"DEAR SIR,

"I have duly received your favours of the 17th and 24th ult. I rejoice most exceedingly there is an end to our warfare, and that such a field is open to our view, as will, with wisdom to direct the cultivation of it, make us a great, a respectable, and a happy people; but it must be improved by other means than state politics, and unreasonable jealousies and prejudices, or, (it requires not the second-sight to see that) we shall be instruments in the hands of our enemies, and those European powers who may be jealous of our greatness in union, to dissolve the confederation; but to attain this, although the way seems extremely plain, is not so easy. My wish to see the union of these states established upon liberal and permanent principles, and inclination to contribute my mite in pointing out the defects of the present constitution, are equally great. All my private letters have teemed with these sentiments, and wherever this topic has been the subject of conversation, I have endeavoured to diffuse and enforce them; but how far any further essay by me might be productive of the wished-for end, or appear to arrogate more than belongs to me, depends so much upon popular opinion, and the temper and disposition of people, that it is not easy to decide. I shall be obliged to you, however, for the thoughts which you have promised me on this subject, and as soon as you can make it convenient. No man in the United States is or can be more deeply impressed with the necessity of a reform in our present confederation, than myself. No man, perhaps, has felt the bad effects of it more sensibly; for to the defects thereof, and want of powers in congress, may justly be ascribed the prolongation of the war, and, consequently, the expenses occasioned by it. More than half of the perplexities I have experienced in the course of my command, and almost the whole of the difficulties and distress of the army, have

their origin here ; but still, the prejudices of some, the designs of others, and the mere machinery of the majority. makes address and management necessary to give weight to opinions which are to combat the doctrines of these. different classes of men in the field of politics. I would have been more full on this subject, but the bearer (in the clothing department) is waiting.

“I wish you may understand what I have written."

The friends of the army had continued to press their claims. When the former vote was taken in relation to them, Delaware was not represented. Her delegates were induced to proceed to Philadelphia, and on the tenth of March, the day upon which the seditious notice was issued at Newburgh, the report having been so amended as to omit a provision for the widows of the officers who should die in the service, the question was again taken, and eight states voted in* favor of it. A few days after this decision, intelligence was received of the alarming proceedings at Newburgh, and those whom gratitude and a sense of justice had not influenced, yielded to their fears. But at the last moment a serious difficulty arose from an apprehension of the injurious effect upon the public credit which might result from the sudden alienation, at an under value, of so large a mass of certificates, and it was proposed that they should not be transferable. The delegation from the army spurned the idea, justly asked if they were not freemen, if the balances were not their property, and insisted to be placed on the same footing with every other creditor. This objection was too forcible to be answered. It prevailed, and on the twenty-second of March, nine states concurred in granting a commutation. The

* The vote of Connecticut was divided; New.Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New-Jersey, (Boudinot excepted,) voted against it.

resolution making this grant, stated that congress was desirous as well of gratifying the reasonable expectations of the officers of the army, as of removing all objections which may exist in any part of the United States to the principle of the half-pay establishment, for which the faith of the United States had been pledged; persuaded that those objections can only arise from the nature of the compensation, not from any indisposition to compensate those whose services, sacrifices, and sufferings, have so just a title to the approbation and rewards of their country. This resolution was from the pen of Hamilton. Thus he was the instrument of accomplishing that measure which he had suggested in the formation of the military establishment; triumphing over the reluctant justice of the states, and discharging that sacred debt, his interest in which, delicacy had induced him to relinquish.†

*

NOTE.

The attempts of Madison, in his report of the debates of this session of the old Congress, to place Hamilton in a false light, are seen in the previous notes to this chapter. Another instance of this kind is to be remarked in his statement as to the resolution by Hamilton, ante page 360, "that it is the opinion." In p. 289 of his Debates, it is stated, "on the motion of Mr. Madison, the whole proposition was new-modelled, as follows: That it is the opinion of Congress that the establishment of permanent and adequate funds, to operate generally throughout the United States, for restoring public credit, and for providing for the future exigencies of the war,' the words 'to be collected under the authority of Congress' were, as a separate question, left to be added afterwards." What is this but a change in the collocation, and a slight alteration of the words of Hamilton's previous resolution? On this statement he gives a debate, exhibiting himself at full length as the principal advocate of

* The resolution granted securities for five years' full pay, bearing an interest of six per cent.; to be such as were to be given to the other public creditors. The army demands now assumed the form of a settled debt; and though the requisitions of Congress were unsuccessful, several States for a long time paid the stipulated interest.

