ILLUSTRATIONS

 page
Portrait of the author Frontispiece
View and ground-plan of Seneca-Iroquois long house reduced from Morgan's Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines 66
View, cross-section, and ground-plan of Mandan round house, ditto 80
Ground-plan of Pueblo Hungo Pavie, ditto 86
Restoration of Pueblo Hungo Pavie, ditto 88
Restoration of Pueblo Bonito, ditto 90
Ground-plan of Pueblo Peñasca Blanca, ditto 92
Ground-plan of so-called "House of the Nuns" at Uxmal, ditto 133
Map of the East Bygd, or eastern settlement of the Northmen in Greenland, reduced from Rafn's Antiquitates Americanæ 160, 161
Ruins of the church at Kakortok, from Major's Voyages of the Zeni, published by the Hakluyt Society 222
Zeno Map, cir. 1400, ditto 232, 233
Map of the World according to Claudius Ptolemy, cir. A. D. 150, an abridged sketch after a map in Bunbury's History of Ancient Geography Facing 265
Two sheets of the Catalan Map, 1375, from Yule's Cathay, published by the Hakluyt Society 288, 289
Map of the World according to Pomponius Mela, cir. A. D. 50, from Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America 304
Map illustrating Portuguese voyages on the coast of Africa, from a sketch by the author 324
Toscanelli's Map, 1474, redrawn and improved from a sketch in Winsor's America Facing 357
Annotations by Columbus, reduced from a photograph in Harrisse's Notes on Columbus 373
Sketch of Martin Behaim's Globe, 1492, preserved in the city hall at Nuremberg, reduced to Mercator's projection and sketched by the author 422, 423
Sketch of Martin Behaim's Atlantic Ocean, with outline of the American continent superimposed, from Winsor's America 429
Map of the discoveries made by Columbus in his first and second voyages, sketched by the author 469
Map of the discoveries made by Columbus in his third and fourth voyages, ditto 493
Arms of Ferdinand Columbus, from the title-page of Harrisse's Fernand Colomb 515





THE CRITICAL PERIOD AMERICAN HISTORY
1783–1789

By John Fiske

"I am uneasy and apprehensive, more so than during the war."
Jay to Washington, June 27, 1786.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
RESULTS OF YORKTOWN.
PAGE
Fall of Lord North's ministry 1
Sympathy between British Whigs and the revolutionary party in America 2
It weakened the Whig party in England 3
Character of Lord Shelburne 4
Political instability of the Rockingham ministry 5, 6
Obstacles in the way of a treaty of peace 7, 8
Oswald talks with Franklin 9–11
Grenville has an interview with Vergennes 12
Effects of Rodney's victory 13
Misunderstanding between Fox and Shelburne 14
Fall of the Rockingham ministry 15
Shelburne becomes prime minister 16
Defeat of the Spaniards and French at Gibraltar 17
French policy opposed to American interests 18
The valley of the Mississippi; Aranda's prophecy 19
The Newfoundland fisheries 20
Jay detects the schemes of Vergennes 21
And sends Dr Vaughan to visit Shelburne 22
John Adams arrives in Paris and joins with Jay in insisting upon a separate negotiation with England 23, 24
The separate American treaty, as agreed upon:
1. Boundaries 25
2. Fisheries; commercial intercourse 26
3. Private debts 27
4. Compensation of loyalists 28–32
Secret article relating to the Yazoo boundary 33
Vergennes does not like the way in which it has been done 33
On the part of the Americans it was a great diplomatic victory 34
Which the commissioners won by disregarding the instructions of Congress and acting on their own responsibility 35
The Spanish treaty 36
The French treaty 37
Coalition of Fox with North 38–42
They attack the American treaty in Parliament 43
And compel Shelburne to resign 44
Which leaves England without a government, while for several weeks the king is too angry to appoint ministers 44
Until at length he succumbs to the coalition, which presently adopts and ratifies the American treaty 45
The coalition ministry is wrecked upon Fox's India Bill 46
Constitutional crisis ends in the overwhelming victory of Pitt in the elections of May, 1784 47
And this, although apparently a triumph for the king, was really a death-blow to his system of personal government 48, 49
CHAPTER II.
THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS.
Cessation of hostilities in America 50
Departure of the British troops 51
Washington resigns his command 52
And goes home to Mount Vernon 53
His "legacy" to the American people 54
The next five years were the most critical years in American history 55
Absence of a sentiment of union, and consequent danger of anarchy 56, 57
European statesmen, whether hostile or friendly, had little faith in the stability of the Union 58
False historic analogies 59
Influence of railroad and telegraph upon the perpetuity of the Union 60
Difficulty of travelling a hundred years ago 61
Local jealousies and antipathies, an inheritance from primeval savagery 62, 63
Conservative character of the American Revolution 64
State governments remodelled; assemblies continued from colonial times 65
Origin of the senates in the governor's council of assistants 66
Governors viewed with suspicion 67
Analogies with British institutions 68
The judiciary 69
Restrictions upon suffrage 70
Abolition of primogeniture, entails, and manorial privileges 71
Steps toward the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade 72–75
Progress toward religious freedom 76, 77
Church and state in Virginia 78, 79
Persecution of dissenters 80
Madison and the Religions Freedom Act 81
Temporary overthrow of the church 82
Difficulties in regard to ordination; the case of Mason Weems 83
Ordination of Samuel Seabury by non-jurors at Aberdeen 84
Francis Asbury and the Methodists 85
Presbyterians and Congregationalists 86
Roman Catholics 87
Except in the instance of slavery, all the changes described in this chapter were favourable to the union of the states 88
But while the state governments, in all these changes, are seen working smoothly, we have next to observe, by contrast, the clumsiness and inefficiency of the federal government 89
CHAPTER III.
THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP.
The several states have never enjoyed complete sovereignty 90
But in the very act of severing their connection with Great Britain, they entered into some sort of union 91
Anomalous character of the Continental Congress 92
The articles of confederation; they sought to establish a "league of friendship" between the states 93–97
But failed to create a federal government endowed with real sovereignty 98–100
Military weakness of the government 101–103
Extreme difficulty of obtaining a revenue 104, 105
Congress, being unable to pay the army, was afraid of it 106
Supposed scheme for making Washington king 107
Greene's experience in South Carolina 108
Gates's staff officers and the Newburgh address 109
The danger averted by Washington 110, 111
Congress driven from Philadelphia by mutinous soldiers 112
The Commutation Act denounced in New England 113
Order of the Cincinnati 114–117
Reasons for the dread which it inspired 118
Congress finds itself unable to carry out the provisions of the treaty with Great Britain 119
Persecution of the loyalists 120, 121
It was especially severe in New York 122
Trespass Act of 1784 directed against the loyalists 123
Character and early career of Alexander Hamilton 124–126
The case of Rutgers v. Waddington 127, 128
Wholesale emigration of Tories 129, 130
Congress unable to enforce payment of debts to British creditors 131
England retaliates by refusing to surrender the fortresses on the northwestern frontier 132, 133
CHAPTER IV.
DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY.
The barbarous superstitions of the Middle Ages concerning trade were still rife in the eighteenth century 134
The old theory of the uses of a colony 135
Pitt's unsuccessful attempt to secure free trade between Great Britain and the United States 136
Ship-building in New England 137
British navigation acts and orders in council directed against American commerce 138
John Adams tried in vain to negotiate a commercial treaty with Great Britain 139, 140
And could see no escape from the difficulties except in systematic reprisal 141
But any such reprisal was impracticable, for the several states imposed conflicting duties 142
Attempts to give Congress the power of regulating commerce were unsuccessful 143, 144
And the several states began to make commercial war upon one another 145
Attempts of New York to oppress New Jersey and Connecticut 146
Retaliatory measures of the two latter states 147
The quarrel between Connecticut and Pennsylvania over the possession of the valley of Wyoming 148–150
The quarrel between New York and New Hampshire over the possession of the Green Mountains 151–153
Failure of American diplomacy because European states could not tell whether they were dealing with one nation or with thirteen 154, 155
Failure of American credit; John Adams begging in Holland 156, 157
The Barbary pirates 158
American citizens kidnapped and sold into slavery 159
Lord Sheffield's outrageous pamphlet 160
Tripoli's demand for blackmail 161
Congress unable to protect American citizens 162
Financial distress after the Revolutionary War 163, 164
State of the coinage 165
Cost of the war in money 166
Robert Morris and his immense services 167
The craze for paper money 168
Agitation in the southern and middle states 169–171
Distress in New England 172
Imprisonment for debt 173
Rag-money victorious in Rhode Island; the "Know Ye" measures 174–176
Rag-money defeated in Massachusetts; the Shays insurrection 177–181
The insurrection suppressed by state troops 182
Conduct of the neighbouring states 183
The rebels pardoned 184
Timidity of Congress 185, 186
CHAPTER V.
GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
Creation of a national domain beyond the Alleghanies 187, 188
Conflicting claims to the western territory 189
Claims of Massachusetts and Connecticut 189, 190
Claims of New York 190
Virginia's claims 191
Maryland's novel and beneficent suggestion 192
The several states yield their claims in favour of the United States 193, 194
Magnanimity of Virginia 195
Jefferson proposes a scheme of government for the northwestern territory 196
Names of the proposed ten states 197
Jefferson wishes to prohibit slavery in the national domain 198
North Carolina's cession of western lands 199
John Sevier and the state of Franklin 200, 201
The northwestern territory 202
Origin of the Ohio company 203
The Ordinance of 1787 204–206
Theory of folkland upon which the ordinance was based 207
Spain, hearing of the secret article in the treaty of 1783, loses her temper and threatens to shut up the Mississippi River 208, 209
Gardoqui and Jay 210
Threats of secession in Kentucky and New England 211
Washington's views on the political importance of canals between east and west 212
His far-sighted genius and self-devotion 213
Maryland confers with Virginia regarding the navigation of the Potomac 214
The Madison-Tyler motion in the Virginia legislature 215
Convention at Annapolis, Sept 11, 1786 216
Hamilton's address calling for a convention at Philadelphia 217
The impost amendment defeated by the action of New York; last ounce upon the camel's back 218–220
Sudden changes in popular sentiment 221
The Federal Convention meets at Philadelphia, May, 1787 222
Mr. Gladstone's opinion of the work of the convention 223
The men who were assembled there 224, 225
Character of James Madison 226, 227
The other leading members 228
Washington chosen president of the convention 229
CHAPTER VI.
THE FEDERAL CONVENTION.
Why the proceedings of the convention were kept secret for so many years 230
Difficulty of the problem to be solved 231
Symptoms of cowardice repressed by Washington's impassioned speech 232
The root of all the difficulties; the edicts of the federal government had operated only upon states, not upon individuals, and therefore could not be enforced without danger of war 233–233
The Virginia plan, of which Madison was the chief author, offered a radical cure 236
And was felt to be revolutionary in its character 237–239
Fundamental features of the Virginia plan 240, 241
How it was at first received 242
The House of Representatives must be directly elected by the people 243
Question as to the representation of states brings out the antagonism between large and small states 244
William Paterson presents the New Jersey plan; not a radical cure, but a feeble palliative 245
Straggle between the Virginia and New Jersey plans 246–249
The Connecticut compromise, according to which the national principle is to prevail in the House of Representatives, and the federal principle in the Senate, meets at first with fierce opposition 250, 251
But is at length adopted 252
And proves a decisive victory for Madison and his methods 253
A few irreconcilable members go home in dudgeon 254
But the small states, having been propitiated, are suddenly converted to Federalism, and make the victory complete 255
Vague dread of the future west 255
The struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties began in the convention, and was quieted by two compromises 256
Should representation be proportioned to wealth or to population? 257
Were slaves to be reckoned as persons or as chattels? 258
Attitude of the Virginia statesmen 259
It was absolutely necessary to satisfy South Carolina 260
The three fifths compromise, suggested by Madison, was a genuine English solution, if ever there was one 261
There was neither rhyme nor reason in it, but for all that, it was the best solution attainable at the time 262
The next compromise was between New England and South Carolina as to the foreign slave-trade and the power of the federal government over commerce 263
George Mason calls the slave-trade an "infernal traffic" 264
And the compromise offends and alarms Virginia 265
Belief in the moribund condition of slavery 266
The foundations of the Constitution were laid in compromise 267
Powers granted to the federal government 268
Use of federal troops in suppressing insurrections 269
Various federal powers 270
Provision for a federal city under federal jurisdiction 271
