. others to endanger them. Eager to secure a treaty

* It was many years before the Indian title was completely extinguished

† The south-west territory, though ceded in great part by the Indians, was not yet ceded by the states on whose borders it lay. South Carolina was the first to give up her claims, (August, 1787.)

of commerce with Spain, the Northern and Central States assented to surrender the navigation of the Mississippi to that power, (1786.) In this they had no less an authority upon their side than Washington, who appears to have attached more importance to internal communication between the west and the east alone than to that wider intercourse which the west would possess by means of its mighty river. Jefferson, then the American minister at Paris, was farther sighted. "The act," he wrote, "which abandons the navigation of the Mississippi, is an act of separation between the eastern and western country," (1787.) Suppose the right to the Mississippi waived, even for a limited period, and the probability is, that a large number of the western settlers, conceiving themselves sacrificed, would have separated from their countrymen, and gained a passage through the stream either in war or in alliance with Spain.

And Great

Britain.

Relations with Great Britain were still more disturbed than those with Spain. Nor were they less threatening to the west. The treaty of peace exacted the surrender of the western posts by Britain. But America was required at the same time to provide for the debts of great magnitude due to British merchants. This, however, was not done. Congress was unable, and the states were unwilling, to effect any thing; five states, indeed, continuing or commencing measures to prevent the collection of British debts. When, therefore, John Adams, the first minister to Great Britain, entered into a negotiation for the recovery of the posts which the British still held, he was met at once by the demand that the American part in the treaty should be fulfilled, (1786.) The subject of debts was not the only one on which the states were violating the treaty. But it was the chief infraction; and against it chiefly was directed a remonstrance which Congress addressed to the states, altogether in vain, (1787.)

Dark

times.

"The consideration felt for America by Europe," wrote Lafayette, "is diminishing to a degree truly painful; and what has been gained by the revolution is in danger of being lost little by little, at least during an interval of trial to all the friends of the nation." "I am mortified beyond expression," wrote Washington, "when I view the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any country."

Old foun

Amid this tottering of the national system, the
The laws that had

dations. old foundations stood secure.
been laid deep in the past, the institutions, political and
social, that had been reared above them, remained to sup-
port the present uncertainties. Every strong principle of
the mother country, every broad reform of the colonies,
contributed to the strength and the development of the
struggling nation.

super

struc

tures.

Nor were recent superstructures wanting. The Recent states, in forming and reforming their constitutions, set up many a great principle, undeveloped, if not unknown, in earlier times. Nothing, for instance, could be more novel, as well as more admirable, than the indemnity * voted by Pennsylvania to the proprietary family of which she had cast off the dominion. It was a recognition of rights belonging to rulers, that had never been made by subjects in a successful revolution. The law of inheritance was another point of new proportions. The claim of the eldest son to a double share of his father's property, if not to all the prerogatives of primogeniture, was gradually prohibited, Georgia taking the lead. Suffrage was extended in several states,† from holders of real

* £130,000 sterling, in addition to all the private domains of the family. Maryland made no such indemnity; but the representative of her proprietor was an illegitimate son

+ New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, and, partially, North Carolina

22*

or personal property to all tax-paying freemen. Personal liberty obtained extension and protection. The class of indented servants diminished. That of slaves disappeared altogether in some of the states. Massachusetts, declaring *men free and equal by her Bill of Rights, was pronounced by her Supreme Court to have put an end to slavery within her limits, (1780-83.) Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut forbade the importation of slaves, and the bondage of any persons thereafter born upon their soil. Other states declared against the transportation of slaves from state to state, others against the foreign slave trade; all, in fine, moving with greater or less energy in the same direction, save only South Carolina and Georgia. Societies were formed in many places to quicken the action of the authorities. In making exertions, and in maintaining principles like these, the nation was proving its title to independence.

Religious Nothing, however, was more full of promise than privileges. the religious privileges to which the states consented. Rhode Island, who, as formerly mentioned, had no disposition to change her existing institutions, made one altération by striking out the prohibitory statute against Roman Catholics, (1784.) But Rhode Island was no longer alone in her glory. The majority of the state constitutions allowed entire religious liberty. The only real restrictions upon it were those to which the Puritan states still clung in enforcing the payment of taxes, and the attendance upon services in some church or other; the old leaven not having entirely lost its power. Particular forms of faith were here and there required, if not from the citizens, at any rate from the magistrates; Roman Catholics being excluded from office in several states of the north, the centre, and the south.

As there was no single fold into which the Christians of