rectly or indirectly, in any trade or commerce whatsoever.* Before retiring, Morris announced to the representative of France in America that he could not pay the interest on the Dutch loan of ten million livres for which France was the guarantee, † a default which deeply injured the reputation of the United States in Paris. He could still less provide for paying the interest for 1784 on the direct debt to France. The members of the fifth congress arrived so slowly at Trenton that Marbois, who was charged with French affairs, on the twentieth of November reported what at the moment. was true: "There is in America no general government, neither congress, nor president, nor head of any one administrative department." # Six days later, while there was still no quorum in congress, Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, wrote to Madison: "It is by many here suggested, as a very necessary step for congress to take, the calling on the states to form a convention for the sole purpose of revising the confederation, so far as to enable congress to execute with more energy, effect, and vigor the powers assigned to it than it appears by experience that they can do under the present state of things." In a letter of the same date Mercer said: "There will be a motion made early in the ensuing congress for such a convention." | Madison, who knew the heart of his correspondents, answered Lee firmly and yet warily: "The union of the states is essential to their safety against foreign danger and internal contention; the perpetuity and efficacy of the present system cannot be confided in; the question, therefore, is, in what mode and at what moment the experiment for supplying the defects ought to be made." A "The American confederation," so thought the French minister at Versailles, "has a strong tendency to dissolution; it is well that on this point we have neither obligations to fulfil nor any interest to care for." ◊ * Journals of Congress for 28 May 1784. Robert Morris to Marbois, 17 August 1784. Diplomatic Correspondence, xii., 494. Edward Bancroft to Lord Carmarthen, Paris, 8 December 1784. #Marbois to Rayneval, 20 November 1784. J. F. Mercer to Madison, 26 November 1784. ◊ To Marbois, Versailles, 14 December 1784. ▲ Gilpin, 707, 708. CHAPTER III. THE WEST. 1784-1785. THE desire to hold and to people the great western domain mingled with every effort for imparting greater energy to the union. In that happy region each state saw the means of granting lands to its soldiers of the revolution and a possession of inestimable promise. Washington took up the office of securing the national allegiance of the transmontane woodsmen by improving the channels of communication with the states on the Atlantic. For that purpose, more than to look after lands of his own, he, on the first day of September, began a tour to the westward to make an examination of the portages between the nearest navigable branches of the Potomac and James river on the one side and of the Ohio and the Kanawha on the other. Wherever he came, he sought and closely questioned the men famed for personal observation of the streams and paths on each side of the Alleghanies. From Fort Cumberland he took the usual road over the mountains to the valley of the Yohogany,* and studied closely the branches of that stream. The country between the Little Kanawha and the branches of the James river being at that moment infested with hostile Indians, he returned through the houseless solitude between affluents of the Cheat river and of * Yohogany is the "phonetical" mode of spelling for yOugHIOgany, as the English wrote the Indian name; the French, discarding the gutturals, wrote Ohio. So at the North-east the French dropped the first two syllables of Passam-Aquoddy, and made of the last three Acadie. The name Belle Rivière is a translation of Allegh-any. the Potomac. As he traced the way for commerce over that wild region he was compelled to pass a night on a rough mountain-side in a pouring rain, with no companion but a servant and no protection but his cloak; one day he was without food; sometimes he could find no path except the track of buffaloes; and in unceasing showers his ride through the close bushes seemed to him little better than the swimming of rivulets.* Reaching home after an absence of thirty-three days, he declared himself pleased with the results of his tour. Combining his observations with the reminiscences of his youthful mission to the French in the heart of Ohio, he sketched in his mind a system of internal communication of the Potomac with the Ohio; of an affluent of the Ohio with the Cuyahoga; and so from the site of Cleveland to Detroit, and onward to the Lake of the Woods. Six days after his return he sent a most able report to Harrison, then governor of Virginia. "We should do our part toward opening the communication for the fur and peltry trade of the lakes," such were his words, "and for the produce of the country, which will be settled faster than any other ever was, or any one would imagine. But there is a political consideration for so doing which is of still greater importance. "I need not remark to you, sir, that the flanks and rear of the United States are possessed by other powers, and formidable ones too; nor how necessary it is to apply interest to bind all parts of the union together by indissoluble bonds. The western states, I speak now from my own observation, stand as it were upon a pivot; the touch of a feather would turn them any way. They have looked down the Mississippi until the Spaniards threw difficulties in their way. The untoward disposition of the Spaniards on the one hand and the policy of Great Britain on the other to retain as long as possible the posts of Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego, may be improved to the greatest advantage by this state if she would open the avenues to the trade of that country."