The Federal Congress might compel the attendance of members 272
Powers denied to the several states 272
Should the federal government he allowed to make its promissory notes a legal tender in payment of debts? powerful speech of Gouverneur Morris 273
Emphatic and unmistakable condemnation of paper money by all the leading delegates 274
The convention refused to grant to the federal government the power of issuing inconvertible paper, but did not think an express prohibition necessary 275
If they could have foreseen some recent judgments of the supreme court, they would doubtless have made the prohibition explicit and absolute 276
Debates as to the federal executive 277
Sherman's suggestion as to the true relation of the executive to the legislature 278
There was to be a single chief magistrate, but how should he be chosen? 279
Objections to an election by Congress 280
Ellsworth and King suggest the device of an electoral college, which is at first rejected 281
But afterwards adopted 282
Provisions for an election by Congress in the case of a failure of choice by the electoral college 283
Provisions for counting the electoral votes 284
It was not intended to leave anything to be decided by the president of the Senate 285
The convention foresaw imaginary dangers, but not the real ones 286
Hamilton's opinion of the electoral scheme 287
How it has actually worked 288
In this part of its work the convention tried to copy from the British Constitution 289
In which they supposed the legislative and executive departments to be distinct and separate 290
Here they were misled by Montesquieu and Blackstone 291
What our government would be if it were really like that of Great Britain 292–294
In the British government the executive department is not separated from the legislative 295
Circumstances which obscured the true aspect of the case a century ago 296–298
The American cabinet is analogous, not to the British cabinet, but to the privy council 299
The federal judiciary, and its remarkable character 300–301
Provisions for amending the Constitution 302
The document is signed by all but three of the delegates 303
And the convention breaks up 304
With a pleasant remark from Franklin 305
CHAPTER VII.
CROWNING THE WORK.
Franklin lays the Constitution before the legislature of Pennsylvania 306
It is submitted to Congress, which refers it to the legislatures of the thirteen states, to be ratified or rejected by the people in conventions 307
First American parties, Federalists and Antifederalists 308, 309
The contest in Pennsylvania 310
How to make a quorum 311
A war of pamphlets and newspaper squibs 312, 313
Ending in the ratification of the Constitution by Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey 314
Rejoicings and mutterings 315
Georgia and Connecticut ratify 316
The outlook in Massachusetts 317, 318
The Massachusetts convention meets 319
And overhauls the Constitution clause by clause 320
On the subject of an army Mr. Nason waxes eloquent 321
The clergymen oppose a religious test 322
And Rev. Samuel West argues on the assumption that all men are not totally depraved 323
Feeling of distrust in the mountain districts 324
Timely speech of a Berkshire farmer 325, 326
Attitude of Samuel Adams 326, 327
Meeting of mechanics at the Green Dragon 327
Charges of bribery 328
Washington's fruitful suggestion 329
Massachusetts ratifies, but proposes amendments 330
The Long Lane has a turning and becomes Federal Street 331
New Hampshire hesitates, but Maryland ratifies, and all eyes are turned upon South Carolina 332
Objections of Rawlins Lowndes answered by Cotesworth Pinckney 333
South Carolina ratifies the Constitution 334
Important effect upon Virginia, where thoughts of a southern confederacy had been entertained 335, 336
Madison and Marshall prevail in the Virginia convention, and it ratifies the Constitution 337
New Hampshire had ratified four days before 338
Rejoicings at Philadelphia; riots at Providence and Albany 339
The struggle in New York 340
Origin of the "Federalist" 341–343
Hamilton wins the victory, and New York ratifies 344
All serious anxiety is now at an end; the laggard states, North Carolina and Rhode Island 345
First presidential election, January 7, 1789; Washington is unanimously chosen 346
Why Samuel Adams was not selected for vice-president 347
Selection of John Adams 348
Washington's journey to New York, April 16–23 349
His inauguration 350