ATTITUDE OF PEOPLE TO NEW GOVERNMENT. ously to exercise the privileges of independence in a manner which would show that they were capable of selfgovernment. The war had been more than a mere contest between the colonies and the mother country, for to the rebellion had been added civil strife. It must be remembered that while a large majority of the people sympathized with the patriot cause, only a small portion of the people were willing to risk life, fortune and material comfort for an ideal. There were beside a body of Loyalists numerically almost as large as the patriot body and they were willing to risk all for the royal cause rather than prove traitors. In addition, there was a third body who cared little which side triumphed so that they were left in peace. These shifted with the wind, and were as ready, and perhaps more so, to fraternize with the English, drink their wine and receive their gold, as they were to profit by the depreciation in American currency and by the sale of supplies to the starving and half-clad American army. Little cared they whence their profit came. The civil strife was therefore one of the chief problems with which the citizens of the new nation had to deal after peace was established. The Loyalists constituted approximately one third of the population,* * Tyler, The Party of the Loyalists in the Ameriran Revolution, in American Historical Review, vol. i., pp. 27-29; Van Tyne, The Loyalists in the American Revolution pp. 94-105; Flick, Loyalism in New York, p. 182. 343 and many of them had been persons of wealth and social and political position before the war began, belonging chiefly to the conservative classes. Tens of thousands of these people were either expelled from the community or were voluntary exiles, and together with those who had died in battle or in prison, it is estimated that 100,000 men, women and children left the colonies during the war.* Of the Tories who survived the war and remained to face the ill-will of their countrymen, a large portion had been disfranchised. Consequently, in the struggle of reorganizing the political institutions of the country, America was compelled to forego the services of many of her wisest, ablest, and most substantial citizens. The chief obstacle in the way of formulating a strong central government was the political principles held by the people themselves - it was necessary that they reconcile local liberty with central authority and real unity. The struggle for liberty had been based on " natural rights" -on the assertion that the people possessed certain inalienable rights which no government could take away, limit or transfer. Having thrown off the yoke of bad government, the people began to suspicion any government at all, and it became a difficult matter to show the necessity of restraint by a central authority to prove that the people them *McLaughlin, The Confederation and the Constitution, pp. 38-39. 344 ISOLATION RETARDS POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT. selves were the government, the possessors of the final political authority, that "government" was merely the servant of the supreme powerthe people, and that to limit or restrain government or to make it weak and ineffective was to limit the people, to weaken national life and to create an anarchistic and individualistic society. There were many who believed in unenlightened individualism, caring nothing for others so long as they themselves were left alone; they could not comprehend that government was an absolutely 66 necessary evil," if the country was not to retrogade into a state of feudalism or worse. While it is true that State governments had been formed, save for a few changes in methods, the local authority was not so much different from the old colonial administrations. But the people were content to stop with forming these State constitutions and could see no reason to create a still higher power over all the States which could levy taxes and compel obedience - the very conditions against which they had so long fought. The geographical position of the country both aided and retarded its political development. Its very isolation from the rest of the universe compelled the thought of unity among its inhabitants and a common destiny. But on the other hand the colonies themselves were not continental, either in social customs, commercial and industrial activities, or political institutions. Owing to the lack of means of communication,railroads, telegraphs, highways — and means of spreading news, the colonies were very remote from each other. The people of Georgia knew little of New Englanders, and the latter cared less for the former. Mails were very infrequent and oftentimes the people of Europe were acquainted with events in Massachusetts before the people of Georgia learned of them. Such towns as were off the main routes of travel were more isolated than the most secluded towns in the heart of the Rockies at the present time.* But to offset this, the States of the confederation were similar in structure and the people of all sections alike were saturated with the fundamental principles of English liberty and lawthey all had the same political inheritance and consequently thought more or less alike. Moreover, it was coming to be seen that a properly established union was a "grinding necessity." McLaughlin, The Confederation and the Constitution, pp. 44-46. UNSATISFACTORY COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS. 345 CHAPTER II. 1783-1787. COMMERCE; FINANCE; CURRENCY. Deranged condition of foreign trade - Attempt to negotiate commercial treaty with Great Britain - American vessels excluded from British West Indies - Congress requests power from States to regulate commerce Commercial treaties with other powers - Condition of the public finances - Morris's estimate of the debtCongress requests power to lay specific duties - Address of Congress to the States regarding apportionment of debt The domestic and foreign debt and interest States assent to impost Rufus King's report of 1786- Conflicting State laws - The struggle in New York over the impost - The variety and value of coins - Morris's plan of currency Jefferson's scheme The subject of foreign commerce engaged the attention of Congress soon after the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace. The war had reduced the foreign trade of the country to almost nothing; trade, commerce, and the fisheries were gone. Foreign ports had been closed to American shipping so long that practically no demand existed for American goods. Yet the consumption of English goods was as large as ever, the imports from England to America amounting to £3,700,000 sterling in 1784, while the exports amounted to only £750,000.