Volume I Part 38 (1/2)

[934] Jay to Reed, Dec. 12, 1786; _ib._, 222.

[935] Jay to Price, Sept. 27, 1786; _ib._, 168.

[936] Madison to Randolph, Jan. 10, 1788; _Writings_: Hunt, v, 81.

[937] Was.h.i.+ngton to Lee, Oct. 31, 1786; _Writings_: Ford, xi, 76-77.

[938] Was.h.i.+ngton to Madison, Nov. 5, 1786; _ib._, 81.

[939] Was.h.i.+ngton to Knox, Dec. 26, 1786; _ib._, 103-04. And Was.h.i.+ngton wrote to Lafayette that ”There are seeds of discontent in every part of the Union.” (_Writings_: Sparks, ix, 263.)

[940] Marshall to James Wilkinson, Jan. 5, 1787; _Amer. Hist. Rev._, xii, 347-48.

[941] Jefferson to Mrs. Adams, Feb. 22, 1787; _Works_: Ford, v, 265.

[942] Jefferson to Mrs. Adams, Feb. 22, 1787; _Works_: Ford, v, 263.

[943] Jefferson to Smith, Nov. 13, 1787; _ib._, 362.

[944] ”The payments from the States under the calls of Congress have in no year borne any proportion to the public wants. During the last year ... the aggregate payments ... fell short of 400,000 doll^{rs}, a sum neither equal to the interest due on the foreign debts, nor even to the current expenses of the federal Government. The greatest part of this sum too went from Virg^a, which will not supply a single s.h.i.+lling the present year.” (Madison to Jefferson, March 18, 1786; _Writings_: Hunt, ii, 228.)

[945] Was.h.i.+ngton to Jay, Aug. 1, 1786; _Writings_: Ford, xi, 54-55.

[946] Jay (Secretary of State under the Confederation) to Jefferson, Dec. 14, 1786; _Jay_: Johnston, iii, 223.

[947] ”We are wasting our time & labour in vain efforts to do business”

(because of State delegates not attending), wrote Jefferson in 1784.

(Jefferson to Was.h.i.+ngton, March 15, 1784; _Works_: Ford, iv, 266.) And at the very climax of our difficulties ”a sufficient number of States to do business have not been represented in Congress.” (Jay to Wm.

Carmichael, Jan. 4, 1786; _Jay_: Johnston, iii, 225.) During half of September and all of October, November, December, January, and February, nine States ”have not been represented in congress”; and this even after the Const.i.tution had been adopted. (Jay to Jefferson, March 9, 1789; _Jay_: Johnston, iii, 365.)

[948] Jay to Jefferson, Dec. 14, 1786; _Jay_: Johnston, iii, 223-24. And Melancton Smith declared that ”the farmer cultivates his land and reaps the fruit.... The merchant drives his commerce and none can deprive him of the gain he honestly acquires.... The mechanic is exercised in his art, and receives the reward of his labour.” (1797-98; Ford: _P. on C._, 94.) Of the prosperity of Virginia, Grigsby says, ”our agriculture was most prosperous, and our harbors and rivers were filled with s.h.i.+ps. The s.h.i.+pping interest ... was really advancing most rapidly to a degree of success never known in the colony.” (Grigsby, i, footnote to p. 82; and see his brilliant account of Virginia's prosperity at this time; _ib._, 9-19.) ”The spirit of industry throughout the country was never greater.

The productions of the earth abound,” wrote Jay to B. Vaughan, Sept. 2, 1784. (_Jay_: Johnston, iii, 132.)

[949] Jay to John Adams, Feb. 21, 1787; _Jay_: Johnston, iii, 235. Jay thought that the bottom of the trouble was that ”relaxation in government and extravagance in individuals create much public and private distress, and much public and private want of good faith.”

(_Ib._, 224.)

[950] Madison to Jefferson, Dec. 4, 1786; _Writings_: Hunt, ii, 293.

”This indulgence to the people as it is called & considered was so warmly wished for out of doors, and so strenuously pressed within that it could not be rejected without danger of exciting some worse project of a popular cast.” (_Ib._)

[951] Madison to Was.h.i.+ngton, Dec. 24, 1786; _ib._, 301. ”My acquiescence in the measure was against every general principle which I have embraced, and was extorted by a fear that some greater evil under the name of relief to the people would be subst.i.tuted.” (_Ib._)

[952] Rutledge to Jay, May 2, 1789; _Jay_: Johnston, iii, 368.

[953] Was.h.i.+ngton to Jay, May 18, 1786; _Writings_: Ford, xi, 31-32.

[954] Jay to Was.h.i.+ngton, June 27, 1786; _Jay_: Johnston, iii, 204.

[955] _Ib._, 205.