render that body independent of its constituents, and would be repugnant to the liberty of the United States. * The necessity of the consent of every one of the thirteen states to any amendment of the confederacy gave to Rhode Island a control over the destinies of America. Against its obstinacy the confederation was helpless. The reply to its communication, drafted by Hamilton, declared, first: that the duty would prove a charge not on the importing state, but on the consumer; next, that no government can exist without a right of appointing officers for those purposes which proceed from and centre in itself, though the power may not be expressly known to the constitution; lastly, the impost is a measure of necessity, "and, if not within the letter, is within the spirit of the confederation." + The growing discontent of the army, the clamor of public creditors, the enormous deficit in the revenue, were invincible arguments for a plan which promised relief. Congress having no resource except persuasion, three of its members would have borne its letter to Rhode Island but for intelligence from Virginia.‡ In the legislature of that state, Richard Henry Lee, waiting till the business of the session was nearly over and the house very thin, # proposed to the assembly to withdraw its assent to the federal impost; and the repeal was carried in the house on the sixth, in the senate on the seventh of December, [ without a negative. The reasons for the act, as recited in its preamble, were: "The permitting any power other than the general assembly of this commonwealth to levy duties or taxes upon the citizens of this state within the same is injurious to its sovereignty, may prove destructive of the rights and liberty of the people, and, so far as congress may exercise the same, is contravening the spirit of the confederation." A Far-sighted members of congress prognosticated the most pernicious effects on the character, interests, and duration of *Records of Rhode Island, ix., 487, 612, 682, 683, 684. + Journals of Congress, iv., 200. Gilpin, 488, 238; Elliot, 17. #Governor B. Harrison to Washington, 31 March 1783. A Papers of Old Congress, vol. lxv. Journals of House of Delegates, 55-58. the confederacy. The broad line of party division was clearly drawn. The contest was between the existing league of states and a republic of united states; between "state sovereignty "* and a "consolidated union;" + between "state politics and continental politics;" + between the fear of "the centripetal" and the fear of "the centrifugal force" in the system.# Virginia made itself the battle-ground on which for the next six years the warring opinions were to meet. During all that time Washington and Madison led the striving for a more perfect union; Richard Henry Lee, at present sustained by the legislature of Virginia, was the persistent champion of separatism and the sovereignty of each state. How beneficent was the authority of the union appeared at this time from a shining example. To quell the wild strife which had grown out of the claim of Connecticut to lands within the charter boundary of Pennsylvania, five commissioners appointed by congress opened their court at Trenton. "The case was well argued by learned counsel on both sides," and, after a session of more than six weeks, the court pronounced || their unanimous opinion, that the jurisdiction and pre-emption of the lands in controversy did of right belong to the state of Pennsylvania. The judgment was approved by congress; and the parties in the litigation gave the example of submission to this first settlement of a controversy between states by the decree of a court established by the United States. * William Gordon to A. Lee. Lee's Life of Arthur Lee, ii., 291. Lafayette in Diplomatic Correspondence, x., 41. Hamilton, i., 356. #Speech of Wilson, 28 January 1783, in Gilpin, 290; Elliot, 34. The same figure was used by Hamilton to Washington, 24 March 1783. Hamilton, i., 348. Journals of Congress, 30 December 1782. CHAPTER III. AMERICA AND GREAT BRITAIN. 1782-1783. THE King of France heard from Vergennes, with surprise and resentment, that the American deputies had signed their treaty of peace; * Marie Antoinette was conciliated by the assurance that "they had obtained for their constituents the most advantageous conditions." "The English buy the peace rather than make it," wrote Vergennes to his subaltern in London; their "concessions as to boundaries, the fisheries, and the loyalists, exceed everything that I had thought possible." + "The treaty with America," answered Rayneval, " appears to me like a dream." Kaunitz # and his emperor mocked at its articles. King George of England was mastered by a consuming grief for the loss of America, and knew no ease of mind by day or by night. When, on the fifth of December, in his speech at the opening of parliament, he came to read that he had offered to declare the colonies of America free and independent states, his manner was constrained and his