recommendation, we cannot expect a union of force or council." The senate answered in the words of Philip Schuyler: "We perceive the defects of the present system, and the necessity of a supreme and coercive power in the government of these states; and are persuaded that, unless congress are authorized to direct uncontrollably the operations of war and enabled to enforce a compliance with their requisitions, the common force can never be properly united." * Meantime Alexander Hamilton in swiftness of thought outran all that was possible. Early in September, in a private letter to James Duane, then a member of congress, he took up the proposal, which, nearly five years before, Thomas Paine had made known, and advised that a convention of all the states should meet on the first of the following November, with full authority to conclude finally and set in motion a "vigorous" general confederation. His ardor would have surprised the people into greater happiness without giving them an opportunity to view and reject his project.‡ Before the end of the year the author of "Common Sense" himself, publishing in Philadelphia a tract asserting the right of the United States to the vacant western territory, closed his argument for the "Public Good" with these words: "I take the opportunity of renewing a hint which I formerly threw out in the pamphlet Common Sense,' and which the several states will, sooner or later, see the convenience, if not the necessity, of adopting; which is, that of electing a continental convention, for the purpose of forming a continental constitution, defining and describing the powers of congress. To have them marked out legally will give additional energy to the whole, and a new confidence to the several parts." "Call a convention of the states, and establish a congress upon a constitutional footing," wrote Greene, after taking command of the southern army, to a member of congress. On the eleventh of November able representatives from * Hough's Convention, 63-65. + Hamilton to Duane, 3 September 1780. Hamilton, i., 157. Compare McHenry to Hamilton. Hamilton, i., 411. #Thomas Paine's Public Good. Original edition, 38. each of the four New England states and New York-John T. Gilman of New Hampshire, Thomas Cushing, Azor Orne, and George Partridge of Massachusetts, William Bradford of Rhode Island, Eliphalet Dyer and William Williams of Connecticut, John Sloss Hobart and Egbert Benson of New York -assembled at Hartford.* The lead in the convention was taken by the delegates from New York, Hobart, a judge of its supreme court, and Benson, its attorney-general.† At their instance it was proposed, as a foundation for a safe system of finance, to provide by taxes or duties a certain and inalienable revenue, to discharge the interest on any funded part of the public debt, and on future loans. As it had proved impossible to get at the valuation of lands, congress should be empowered to apportion taxes on the states according to their number of inhabitants, black as well as white. They then prepared a circular letter to all the states, in which they said: "Our embarrassments arise from a defect in the present government of the United States. All government supposes the power of coercion; this power, however, never did exist in the general government of the continent, or has never been exercised. Under these circumstances, the resources and force of the country can never be properly united and drawn forth. The states individually considered, while they endeavor to retain too much of their independence, may finally lose the whole. By the expulsion of the enemy we may be emancipated from the tyranny of Great Britain; we shall, however, be without a solid hope of peace and freedom unless we are properly cemented among ourselves." The proceedings of this convention were sent to every state in the union, to Washington, and to congress. They were read in congress on the twelfth of December 1780; and were * The names of all the delegates are given in Papers of the Old Congress, Xxxiii., 391, MS. That New York took the lead appears from comparison of the message of Clinton in September and the circular letter of the convention; and from the public tribute of IIamilton to the New York delegates in the presence of Hobart. Hamilton, ii., 360. Papers of the Old Congress, xxxiii., 391, containing copies of the credentials of the commissioners, the resolutions of the convention, and its letters to the several states, to congress, and to Washington. MS. referred to a committee of five, on which were John Witherspoon and James Madison,* the master and his pupil. In the same days Pennsylvania instructed its delegates in congress that imposts on trade were absolutely necessary; and, in order to prevent any state from taking advantage of a neighbor, congress should recommend to the several states in union a system of imposts.