* That the country was destitute and poverty stricken because of lack of foreign trade was far from the fact; the refusal to comply with the requisitions of Congress did not indicate that there was no money in the country, but principally that the people in the States were exceedingly jealous of the power of Continental Congress. That general commercial and *McMaster, United States, vol. i., p. 206. --- The struggle over paper money. industrial conditions would be as flourishing as prior to the war could not be expected. The commerce of New England had necessarily become badly deranged, but even this had its compensations, for numbers of those who were then out of work went into the interior, where they opened up new industries, while still others, particularly those who followed the sea for subsistence, entered privateering enterprises, in which there was at that time a lucrative living. Numbers of the merchants, finding their foreign trade cut off and ruined, equipped their ships as privateers and made fortunes.* But after the war even this source of income was cut off and New England trade became practically stagnant. In addition the whale fisheries were ruined and the cod fisheries in bad condition, and furthermore in 1784 Parliament passed an act (25 Geo. III., c. i.), prohibiting trade with Newfoundland. Prior to the war the trade became · Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, vol. ii., pp. 776-778. 346 * PITT'S BILL TO REGULATE TRADE. New Englanders had sent large quantities of oil to London, had sold their ships to pay the debts of their merchants, and had carried on an extensive and lucrative trade with the West Indies. But now the British government, by orders in council issued at various times, had practically cut off the trade with the West Indies and the importation of oil was prohibited. In the South, plantation life had been considerably disturbed by the carrying away of thousands of slaves by the British; the ravages of war had brought great distress upon the people, and for the first few years after the war the exports of products. from Southern ports diminished in amount and value.+ Nevertheless, the unemployed found other duties to perform, though of course the readjustment took some time. The privateersmen returned to their foreign trade and soon a profitable business sprang up. In 1795, 60 American vessels entered the port of Lisbon from America and foreign ports, whereas only 77 European vessels arrived from the same ports, and the volume of trade with the continental countries began to be considerable. When the American commissioners were at Paris in 1783 negotiating the peace treaty, they had been unable to agree with the British representative regarding a commercial arrangement between the two countries. As McLaughlin, The Confederation and the Constitution, pp. 73-74. † See Drayton, View of South Carolina, p. 167. ........ "Now for the purpose of making a temporary regulation of the commerce and intercourse between Great Britain and the said United States of America, and in order to evince the disposition of Great Britain, to be on terms of the most perfect amity with the said United States of America, and in confidence of a like friendly disposition on the part of the United States towards Great Britain, be it further enacted that from and after the ... the ships and vessels of the subjects and citizens of the said United States of America, with the merchandize and goods on board the same, shall be admitted into all the ports of Great Britain, in the same manner as the ships and vessels of the subjects of other independent sovereign states; but the merchandize and goods on board such ships or vessels of the subjects or citizens of the said United States, being of the growth, produce or manufacture of the said United States, shall be liable to the same duties and charges only, as the same merchandizes and goods would be subject to, if they were the property of British subjects, and imported in British built ships or vessels, navigated by British natural born subjects. * THE BRITISH ORDERS IN COUNCIL. be admitted into the ports of his majesty's islands, colonies and plantations in America, with any merchandizes or goods, of the growth, produce or manufactures of the territories of the aforesaid United States, with liberty to export from his said majesty's islands in America, to the said territories or the said United States, any merchandizes or goods whatsoever; and such merchandizes or goods, which shall be so imported into, or exported from, the said British islands, colonies or plantations in America, shall be liable to the same duties and charges only, as the same merchandizes and goods would be subject to, if they were the property of British natural born subjects, and imported, or exported, in British built ships, or vessels, navigated by British seamen. 66 'And be it further enacted, that during all the time herein before limited, there shall be the same drawbacks, exemptions and bounties on merchandizes and goods exported from Great Britain into the territories of the said United States of Amer ica, as are allowed in the case of exportation to the islands, plantations, or colonies, now remaining, or belonging to the crown of Great Britain in America." Edmund Burke heartily supported the bill, saying: "While there is an immense extent of unoccupied terri tory to attract the inhabitants [of the United States] to agriculture, they will not rival us in manufactures. * Do not treat them as aliens. Let all prohibitory acts be repealed, and leave the Americans in every respect as they were before, in point of trade." The bill, however, was far too liberal to be adopted by the British ministry, which is much to be regretted, as it would undoubtedly have laid the foundation for continuous peace and harmony between the two countries. The navigation interests * See Pitkin, Civil and Political History of the United States, vol. ii., pp. 185-188. Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, vol. xxiii., pp. 613-614. 347 opposed the bill as being in the interest of the American marine, and at the expense of the English. The power of regulating commercial intercourse between the two countries was committed to the king and council. * On July 2, 1783, orders in council were issued, whereby American vessels were entirely excluded from the British West Indies,† and furthermore a number of articles, such as beef, pork, fish, etc., were not allowed to be carried to the West Indies, even in British bottoms. This prohibition was continued from time to time until 1788, when Parliament made it permanent. It now became evident that if the American marine were to be on an equal footing with that of other countries, Congress should possess power to enact navigation acts, or acts countervailing the commercial regulations of other nations. This may easily be inferred from the sentiments expressed by various English statesmen of the period. In debating a proposition to permit American ships to carry to Great Britain nothing but the produce of the particular States of which their owners were citizens, Lord Thurlow said: "I have read an account which stated the government of America to be totally unsettled, and that each province seemed *Fiske, Critical Period of American History, pp. 136–137; John Adams, Works, vol. i., p. 422. John Adams, Works, vol. viii., pp. 97-98; Fiske, p. 138; Bates, Rhode Island and the Formation of the Union, p. 100. |