*

In concert with New Hampshire, and followed by Rhode Island, they passed a navigation act forbidding exports from their harbors in British bottoms, and establishing a discriminating tonnage duty on foreign vessels; but only as "a temporary expedient, until a well-guarded power to regulate trade shall be intrusted to congress." + Domestic manufactures were protected by more than a fourfold increase of duties; and 66 congress was requested to recommend a convention of delegates from all the states to revise the confederation and report how far it may be necessary to alter or enlarge the same, in order to secure and perpetuate the primary objects of the union." #

In August, the council of Pennsylvania and Dickinson, its president, in a message to the general assembly, renewed the recommendation adopted in that state two years before, saying: "We again declare that further authorities ought to be vested in the federal council; may the present dispositions lead to as perfect an establishment as can be devised." ||

To his friend Bowdoin John Adams wrote: "The Massachusetts has often been wise and able; but she never took a deeper measure than her late navigation act. I hope she will persist in it even though she should be alone." A

The nation looked to congress for relief. In 1776 James Monroe left the college of William and Mary to enter the army; when but nineteen he gained an honorable wound and promotion; and rapidly rose to the rank of colonel. Jefferson in 1781 described him as a Virginian "of abilities, merit, and fortune," and as "his own particular friend."◊ In 1782 he was of the assembly of Virginia; and was chosen at three-andtwenty a member of the executive council. In 1783 he was elected to the fourth congress, and at Annapolis saw Washing

* Annual Register, xxvii., 356. Pennsylvania Packet of 18 July 1785 has the Massachusetts act, and of 20 July that of New Hampshire.

† Bowdoin's circular of 28 July, enclosing the act. MS.

Bradford's Massachusetts, ii., 244; Pennsylvania Packet, 19 July 1785. * Massachusetts Resolves, lxxvi., 1 July 1785. Resolves of the General Court,

p. 38.

523.

| Minutes of Pennsylvania Council, 25 August 1785. Colonial Records, xiv. ▲ Adams to Governor Bowdoin, 2 September 1785. MS. ◊ Jefferson to Franklin, 5 October 1781.

ton resign his commission. When Jefferson embarked for France, he remained, not the ablest, but the most conspicuous representative of Virginia on the floor of congress. He sought the friendship of nearly every leading statesman of his commonwealth; and every one seemed glad to call him a friend. It was hard to say whether he was addressed with most affection by Jefferson or by John Marshall. His ambition made him jealous of Randolph; the precedence of Madison he acknowledged, yet not so but that he might consent to become his rival. To Richard Henry Lee he turned as to one from whose zeal for liberty he might seek the confirmation of his

own.

Everybody in Virginia resented the restrictive policy of England. Monroe, elected to the fifth congress, embarked on the tide of the rising popular feeling. He was willing to invest the confederation with a perpetual grant of power to regulate commerce; but on condition that it should not be exercised without the consent of nine states. He favored a revenue to be derived from imports, provided that the revenue should be collected under the authority and pass into the treasury of the state in which it should accrue.*

He from the first applauded the good temper and propriety of the new congress, the comprehensiveness of mind with which they attended to the public interests, and their inclination to the most general and liberal principles, which seemed to him "really to promise great good to the union." They showed the like good-will for him. On bringing forward the all-important motion on commerce, they readily referred it to himself as the chief of the committee, with four associates, of whom Spaight from North Carolina, and Houston from Georgia, represented the South; King of Massachusetts, and Johnson of Connecticut, the North.

The complaisant committee lent their names to the proposal of Monroe, whose report was read in congress on the twenty-eighth of March. It was to be accompanied by a

*Monroe to Jefferson, 14 December 1784.

+ Sparks, ix., 503, gives the report in its first form; his date, however, is erroneous, from a misunderstanding of a letter of Grayson, in Letters to Washing. ton, iv., 102, 103. The day on which the report was made is not certain; the day

letter to be addressed to the legislatures of the several states explaining and recommending it; and the fifth day of April was assigned for its consideration.

