1782. July 19.

On

place, which he accepted with hesitation, was almost a sinecure; but he was instructed by Morris to exert his talents with the New York legislature to forward the views of congress. He had often observed the facility with which the eastern states had met in convention to deliberate jointly on the best methods of supporting the war. He repaired to Poughkeepsie on the next meeting of the New York legislature, and explained his views on the only system by which the United States could obtain a constitution. the nineteenth of July, Schuyler, his father-in-law, invited the senate to take into consideration the state of the nation. That body at once resolved itself into committee, which reported that the radical source of most of the public embarrassments was the want of sufficient power in congress to effectuate the ready and perfect co-operation of the states; that the powers of government ought without loss of time to be extended; that the general government ought to have power to provide revenue for itself; and it was declared "that the foregoing important ends can never be attained by partial deliberations of the states separately; but that it is essential to the common welfare that there should be as soon as possible a conference of the whole on the subject; and that it would be advisable for this purpose to propose to congress to recommend, and to each state to adopt, the measure of assembling a general convention of the states, specially authorized to revise and amend the confederation, reserving a right to the respective legislatures to ratify their determinations."

These resolutions, proposed by Schuyler in the senate, were carried unanimously in each branch of the legislature; and Hamilton, who had drafted them, was elected a delegate of New York to congress. Robert Morris, who saw the transcendent importance of the act of the New York legislature, welcomed the young statesman to his new career in these words: "A firm, wise, manly system of federal government is what I once wished, what I now hope, what I dare not expect, but what I will not despair of."

Hamilton of New York thus became the colleague of Madison of Virginia. The state papers which they pre

pared were equal to the best in Europe of that time. Hamilton was excelled by Madison in wisdom, large, sound, roundabout sense and perception of what the country would grant; and surpassed him in versatility and creative power.

On the last day of July, Morris sent to congress his budget for 1783, amounting at the least to nine millions of dollars; and he could think of no way to obtain this sum but by borrowing four millions and raising five millions by quotas. The best hopes of supporting the public credit lay in the proposal to endow congress with the right to levy a duty of five per cent on imports. "Congress," so wrote Madison, to sway the wavering legislature of Virginia, "cannot abandon the plan as long as there is a spark of hope. Nay, other plans, on a like principle, must be added. Justice, gratitude, our reputation abroad, and our tranquillity at home, require provision for a debt of not less than fifty millions of dollars; and I pronounce that this provision will not be adequately met by separate acts of the states. If there are not revenue laws which operate at the same time through all the states and are exempt from the control of each, the mutual jealousies which begin already to appear among them will assuredly defraud both our foreign and domestic creditors of their just claims."

The request of congress, in February, 1781, for power to collect a five per cent duty on imports encountered hostility in Massachusetts. In a letter from its general court to congress, complaint was made that the state was called upon for more than its proper share of contributions; that the duty on imports would be an unequal burden; that the proposi tion could not be acceded to, unless the produce of the tax should be passed to the special credit of the commonwealth. Congress in its reply brought to mind that the interest on the public debt already exceeded a million of dollars; that Massachusetts enjoyed the peculiar blessing of great commercial advantages denied by the fortune of common war to their less happy sister states; that duties levied on imports are paid by the consumer, and ought not to be retained by the state which has the benefit of the importation; and it strongly urged a compliance with the proposi

1782.

May.

tion in question, as just and expedient, impartial and easy of execution, and alone offering a prospect of redressing the just complaints of the public creditors. After delays of more than a year, on the fourth of May, 1782, the general court consented to the measure by a majority of two in the house and of one in the senate. The exception from duty of "wool-cards, cotton-cards, and wire for making them," implies an increasing manufacture of cotton and wool. The act reserved to the general court the election of the collectors of the revenue, which it appropriated exclusively to the payment of the debts of the United States, contracted or to be contracted during the existing With their payment it was to expire. Even this meagre concession received the veto of Hancock, the governor, though his veto was given one day too late to be regarded.

war.

The attitude of this state and of Rhode Island left congress for the time poverty-stricken, and seemed to throw in the way of a good government hindrances which never could be overcome. Yet union was rooted in the heart of the American people. The device for its great seal, adopted by congress in midsummer, is the American eagle, as the emblem of that strength which uses victory only for peace. It therefore holds in its right talon the olive branch; with the left, it clasps together thirteen arrows, emblems of the thirteen states. On an azure field over the head of the eagle appears a constellation of thirteen stars breaking gloriously through a cloud. In the eagle's beak is the scroll, " E pluribus unum," many and one, out of diversity unity, the two ideas that make America great; individual freedom of states, and unity as the expression of conscious nationality. By further emblems, congress showed its faith that the unfinished commonwealth, standing upon the broadest foundation, would be built up in strength, that Heaven nodded to what had been undertaken, that "a new line of ages" had begun.

The earlier speeches in parliament of Shelburne against granting independence to the United States had left in America a distrust that was not readily removed; but the respective commanders in chief vied with each other in acts of

1782.

humanity. The condition of the treasury of the United States was deplorable. Of the quotas distributed among the states, only four hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars were collected. Delaware and the three southern states paid nothing. Rhode Island, which paid thirtyeight thousand dollars, or a little more than a sixth of its quota, was proportionately the largest contributor. Morris wished to establish a solid continental system of finance; but taxes which were not likely ever to be paid could not be anticipated, and confidence had been squandered away. In spring, he had written to Greene: "You must continue your exertions with or without men, or provisions, clothing, or pay." For provisioning the northern army, he had made contracts which he was obliged to dissolve from want of means to meet them, and could only write to Washington: "I pray that Heaven may direct your mind to some mode by which we may be yet saved." By the payment of usurious rates, the army was rescued from being starved or disbanded. "Their patriotism and distress," wrote Washington in October, "have scarcely ever been paralleled, never been surpassed. The long-sufferance of the army is almost exhausted; it is high time for a peace."

CHAPTER LVIII.

PEACE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN.

1782.

1782.

DE GRASSE, as he passed through London on parole, brought from Shelburne to Vergennes suggestions, which left Spain as the only obstacle in the way of peace. To conciliate that power, Jay was invited to Versailles, where, on the fourth of September, Rayneval, the most confidential assistant of Vergennes, sought to persuade him to resign for his country all pretensions to the eastern valley of the Mississippi, and with it the right to the navigation of that stream. Jay was inflexible. On the sixth, Rayneval sent him a paper containing a long argument against the pretensions of America to touch the Mississippi or the great lakes; and on the next morning, after an interview with the Spanish ambassador, he set off for England, to establish a good understanding with Shelburne.

On the ninth, the departure of Rayneval came to the knowledge of Jay. On the tenth, a translation of an intercepted despatch from Marbois, the French secretary of legation at Philadelphia, against conceding a share in the great fishery to the Americans, was communicated to Jay and Franklin. Jay was thrown from his equipoise. Having excited the distrust of Shelburne by peremptorily breaking off the negotiation, he now, through an English agent, sent to the British minister, with whom he was wholly unacquainted, a personal request that he would for the present take no measures with Rayneval; giving as the reason, that it was the obvious interest of Britain immediately to cut the cords which tied the Americans to France. Franklin, who had vainly labored with his colleague to finish