CHAPTER VII. DISBANDING THE ARMY. March -- July, 1783.
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| Washington presented the rightful claims of the "patriot army" [1] with a warmth and energy which never but this once appear in his communications to congress; and his words gained intenser power from his disinterestedness. To a committee on which were Bland and Hamilton, he enforced, by every consideration of gratitude, justice, honor, and national pride, the "universal" expectations of the army, that, before their disbanding, they should receive pay for at least one month in hand, with an absolute assurance in a short time of pay for two months more. "The financier will take his own measures; but this sum must be procured. The soldier is willing to risk the hard-earned remainder due him for four, five, perhaps six years upon the same basis of security with the general mass of other public creditors." [2] | Chap. VII. 1783. March. April. |
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1. Washington to congress, 18 March, 1783. Sparks, viii. 396-399. |
2. Washington to Bland, 4 April, 1783. MS. |
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"The expectations of the army," answered Hamilton, "are moderation itself." [1] But, after a week's reflection, Morris, who had already written to congress "our public credit is gone," [2] replied to the committee that the amount of three months' pay was more than all the receipts from all the states since 1781; that there was no resource but the issue of paper notes in anticipation of revenue. [3] A sharp admonition from Vergennes to the United States speedily to meet their engagements in France and Holland, [4] and the representations of Washington, quickened the determination of congress. In preparing the plan for a revenue, Madison was assisted by Jefferson, who passed a large part of the winter in Philadelphia. The national debt of Great Britain at the beginning of the war with America amounted to one hundred and thirty-six millions of pounds; at the close of it, including deficiencies that were still to be funded, it amounted to twice that sum. The debt of the United States did not much exceed forty-two millions of dollars; the annual interest on that debt was not far from two and a half millions, and to fund it successfully there was need of a yearly revenue of at least that sum. One million was hoped for from specific duties on enumerated imports, and a duty of five per cent. on the value of all others. A million and a half dollars more were to be raised by requisitions of congress, apportioned on the states |
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1. Hamilton to Washington, 11 April, 1783. Letters to Washington, iv. 17. 2. Dip. Cor., xii. 342. |
3. Morris to Hamilton, 14 April, 1783. Dip. Cor., xii. 346. 4. Luzerne to R. Morris, 15 March, 1783. Dip. Cor. xi. 157, 158. |
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according to population. This more convenient method had hitherto failed from conflicts on the rule for counting slaves. The south had insisted on the ratio of two for one freeman. Williamson of North Carolina said: "I am principled against slavery. I think slaves an incumbrance to society instead of increasing its ability to pay taxes." [1] To effect an agreement, Madison, seconded by Rutledge, offered that slaves should be rated as five to three, and this compromise, which then affected taxation only and not representation, was accepted almost with unanimity. [2] In the beginning of April, Hamilton had declared in congress that he wished to strengthen the federal constitution through a general convention, and should soon, in pursuance of instructions from his constituents, propose a plan for that purpose. [3] In the mean time, he remained inflexible in the opinion that an attempt to obtain revenue by an application to the several states would be futile, because an agreement could never be arrived at through partial deliberations. The vote on the report of the new financial measure, which he opposed as inadequate, was taken on the eighteenth of April. Georgia alone was absent; eleven states were fully represented; New Hampshire by a single delegate. Hamilton and the two representatives of Rhode Island, alone and for the most opposite reasons, gave their votes in the negative. New York being divided, nine states and a half against one, twenty- |
Chap. VII. 1783. April. |
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1. Gilpin, 423; Elliot, 79. 2. Gilpin, 423, 424; Elliot, 79. |
3. Gilpin, 429, 430; Elliot, 81. |
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five delegates against three, recorded their votes for the adoption of the report. To the relentless exigencies of the moment the financial proposition of the eighteenth of April offered no relief, nor could it take effect until it should be accepted by every one of the thirteen states. To win this unanimous assent, congress, in the words of Madison, enforced the peculiar nature of their obligation to France, to members of the republic of Holland, and to the army. Moreover, "the citizens of the United States are responsible for the greatest trust ever confided to a political society. If justice, good faith, honor, gratitude, and all the other qualities which ennoble the character of a nation and fulfil the ends of government, be the fruits of our unadulterated forms of republican government, the cause of liberty will acquire a dignity and lustre which it has never yet enjoyed; and an example will be set which cannot but have the most favorable influence on the rights of mankind." New York, North and South Carolina, and Massachusetts were following the example of Virginia, and repealing their revenue acts of former years; when the address went forth, accompanied by the letter of congress to the governor of Rhode Island which Hamilton had drafted, and by various papers showing the amount and the character of the debt of the United States. Then, on the twenty-eighth, and so far as the records show never till then, congress appointed a committee on the New York resolutions of the preceding July in favor of a general convention. Its choice |
Chap. VII. 1783. April 18.
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| fell on Ellsworth,
Carroll, Wilson, Gorham, Hamilton, Peters, McHenry, Izard, and Duane. [1] In October, 1780, congress provided for forming new states out of the north-western territory. [2] A most elaborate report, read in November, 1781, recommended that the lands for settlements "should be laid out into townships of about six miles square." [3] Early in 1783 Rufus Putnam, and other officers and soldiers of the army in New England, engaged heartily in a plan to form a state westward of the Ohio, and Timothy Pickering proposed to them that "the total exclusion of slavery from the state should form an essential and irrevocable part of the constitution." [4] To "unite the thirteen states in one great political interest," Bland, a man of culture, who had served with credit as a colonel of dragoons, and had been a member of congress from Virginia since 1780, now, on the fifth of June, 1783, brought forward an "ordinance" to accept conditionally the cession of Virginia, divide it into districts of two degrees of latitude by three degrees of longitude, and subdivide each district into townships of a fixed number of miles square; each district to be received into the union as a "sovereign" state, so soon as it could count twenty thousand inhabitants. In these em- |
Chap. VII. 1783.
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1. Madison, on whom we depend for a report of the debates of congress of that period, was absent from Saturday, April the twenty-sixth, to Tuesday, May sixth. So details are wanting. That Clinton's letter and the New York resolutions were committed on the twenty-eighth of April, we know from a MS. |
memorandum by Charles Thomson. 2. Laws relating to Public Lands, 338; Journals of Congress, iii. 535. 3. Endorsement on the original report in the state department is: "Read in congress 3 Nov., 1781." 4. Pickering's Pickering, i. 546. He formed a complete plan for settling lands in Ohio. |
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bryo states, every one who had enlisted for the war or had served for three years was to receive the bounty lands promised him, and thirty acres more for each dollar due him from the United States. One tenth part of the soil was to be reserved for "the payment of the civil list of the United States, the erecting of frontier posts, and the founding of seminaries of learning; the surplus to be appropriated to the building and equipping a navy, and to no other purpose whatever." This pioneer ordinance for colonizing the territory north-west of the Ohio was seconded by Hamilton, and referred to a grand committee. [1] From the moment when it became officially known that a preliminary treaty of peace had been concluded, Robert Morris persistently demanded the immediate discharge of the army. [2] The city of New York and the interior posts being still in British hands, his importunity was resisted by Gorham and Hamilton, and disapproved by the secretary of foreign affairs; but the public penury overcame all scruples. As the time drew near for the officers to pass from military service to civil life, they recalled the example of the Roman Cincinnatus, and, adopting his name, formed themselves into "one society of friends," to perpetuate "the spirit of brotherly kindness" and to help officers and their families in their times of need. An immutable attachment to the rights and |
Chap. VII. 1783. June.
May |
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1. Papers of Old Congress, xxxvi. MS. The ordinance is in the hand-writing of Theodorick Bland, and indorsed by Charles Thomson: "Motion of Mr. Bland seconded |
by Mr. Hamilton. June 5, 1783. Referred to the grand committee of 30 May, 1783." 2. Diary of Morris in Dip. Cor., xii. 367, note. |
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liberties of human nature was made the law of conduct for members, to whatever nation they might belong; and those who were Americans pledged to each other their "unalterable determination to promote and cherish union between the states." [1] By one grave error, which called forth from many sides in America and in Europe the severest censure, membership was made hereditary in their eldest male posterity. The commander-in-chief, who had no offspring, refused to separate himself from his faithful associates in the war; but by his influence the society at its first general meeting in May, 1784, proposed to its branches in the states to expunge from its constitution the clauses which had excited alarm and just complaint. The general order of the second day of June published the resolve of congress that the men engaged for the war, with a proper proportion of officers, were immediately to receive furloughs, on the reverse of which was their discharge, to take effect on the definitive treaty of peace. Washington felt the keenest sensibility at their distresses; [2] but he had exhausted all his influence. The army, for three months' pay, received only notes exactly "like other notes issued from the office of finance." [3] These were nominally due in six months to the bearer, with six per cent interest till paid. Their value in the market was two shillings or two and sixpence for twenty shil- |
Chap. VII. 1783.
June |
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1. Sparks, ix. 23, note. 2. Washington to Heath, 6 June, 1783. Sparks, viii. 435. 3. Washington to Bland, 4 April, 1783, MS.; Journals of Congress, |
for July 9 and following days, iv. 237, 238; Morris to congress, 18 July, 1783, Dip. Cor., xii, 376, 380-386 and 387-389, and other letters. |
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lings. [1] The veterans were enthusiasts for liberty, and therefore, with the consciousness of having done their duty to their native land and to mankind, they, in perfect good order, bearing with them their arms as memorials of their service, retired to their homes "without a settlement of their accounts, and without a farthing of money in their pockets." [2] The events of the last four months called into full action the powers and emotions of Washington. "State politics," said he, "interfere too much with the more liberal and extensive plan of government which wisdom and foresight would dictate. The honor, power, and true interest of this country must be measured by a continental scale. To form a new constitution that will give consistency, stability, and dignity to the union and sufficient powers to the great council of the nation for general purposes, is a duty incumbent upon every man who wishes well to his country." [3] Lifted above himself, and borne on by the energy of his belief, he in June addressed the whole people through a last circular to the governor of every state, [4] for he was persuaded that immediate and extreme danger overhung the life of the union. "With this conviction of the importance of the present crisis," such are his words, "silence in me would be a crime; I will therefore speak without disguise the language of freedom and of sincerity. Those who |
Chap. VII. 1783. June 2.
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1. Pelatiah Webster's Political Essays, 310; compare 272. 2. Washington to Congress, 7 and 24 June, 1783. Sparks, vii. 438, 456. |
3. Washington to Lafayette, 5 April, 1783. Sparks, viii. 412. 4. Sparks, viii. 439. The date of the circular varies with the time of its emission. |
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differ from me in political sentiment may remark that I am stepping out of the proper line of my duty; but the rectitude of my own heart, the part I have hitherto acted, experience acquired by long and close attention to the business of that country in whose service I have spent the prime of my life and whose happiness will always constitute my own, the ardent desire I feel of enjoying in private life, after all the toils of war, the benefits of a wise and liberal government, will sooner or later convince my countrymen that this address is the result of the purest intention." Thoughtful for the defence of the republic, the retiring commander-in-chief recommended, "a proper peace establishment," and an absolutely uniform organization of the "militia of the union" throughout "the continent." He pleaded for complete justice to all classes of public creditors. He entreated the legislature of each state to pension its disabled non-commissioned officers and privates. He enforced the duty of the states, without "hesitating a single moment," to give their sanction to the act of congress establishing a revenue for the United States, for the only alternative was a national bankruptcy; and "honest will be found on every experiment to be the best and only true policy. In what part of the continent shall we find any man or body of men who would not blush to propose measures purposely calculated to rob the soldier of his stipend, and the public creditor of his due?" He then proceeded to pronounce solemn judgment, and to summon the people of America to fulfil their duty to Providence and to their fellow-men. "If a |
Chap. VII. 1783. June. |
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| spirit of disunion, or
obstinacy and perverseness should in any of the states attempt to frustrate all the happy
effects that might be expected to flow from the union, that state which puts itself in
opposition to the aggregate wisdom of the continent will alone be responsible for all the
consequences. [1] "The citizens of America, the sole lords and proprietors of a vast tract of continent, are now acknowledged to be possessed of absolute freedom and independency. Here Heaven has crowned all its other blessings, by giving a fairer opportunity for political happiness than any other nation has ever been favored with. The rights of mankind are better understood and more clearly defined than at any former period. The collected wisdom acquired through a long succession of years is laid open for our use in the establishment of our forms of government. The free cultivation of letters, the unbounded extension of commerce, the progressive refinement of manners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and, above all, the pure and benign light of revelation, have had a meliorating influence on mankind. At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a nation. "Happiness is ours, if we seize the occasion and make it our own. This is the moment to give such a tone to our federal government as will enable it to answer the ends of its institution. According to the system of policy the states shall adopt at this moment, it is to be decided whether the revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a |
Chap. VII. 1783. June. |
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curse; a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved. "Essential to the existence of the United States is the friendly disposition which will forget local prejudices and policies, make mutual concessions to the general prosperity, and, in some instances, sacrifice individual advantages to the interest of the community. Liberty is the basis of the glorious fabric of our independency and national character, and whoever would dare to sap the foundation, or overturn the structure, under whatever specious pretext he may attempt it, will merit the bitterest execration and the severest punishment which can be inflicted by his injured country. "It is indispensable to the happiness of the individual states that there should be lodged somewhere a supreme power to regulate and govern the general concerns of the confederated republic, without which the union cannot be of long duration. [1] and everything must very rapidly tend to anarchy and confusion. Whatever measures have a tendency to dissolve the union, or to violate or lessen the sovereign authority, ought to be considered as hostile to the liberty and independence of America. It is only in our united character that we are known as an empire, that our independence is acknowledged, that our power can be regarded, or our credit supported among foreign nations. The treaties of the European powers with the United States of America will have no validity on a dissolution of the union. We shall be left nearly |
Chap. VII. 1783. June. |
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in a state of nature; or we may find by our own unhappy experience that there is a natural and necessary progression from that extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny, and that arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." This circular letter of Washington the governors of each state, according to his request, communicated to their respective legislatures. In this way it was borne to every home in the United States, and he entreated the people to receive it as "his legacy" on his retirement to private life. He avoided the appearance of dictating to congress how the constitution should be formed; but while he was careful to declare himself "no advocate for their having to do with the particular policy of any state further than it concerns the union at large," he had no reserve in avowing his "wish to see energy given to the federal constitution by a convention of the people." [1] The newspapers of the day, as they carried the letter of Washington into every home, caught up the theme, and demanded a revision of the constitution, "not by congress, but by a continental convention, authorized for the purpose." [2] |
Chap. VII. 1783. June.
July |
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1. Washington to Dr. William Gordon, 8 July, 1783. MS. 2. Among them: Philadelphia, |
3 July, 1783; Maryland Gazette, 11 July; Virginia Gazette, 19 July. |
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