kept at home by the British government, and the Spanish dollar was chiefly used in financial transactions. This, too, varied. "The dollar meant 6s. in New England, 8s. in New York, 75. 6d. in Pennsylvania." It is perhaps needless to remark that the paper money craze added to the uncertainty. The infatuation for the "rag money" was extraordinary. Congress said in a circular to the States: "Let it be remembered that paper money is the only kind of money which cannot make unto itself wings and fly away.' It remains with us, it will not forsake us, it is always ready and at hand for the purpose of commerce or taxes, and every industrious man can find it." In the light of subsequent events, this statement seems almost humorous.

There was no national system of coinage in the United States before 1785, and coins were not actually issued until eight years later. Coins from England, France, Spain, and Germany were in circulation in the meantime. These fluctuated in value, and were clipped and counterfeited to such an extent that business was utterly demoralized. Merchants accepted no coins without careful scrutiny, extending in many cases to testing the metal and proving the weight of the piece. This deplorable state of affairs continued until Alexander Hamilton placed the country upon a sound financial basis, and Gouverneur Morris, aided by suggestions from Jefferson, devised our present decimal currency.

It is important in a consideration of the subject of this chapter to turn from the industrial and commercial life of the people as a whole to the social life of the individuals and to see how they lived and moved. The establishment of a home in the New World was in some respects a comparatively simple matter. Land was cheap and log cabins were quickly and easily constructed by the skilled woodmen. In some of the more favored localities rude saw mills furnished a supply of lumber for building. Shingles were split from the straight-grained timber and provided excellent roofs. New settlers swarmed from the parent

hive. The sons of the family married, and built houses in the neighborhood of the family home. The people of the various localities came in time to be intimately connected. Each man owned the land upon which he worked, and it often occurred that there were three generations of the same family working side by side in the field.

The law of inheritance in this primitive community is interesting. In the Southern States and in New York, the old English rule of primogeniture prevailed, by which the eldest son inherited all the property of the father. In the remaining States, in case the father died intestate, the eldest son was entitled to a double share. Georgia, however, soon set a good example in equity by providing that all children should share alike, and in the twelve years succeeding 1784 all the other States adopted the same rule.

The Constitutions of the various States limited the suffrage by means of property qualifications. In New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, taxpayers were entitled to vote, but in the latter State the eldest son of a qualified voter could vote even though he paid no tax. In North Carolina, taxpayers were entitled to vote for members of the lower house of the legislature, but possession of a freehold of fifty acres was a necessary qualification for voting for senators. In South Carolina, it was necessary to own a freehold of fifty acres, or a town lot, or to pay a tax at least equivalent to the tax on fifty acres of land. In Maryland, the ownership of a freehold of fifty acres or £30 in money was essential. In Georgia, a man had to own property to the amount of £10 or be a mechanic. In Massachusetts, the ownership of an estate valued at £60 or an income of £3 was required. In New Jersey, it was necessary that the voter should possess £50 of "proclamation money." The New York Constitution required the ownership of a freehold estate worth £20 or the payment of a rental of forty shillings for voting for assemblymen; in order to vote for a senator or a governor, the possession of a freehold estate of the value of £100, above all debts, was essential. The

suffrage was thus very much restricted, but probably not too much so for the best interests of the people.

There were three parties or factions in the United States at the close of the Revolution. The largest and most vigorous of these was composed of the violent Whigs, who were intent upon driving the Loyalists from the country. The conservative Whigs were disposed to allow the Loyalists to remain, but would not permit them to share in the government. The third and smallest of the three parties was made up of the Tories, who had remained loyal to Great Britain during the Revolution. The feeling against this latter class was intense, and its bitterness was increased by the treaty of peace with England at the close of the war. In this treaty Congress agreed to recommend to the several States that the persecution of the Tories should cease and that they should be enabled to recover their estates, which had been confiscated during the war. This recommendation was received with great disfavor by the people, who were in no mood to do even scant justice to the unfortunate Loyalists. They hated the Loyalists and they wished to retain their estates. Even after the close of the war, severe laws were passed against these "tools and minions of Britain." Some of them had given aid and comfort to the enemy in the Revolution and others had even participated in Indian outrages. These facts were not easily forgotten. The views expressed at the time by the Massachusetts Chronicle were probably not extreme: "As Hannibal swore never to be at peace with the Romans, so let every Whig swear, by his abhorrence of slavery, by liberty and religion, by the shades of departed friends who have fallen in battle, by the ghosts of those of our brethren who have been destroyed on board of prison ships and in loathsome dungeons, never to be at peace with those fiends the refugees, whose thefts, murders, and treasons have filled the cup of woe." Editors, preachers, and pamphleteers exhausted the stores of their rhetoric in an attempt to crush the despised Loyalists. Hamilton and John Jay, however,