English Opinion of the American Constitution And Government 1783 1798

ives the keynote to her attitude toward us in the period which we are now to consider. An impotent legislature, a discordant union, anarchy uncontrollable, poverty, bankruptcy, final confusion and absorption by the one time mother country were the verdict of our British enemies and the fear of our British friends. Their views were based on fact, not, as in the instance of the initial prophesies, on inference. It is unnecessary to restate here the squalid situation of our national government in the critical period. We shall see its history amply reflected in the British accounts and impressions. They indicate full knowledge of the basic circumstances which brought turmoil in their trainâ??the apotheosis of state individualism, the chaos of the monetary system, the inability of Congress to superintend commercial affairs, to levy duties and taxes, or to meet the interest on the public debt, the non-payment of quotas, the lack of executive head, the necessity upon the central government of acting through the states and not directly upon individuals, the internal rebellion, inter-state rivalry and financial prostration. What more concerns us is how England got itsinformation and what are the sources upon which our opinion of their opinion is to be formed. iLaurens to Pres. of Congress, 24 April, 1784, Dip. Corresp. of Am. Rev. (Wharton), VI, 795. First of all the cabinet kept up a system of espionage. Examination of unpublished dispatches in the Colonial Offi...