† Harrison heartily approved the views of Washington, and laid his letter before the assembly of Virginia, whose members * Washington's Journal. MS. Washington to Harrison, 10 October 1784. Sparks, ix., 62, 63, 64. gladly accepted its large views and stood ready to give them legislative support. * Meantime Lafayette, who was making a tour through the United States and receiving everywhere a grateful and joyous welcome, was expected in Virginia. For the occasion, Washington repaired to Richmond; and there, on the fifteenth of November, the assembly, to mark their reverence and affection, sent Patrick Henry, Madison, and others to assure him that they retained the most lasting impressions of the transcendent services rendered in his late public character, and had proofs that no change of situation could turn his thoughts from the welfare of his country. Three days later the house, by the same committee, addressed Lafayette, recalling "his cool intrepidity and wise conduct during his command in the campaign of 1781, and, as the wish most suitable to his character, desired that those who might emulate his glory would equally pursue the interests of humanity." From Richmond Lafayette accompanied Washington to Mount Vernon, and, after a short visit, was attended by his host as far as Annapolis, where he received the congratulations of Maryland. On the thirteenth of December congress, in a public session, took leave of him with every mark of honor. In his answer he repeated the great injunctions of Washington's farewell letter, and, having travelled widely in the country, bore witness to "the prevailing disposition of the people to strengthen the confederation." For America his three "hobbies," as he called them, were the closer federal union, the alliance with France, and the abolition of slavery. He embarked for his native land "fraught with affection to America, and disposed to render it every possible service." To Washington he announced from Europe that he was about to attempt the relief of the protestants in France. ‡ The conversation of Washington during his stay in Richmond had still further impressed members of the legislature with the magnitude of his designs. Shortly after his de * Harrison to Washington, 13 November 1784. Sparks, ix., 68. Lafayette to Washington, 11 May 1785. parture a joint memorial from inhabitants of Maryland and of Virginia, representing the advantages which would flow from establishing under the authority of the two states a company for improving the navigation of the Potomac, was presented to the general assembly of each of them. But the proposed plan had defects, and, moreover, previous communication between the two states could alone secure uniformity of action. It was decided to consult with Maryland, and the negotiation was committed to Washington himself. Leaving Mount Vernon on the fourteenth of December 1784 at a few hours' notice, the general hastened to Annapolis. Amendments of the plan were thoughtfully digested, rapidly carried through both houses, and dispatched to Richmond. There a law of the same tenor was immediately passed without opposition, "to the mutual satisfaction of both states," and, as Washington hoped, “to the advantage of the union." + * At the same time the two governments made appropriations for opening a road from the highest practicable navigation of the Potomac to that of the river Cheat or Monongahela, and they concurred in an application to Pennsylvania for permission to open another road from Fort Cumberland to the Yohogany. Like measures were initiated by Virginia for connecting James river with some affluent of the Great Kanawha. Moreover, the executive was authorized to appoint commissioners to examine the most convenient course for a canal between Elizabeth river and the waters of the Roanoke, and contingently to make application to the legislature of North Carolina for its concurrence. Early in 1785 the legislature of Virginia, repeating, in words written by Madison, "their sense of the unexampled merits of George Washington toward his country," vested in him shares in both the companies alike of the Potomac and of James river.# But, conscious of the weight of his counsels, he never suffered his influence to be impaired by any suspicion of interested motives, and, not able to undo an act of the legis lature, held the shares, but only as a trustee for the public. *Hening, x., 510. Madison, i., 123, 124. Sparks, ix., 82. |