should take an obligation to pursue the interests of the confederation, and, particularly, to assent to no measure which might violate it; 2. That the sole and exclusive power of regulating the trade of the United States with foreign nations, should be vested in Congress; and the revenue arising from the customs, should be appropriated to the establishment of a navy, and to other public and general purposes; 3. That no body of troops should be kept up by the United States in time of peace, except by the assent of nine States; 4. That the quotas of aids and supplies from the several States should be settled every five years; 5. That the boundaries of the several States should be fully and finally established, as soon as practicable within five years; 6. That the vacant crown lands should be deemed the spoils of the war, to be applied for the general benefit; and that whilst the jurisdiction of the several States was preserved with chartered or determined limits, the vacant lands should be vested in Congress, in trust for the United States; 7. That the requisitions on the several States for land forces, should be apportioned to the whole of the respective population, and not to the number of white inhabitants only; 8. That for equitably ascertaining the quota of troops of each State, a census of the inhabitants should be taken every five years; 9, and lastly, That the provision which required the assent of nine out of thirteen States, in certain cases, should be so modified, that the proportion should be preserved upon an increase of the number of States.

Although the inconvenience of amending the articles of confederation, may have prevented the incorporation of these propositions, it is obvious that the statesmen of New Jersey had foreseen and supplied the omission of many principles which were essential to the welfare, nay, the existence of the Union. At various times she enforced the propriety of the general regulation of trade, and of making the crown lands a common fund; and, finally, all her suggestions were adopted in the establishment of the Union. On the 14th of November, 1778, the Assembly, reasserting the propriety and expediency of their propositions, which they forebore to press, on account of the urgency of the case, and in the hope that the States would, in due time, remove the existing inequality, adopted the articles of confederation. And on the 20th, a law authorized their delegates in Congress, to subscribe them.

IX. The utter inefficiency of the articles of confederation, became apparent almost as soon as they were adopted, and was most conclusively exemplified, in the failure of the earnest endeavour to provide for the public debt, made in 1783. Two parties, as we have elsewhere observed, began to pervade the Union. One contemplated America as a nation, and laboured incessantly to invest the federal head with powers competent to the preservation of the Union. The other, attached to the State authorities, viewed all the powers of Congress with jealousy, and assented, reluctantly, to measures which tended to render them independent of the States. Sensible that the character of the government would be determined by the measures which should immediately follow the treaty of peace, gentlemen of distinguished political acquirements, among whom were some conspicuous officers of the late army, sought a place in the Congress of 1783. They procured the assent of the House, to a system, the best that circumstances would admit, to restore and support public credit, and to obtain from the States substantial means for the funding the whole debt of the nation. They proposed that adequate funds should be raised by duties on imports, and by internal taxes, for the immediate payment of the interest, and gradual extinction of the principal; and that the quotas of the several States, should be determined, not by the value of the located lands, but by the extent of its population. It was proposed, also, as an amendment to the 8th article of the confederation, that the taxes for the use of the continent, should be levied, separately, from

other taxes, and paid directly into the national treasury, and that the collectors should be subject and responsible to Congress. To prevent the preference in payment, for part of the debts, which might result from a partial adoption of the system, it was declared, that no part of the revenue system should take effect, until the whole had been adopted by all the States; after which, the grant was to be irrevocable, except by the concurrence of the whole, or by a majority of the United States in Congress assembled. But to remove the jealousy which obstructed the grant of power, to collect an indefinite sum for an indefinite time, the proposition was modified, so that the grant was to be limited to twenty-five years, to be strictly appropriated to the debt contracted on account of the war, and collected by persons appointed by the respective States. These resolutions were adopted on the 18th of April, 1783; and a committee, consisting of Mr. Madison, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Ellsworth, was appointed to recommend them by an address to the people, and Washington, himself, joined in this object, by a circular addressed to the governors of the States, respectively.*

While the fate of these measures remained undecided, requisitions for the intermediate supply of the national demands, were annually repeated, but annually neglected. From the first of November, 1784, to the first of January, 1786, there had been paid to the public treasury, only 482,397 dollars. Happily, a loan had been negotiated in Holland, by Mr. Adams, after the termination of the war, out of which the interest of the foreign debt had been partly paid; but that fund was exhausted. Unable to pay the interest, the United States would, in the course of the succeeding year, be liable for the first instalment of the principal; and the humiliation of total failure, in the fulfilment of her engagements, would be accompanied with no hope of future ability. If the condition of the domestic creditors was not absolutely hopeless, their prospect of payment was so remote, that the evidences of their claim were transferred at a tenth of their nominal value. In a word, in 1786, a crisis had arrived, when the people of the United States were required to decide, whether, by the establishment of a secure and permanent revenue, and the maintenance of public faith, at home and abroad, they would sustain their rank as a nation.

