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 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 solicitation."

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."

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

the most important and immediate interest to the civilized world, and an American might have hoped to have seen her vast prospective greatness attracting the eyes of Europe, and commanding all its attention. But the impotence of the confederacy and the visionary objects of this commission defeated those hopes. From these causes a larger view of our foreign relations would seem unnecessary, were it not for the powerful influence which the policy of the great leading powers produced on the social condition of the American states.

Those with France, their ancient ally, first attract attention. Nothing is more obvious in all her policy than the sagacity of her statesmen, who foresaw that the moment her political influence over the confederacy ceased, every other connection would become a minor consideration. Hence her solicitude that all the American negotiations should be conducted near her court. But England and Spain were both unwilling that Paris should be the centre of political action. Great Britain insisted, as a previous condition to any negotiation, an embassy to London, "as more suitable to the dignity of either power." The Spanish minister declared, that in matters between its crown and any other power, "the custom of its court (the most regular and systematic of all others) was to negotiate between themselves, without availing themselves of a third place." Franklin having resigned his scat in the commission, Adams, in consequence of these intimations, was accredited to the court of St. James; Jefferson to that of Versailles; and Spain appointed a sort of intermediate minister-a "plenipotentiary chargé d'affaires," to reside at the seat of congress. Jefferson's object was attained.

While the force of habit formed during her colonial relations, similarity of language, laws, and manners, all

attracted the American people to England, other causes operated as insuperable obstacles to an extensive commerce between the United States and France.

The poverty of the American people denied to them the luxuries of their ally. The inferior fabric and peculiar fashion of articles of primary necessity, prevented their being introduced into general use. For those which were sought, few American products would be received in exchange; while the commercial system of France, yet in its infancy, charged the objects of commerce with such a multiplicity of duties, and those so oppressive, as to deter enterprise. The principal article of exchange was the subject of a monopoly, and charged with a duty to the crown, of too much value to be relinquished by a needy monarch. On other articles accumulated duties were levied, and these were partitioned among so many recipients, as placed it beyond the power of the financier to reduce them to one denomination; while the political influence of the beneficiaries would not permit them to be diminished or suppressed. These were some of the embarrassments to a direct trade. The colonial trade had been long conducted under a most rigid system, and as the treaty of seventeen hundred and seventy-eight had secured to France the free admission of her manufactures into the United States, they had nothing to offer in the shape of immunities to open the sealed commerce of her islands.*

Soon after his return to Europe, La Fayette, at whose

*Compelled by necessity, France opened her colonial ports during the war, but at its close, by an arrêt, dated thirtieth of August, seventeen hundred and eighty-four, she permitted the importation into them only of a few articles of primary necessity, and confined the exports to rum, molasses, and goods brought from France, which paid the local duties with an ad valorem of one per cent. A discriminating duty was also imposed on salted beef and dried fish, to form a fund for the encouragement of the French fisheries.