en by them during the war.

On the 14th of January, 1784, the day on which the definitive articles
were ratified, congress passed a resolution containing a
recommendation in the words of the treaty, respecting confiscated
property, which was transmitted without delay to the several states.
They considered this resolution as merely formal; and contended that
neither the American nor the British government expected from it any
beneficial results. But other stipulations which are explicit, the
performance of which was not to rest on the recommendation of the
government, especially that respecting the payment of debts, were also
neglected. These causes of mutual complaint being permitted to rankle
for some time in the bosoms of both nations, produced a considerable
degree of irritation. The British merchants had large credits in
America. Those engaged in the colonial trade had been nearly ruined by
the rupture between the two countries; and, without taking into the
account the embarrassments in which the war had involved their
debtors, they calculated, after the restoration of peace, on the
prompt collection of the vast sums which were due to them. But the
impediments to the recovery of debts were, in many instances,
permitted to remain; and the dispositions manifested by those states
in which they were chiefly due, did not authorize a belief that any
favourable change of measures was about to take place. The complaints
of the creditors were loud and incessant. They openly charged the
American government with violating the most solemn obligations which
public and private contract could create; and this charge affected the
national character the more seriously, because the terms of the treaty
were universally deemed highly advantageous to the United States. The
recriminations on the part of individuals in America, were also
uttered with the angry vehemence of men who believe themselves to be
suffering unprovoked injuries. The negroes in possession of the
British armies at the restoration of peace, belonged, in many cases,
to actual debtors; and in all, to persons who required the labour of
which they were thus deprived, to repair the multiplied losses
produced by the war. To the detention of the posts on the lakes was
ascribed the hostile temper manifested by the Indians; and thus, to
the indignity of permitting a foreign power to maintain garrisons
within the limits of the nation, were superadded the murders
perpetrated by