the savages, and the consequent difficulty of settling
the fertile and vacant lands of the west.[28] On the north-eastern
frontier too, the British were charged with making encroachments on
the territory of the United States. On that side, the river St. Croix,
from its source to its mouth in the bay of Passamaquoddy, is the
boundary between the two nations. Three rivers of that name empty into
the bay. The Americans claimed the most eastern, as the real St.
Croix, while settlements were actually made under the authority of the
government of Nova Scotia to the middle river, and the town of St.
Andrews was established on its banks.

[Footnote 28: See note, No. III. at the end of the volume.]

[Sidenote: Mr. Adams appointed to negotiate with the British cabinet.]

But the cause of most extensive disquiet was the rigorous commercial
system pursued by Great Britain. While colonists, the Americans had
carried on a free and gainful trade with the British West Indies.
Those ports were closed against them as citizens of an independent
state; and their accustomed intercourse with other parts of the empire
also was interrupted by the navigation act. To explore new channels
for the commerce of the nation was, in the actual state of things,
opposed by obstacles which almost discouraged the attempt. On every
side they met with rigorous and unlooked for restrictions. Their trade
with the colonies of other powers, as well as with those of England,
was prohibited; and in all the ports of Europe they encountered
regulations which were extremely embarrassing. From the Mediterranean,
they were excluded by the Barbary powers, whose hostility they had no
force to subdue, and whose friendship they had no money to purchase.
Thus, the characteristic enterprise of their merchants, which, in
better times, has displayed their flag in every ocean, was then in a
great measure restrained from exerting itself by the scantiness of
their means. These commercial difficulties suggested the idea of
compelling Great Britain to relax the rigour of her system, by
opposing it with regulations equally restrictive; but to render
success in such a conflict possible, it was necessary that the whole
power of regulating commerce should reside in a single legislature.
Few were so sanguine as to hope that thirteen independent governments,
jealous of each other, could be induced to concur for a length of
time, in measures capable of producing the desired effect