† Before the end of 1780 the legislative council and general assembly of New Jersey, while they insisted "that the rights of every state in the union should be strictly maintained," declared that "congress represent the federal republic.” Thus early was that name applied to the United States. Both branches of the legislature of New York, which at that time was "as well disposed a state as any in the union," # approved the proceedings of the convention as promoting the interest of the continent. || A With the year 1781, when the ministry of Great Britain believed themselves in possession of the three southernmost states and were cheering Cornwallis to complete his glory by the conquest of Virginia; when congress was confessedly without the means to recover the city of New York; when a large contingent from France was at Newport, serious efforts for the creation of a federal republic began, and never ceased until it was established. The people of New York, from motives of the highest patriotism, had already ceded its claims to western lands. The territory north-west of the Ohio, which Virginia had conquered, was on the second of January ▲ surrendered to the United States of America. For this renunciation one state and one state only had made delay. On the twentyninth, congress received the news so long anxiously waited for, that Maryland by a resolution of both branches of her legislature had acceded to the confederation, seven members only in the house voting in the negative. Duane, who had been taught by Washington that "greater powers to congress were indispensably necessary to the well-being and good government *Endorsement by Charles Thomson, secretary of congress. MS. +Journals of Assembly, 564. 470. Representation and Remonstrance, printed in Mulford's New Jersey, 469 # Washington to Jefferson, 1 August 1786. Sparks, ix., 186. Journals of Assembly, 91, 93. A Journal of Virginia House of Delegates, 79. of public affairs," instantly addressed him: "Let us devote this day to joy and congratulation, since by the accomplishment of our federal union we are become a nation. In a political view it is of more real importance than a victory over all our enemies. We shall not fail of taking advantage of the favorable temper of the states and recommending for ratification such additional articles as will give vigor and authority to government." The enthusiasm of the moment could not hide the truth, that without amendments the new system would struggle vainly for life. Washington answered: “Our affairs will not put on a different aspect unless congress is vested with, or will assume, greater powers than they exert at present." + To John Sullivan of New Hampshire, another member of congress, Washington wrote: "I never expect to see a happy termination of the war, nor great national concerns well conducted in peace, till there is something more than a recommendatory power in congress. The last words, therefore, of my letter and the first wish of my heart concur in favor of it." # The legislature of Maryland swiftly transformed its resolution into an act. The delegates having full authority, in the presence of congress, on the first day of March, subscribed the articles of confederation, and its complete, formal, and final ratification by all the United States was announced to the public; to the executives of the several states; to the American ministers in Europe, and through them to the courts at which they resided; to the minister plenipotentiary of France in America; to the commander-in-chief, and through him to the army. Clinton communicated "the important event" to the legislature of New York, adding: "This great national compact establishes our union." A But the completion of the confederation was the instant revelation of its insufficiency, and the summons to the people of America to form better constitution. * Washington to James Duane, 26 December 1780. MS. Washington to Duane, 19 February 1781. * Washington to Sullivan, 4 February 1781. Sparks, vii., 402. A Journal of New York Assembly, for 19 March 1781. Washington rejoiced that Virginia had relinquished her claim to the land south of the great lakes and north-west of the Ohio, which, he said, "for fertility of soil, pleasantness of climate, and other natural advantages, is equal to any known tract of country of the same extent in the universe." He was pleased that Maryland had acceded to the confederation; but he saw no ground to rest satisfied. On taking command of the army in Massachusetts in 1775, he at once discriminated between the proper functions of individual colonies and "that power and weight which ought of right to belong only to the whole;" + and he applied to Richard Henry Lee, then in congress, for aid in establishing the distinction. In the following years he steadily counselled the formation of one continental army. As a faithful laborer in the cause, as a man injuring his private estate without the smallest personal advantage, as one who wished the prosperity of America most devoutly, he in the last days of 1778 had pleaded with the statesmen of Virginia for that which to him. was more than life. He called on Benjamin Harrison, then speaker of the house of delegates, on Mason, Wythe, Jefferson, Nicholas, Pendleton, and Nelson, "not to be satisfied with. places in their own state while the common interests of America were mouldering and sinking into irretrievable ruin, but to attend to the momentous concerns of an empire." "Till the great national interest is fixed upon a solid basis," so he wrote, in March 1779, to George Mason, "I lament the fatal policy of the states of employing their ablest men at home. How useless to put in fine order the smallest parts of a clock unless the great spring which is to set the whole in motion is well attended to! Let this voice call forth you, Jefferson, and others to save their country.' "" # But now, with deeper emotion, he turns to his own state as he had done in the gloomy winter of 1778. He has no consolation but in the hope of a good federal government. His growing desire has the character of the forces of nature, which from the opening year increase in power till the earth is renewed. * Washington to Sullivan, 4 February 1781. Sparks, vii., 400. |