In the course of the year 1786, the revenue system, proposed in April, 1783, had been adopted by every State in the Union, New York excepted. That State had passed an act upon the subject, but influenced by its jealousy of the Federal Government, had not vested in Congress the power of collecting the duties specified in their resolutions; but had reserved to itself the levying of the duties according to its own laws, made the collectors answerable only to the State, and the duties payable in State bills, which were liable to depreciation. As the assent of every State was indispensable to the success of the plan, it was thus, wholly defeated.

New Jersey, overshadowed by her overgrown neighbours, New York and Pennsylvania, whose capitals and whose ports, made them importers, not only for themselves, but for her, had a grievance peculiarly her own-paying the duties which those States, severally, levied upon the merchandise she consumed. She was, therefore, induced, by the strongest ties of interest, to support the federative system, by which such duties, instead of being levied by individual States for their special benefit, would be received and expended for the general weal of the nation; and was indignant, that the system had been rejected by New York. Certain resolutions, expressive of her sense, upon this and other momentous subjects, were reported to the Assembly, by Mr. Abraham Clarke, on the 20th of February, 1786, and

* Dated June 8th, 1783.

afterwards embodied in instructions to her delegates in Congress, to the following effect.

"When the revenue system of April 18th, 1783, was passed in Congress, we were then in hopes that our situation, between two commercial States, would no longer operate to our detriment; and that, those States, and others in their predicament, were, at length, convinced of the selfish and palpable injustice of subjecting others to their exactions, and then applying those exactions to the augmentation of their respective private revenues.

"The same contracted and destructive policy, that has long subsisted, still continues; and as we are convinced, that neither the public credit can be supported, the public debts paid, or the existence of the Union maintained, without the impost revenue, in some beneficial effective manner, it has become our duty to instruct you, to vote against each and every ordinance, resolution, or proceeding, whatever, which shall produce any expense to New Jersey, for the promotion or security of the commerce of these States, or any of them, from which neither the Union, in general, nor this State, in particular, derives any advantage, until all the States shall, effectually, and substantially, adopt and carry into execution, the impost above mentioned. You will see, by the representation of this State, June 25th, 1778, that the Legislature have, uniformly, held the same justice of sentiment, respecting the vacant or crown lands; relative to which, you are instructed-to vote against every proceeding, which shall tend to charge this State with any expense for acquiring, gaining possession of, or defending such territory, claimed by, or which is to accrue to, the exclusive benefit of any particular State or States, and not the Union at large."

"The Legislature has beheld, with much concern, gratuitous advances of money and partial payments, made by Congress, to importuning creditors and others, not regulated by any general and equal system, which not only impoverish the treasury, but produce discontents, and furnish bad precedents. You are, therefore, instructed not to assent to any such payments, or to the payment of any particular debts, other than foreign loans, in preference to others of a like nature, whereby a discrimination of creditors may take place. It were well if the public could pay all, promptly, but as that is impracticable, it is absolutely necessary, to act upon settled uniform plans, in paying as far as the revenue can extend."

The Assembly, also, resolved, for these reasons, "that they could not, consistently with the duty they owed to their constituents, comply with the requisition of Congress of the 27th of September, 1785, or any other of a similar nature, requiring specie contributions, until all the States in the Union should comply with the requisition of April, 1783, or at least, until the several States, having the advantage of commerce, which they now enjoy, solely from the joint exertions of the United States, shall forbear exacting duties upon merchandise, for the particular benefit of their respective States, thereby drawing revenues from other States, whose local situation and circumstances, would not admit their enjoying similar advantages from commerce."

This resolution proved so embarrassing to Congress, that a committee was appointed from that body, personally, to remonstrate with the Legislature of New Jersey, and to endeavour to procure its repeal. Whereupon, the House resolved, that "being willing to remove, as far as in their power, every embarrassment, from the councils of the Union, and that the failure of supplies from temporary demands, though clearly evinced from experience, may not be imputed to the State of New Jersey, only, the resolution of the twentieth of February, should be rescinded." Thus disappointed in procuring an equalization of the customs, the State, from the many petitions upon this

subject, seems to have prepared itself for the establishment of a tariff of duties, upon all goods imported from the adjacent States. A measure which could have resulted only in awakening dangerous feuds with her neighbours, and in the greater oppression of her own citizens.

X. To relieve the pecuniary distress which weighed upon this State, in common with the rest of the Union, the Legislature resorted to the old expedient of issuing bills of credit, and lending them upon mortgage, through loan offices, established in the several counties. A bill for striking and making current, one hundred thousand pounds, was passed by the Assembly, in March, 1786, but was rejected in Council. The cries of the people, however, were too general and loud, to be thus disregarded; and a special session of the Legislature was holden on the 17th of May, following, when the bill passed both Houses.

