CHAPTER XX

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

"It is, sir, the people's constitution, the people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people."

-Daniel Webster

Eight years from the day that the patriots at Concord fired the first shots in the American Revolution-shots "heard 'round the world"-the Continental Congress proclaimed to the American Army that the war was at an end. Independence had been won. The thirteen colonies were now free and sovereign nations. Each was in law independ

ent, not only of Great Britain, but of each other.

A noted American, on learning that the Revolutionary War was at an end, wrote that "The times that tried men's souls are over." But such proved not the case.

During the Revolutionary War the colonies had worked together against a common enemy. But now that the war was over worse enemies came from within. The sturdy spirit of the colonists could not be broken by all the power of the King of Great Britain. But it could be destroyed by the new enemies that now threatened the very existence of the new states.

Disrespect for Law and Order. In most revolutions there have been rioting and bloodshed among the peoples themselves. But throughout the Revolutionary War the people of this country governed themselves peaceably and orderly. We waged war to get our independence. The Revolution meant the establishment of democracy and self-government for the first time among the nations of the world. But the hatred and the frenzy of war left their mark on the respect

of many of the colonists for law and order. This same result of war has been prevalent since the recent World War.

One expression of the disrespect for law and order in 1786, was known as Shays' Rebellion. In several towns in Massa

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Photo Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.

PRESENTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, JULY 4, 1776 The "Committee on Declaration," headed by Thomas Jefferson, laying the completed draft of the historic document before the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

chusetts, indeed in Concord itself, armed mobs of men broke up the courts just because they enforced the laws. Most of these mobs were composed of debtors who did not want the courts to force them to pay their debts. Thus a man by the name of Job Shattuck led several hundred armed

men into Concord, Massachusetts. There they surrounded the Court House. Job harangued the men about the courts and said that the time had come to wipe out all debts.

"Yes," said one of the crowd in a Yankee nasal twang, "Yes, Job, we know all about them two farms you can't never pay for."

Threatened by the mob, the judges fled from Concord. Later Daniel Shays, once a captain in the Continental Army, led an armed band of 600 men into Springfield, Massachusetts, to prevent the Supreme Court from sitting. In this he succeeded. Later this mob was increased to 1200 men. Early in 1787, the mob was dispersed by the militia of the state, but only after many lives had been lost and much property had been destroyed. These events woke the citizens up to the fact that something must be done to preserve the self-respect of the people and their confidence in each other.

The Craze for Paper Money. One of the slogans with which the colonists entered the War against the Mother Country was "No Taxation Without Representation." Wars, however, cannot be won without money. Many of the colonists did not want to pay out their money in taxes, even with representation, to establish this principle. Hence the treasury of the Continental Congress was always empty. The Congress finally decided to get money by printing it. Paper was cheap and it did not cost much to run printing presses. On this paper money the Continental Congress printed its promise to pay the owner of it in gold or silver coins the amount of money specified on each paper bill, such as one dollar, or five dollars. Now paper money is worth its face value only so long as the people who take it have faith in the promise of the government to redeem it in specie. When the faith of the colonists broke down, the money was worth only the paper it was printed on.

The paper money printed by the Continental Congress was called Continental money. Because the Congress could

get no money from taxes to redeem the paper currency, this money soon became worthless in trade. People used it mainly for contributions to the church. One barber even papered his shop with it.

It was bad enough when the Continental currency broke down as it did as early as 1780. That meant there could be little trade among the states because there was no common medium with which to pay for goods shipped from one state to another. But to make matters worse, the states began to issue paper money. The legislatures of but two states escaped the craze. As this state money began to lose its value because it had nothing back of it, the legislatures tried to force people to take it. Gold and silver coins were then hoarded or sent out of the country. There was no medium through which to exchange goods. Hence people were forced to barter, that is, to

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use commodities as a common medium of exchange. amples of this were tobacco in Virginia, and whiskey in North Carolina. The editor of one paper announced that subscriptions to his paper could be paid in salt pork.

Under such circumstances there could be but little trade, local or interstate. The poor suffered the most.

Trade Jealousies. Under such circumstances what trade did exist, either by barter or by the use of foreign coins, was of great importance. The states now started to protect their trade with other states by the stupid method of keeping out the goods of other states. This was just about as sensible as trying to pass a law that the cat shall not eat the canary. The people in New York City got their firewood from Connecticut and their foodstuffs from New Jersey. With the bright idea that this was the way to protect their own trade,

the state legislature of New York levied a custom duty on the importation of firewood from Connecticut and foodstuffs from New Jersey. The people of New York City, already hard pressed to buy what they needed, had now to pay more for their firewood and their foods by the amount of this tax. The trouble did not stop there. New Jersey retaliated by laying a tax of $1800 a year on a lighthouse, needed for the protection of the commerce of the port of New York, but located on the Jersey side of Sandy Hook. Furthermore, the merchants of Connecticut agreed to ship nothing to New York City until the discriminatory act was repealed.

Other states passed similar laws. The very states that had so shortly before been allies in a common cause against Great Britain began in a spirit of greed and vengeance to destroy each other by drastic trade laws.

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The Impotence of the Continental Congress. The Continental Congress had no power to help in such a crisis. Before that feeble Congress could levy a tax or pass a law regulating trade, every state had to give its permission. The states were jealous of their own powers; and unanimous consent could never be secured for such measures. separate nations the states were too small to stand alone. They found that, while they were independent of each other in law, they could not be independent of each other in fact. All our statesmen saw disaster impending, but under the existing Articles of Confederation they could do nothing about it.

Washington

A strong central government was needed. was among the first to recognize this. All that he and his sturdy patriotic army had won in war was now about to be lost in peace. "It is as clear to me as A B C," he wrote, "that an extension of federal powers would make us one of the most happy, wealthy, respectable, and powerful nations that ever inhabited the terrestrial globe. Without them we shall soon be everything that is the direct reverse. I predict