Restrictions on Congress

1 7 7 7 and measures; to establish and regulate a postal service between the states; to make rules for the government of the land and naval forces in the service of the United States, to direct their operations and to appoint all naval officers and all officers of the land forces above those of regimental rank. It was authorized to do certain other things concerning which the reader is referred to the full text of the articles printed in the appendix to this volume. The complete inefficiency of congress was assured by the rules prescribed for its procedure. It was to meet on the first Monday of each November. It was to elect its own president, but no one could hold the office more than one year in any period of three years. This restriction, together with a clause that forbade any man to sit in congress more than three years out of six, could not fail seriously to impede the development of national statesmen. All important questions concerning war, treaties, the appropriation of money, etc., required the assent of nine states. Other than to adjourn from day to day, congress could do nothing without the assent of the majority of the states. No amendment of the articles could be made unless first agreed to in congress and subsequently agreed to by the legislatures of all the This difficulty of amendment proved a temporary drag and an ultimate blessing. As the country drifted toward anarchy and it was found impossible to amend the articles, the people were forced into the destruction of the whole system.

The Impotence of Congress

states.

Congress could not even exercise its enumerated powers unhampered. It was unable to prevent or to punish offenses against its own laws, or even to perform its own duties. It could decide territorial disputes between the states, but it could not compel either party to abide by its decision. It could make treaties with foreign states, but states and individuals might violate them with impunity. It could make requisitions upon the states for money, but it could not compel the states to pay the money; it could pledge the public faith but was left without effectual means for taking the public

faith out of pawn. For the observance of the articles 1 7 7 7 congress had no guarantee except the promise of the 1 7 8 1 states, and that proved to be worthless.

States

The articles of confederation were finally agreed to by Quibbling congress on the fifteenth of November, 1777, but to give them validity the assent of every one of the thirteen legislatures was necessary. Little as the states were giving up, they interposed objection and delay. Some objected to the method for apportioning taxes and troops; many criticisms were made upon the phraseology. New Jersey desired a provision for the central regulation of foreign trade. South Carolina returned the articles to congress with the recommendation that inter-citizenship should be confined to white men, but by a decided vote congress refused to make the change suggested.

A more serious cause of delay was the dispute about the western territory. The king of England had fixed western boundaries to six of the states, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

HE CELLENC

n and ever

JONATHAN TRUMBULL, F
Governor and Commander in Chict
the State of CONNECTICUT.
A PROCLAMATION.
WHEREAS the Legislature of this State, by their Refo-

lutions paffed at their Seffens bolden at New-Haven,
on the fecond Thurfday of October laft, it declare, that
this State bas the undoubted and exclufive right of jurif
diction and pre-emption to all the lands lying well of the
State of Pennsylvania, and call of the river Mithilippi, and
extending throughout from the latitude 41°. to "latitude
42. 2 worth, by virtue of the charter granted by King
Charles the Ild to the late Colony, now State of Connecti-
cut, bearing date the 23d day of April, A. D. 1662:
Which claim and right they are determined to affert and

maintain.

DO therefore, at the defire and request of the faid

New York claimed to Legislature, hereby pubhili, proclaim and make known

this their refolution, allertion and determination to all people whomfoever it may concern. And, I do allo, by this my Proclamation, ftrictly forbid all perfons whatever, from entering upon or fettling within the territory fo claimed and afferted, without fpecial licence and authority therefor, first had and obtained from the General Aflembly of this State; as they would with to avoid the pains, penalties and forfeitures to which they may, in fuch cale, expect

Given under my hand and feal, at Lebanon, in the
State of Connecticut, this 15th day of November,
Anno Domini 1783.

have no western bound-
ary but was less stub-
born than were some of
the others. By virtue of
sea-to-sea charters, the to be expofed.
other six states had claimed
to extend across the conti-
nent, but the treaty of
1763 and the transfer of
Louisiana to Spain had
forced them to move their
"South Sea" up to the

JON. TRUMBULL,

HEW-LONDON: Printed by T. GREEN, Printer to the Governor and Compisy

Proclamation by Jonathan Trumbull, Governor
of Connecticut, relative to the Western
Claims of that Colony

Western

Lands

1 7 7 7 Mississippi. Virginia also claimed the country north1 7 8 I west of the Ohio by virtue of the "west and northwest"

Ratification

clause of a charter that had been annulled for more than
a century and a half, her claim thus overlapping those of
Massachusetts and Connecticut. Without any hope of
sharing in the western lands, the non-claimant states
naturally saw a want of right and reason in the claims of
the others. To them it seemed that when the king for-
bade the sale of lands beyond the Alleghenies and
united that territory to Quebec he established western
boundaries even for the states whose charters had not
been annulled. Moreover, the western territory was to
be won from the enemy by united action and the fruit of
a common effort should be a common possession.
In spite of these objections, the articles of confeder-

DISSERTATION

ON N THE

POLITICAL UNION

AND

CONSTITUTION

OF THE,

THIRTEEN UNITED STATES,

NORTH-AMERICA

ation were signed, in July, 1778, by the delegates of all the states except New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland; New Jersey fell into line in the following November, and Delaware in May, 1779. Maryland, however, refused to sign until some satisfactory arrangement had been made regarding the western lands. In January, 1780, New York gave up her claims to all land west of the meridian of the extreme western end of Lake Ontario and congress urged similar action upon the other states. In January of the following year, Virginia, whose claim had been strengthened by the campaigns of George Rogers Clark, of which more hereafter, provisionally

Waihis neceffary to their Prefervation and 11appineto,

humbly offered to the l'uble,

CITIZEN of PHILADELPHIA,

PHILADELPHIA:

Frinted and Sold by T. ERADFORD, in Front-reet, three Doors below
the Cons: Hoafe, MDCCLXXXI

Title-page of Pelatiah Webster's Pamphlet

yielded her title to the territory northwest of the Ohio. 1 7 8 1 Maryland then gave her delegates authority to sign the February 2 articles. They did so on the first of March, 1781, and thus completed the ratification. On the following day, the revolutionary congress met as the congress of the confederation. Six weeks later, James Madison proposed and Washington supported an amendment to give the United States power to employ the military and naval forces to compel delinquent states to fulfil their federal engagements and, in May, 1783, Pelatiah Webster published a pamphlet urging a federal convention for reconstructing the whole scheme of government. "In civil affairs, as much as in husbandry, seed-time goes before the harvest, and the harvest may be in the seed, the seed in the harvest."

Camp and
Costume

CHAPTER VII

VALLEY FORGE,

D

URING the winter of 1777-78, Washington's little army lay among the wood-clad hills at Valley Forge. The log huts that the soldiers built were arranged in parallel streets, each brigade by itself, and gave the camp something of the appearance of

a city. The window openings were closed with oiled paper and the cracks between the logs were chinked with wetted clay. On the twenty-third of December, the commander-in-chief reported that he had two thousand