The social duties of the secretary were a prominent feature of his services. He built a spacious residence in New York, to which place his department had been removed, and it became the centre of official entertainments, in which he was gracefully supported by Mrs. Jay. The daughter of John Adams writes: "Mrs. Jay gives a dinner almost every week, besides one to the corps diplomatique on Tuesday evening."

But Mr. Jay found that all his labors in the foreign department were to little purpose. Under the Articles of Confederation both he and the Congress were clothed with insufficient power to meet their international obligations. Vergennes was complaining of the imperfect arrangement to meet the foreign debts, and the French minister in the United States went so far as to intimate that "no nation could safely trade and navigate in their ports." Jefferson and his associate commissioners were told in Paris that it was useless to make agreements with the United States which the latter had no power to enforce.1 Adams reported from Holland to

1 Messrs. Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson, then in Paris under instructions of Congress to negotiate treaties with various European powers, addressed a note to the British ambassador inviting him to join them in the negotiation of a political and commercial treaty; to which he replied, March 26, 1785, that he had been "instructed to learn from you, gentlemen, what is the real nature of the powers with which you are invested, whether you are merely commissioned by Congress, or whether you have received separate powers from the respective States. . . . The apparent determination of the respective States to regulate their own separate interests renders it absolutely necessary towards framing a permanent system of commerce, that my court should be informed how far the commissioners can be duly authorized to enter into any engagements with Great Britain, which it may not be in the power of any one of the States to render totally fruitless and ineffectual." 1 Dip. Cor. 1783-1789, 574.

...

Jay, before entering on his duties in London, that American credit was dead; and from that capital he wrote: "We shall never have a satisfactory arrangement with this country until Congress shall be made by the States supreme in matters of foreign commerce." Meanwhile the States refused to confer upon Congress authority to levy a five per cent. import tax to pay its foreign loans. Massachusetts imposed a heavy duty on British commerce, and Connecticut threw open its ports free to British ships, and placed an import duty on goods from Massachusetts. Other States were engaged in legislative warfare. The national treasury was bankrupt, and calls upon the States received little attention. Shays' rebellion, a direct outgrowth of the disordered state of the finances, was an alarming indication of the weakness of the Confederation. Randolph termed it "a government of supplication." The British government looked upon it as likely to go to pieces. In this state of affairs it is not strange that the negotiations with Spain came to a fruitless end; the treaty with England could not be enforced; and when loans were to be negotiated Secretary Jay was forced to confess that Congress was not in a position "to pledge its honor and faith as a borrower." In an address to the people of his own State,' he said Congress may make war,

1 Our relations with Spain at this time were of a most threatening character. Of them Mr. Jay wrote: "Unblessed with an efficient government, destitute of funds, and without public credit at home or abroad, we should be obliged to wait in patience for better days, or plunge into an unpopular and dangerous war, with very little prospect of terminating it by a peace either advantageous or glorious."

23 John Jay's Works, 294.

carry

make

but they are not empowered to raise men or money to it on; it may but is without power peace, to see the terms of it observed; may form alliances, but without ability to comply with the stipulations on their part; may enter into treaties of commerce, but without power to enforce them; may appoint ministers, but without power to punish them for misdemeanors; in short, Congress may consult, and deliberate, and recommend, and make requisitions, and they who please may regard them. These were among the most cogent of the reasons which led to the Convention which framed the Constitution of 1787, and under which the foreign relations of the United States underwent a great transformation.

In closing the review of the Revolutionary period, I desire to add a word as to the men who represented our country abroad from the Declaration of Independence to the adoption of the Constitution. In the list are the illustrious names of Franklin, Adams, Jay, and Jefferson, men whose career abroad compares favorably with that of the best trained diplomats of Europe. But there were many others, altogether near a score of agents and diplomatic representatives, some associated with Franklin, and others on independent missions. The record they made was not altogether a creditable one. While most of them were inspired by patriotic motives, some were guilty of treachery; bickering, fault-finding, and jealousy prevailed; and drunkenness and dishonesty marked the career of more than one of them. It constitutes a record which I am pleased to say could hardly be repeated in our day. In the midst

of this mixture of good and evil, the calm and upright character of Franklin stands out in bold relief. He did not escape criticism and scandal, but in his long service he never failed in his duty as a diplomat and patriot. As we have seen, his acts were not above criticism, his temper was not always under control, and we could wish, for its influence on the generations after him, that his private life had been more pure. But when we review the history of our Revolutionary period, the place in the public esteem and in value of service to the country, next to Washington,' must be given, not to that stern patriot John Adams, not to Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, nor to any military hero, but to Benjamin Franklin, our first and greatest diplomat.

1 There is a curious letter of Mr. Jefferson, in which, some years after the event, he refers to the death of Dr. Franklin in connection with an incident of Washington's cabinet. The King and Convention of France, and the House of Representatives of the United States, had decreed mourning, and Jefferson proposed that the executive department also should wear mourning. To this Washington objected, because he should not know where to draw the line. He writes: "I told him the world had drawn so broad a line between himself and Dr. Franklin, on the one side, and the residue of mankind, on the other, that we might wear mourning for them, and the question remain new and undecided as to all others." 8 Writings of Jefferson, 264.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

ONE of the last acts of the expiring Continental Congress was the adoption of the following resolution in September, 1788:

"Resolved, That no further progress be made in the negotiations with Spain by the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, but that the subjects to which they relate be referred to the Federal Government, which is to assemble in March next."

It was the final admission by that body of its impotence respecting the conduct of the foreign relations of the country, and this was a leading motive for the creation of a new government which should be clothed with adequate powers for that purpose.

The Constitutional Convention when it assembled was confronted with this manifest weakness of the Confederation, and it addressed itself to the task of remedying the defect; first, by conferring upon the federal government full and complete power over the relations with foreign nations; and, second, by a careful division of those powers between the executive and legislative departments of the government. The experience of the Continental Congress was most useful to the Convention. It had shown that the powers reserved to the Colonies, or States, deprived Congress of authority to enforce its