SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER IX

State Governments. Nevins, American States during and after the Revolution, comprehensive history of this topic is the first. Brief accounts are given in Channing, United States, III, chap. 14, Van Tyne, The American Revolution, chap. 9, and Morey, "The First State Constitutions," in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. See also McMaster, Acquisition of Rights of Man in America; Hockett, Western Influences, 22-27. There are a few good monographs which deal with particular states. One of the best of these is on Massachusetts: Cushing, Transition from Provincial to Commonwealth Government. The evolution of state constitutions from colonial charters is discussed by Morey, "The Genesis of a Written Constitution,” in Annals. The Continental Congress. Small, Beginnings of American Nationality; Van Tyne, The American Revolution, chap. 11, and "Sovereignty in the American Revolution," in The American Historical Review.

The Articles of Confederation. McLaughlin, The Confederation and the Constitution.

CHAPTER X

THE CONFEDERATION PERIOD

COMMERCIAL READJUSTMENT

The troubles of the United States were not ended by the treaty of peace. It was no slight undertaking to set up an independent political household. The years of the war had seriously dislocated the industrial as well as political organization, and the confusion and uncertainty of the next half-dozen years have fastened upon them the name of the "critical period of American history." The interruption of intercourse with Europe had forced the United States to attempt to supply their own needs, but their manufactures, still in the handicrafts stage, were far too weak to withstand the competition of the rising factory system of England. For many years still America was to depend upon England for most manufactured goods, and agriculture and commerce were to be her chief industries. Both of them had been badly deranged by the war.

The irksome restrictions imposed upon colonial trade by the navigation system had been contributory causes of the Revolution. Independence freed the Americans from these restrictions on their trade, but with the loss of their status as British subjects the navigation acts automatically excluded them, as foreigners, from the British West Indies. They hoped that England could be persuaded to make a treaty allowing their intercourse with all parts of the empire to continue with the same freedom as in the old days. If there ever was a moment when such an agreement could have been obtained, it was when the Shelburne ministry, intent upon regaining the affections of America, signed the preliminary peace treaty in 1782. The change in ministry which came in consequence of the liberality of that treaty indicated that the hope of commercial favors was vain. With the exception of products like fish, which competed with the industry of

British North America, exportation from the United States to the British West Indies was allowed, but the goods had to be carried in English ships. As for exports to England, they might be carried in American vessels, but in that case some articles were subject to higher duties than when brought in English bottoms.

Calculations of national interest swayed the British government, and its ancient policy was not modified at the plea of the infant republic of the West. England had nothing to gain by concessions and nothing to lose by refusing to make them. The war was hardly over before it became apparent that the French hope of supplanting England in the American market was illusory. The habits of generations were too firmly fixed. While they sought some articles of luxury from France, Americans preferred the staple manufactures of the English to the French goods of the same class. English firms solicited new orders from their former customers in the states, and it proved easy to reëstablish the old credit system. In spite of restrictions, commerce soon flowed back into its old channels.

Freedom brought other losses besides that of the right to enter British colonial ports. The bounties which England had paid on the production of certain articles ceased, and were sadly missed, for instance, by the rice-growers. American tobacco lost its special privileges in the English market, and a time of depression followed in that industry.

The recovery of the privilege of trading with the West Indies became a prime object of diplomacy. John Adams, sent to England as minister in 1785, was courteously received by the King, but could not make headway with the ministry. Despite the recommendations of Congress, the states had not restored the property of the Loyalists, and had passed laws sequestering debts due Englishmen (see page 164). The British government therefore refused to make an agreement on commerce, and charged the Americans with breaches of the treaty of peace. The ministers intimated that they doubted whether the Articles gave Congress power to make a treaty which the states would be bound

to observe.

The inadequacy of the powers of Congress was, indeed, a chief root of the difficulty in negotiating treaties. If Congress could have imposed the same restrictions on British ships as American

vessels were subjected to in England, it might have brought England to terms. That, at least, was Adams's conclusion from his humiliating experience. An amendment to the Articles had been proposed in 1784, called the "commerce amendment," to give Congress this very power, but only two states consented to part with their control.

Meantime Jefferson in France was faring hardly better than Adams. "We are the lowest and most obscure of the whole diplomatic tribe," he wrote. France, like England, was little disposed to treat the new republic with distinguished consideration. During the war she had given American vessels considerable liberty in her ports, both in the West Indies and in Europe, but concessions were made rather as a means of embarrassing the British than because of friendship for the United States, and with peace she like England resumed her navigation system. Spain pursued a similar course for like reasons.

Nevertheless within a year or two conditions began to improve slowly. In 1784 and 1785 France and Spain made concessions for their own convenience by which the vessels of the states were allowed restricted trade privileges in the West Indian ports. Treaties were concluded with some of the countries of central Europe, notably Prussia, embodying the most advanced contemporary views of international law. Unfortunately the amount of trade with these countries was small, so that the treaties were for many years hardly more than formal statements of ideals.

But the demand for American agricultural products grew, and the open ports of the Danish and Dutch West Indies proved to be back doors to the neighboring British islands. A beginning was made, besides, in the Pacific. The first American vessel returned from China in 1785, and within a few years Yankee skippers were second only to the English in the trade with Canton. In conjunction with the Asiatic commerce came the development of the fur trade on the northwest coast. Ships from Boston and other New England ports rounded Cape Horn, carrying goods for the coast Indians, thence proceeding with furs to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), where conditions were favorable for wintering and curing the peltries. China was the great fur market, and silks, tea, and spices composed the return cargoes. Although

Spain claimed the Pacific shores of North America, the "Bostons," as the natives called the American traders, outnumbered both Spaniards and English during the last years of the eighteenth century. The acquisition of Oregon and Hawaii by the United States long afterwards was in part the outgrowth of these early activities.

By the end of the Confederation period (1789) foreign commerce had regained its prewar prosperity, with added promise due to the new ventures. Boston, Salem, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Charleston shared in the profits. Through New York passed the trade not only of the Hudson Valley but of considerable portions of Connecticut and New Jersey. Its volume was sufficient to enable the great landowners who controlled state politics to shift the burdens of taxation largely from their own shoulders by means of customs duties. Evidence of the increasing prosperity due to commerce is found in the rise of real estate values. According to Franklin they had trebled in Philadelphia within a few years after the treaty of peace. For this prosperity little credit is due the government of the Confederation. Greater powers would undoubtedly have enabled Congress to promote the growth of commerce, but as it was, it grew from natural causes quite independently of the action of the government. Trade was so completely under the control of the states that their rivalries led to tariff wars which caused confusion and loss where prosperity should have been general.

THE CURRENCY QUESTION

The French and English armies and foreign loans had brought unusual quantities of coin into the country. It was largely used in buying supplies for the forces of both belligerents. The abnormal demand had sent prices to a high level and producers had prospered. Much of the money found its way eventually into the pockets of war profiteers and speculators, who spent their gains so freely that for a time after the war the value of imports far exceeded that of exports. This took coin out of the country again to pay for luxuries, and as it became scarce many a poor man found increased difficulty in paying taxes or other obligations which required hard money.