From these proceedings, and from the general CHAP. II. representations made by the American merchants, 1783 general Washington had augured the most happy 1787. effects. "The information," said he in a letter

to an intimate friend in Great Britain, "which you have given of the disposition of a certain court, coincides precisely with the sentiments I had formed of it from my own observations on many late occurrences. With respect to our selves, I wish I could add that as much wisdom had pervaded our councils, as reason and common policy most evidently dictated. But the truth is, the people must feel before they will see; consequently they are brought slowly into measures of public utility. Past experience, or the admonitions of a few, have but little weight. But evils of this nature work their own cure, though the remedy comes slower than comports with the wishes of those who foresee, or think they foresee the danger.

"With respect to the commercial system which Great Britain is pursuing with this country, the ministers, in this as in other matters, are defeating their own end, by facilitating the grant of those powers to congress, which will produce a counteraction of their plans, and with which, but for those plans, half a century would not have invested that body.

"The restrictions on our trade, and the additional duties which are imposed on many of our staple commodities, have put all the commercial

Mr. Fairfax.

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CHAP. II. people of this country in motion. They now see 1783 the indispensable necessity of a general controlling 1787. power, and are addressing their respective assemblies to grant it to congress. Before this, every state thought itself competent to regulate its own trade; and we were verifying the observations of lord Sheffield, who supposed we never could agree on any general plan; but those who will go a little deeper into matters than his lordship seems to have done, will perceive that in any measure where the general interest is touched, however wide apart the politics of individual states may be, yet as soon as it is discovered, they will unite to effect a common good."

In a letter written about the same time to the marquis de La Fayette, he thus expressed his hope of the consequences which would attend the efforts then making to enlarge the powers of congress. "However unimportant America may be considered at present, and however Britain may affect to despise her trade, there will assuredly come a day when this country will have some weight in the scale of empires."

But a union of the states to confer on the general government the beneficial powers in question, was not so near being effected as was hoped by its friends. A resolution was moved in congress, recommending it to the several states to vest in that body full authority to regulate their commerce, both external and internal, and to impose such duties as might be necessary for that purpose. This power was to be fettered with several extraordinary limitations, which might render it

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more acceptable to the governments who were CHAP. II, asked to bestow it, among which was a provision 1783 that the duties should be "collectable under the authority, and accrue to the use of the state in which the same should be made payable." Notwithstanding these restrictions, marking the keen sighted jealousy with which any encroachment on state sovereignty was watched, this resolution encountered much opposition even in congress. This opposition did not originate, exclusively, in the solicitude of the members to preserve the prerogatives of the states. It was in part to be ascribed to that unreasonable suspicion which grew out of an opinion, that on commercial subjects, the interests of different parts of the union conflicted with each other.

These resolutions were never agreed to, and the general discontent continued to increase.

During these transactions, the public attention was called to another subject which served to impress still more powerfully on every reflecting and disinterested mind, the necessity of enlarging the powers of the general government, were it only to give efficacy to those which in theory it already possessed.

The uneasiness occasioned by the infractions of the treaty of peace on the part of Great Britain, has been already noticed. To obtain its complete execution, constituted one of the objects for which Mr. Adams had been deputed to the court of St. James. A memorial presented by that minister in December 1785, urging the complaints of America, and pressing for a full

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CHAP. II. Compliance with the treaty, was answered by an 1783 enumeration of the violations of that compact on of the United States. The marquis of part Carmarthen acknowledged explicitly the obligation created by the seventh article to withdraw the British garrisons from every post within the United States; but insisted that the obligation created by the fourth article, to remove every lawful impediment to the recovery of bona fide debts, was equally clear and explicit.

"The engagements entered into by a treaty ought," he said, "to be mutual, and equally binding on the respective contracting parties. It would therefore be the height of folly as well as injustice, to suppose one party alone obliged to a strict observance of the public faith, while the other might remain free to deviate from its own engagements as often as convenience might render such deviation necessary, though at the expense of its own credit and importance."

He concluded with the assurance, "that whenever America should manifest a real determination to fulfil her part of the treaty, Great Britain would not hesitate to prove her sincerity to co-operate in whatever points depended upon her, for carrying every article of it into real and complete effect."

Accompanying this letter was a statement of the infractions of the fourth article, which were alleged by the subjects of his Britannic majesty to have been committed by the United States. Copies of both documents were immediately transmitted by Mr. Adams to congress, by whom they were referred to Mr. Jay, the secretary for

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foreign affairs. The report of that upright minister CHAP. II. did not, by contravening facts, affect to exculpate 1783 his country. "Some of the facts" said he in a letter to general Washington, written after permission to communicate the papers had been given, "are inaccurately stated and improperly coloured; but it is too true that the treaty has been violated. On such occasions, I think it better fairly to confess and correct errors, than attempt to deceive ourselves and others, by fallacious though plausible palliations and excuses.

"To oppose popular prejudices, to censure the proceedings and expose the impropriety of states, is an unpleasant task, but it must be done."

That the United States might with reason be required to fulfil the treaty before they could entitle themselves to demand a strict performance of it on the part of Great Britain, was a position the propriety of which they were prevented from contesting by the miserably defective organization of the government. If in theory the treaties. formed by congress were obligatory, yet it had been demonstrated that in practice, that body was absolutely unable to carry them into execution.

It was consequently impossible to insist that the evacuation of the western posts should precede the removal of the impediments to the bona fide execution of the treaty on the part of America. Their earnest endeavours therefore, were exerted to prevail on the several states to repeal all existing laws which might be repugnant to the treaty of peace. The resolutions which were