But it was no part of Monroe's plan to press the matter for a decision. "It will be best," so he wrote to Jefferson, "to postpone this for the present; its adoption must depend on the several legislatures. It hath been brought so far without a prejudice against it. If carried farther here, I fear prejudices will take place. It proposes a radical change in the whole system of our government. It can be carried only by thorough investigation and a conviction of every citizen that it is right. The slower it moves on, therefore, in my opinion, the better." *

Jefferson, as he was passing through Boston on his way to France, had shown pleasure at finding "the conviction growing strongly that nothing could preserve the confederacy unless the bond of union, their common council, should be strengthened." He now made answer to the urgent inquiries of Monroe: "The interests of the states ought to be made joint. in every possible instance, in order to cultivate the idea of our being one nation, and to multiply the instances in which the people shall look up to congress as their head." He approved Monroe's report without reservation; but wished it adopted at once, "before the admission of western states." +

Months passed away, but still the subject was not called up in congress; and the mind of Monroe as a southern statesman became shaken. The confederation seemed to him at present but little more than an offensive and defensive alliance, and if the right to raise troops at pleasure was denied, merely a defensive one. His report would put the commercial economy of every state entirely and permanently into the hands of the

on which it was read was certainly the 28th of March. The report of the committee is in the volume, "Reports of Committees on Increasing the Powers of Congress," p. 125, with a copy in print. The few corrections that have been made in the copy are in the handwriting of Monroe. The State Dept. MS. copy is indorsed: Report of Mr. Monroe, Mr. Spaight, Mr. Houston, Mr. Johnson, Mr. King. See 11 March-to grant congress power of regulating trade. Entered-read 28 March 1785. Tuesday, April 5, assigned.

* Monroe to Jefferson, New York, 12 April 1785.

Jefferson to Madison, Boston, 1 July 1784.

Jefferson to Monroe, Paris, 17 June 1785. Jefferson, i., 347.

union; which might then protect the carrying trade, and encourage domestic industry by a tax on foreign industry. He asked himself if the carrying trade would increase the wealth of the South; and he cited "a Mr. Smith on the Wealth of Nations," as having written "that the doctrine of the balance of trade is a chimera." *

The southernmost states began to reason that Maryland had a great commercial port, and, like Delaware, excelled in naval architecture; and these, joining the seven northern states, might vote to themselves the monopoly of the transport of southern products. Besides, Virginia, more than any other state in the union, was opposed to the slave-trade; and Virginia and all north of her might join in its absolute prohibition. The three more southern states were, therefore, unwilling to trust a navigation act to the voice even of ten; and in his report Monroe substituted eleven states for his first proposal of nine.t

At last, on the thirteenth and fourteenth of July, the report was considered in a committee of the whole. It was held that the regulation of trade by the union was desirable, because it would open a way to encourage domestic industry by imposing a tax upon foreign manufactures; because it was needed in order to secure reciprocity in commercial intercourse with foreign nations; because it would counteract external commercial influence by establishing a commercial interest at home; and because it would prepare the way for a navy. These ends could never be obtained unless the states should act in concert, for their separate regulations would impede and defeat each other.

The opponents of the measure left their cause in the hands of Richard Henry Lee, as their only spokesman; and his mature age, courteous manner, skill as an orator and debater, and his rank as president of congress, gave him great authority. He insisted that the new grant of power would endanger public liberty; that it would be made subservient to further attempts to enlarge the authority of the government; that the concentration of the control of commerce would put the country more in the power of other nations; that the interests of *Monroe to Jefferson, 16 June 1785. Monroe to Madison, 26 July 1785.

the North were different from the interests of the South; that the regulation of trade which suited the one would not suit the other; that eight states were interested in the carrying trade, and would combine together to shackle and fetter the five southern states, which, without having shipping of their own, raised the chief staples for exportation; and, finally, that any attempt whatever at a change in the articles of confederation had a tendency to weaken the union.

In these objections Lee was consistent. He pressed upon Madison, with earnest frankness, that power in congress to legislate over the trade of the union would expose the five staple states, from their want of ships and seamen, to a most pernicious and destructive monopoly; that even the purchase, as well as the carrying, of their produce, might be at the mercy of the East and the North; and that the spirit of commerce throughout the world is a spirit of avarice.*

A plan of a navigation act originated with McHenry of Maryland; but it came before congress only as a subject of conversation. Nothing was done with the report of Monroe, who said of it: "The longer it is delayed, the more certain is its passage through the several states ultimately;"† and his committee only asked leave to sit again. "We have nothing pleasing in prospect," wrote Jacob Read to Madison; "and, if in a short time the states do not enable congress to act with vigor and put the power of compulsion into the hand of the union, I think it almost time to give over the form of what I cannot consider as an efficient government. We want, greatly want, the assistance of your abilities and experience in congress; one cannot help drawing comparisons between the language of 1783 and 1785."+

From the delegation of Virginia no hope could spring; but the state which exceeded all others in the number of its freemen and in age was second only to the Old Dominion, had directed its delegates to present to congress, and through congress to the states, an invitation to meet in a convention and

*R. H. Lee to Madison, 11 August 1785. Rives, ii., 31, 32. Compare Monroe to Madison, 26 July 1785.

+ Monroe to Jefferson, 15 August 1785.

Jacob Read of South Carolina to Madison, 29 August 1785.

VOL. VI.-10