+ Previous to the discussion of the army claims, he addressed a note to the Secretary at War, renouncing his claim to half-pay.

the measure, adding "Mr. Wilson, with whom the motion originated." The journals show no such resolution, either by Madison or by Wilson. The motion, as stated to have been by Hamilton, is a copy from his autograph in the State Department. The object of Madison, thus placing himself in the foreground, is defeated by recurring to the fact, that while he represents his motion as of the 28th of January, 1783, the journals show the precedence of Hamilton's in his prior report of the 16th December. So in p. 261 of his Debates, Madison represents Hamilton as proposing "to class the public lands" under distinctive descriptions, and to annex a uniform rate to the several classes; and then he states, "It was proposed by Mr. Madison that a valuation should be attempted by Congress without the intervention of the States." This is represented as happening in Grand Committee, of which, as there was no journal kept, no legislative contradiction was to be apprehended. Hamilton, it is true, proposed a classification by New York of its own lands, imposing 7arious rates of taxation; but as to such a classification, there was in that State no constitutional interdiction. The Confederation required a valuation, and it is not to be believed that any member of Congress would have proposed to dispense with it, for the reason, if adopted by Congress, it would certainly have been rejected by the States, and defeated. Madison thus represents Hamilton first as proposing an impracticable measure; then he states, p. 318 Debates, "Mr. Hamilton wished the VALUATION to be taken up, in order that its impracticability and futility might become more manifest." Yet the journals show (Feb. 6th) Hamilton's previously stated motion, reciting the obligatory article of the Confederation-the VIIIth-declaring "it should be carried into effect with great care, circumspection, and impartiality:" declaring "the necessity of deferring the attempt, from the situation of the finances;" and pledging them "to proceed to such valuation by commissioners appointed by them and acting under their authority;" and on the basis of such a valuation promised an adjustment of the United States with the States separately, making equitable abatements. The journals show Madison voting with Hamilton on this question! In his Debates he omits this motion by Hamilton, merely referring to the journal, instead of giving it, as its importance demanded. He next represents Hamilton voting in committee for a violation of the articles of the Confederation as to the mode of voting in committee, when it is obvious there could exist no motive for so doing, as any subsequent vote in the House must have been by States-seven a majority-and any deviation from that rule in committee would have been futile; as Madison states, "a waste of time would be the result." Still, he represents Hamilton as being in favor of it the next day: "Hamilton proposed that it be agreed to, wrong as it was, rather than have no rule at all.”—Debates, 322, 323. The obvious purpose of these misstatements and their minuteness show the little faith due to them. This statement is essential, as will be seen, to the truth of American history.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE conclusion of the war gave a new direction to the public mind. Congress for a time withdrew its attention from a provision for the debt, and from the urgent claims of the army. A discussion of the merits and obligation of the provisional treaty, of the conduct of the commissioners, and of the measures consequent to it proper to be taken, chiefly occupied their care.

The influence exerted by Hamilton in determining the subsequent policy of the United States towards other nations, and the decisive bearing which that policy had both on the fortunes of this Republic, and upon his fortunes, indicate the necessity of a retrospect of some of the leading circumstances which mark the character of its early diplomacy.

It is a painful fact in the history of almost every struggle for national freedom, that the oppressed party has been compelled, as an equivalent for the aids it has received, to sacrifice a part of the independence for which it was contending, either by direct stipulations of advantage to its ally, or by the more injurious because more enduring consequences of popular feeling, in which hatred of an enemy produces too strong bias to a friend.

That which is not wrested from dependence, is claimed as the due concession of gratitude; a claim, which those