voice fell. To wound him least, Shelburne in the house of lords, confining himself to the language of the speech from the throne, *Count Mercy's report from Paris, 6 December 1782. MS. from Vienna archives. Vergennes to Rayneval, 4 December 1782. MS. Rayneval to Vergennes, 12 December 1782. MS. # Kaunitz's note of 22 December 1782, written on the emperor's copy of the speech of the king of England at the opening of parliament. MS. Autograph memorandum of Joseph. MS. Joseph II. und Leopold von Toscana. Ihr Briefwechsel von 1781 bis 1790, i., 146. A Rayneval to Vergennes, 12 December 1782. MS. represented the offer of independence to America as contingent on peace with France. To a question from Fox on the following night in the other house, Pitt, with unfaltering courage, answered that the recognition was unqualified and irrevocable. During the Christmas holidays the negotiations for a general peace were pursued with equal diligence and moderation by Vergennes and Shelburne; and France made sacrifices of its own to induce Spain to forego the recovery of Gibraltar and assent to terms which in all other respects were most generous. The Netherlands, though their definitive peace was delayed, agreed in the suspension of arms. Franklin shrewdly and truly observed that it would be better for the nations then possessing the West India islands to let them govern themselves as neutral powers, open to the commerce of all, the profits of the present monopolies being by no means equivalent to the expense of maintaining them;* but the old system was preserved. Conquests were restored, and England felt it to be no wound to her dignity to give back an unimportant island which she had wrested from the house of Bourbon in a former war. The East Indian allies of France, of whom the foremost was Tippoo Saib, the son and successor of Hyder Ali, were invited to join in the peace. France recovered St. Pierre and Miquelon and her old share in the fisheries of Newfoundland; Spain retained Minorca, and, what was of the greatest moment for the United States, both the Floridas, which she certainly would find a burden. Treaties of commerce between Great Britain and each of the two Bourbon kingdoms were to be made within two years. When, on the twentieth of January, these preliminaries were signed by the respective plenipotentiaries, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, on the summons of Vergennes, were present, and in the name of the United States acceded to the declaration of the cessation of hostilities. The provisional treaty between Great Britain and the United States was held to take effect from that day. "At last," wrote Vergennes to Rayneval, as soon as the meeting was over, "we are about to breathe under the shadow of peace. Let us take care to make it a solid one; may the * Diplomatic Correspondence, iv., 69. name of war be forgotten forever."* In a letter to Shelburne on that same day he expressed the confident hope that all ancient distrust would be removed; and Shelburne replied: "The liberal spirit and good faith which have governed our negotiations leave no room to fear for the future either dis trust or jealousy." King George dwelt with Rayneval on the cordial understanding which he desired to establish with Louis XVI. "I wish," said he, "never again to have a war with France; we have had a first division of Poland; there must not be a second.” ‡ So came the peace which recognised the right of a commonwealth of Europeans outside of Europe, occupying a continental territory within the temperate zone; remote from foreign interference; needing no standing armies; with every augury of a rapid growth; and sure of exercising the most quickening and widest influence on political ideas," to assume an equal station among the powers of the earth.” The restoration of intercourse with America pressed for instant consideration. Burke was of opinion that the navigation act should be completely revised; Shelburne and his colleagues, aware that no paltry regulation would now succeed, were indefatigable in digesting a great and extensive system of trade, and sought, by the emancipation of commerce, to bring about with the Americans a family friendship more beneficial to England than their former dependence. To promote this end, on the evening of the eleventh of February, William Pitt, with the permission of the king, repaired to Charles James Fox and invited him to join the ministry of Shelburne. The only good course for Fox was to take the hand which the young statesman offered; but he put aside the overture with coldness, if not with disdain, choosing a desperate alliance with those whose conduct he had pretended to detest, and whose principles it was in later years his redeeming glory to have opposed. * Vergennes to Rayneval, 20 January 1783. MS. Vergennes to Shelburne, 20 January 1783; Shelburne to Vergennes, 24 January 1783. Lansdowne House MSS. Rayneval to Vergennes, 24 and 28 January 1783. MS. #Price in Lec's Life of Arthur Lee, ii., 349. |