ries of the States named were fixed as they are
to-day, and the United States came into the possession of a large
territory. Connecticut held fast to a large strip of land in
northeastern Ohio, which is still known as the Western Reserve. The same
State, which had settled Wyoming in Pennsylvania, claimed it for a time,
but finally gave it up.

It took but a short time to demonstrate the utter worthlessness of the
Articles of Confederation. Congress, the central governing power, had no
authority to lay taxes, punish crimes, or regulate foreign or domestic
commerce. Its whole function was to give advice to the respective
States, which, as might be supposed, paid little or no heed to it.
Furthermore, the stronger States made laws inimical to the smaller ones,
and Congress was powerless to remedy it. Naturally Great Britain
oppressed American commerce, and there was no way of checking it.

The prosperity which most of the people expected to follow peace did not
appear. The Continental currency was not worth the paper it was printed
on. Even at this late day, when a man uses the expression that an
article is "not worth a Continental," it is understood to mean that it
has no value at all.

WASHINGTON'S PATRIOTISM.

The condition of no one was more pitiful than that of the heroes who had
fought through the Revolution and won our independence. They went to
their poverty-smitten homes in rags. While Washington was at his
headquarters at Newburgh, in 1783, an anonymous paper was distributed
among the troops calling upon them to overthrow the civil governments
and obtain their rights by force. They even dared to ask Washington to
become their king, but that great man spurned the offer in a manner that
prevented it ever being repeated. But his sympathy was aroused, and he
finally secured five years' full pay for the officers, and thus averted
the danger.

At that time the Northern and Middle States contained about a million
and a half of people and the Southern a million. Virginia had 400,000
inhabitants, and was the most populous, with Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts next, each having 350,000. The present Empire State of New
York was one of the weak States, the city containing about 14,000,
Boston 20,000, and Philadelphia 40,000. It was estimated that the debt
of the respective States was $20,000,000 and of the country $42,000,000.

SHAYS' INSURRECTION.

Rioting and disorder are always sure to follow so deplorable a con