of the most perfect equality and reciprocity in a particular treaty with any one nation, where the interest of the country might dictate them, but as exceptions to the establishment, at that time, of a general system of policy, excluding all discriminations or prohibitions, however their necessity might be indicated by peculiar circumstances. Jay thought that a system for regulating the trade of the United States should be framed and adopted before they entered into further treaties of commerce. Various reasons were given to show that it was inexpedient to make the conduct of the parties towards the most favoured nations, the rule of their conduct towards each other; among these, a principal one was, that the interchange of favours between the United States and a nation merely European, would probably be regulated by principles and considerations distinct, in a certain degree, from those which should regulate such an interchange between them and nations partly European and partly American.* There might, he said, exist reasons for freely granting to one nation what there might be no reason for granting to another. He also doubted the expediency of agreeing absolutely that any nation should be at liberty to bring and vend into the United States, all or any of their productions and manufactures without exception, because it might be necessary to prohibit the importation of some of them, either to check luxury, or to promote domestic manufactures.†

* "We abstained,” Jefferson observed, "from making new propositions to others having no colonies, because our commerce being an exchange of raw for wrought materials, is a competent price for admission into the colonies of those possessing them; but were we to give it without price to others, all would claim it without price, on the ordinary ground of gentis amicis. sime."-Jefferson's Works, vol. 1, p. 51.

In the treaty which was the immediate subject of this report, one article precluded the laying an embargo. This was objected to, for a reason not easily disputed.

But one other topic of moment arrests attention in the proceedings of this congress. It related to the garrisoning of the frontier posts. The hostility evinced by New-York to the employment of continental troops for that purpose, has been previously mentioned. The expectation that the negotiation which was pending for the surrender of those posts would be successful, produced great anxiety in the councils of that state, and she urged, with extreme earnestness and pertinacity, a declaration by congress, in pursuance of the articles of confederation, of the number of troops necessary to be kept up by her for the protection of her frontier. This subject, though frequently presented to that body, was deferred from an apprehension of authorizing an individual state to maintain an armed force. To avoid this alternative, propositions were made in congress for the enlistment of a thousand men, to protect the commissioners recently appointed to hold treaties with the Indians, and to defend the frontiers.

The fate of these propositions is indicative of the temper of the times. After repeated and laboured debates, a resolution was introduced by Gerry, proclaiming "the danger of confiding to a body, which was already empow ered to make foreign and domestic loans, and to issue bills of credit, that of raising standing armies;" and it was determined to discharge the few troops which had been retained in the service of the United States. The standing army was reduced to eighty men. No officer was retained of a higher rank than captain, and the western frontiers were to be protected by a requisition for a regiment of militia. The congress of the United States having, in virtue of the confederation, at the instance of Jefferson, chosen from its own body a "committee of the states," now adjourned.

This committee continued in session, though without effecting any thing, until the nineteenth of August, seven

teen hundred and eighty-four, when some of the members withdrawing, without the consent of their colleagues, it broke up, without the decency of an adjournment, in clamorous confusion, leaving the nation without any representative council.

The congressional year of their successors commenced on the first of November, of the same year, but a quorum was not formed until the succeeding month. Its history is alike barren of interest; the few subjects upon which it acted, until the latter part of its session, being the organization of a court to adjudicate upon the territorial controversy which existed between the states of Massachusetts and New-York; measures for the adjustment of a similar dispute between South Carolina and Georgia; the appointment of commissioners to treat with the southwestern tribes of Indians; the selection of a site for a federal city, and an ordinance defining the power and duties of the secretary at war. These being arranged, a decision was made upon a matter of permanent importance-the mode of disposing of the western territory. Much discussion on this subject had occurred during the previous congress. An ordinance was now passed, "the result of compromise, not such as was desired, produced by the utmost efforts of public argument and private solici tation."*

A provision for the current service gave rise also to frequent deliberations, which were concluded by a vote on the report of the grand committee of congress, a short time before the termination of its political existence. By this vote a requisition was made upon the states for three millions of dollars, of which two-thirds were receivable in

From a letter of William S. Johnson, a man of a probity and talent as eminent, and views as comprehensive, as were those of his distinguished fa ther.

certificates for interest on the liquidated debts; which amount was intended not only to meet the demands of the year, but also the balance of the estimate which the preceding congress had omitted to require. An earnest recommendation was made for the completion of the measures for raising revenue, proposed in the spring of the preceding year, as preferable to any other system, “and necessary to the establishment of the public credit."

CHAPTER XL.

FROM the Congress, to which he was indebted for his preferment, and of which he does not disguise his contempt, -"little numerous, but very contentious"-Jefferson hastened away. Appointed envoy, on the motion of a colleague from Virginia, seconded by Gerry, on the seventh of May, he left his seat four days after, and though the session continued near a month, did not resume it, but sailed for Paris, on a summer sea, intent upon his project to emancipate commerce."

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The joint commission was opened with much solemnity on the thirteenth of August, 1784, and, soon after, its powers were announced to the different governments of Europe-France, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Saxony, the Sicilies, Sardinia, Tuscany, Genoa, Venice, Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis, the Sublime Porte, and his holiness the Pope.

France received them with a smile; England silenced the experiment by an inquiry as to the "real nature of the powers with which they were invested, whether they were merely commissioned by congress, or had received separate powers from the respective states." The other nations stood aloof. Prussia alone formed a treaty embracing some of the principles of the report, but insisted upon reserving the right of prohibition and retaliation—rights which the American commissioners themselves claimed to reserve in their negotiations with Tuscany! The commission, thus baffled in all its expectations, ceased to act.

The introduction of a new power into the great family of nations, would seem to have been an event fraught with