CONTENTS
I. THE TREATY OF PEACE
II. TRADE AND INDUSTRY
III. THE CONFEDERATION
IV. THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE
V. DARKNESS BEFORE DAWN
VI. THE FEDERAL CONVENTION
VII. FINISHING THE WORK
VIII. THE UNION ESTABLISHED
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
NOTES ON THE PORTRAITS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION
FATHERS OF THE CONSTITUTION
CHAPTER I. THE TREATY OF PEACE
"The United States of America"! It was in the Declaration of
Independence that this name was first and formally proclaimed to the
world, and to maintain its verity the war of the Revolution was fought.
Americans like to think that they were then assuming "among the Powers
of the Earth the equal and independent Station to which the Laws
of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them"; and, in view of their
subsequent marvelous development, they are inclined to add that it must
have been before an expectant world.
In these days of prosperity and national greatness it is hard to realize
that the achievement of independence did not place the United States on
a footing of equality with other countries and that, in fact, the new
state was more or less an unwelcome member of the world family. It is
nevertheless true that the latest comer into the family of nations
did not for a long time command the respect of the world. This lack
of respect was partly due to the character of the American population.
Along with the many estimable and excellent people who had come to
British North America inspired by the best of motives, there had come
others who were not regarded favorably by the governing classes of
Europe. Discontent is frequently a healthful sign and a forerunner of
progress, but it makes one an uncomfortable neighbor in a satisfied and
conservative community; and discontent was the underlying factor in
the migration from the Old World to the New. In any composite immigrant
population such as that of the United States there was bound to be a
large element of undesirables. Among those who came "for conscience's
sake" were the best type of religious protestants, but there were also
religious cranks from many countries, of almost every conceivable sect
and of no sect at all. Many of the newcomers were poor. It was common,
too, to regard colonies as inferior places of residence to which
objectionable persons might be encouraged to go and where the average
of the population was lowered by the influx of convicts and thousands of
slaves.
"The great number of emigrants from Europe"--wrote Thieriot, Saxon
Commissioner of Commerce to America, from Philadelphia in 1784--"has
filled this place with worthless persons to such a degree that scarcely
a day passes without theft, robbery, or even assassination."* It would
perhaps be too much to say that the people of the United States were
looked upon by the rest of the world as only half civilized, but
certainly they were regarded as of lower social standing and of inferior
quality, and many of them were known to be rough, uncultured, and
ignorant. Great Britain and Germany maintained American missionary
societies, not, as might perhaps be expected, for the benefit of the
Indian or negro, but for the poor, benighted colonists themselves; and
Great Britain refused to commission a minister to her former colonies
for nearly ten years after their independence had been recognized.
