1. That the whole region from the Lakes to the Ohio, and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, should be called "The Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio,"

2. That it should be cut up into not less than three nor more than five states, each of which might be admitted into the Union when it had 60,000 free inhabitants.

3. That within it there was to be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except in punishment for crime.

4. That until such time as there were 5000 free male inhabitants twenty-one years old in the territory, it was to be governed by a governor and three judges. They could not make laws, but might adopt such as they pleased from among the laws in force in the states. After there were 5000 free male inhabitants in the territory the people were to elect a house of representatives, which in its turn was to elect ten men from whom Congress was to select five to form a council. The house and the council were then to elect a territorial delegate to sit in Congress with the right of debating, not of voting. The governor, the judges, and the secretary were to be elected by Congress. The council and house of representatives could make laws, but must send them to Congress for approval.

Thus were created two more American institutions, the territory and the state formed out of the public domain. The ordinance was but a few months old when South Carolina ceded (1787) her little strip of country west of the mountains (see map on p. 157) with the express condition that it should be slave soil. In 1789 North Carolina ceded what is now Tennessee on the same condition. Congress accepted both and out of them made the "Territory southwest of the Ohio River." In that slavery was allowed.1

1 The only remaining land-holding state, Georgia, ceded her claim in 1802 (p. 246).

169. Defects of the Articles of Confederation. While Congress at New York was framing the Ordinance of 1787, a convention of delegates from the states was framing the Constitution at Philadelphia. A very little experience under the Articles of Confederation showed them to have serious defects.

No Taxing Power.-In the first place, Congress could not lay a tax of any kind, and as it could not tax it could not get money with which to pay its expenses and the debt incurred during the Revolution. Each of the states was in duty bound to pay its share. But this duty was so disregarded that although Congress between 1782 and 1786 called on the states for $6,000,000, only $1,000,000 was paid.

No Power to regulate Trade. — In the second place, Congress had no power to regulate trade with foreign nations, or between the states. This proved a most serious evil. The people of the United States at that time had few manufactures, because in colonial days Parliament would not allow them. All the china, glass, hardware, cutlery, woolen goods, linen, muslin, and a thousand other things were imported from Great Britain. Before the war the Americans had paid for these goods with dried fish, lumber, whale oil, flour, tobacco, rice, and indigo, and with money made by trading in the West Indies. Now Great Britain forbade Americans to trade with her West Indies. Spain would not make a trade treaty with us, so we had no trade with her islands, and what was worse, Great Britain taxed everything that came to her from the United States unless it came in British ships. As a consequence, very little lumber, fish, rice, and other of our products went abroad to pay for the immense quantity of foreign-made goods that came to us. These goods therefore had to be paid for in money, which about 1785 began to be boxed up and shipped to London. When the people found that specie was being carried out of the country, they began to hoard it, so that by 1786 none was in circulation.

170. Paper Money issued. This left the people without any money with which to pay wages, or buy food and clothing,

and led at once to a demand that the states should print paper money and loan it to their citizens. Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, and Georgia did so. But the money was no sooner issued than the merchants and others who had goods to sell refused to take it, whereupon in some of the states laws called "tender acts" were passed to compel people to use the paper. This merely

put an end to business, for nobody would sell. In Massachusetts, when the legislature refused to issue paper money, many of the persons who owed debts assembled, and, during 1786-87, under the lead of Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary soldier, prevented the courts from trying suits for the recovery of money owed or loaned.1

Of the many defects

171. Congress proposes Amendments. in the Articles, the Continental Congress was fully aware, and it had many a time asked the states to make amendments. One proposed that Congress should have power for twenty-five years to lay a tax of five per cent on all goods imported, and use the money to pay the Continental debts. Another was to require each state to raise by special tax a sum sufficient to pay its yearly share of the current expenses of Congress. A third was to bestow on Congress for fifteen years the sole power to regulate trade and commerce. A fourth provided

that in future the share each state was to bear of the current expenses should be in proportion to its population.

But the Articles of Confederation could not be amended unless all thirteen states consented, and, as all thirteen never did consent, none of these amendments were ever made.

172. The States attempt to regulate Trade and fail. — In the meantime the states attempted to regulate trade for themselves. New York laid double duties on English ships. Pennsylvania taxed a long list of foreign goods. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island passed acts imposing heavy duties on

1 Read McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 281-295, 304-329, 331-340; Fiske's Critical Period of American History, pp. 168-186.

articles unless they came in American vessels. But these laws were not uniform, and as many states took no action, very little good was accomplished.1

173. A Trade Convention called to meet at Annapolis, 1786.2Under these conditions, the business of the whole country was at a standstill, and as Congress had no power to do anything to relieve the distress, the state of Virginia sent out a circular letter to her sister states. She asked them to appoint delegates to meet and "take into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States." Four (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) responded, and their delegates, with those from Virginia, met at Annapolis in September, 1786.

CHAPTER XIII

MAKING THE CONSTITUTION

174. Call for the Constitutional Convention. - Finding that it could do nothing, because so few states were represented, and because the powers of the delegates were so limited, the convention recommended that all the states in the Union be asked by Congress to send delegates to a new convention, to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787, "to take into consideration the situation of the United States," and "to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union."

1 McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 246-259, 266-280; Fiske's Critical Period of American History, 134-137, 145–147.

2 The report of this Annapolis convention is printed in Bulletin of Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State, No. 1, Appendix, pp. 1-5.

175. The Philadelphia Convention.1 - Early in 1787 Congress approved this movement, and during the summer of 1787 (May to September) delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island sent none), sitting in secret session at Philadelphia, made the Constitution of the United States.

176. The Virginia and New Jersey Plans.-The story of that convention is too long and too complicated to be told in full.3 But some of its proceedings must be noticed. While the dele

1 All we know of the proceedings of this convention is derived from the journals of the convention, the notes taken down by James Madison, the notes of Yates of New York, and a speech by Luther Martin of Maryland. They may be found in Elliot's Debates, Vol. IV.

2 The room where the Constitution was framed.

3 For short accounts, read "The Framers and the Framing of the Constitution" in the Century Magazine, September, 1887, or "Framing the Constitution," in McMaster's With the Fathers, pp. 106-149, or Thorpe's Story of the Constitution, Chautauqua Course, 1891-92, pp. 111-148.