State, save one, had agreed to lodge with the federal head, the necessary power over foreign trade. Rhode Island alone objected to that addition to the Federal Articles; * and Rhode Island, it was known, deeply corrupted by paper money, was swayed by dishonest motives. At the period indicated, Massachusetts was as clamorous as the merchants and farmers of Virginia, for commercial retaliation. Not only did her legislature breathe a hostile spirit, but popular outbreaks against the commerce of England, a second time, disturbed the peace of Boston.

Though separate State action had failed to procure commercial freedom, it had, nevertheless, produced to the northward an important change in the public interests. That retaliatory legislation had operated as a protection to domestic manufactures. Establishments of that nature had sprung into existence, and had already become important public interests. So soon as the new Congress had assembled, the fact was at once developed, that the North had become interested in that new branch of industry theretofore almost unknown in America. Mr. Hartley, of Pennsylvania, openly proclaimed, that he wished the government to establish, as a fixed policy, that of protecting the manufactures of the North; and that sentiment was approved and sustained by his co-delegates from that section. Massachusetts, whilst she was unwilling to be taxed on the importation of molasses, from which her people made rum, yet contended that her rum ought to be fenced in by high duties from a competition with the rum of Jamaica, which, whilst it was of a superior quality to her own, could be sold cheaper in the domestic market. Even before the Revolution, the manufacture of rum had, to a considerable extent, engaged the attention of the people of that State. It connected itself with the two most profitable trades which they carried on the trade in fish to the West India islands, and

* See also Monroe's Report in 1785, already quoted in the text; also, extract from Federalist, quoted in note, pp. 176–7.

the trade in slaves, which were purchased on the coast of Africa, and vended to the Southern planters.

Fisher Ames explains the whole business. Their summer fish they sold to the planters of the West Indies, as food for their slaves, and took molasses in exchange. That molasses they converted into rum, with which they purchased slaves on the barbaric shores of Africa. Pennsylvania sought protection for those manufactures of steel which, she said, could not stand alone, without the crutch of protection; nor could her paper mills, which turned out annually seventy thousand reams of paper. Connecticut had manufactures of woollen and manufactures of cordage, which she humbly petitioned to have protected; for, with great truth, she said, that unless the American consumer was compelled to pay for those articles a price above that at which they could be bought in the general market, those infant establishments would perish. New York demanded that every article should be protected that her people were able to manufacture. Those interests were obviously opposed to a system of commercial retaliation, "the dread of which would have been enough to have struck down the tariffs of England, and have initiated an era of free trade. That deplorable event the Northern States greatly dreaded, and, therefore, in the language of David Stuart, "the Northern phalanx" opposed, to the bitter end, all movements looking in that direction.

The whale and cod fisheries, it was true, were still in agonies; but the government soon found means, by bounties, to still their clamorous cries. But the great interest of the North, which sought and found protection from the liberal hand of the new government, was navigation, which was cherished by high differential duties. This, of course, bore with peculiar hardship on the Southern or producing States, whose commodities were now burdened by a new weight, by the hand of that government which had been so profuse in its promises of protection. Against the whole system, South Carolina lifted up her voice, nor did Virginia tamely submit,

although Mr. Madison had embraced that new system with all the ardor of a lover. But his colleague, Mr. Bland, who had no motives to conciliate a popularity in the North, thus pointed out the operations of that class legislation: "You certainly lay a tax upon the whole community, in order to put money in the pockets of a few, when you burden the importation with a heavy impost."

Even the interests of Northern agriculture had undergone a total change. It had no longer to contend with onerous duties in the ports of Europe, where they were only too glad to obtain the breadstuffs of America; for the Revolution in France had already affected the supply of corn. The year 1790 had given to the farmers of New York and Pennsylvania a bountiful harvest of wheat, and "the demand," says Washington, in a letter written, on the 9th January of that year, to Mrs. Catharine Macaulay Graham, "for that article from abroad is great." He proceeds to furnish to his correspondent an account of the prosperous condition of the Northern section of the country, through which he had recently made a tour: "The increase of commerce is visible in every part, and the number of her manufactures introduced in one year is astonishing. I have lately made a tour through the Eastern States. I found the country, in a great degree, recovered from the ravages of war; the towns flourishing, and the people delighted with a government instituted by themselves and for their own good."

Virginia and Maryland stood alone-demanding protection for their agriculture; for the delegates from the other Southern States stood aloof,* and opposed that policy, although

WASHINGTON TO DAVID STUART, March 28th, 1790.-" Was it not always believed, that there are some points which peculiarly interest the Eastern States? And did any one, who reads human nature, and more especially the character of the Eastern people, conceive that they would not pursue them steadily by a combination of their force? Are there not other points which equally concern the Southern States? If these States are less tenacious of their interests, or if, whilst the Eastern move in a solid phalanx, to affect their views, the Southern are always divided-which of the two is most to be blamed?"

the condition of agriculture among their constituents was depressed in the same degree, and by the same causes. Such was its condition in South Carolina, and so little profit attended its operations, that rice and indigo, staple productions, had been in a great measure abandoned. Mr. Tucker, from that State, in a speech, protesting against the protective system, said: "The situation of South Carolina was melancholy; while the inhabitants were deeply in debt, the produce of the State was daily falling in price. Rice and indigo were becoming so low, as to be considered, by many, objects not worthy of cultivation."

I suspect that the cause which disunited the Southern delegates was the course pursued by Madison and other members of the Virginia delegation upon the vital subject of the tariff. He had openly sided with the North on that question, and proved himself to be the ablest and most devoted champion of that sectional legislation. Tonnage duties bore with peculiar severity upon the people of South Carolina and Georgia, and their representatives showed no little irritation at those heavy exactions, the sole benefit of which resulted to the shipping interest of the North. Madison first broke rank; he first left his friends, and took part with his enemies. Could it be expected of those friends to unite with him, when he brought forward the peculiar interest of his constituents for the protecting favor of the government? It was not enough to say, that those measures which sacrificed Carolina, sacrificed Virginia likewise. If he might claim the right to immolate the latter, he certainly had no claim whatever to sacrifice the former to the cupidity of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

To the silent operation of these causes is to be ascribed the destruction of that unity of interest which, at one time, pervaded the States, upon which would have been based that commercial league, into which they were ready at one time to embark.

PART II.

How it was Destroyed.

Riches are mine, Fortune is in my hand;

They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain,

While Virtue, Valor, Wisdom sit in want.-PARADISE REGAINED.

In a despotic state, which is every government whose power is immoderately exerted, a real division is perpetually kindled.-GRANDEUR AND DECLENSION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Every Government has its nature and principle, and its decay begins with the destruction of its principle.-SPirit of Laws.

A vice in representation, like an error in the first concoction, must be followed by disease, convulsions and finally death itself.-WILSON.

When two nations, of opposite civilizations and differing interests, confederate in the same government, the principle of that government is an Equilibrium. If it be otherwise, the government is a capitulation, by which one party surrenders its independence and, notwithstanding the forms of self-government, is degraded to the condition of a province.

By the Constitution, representatives in the popular branch of Congress, were distributed between the sections, as follows: