I

Bledsoe's Lick in middle Tennessee. Early the next year, 178 0 James Robertson with a party of eight established a 1 790 settlement at French Lick on the site of Nashville, and other settlers followed. In May, 1780, these settlers entered into a compact for government. In spite of Indian attacks, other stations were established. On the second of April, 1781, the Cherokees were defeated at the "Battle of the Bluffs" and the existence of middle Tennessee was assured. In 1783, Robertson was elected to the North Carolina legislature; through his activity, the Cumberland settlement was erected into Davidson County, from which, in 1786, Sumner County was set off. The settlers suffered much from the Indian ravages, but, in the summer of 1787, Robertson led a force against a Creek and Cherokee town on the Coldwater, a tributary of the Tennessee, and struck a blow that gave a breathing spell to the new settlements. Among the newcomers of this period was a young lawyer, Andrew Jackson. By 1790, the Southwest territory contained nearly thirty-six thousand inhabitants.

Washington's
Opinion

Other

Opinions

CHAPTER

X X

BUILDING THE SHIP

W

These

ASHINGTON'S experience with the continental congress had taught him the vital need and value of union; "he felt it as soon as he took command of the army, and it rode like black care behind him from Cambridge to Yorktown. At the close of the war, he forcibly expressed the necessity of a stronger central government. "There are four things which I humbly conceive are essential to the well-being, I may even venture to say to the existence, of the United States, as an independent power. things were an indissoluble union of the states under one federal head, a regard to public justice, the adoption of a proper peace establishment, and the sinking of local interests and prejudices in a patriotic desire for the welfare of the nation as a whole. In an appeal to the army, he again expressed his opinion that "unless the principles of the federal government were properly supported, and the powers of the Union increased, the honor, dignity, and justice of the nation would be lost." From Mount Vernon, he continued to urge his views in letters to prominent men throughout the country.

As early as September, 1780, Alexander Hamilton had urged a "solid coercive union." In 1785, Noah Webster wrote an essay in which he asserted that "there must be a supreme power at the head of the union, vested with authority to make laws that respect the states in general and to compel obedience to those

laws." James Madison grew more earnest as time I 7

In

8 I

went by and Pelatiah Webster continued to point out I 785 the need of a stronger government. 1784, there was much talk among members of congress in favor of a convention, but nothing came of it. Among the excuses offered was fear of the Cincinnati. "Such a measure," said Rufus King, "would produce thro'out the Union, an exertion of the friends of an Aristocracy to members who would

Send

Noah Webster

promote a change of

Government.'

Such a

While Washington was urging a stronger government, Inland he was also interested in the development and settle- Navigation ment of the West. Almost alone among Americans, he had foreseen the growth and greatness of America and the need of a system of inland navigation. system would benefit the older sections and the new, and serve as a strong bond of union. As early as 1770, he had pointed out the commercial and political importance of easy transit lines, east and west. In 1783, as stated in an earlier chapter, he explored the route later taken by the Erie canal and the New York Central railway. Soon after his return to Mount Vernon, he began energetic efforts to open up a line of communication through the valley of the Potomac, a line later followed by the Chesapeake and Ohio canal and by the Baltimore and Ohio railway. Through his influence, the Virginia legislature took up the ques

1785 tion and two companies were formed. An agreement 1 7 8 6 with Maryland regarding the navigation of the Chesapeake and the Potomac was necessary and, in the spring of 1785, commissioners from the two states met at Alexandria. The commissioners came to an agreement regarding the common navigation of the bay and the river and requested Pennsylvania to allow the free use of streams within her limits as connecting links between the Ohio and the Potomac. They also recommended uniform import duties, commercial regulations, and

A

Commercial
Convention

January 21, 1786

Hamilton's
Address

currency.

In giving its assent to the recommendations respecting uniform duties, Maryland proposed that Pennsylvania and Delaware should be invited to send commissioners to meet those of Maryland and Virginia and to unite in the same system of commercial policy. Madison persuaded the Virginia legislature to appoint representatives to meet commissioners from all the states that might choose to be represented "to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest and their permanent harmony." The commissioners were to meet at Annapolis on the first Monday in September, 1786.

When the convention met, only Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey were represented. Even Maryland had neglected to appoint delegates; New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North Carolina had chosen representatives, but they did not attend the meeting; Connecticut, South Carolina, and Georgia had taken no action in the matter. Under such circumstances, the delegates "did not think it advisable to proceed on the Business of their Mission, September 14, but they did adopt an address to the states written by Hamilton and "toned down" by Edmund Randolph. The address called attention to the fact that there were defects in the system of government that rendered the situation "delicate and critical, calling for an exertion of the united Virtue and Wisdom of all the members of the Confederacy." It, therefore, proposed a conven

1786

tion of all the states to meet at Philadelphia on the 1 7 8 6 second Monday in May, 1787, to "devise such further 1 7 8 7 Provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the Foederal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union." Although the commissioners "could not with propriety address these Observations and Sentiments to any but the States they have the honor to Represent, they have nevertheless concluded, from motives of respect, to transmit Copies of this Report, to the United States in Congress Assembled, and to the Executives of the other States."

its Wounded

In October, the report of the commissioners was Congress brought before congress. Largely through the influ- Anoints ence of Rufus King and Nathan Dane, that body Pride refused to sanction the plan, but the Shays rebellion and other happenings of that eventful winter worked a change in the minds of the delegates. Even King threw aside his objections and advocated the measure. On the twenty-first of February, congress issued a call for a convention to meet at the time and place mentioned by the delegates at Annapolis "for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures, such alterations 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.

Even before congress took this step, the states had State Action begun to act upon the report of the Annapolis convention. On the sixteenth of October, Virginia authorized the sending of delegates and, on the fourth of December, selected them. On the twenty-fourth of November, New Jersey fell into line and, before February, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, and Delaware had decided to send representatives. Maryland did not appoint delegates until the twenty-sixth of May, and New Hampshire not until the twenty-seventh of June. Rhode Island was not represented at all; the stubborn little maid was pronounced "abominable" and it was