ontempt."

CHAPTER IV.

Differences between Great Britain and the United States....
Mr. Adams appointed minister to Great Britain....
Discontents excited by the commercial regulations of
Britain.... Parties in the United States.... The convention
at Annapolis.... Virginia appoints deputies to a convention
at Philadelphia.... General Washington chosen one of
them.... Insurrection at Massachusetts.... Convention at
Philadelphia.... A form of government submitted to the
respective states, as ratified by eleven of them....
Correspondence of General Washington respecting the chief
magistracy.... He is elected president.... Meeting of the
first congress.

{1783 to 1787}

While the friends of the national government were making these
unavailing efforts to invest it with a revenue which might enable it
to preserve the national faith, many causes concurred to prepare the
public mind for some great and radical change in the political system
of America.

[Sidenote: Misunderstandings between Great Britain and the United
States.]

Scarcely had the war of the revolution terminated, when the United
States and Great Britain reciprocally charged each other with
violations of the treaty of peace. On the construction of that part of
the seventh article which stipulates against the "destruction or
carrying away of any negroes, or other property of the American
inhabitants," a serious difference of opinion prevailed which could
not be easily accommodated. As men seldom allow much weight to the
reasoning of an adversary, the construction put upon that article by
the cabinet of London was generally treated in America as a mere
evasion; and the removal of the negroes who had joined the British
army on the faith of a proclamation offering them freedom, was
considered as a flagrant breach of faith. In addition to this
circumstance, the troops of his Britannic Majesty still retained
possession of the posts on the American side of the great lakes. As
those posts gave their possessors a decided influence over the warlike
tribes of Indians in their neighbourhood, this was a subject to which
the United States were peculiarly sensible.

On the other hand, the United States were charged with infringing the
fourth, fifth, and sixth articles, which contain agreements respecting
the payment of debts, the confiscation of property, and prosecution of
individuals for the part tak