XI. To increase the gloom which hung over the Union, difficulties had arisen relative to the execution of the treaty with Great Britain, which had been broken by both parties. The British had not delivered up, nor paid for, the slaves of the southern planters, nor surrendered the military posts upon the borders. Nor had the United States complied with the 4th, 5th, and 6th articles, containing agreements respecting the payment of private debts, due the British merchants, the confiscation of property, and the prosecution of individuals, for the part taken by them, during the war. Complaints were also, made, of British encroachments on the territory of the United States, from the eastern frontier. But the cause of the greatest disquiet, was the rigorous commercial system, pursued by Great Britain. To settle these vexatious questions, Mr. John Adams was, in February, 1785, appointed plenipotentiary of the United States to the British court. His efforts to give reciprocity and stability to the commercial relations, between the two countries, were unavailing; the cabinet of London declining negotiation with a government, which was unable to secure the observance of any general regulation, and to make the obligations of a treaty reciprocal.

XII. All these circumstances rendered a modification of the compact between the States, not only desirable, but inevitable, if their union was to be preserved. The immediate measures leading to a change, commenced in Virginia. On the 21st of January, 1786, a resolution was adopted in the Legislature of that State, appointing commissioners "to meet such as might be appointed by the other States in the Union, at a time and place to be agreed on, to take into consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative situation and trade of the said States; to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial relations may be necessary to their common interests, and their present harmony, and to report to the several States, such an act, relative to this great object, as when unanimously ratified by them, will enable the United States, in Congress assembled, effectually, to provide for the same." In the circular letter transmitting these resolutions to the respective States, Annapolis, in Maryland, was proposed as the place, and the ensuing September as the time, of meeting.

This resolution was submitted to the Legislature of New Jersey, on the 14th of March, 1786, and concurred in, a few days after. On the 21st, in joint meeting, Messrs. Abraham Clarke, William C. Houston, and James Schureman, were appointed delegates to the convention at Annapolis.

But five States,* only, were represented, on this important occasion. The delegates having appointed Mr. John Dickinson their chairman, proceeded to discuss the objects of their convention; when they soon perceived, that more ample powers were requisite to effect their contemplated purpose. They

*

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

rose, therefore, without coming to any resolution, save that of recommending, to the several States, the necessity of extending the revision of the federal system, to all its defects, and the appointment of deputies for that purpose, to meet in convention, in the city of Philadelphia, on the second day of the ensuing May.

This proposition was variously received, in accordance with the temper of the several parties in the Union. Those who sought the energetic government of monarchy, and those who earnestly desired to break up the old confederation, believed, that the public affairs had not yet reached their worst state-that state which would compel a change; and, therefore, they looked coldly upon it. Others deemed the mode of calling the convention, irregular; whilst others objected to it, because it gave no authority to the plan, which should be devised. But its most active opponents were the devotees of state sovereignty, who deprecated any considerable augmentation of federal power. The ultimate decision of the States, in favour of the proposition, is supposed to have been produced, by the commotions which at that time agitated all New England, and particularly Massachusetts. Congress was restrained from giving its sanction to the measure, by an apprehension, that their action upon it would impede, rather than promote, it. From this fear, they were relieved by the Legislature of New York, which, by a majority of one voice, only, instructed its delegation to move in Congress, a resolution, recommending to the several States, to appoint deputies to meet in convention, for the purpose of revising, and proposing amendments to, the federal constitution. On the 21st of February, 1787, the day succeeding the instructions given by New York, Congress resolved it "to be expedient, that on the second Monday in May next, a convention of delegates, who shall have been appointed by the several States, be held at Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confederation, and reporting to Congress, and the several Legislatures, such alterations and provisions, therein, as shall, when agreed to, in Congress, and confirmed by the States, render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of government, and the preservation of the Union."

On the 24th of November, 1786, New Jersey had approved the measure, and nominated David Brearley, William C. Houston, William Patterson, and John Neilson, commissioners on her part; to whom she afterwards added, Governor Livingston, and Abraham Clark, on the 19th of May, 1787, (omitting the name of Mr. Nielson,) and Jonathan Dayton, on the 7th of

June.

XIII. The representatives of twelve States convened at the time and place appointed; Rhode Island, alone, having refused to send deputies. Having, unanimously, chosen General Washington their president, they proceeded with closed doors, to discuss the interesting subject submitted to them. Upon the great principles of the system, not much contrariety of opinion is understood to have prevailed; but the various and intricate modifications of those principles, presented much difficulty. More than once, there was reason to fear, that the convention would rise without effecting the object for which it was formed. Happily, the advantages of the Union triumphed over local interests. And at length, on the 17th of September, the constitution of the United States of America, was given to the world.

Although earnestly devoted to the establishment of a strong and permanent government for the Union, New Jersey was anxious to preserve the original equality of the States, which had given to each, in Congress, before and after the adoption of the articles of confederation, a voice alike potential. The pretension was unjust, considering the United States as composed of one people, but had a colour of propriety when they were viewed as a confede