ties, and properties will be secured, or let us know the worst at once." mary After five years of peace, the Union was still in confusion and uncertainty. Congress lost the popular respect and interest 162. Sum- and was too clumsy for its own tasks. Almost the only thing that it did thoroughly was to organize the western territory, and for that it had no constitutional authority. The British treaties still remained unfulfilled, and Congress could get no commercial agreements with either Spain or Great Britain. Finances went from bad to worse; Morris, an intelligent and conscientious minister of finance, resigned in disgust, and the creditors of the government at home saw little prospect of payment of their principal. The state governments were weak, disturbed by riots, some of them by insurrection, — and the southwestern frontier settlements threatened to secede from the Union altogether. All attempts to meet these difficulties by constitutional amendments failed, because of the rule of unanimous consent. Nevertheless, under the Confederation, the country was prosperous: trade increased, towns were built, education advanced. There was plenty of raw strength suitable for a nation, and the very defects of the Confederation proved a lesson of the highest importance, because they taught people what to avoid. We honor the men who made and carried on the Confederation, because they had the good sense to correct their faults in the next attempt to make a national government in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. TOPICS Suggestive topics (1) Basis of New York claims to western lands. (2) Basis of Massachusetts claims. (3) Basis of Connecticut claims. (4) Basis of Virginia claims. (5) Basis of North Carolina claims. (6) Basis of Georgia claims. (7) What were the advantages of the rectan gular survey? The disadvantages? (8) Later territorial subdivisions of the Northwest Territory. (9) First antislavery society. (10) Why was the state of Franklin formed? Why discontinued? (11) Effect of the nine states rule. (12) Account of the Federal Search Prize Court. (13) Paine's argument on the public lands. (14) How topics was the Northwest Ordinance obtained? (15) Was the Ohio Company a paying investment? (16) Jefferson's opinions on slavery. (17) Life of John Woolman. (18) Anthony Benezet's criticisms of slavery. (19) Washington's objections to slavery. (20) Was there danger of the secession of the West in 1786? (21) Treatment of returned loyalists by the states. (22) Was there danger of the success of Shays's Rebellion? REFERENCES See maps, pp. 190, 198; McLaughlin, Confederation and Consti- Geography tution. authorities Hart, Formation of the Union, §§ 49-54, 56-58; Walker, Making Secondary of the Nation, 1-20; Channing, United States, 107-122; McLaughlin, Confederation and Constitution; Fiske, Critical Period, 90– 216; Schouler, United States, I. 12-35; McMaster, United States, I. 103-416, 503-524, III. 89-116; Wilson, American People, III. 24-60; Cambridge Modern History, VII. 305-314; Larned, History for Ready Reference, IV. 2377, 2920, V. 3252, 3280, 3289; Gordy, Political Parties, I. 9-63; Curtis, Constitutional History, I. 98-220; Winsor, Westward Movement, 225-374; Roosevelt, Winning of the West, III.; Hinsdale, Old Northwest, 192-296, 345– 350; Sparks, Expansion, 84-87, 100-134; Dewey, Financial History, §§ 21-25; Locke, Antislavery, 46-87, 112-131, 157-159; Morse, Thomas Jefferson, 64-86, Alexander Hamilton, I. 64– 154; Schouler, Thomas Jefferson, 122-152; Gay, James Madison, 1-83; Sumner, Robert Morris, 53-138; Brown, Andrew Jackson, 1-23. - Hart, Source Book, §§ 64-67,— Contemporaries, II. §§ 209, Sources 210, III. §§ 37-59, Source Readers, II. §§ 35, 36, III. §§ 1-3 ; MacDonald, Select Documents, no. 4; American History Leaflets, nos. 22, 28, 32; Old South Leaflets, nos. 13, 15, 16, 40, 42, 127; Hill, Liberty Documents, ch. xvi.; Caldwell, Territorial Development, 53-73. See N. Eng. Hist. Teachers' Ass'n, Syllabus, 330–332, Historical Sources, § 78. E. Bellamy, Duke of Stockbridge (Shays's Rebellion); R. M. Illustrative Bird, Nick of the Woods (Ky.). works Wilson, American People, III.; Sparks, Expansion. Pictures CHAPTER XIII. MAKING THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION (1787-1789) THE right way to get a new start was pointed out by Henry Laurens in 1779 when he asked, "Shall we call forth a grand 163. Pre- convention in aid of the great council?" This suggestion of a special constitutional convention was repeated by state legislatures and individuals. Yet the first actual step toward a complete revision of the Articles of Confederation was a convention on interstate trade at Annapolis (September, 1786). So few states sent delegates that the only action was a report, drawn by Alexander Hamilton, proposing that a general convention meet in Philadelphia in May, 1787, to prepare amendments to the Articles of Confederation. Journal of Under this unofficial call some of the states began to elect delegates, and Congress reluctantly issued a formal call for a convention "for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures, such alterations and provisions Feb. 21, 1787 therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the states, render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of government, and the preservation of the Union." When the members of the Convention met and exchanged views, they saw that they must go outside the call of Congress and frame a new constitution altogether. For such a purpose the Convention was rather clumsy, inasmuch as each delegation cast one vote for its state. This arrangement gave as much voting power to a combination 164. Members of the Convention of five states-Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, South Carolina, and Delaware-as to the representatives of twice as many people living in the five states of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. Rhode Island sent no delegates, the New Hampshire delegation came in late, and Georgia, with a large and fertile territory, commonly voted with the large states, which thus had a majority of one vote on critical questions. Fortunately the fifty-five gentlemen who at one time or another were members of the Convention included some of the greatest names in American history, among them eight signers of the Declaration of Independence. The heaviest work fell on a few leaders. Benjamin Franklin was old, but as canny as ever. Alexander Hamilton, one of the most impetuous members of the Convention, took too extreme ground and lost influence. William Paterson of New Jersey was the spokesman of the small states, and was ably seconded by John Dickinson, the Revolutionary statesman. The galaxy of the Convention was to be found in the Virginia delegation, which included George Washington; he gave it prestige throughout the country. 165. James Madison, a father of the Constitution The man who did most to harmonize the sharp differences in the Convention was James Madison of Virginia. In 1787 Madison was only thirty-six years old. A graduate of Princeton College, he had seen service in the Virginia legislature and in Congress, where he learned to know the difficulties of the Confederation. He was a studious man, and before the Convention began sent for all the books that he could find on the history of earlier confederations, and prepared a sort of digest of those books, which he sent to Washington. He also consulted with his friends in Virginia and elsewhere, and drew up the strongly federal "Virginia Plan" as a basis of argument. At the beginning of the Convention it occurred to Madison that posterity would be interested in the debates; and as there were no reporters, he took down in shorthand an abbreviated or concentrated statement of the debates, which he wrote out in the evenings and submitted to the speakers. In these discussions Madison himself took part more than fifty times, and throughout he advocated a national government, well knit, strong, and empowered to carry out its own |