the bosom of the Mississippi a grand highway
for carrying the products of their fertile soil to the markets of the
world.

That great river was controlled by the Spaniards seated at its mouth,
who, in traditions, race, and aspirations, had no affinity with the
people of the new republic. They sat there as a barrier between the
settlers and the sea; and even before Washington left his home on the
Potomac, conflicting rumors had reached him respecting the impatience of
the western settlers because of that barrier. They had urged the
Congress of the Confederation to open it by treaty, but that Congress
was too feeble to comply. Now one tongue of rumor said that they would
soon organize an expedition to capture New Orleans; another tongue
asserted that the Spaniards, aided by British emissaries, were
intriguing with leading men in the great valleys to effect a separation
of the Union, and an attachment of the western portion to the crown of
Spain. These things gave Washington and his co-workers great uneasiness.

Another cause for anxiety was the refusal of Great Britain to give up
some of the frontier forts, in compliance with an article of the
definitive treaty of peace of 1783, on the plea that the United States
had violated another article of the same treaty in allowing the debts
due to British subjects, which had been contracted before the war, to
remain unpaid. This was regarded by the Americans as a mere pretext to
cover a more important interest, namely, the monopoly of the fur-trade
with the Indians. It was alleged, also, that the hostile attitude toward
the United States then lately assumed by several of the western tribes
was caused by the mischievous influence of the British officers who held
those posts, and their emissaries among the savages.

At the same time, the finances of the country were in a most deplorable
state. A heavy domestic and foreign debt presented importunate creditors
at the door of government; the treasury was empty; public credit was
utterly prostrated, and every effort of the late government to fund the
public debt had failed.

The foreign commerce of the country, owing to the feebleness of the
Confederation, was in a most unsatisfactory condition. The conduct of
the British government in relation to trade with the United States had
been, since the conclusion of the war, not only ungenerous, but insolent
and oppressive; and at the same time, the corsairs of the Barbary powers
on the s