ngely circumstanced. Of all the States which had entered into the
"firm league of friendship," they alone remained loyal--loyal, but
discredited.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Full accounts of the work of the Federal Convention may be found
in the histories of Bancroft and Curtis; briefer accounts, in the
volumes already cited, by McMaster, Fiske, McLaughlin, and
Channing. A succinct narrative is given by Max Farrand, _The
Framing of the Constitution_ (1913). A suggestive volume, treating
of the Constitution as the resultant of conflicting economic
interests, is C. A. Beard's _An Economic Interpretation of the
Constitution of the United States_ (1913). Among the special
studies of the ratification of the Constitution may be mentioned,
O. G. Libby, _The Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the
Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, 1787-1788_ (1888);
McMaster and Stone, _Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution,
1787-1788_ (1888); S. B. Harding, _The Contest over the
Ratification of the Federal Constitution in the State of
Massachusetts_ (1896); and F. G. Bates, _Rhode Island and the
Formation of the Union_ (1898). The most illuminating notes of the
debates in the Convention were those taken by James Madison, which
are printed in the _Records of the Federal Convention_ (3 vols.,
edited by Farrand, 1911). The most valuable commentary on the
Constitution is still _The Federalist_, written by Madison,
Hamilton, and Jay.

CHAPTER III

THE RESTORATION OF PUBLIC CREDIT

"The people have been ripened by misfortune for the reception of a good
government," Washington wrote to Jefferson, in the midsummer of 1788.
"They are emerging from the gulf of dissipation and debt into which they
had precipitated themselves at the close of the war. Economy and
industry are evidently gaining ground." There is, indeed, abundant
evidence that thrift and enterprise were steadily banishing hard times.
The task of establishing the new government was made incomparably easier
by the confidence inspired by returning prosperity.

Already West India commerce had resumed very nearly its old volume. Both
France and Spain had made concessions to vessels which came to the
island ports laden with American produce. The Dutch and the Danish
islands had always been kept open to American trade; and evidence is not
wanting that the n