=The Drift to Anarchy after the War.=—Despite the utter weakness of the Confederation the war continued to be a unifying force so long as it lasted. In the face of a common danger and with a common goal ahead of them the states kept their jealousies in the background. But as soon as the war was over the bickerings began in earnest. Each state began to look upon its own interests as the thing of greatest importance; each sought to gain advantages at the expense of its neighbors. Each was at liberty to impose its own tariff and to regulate trade at its own ports. So they began to quarrel among themselves over trading privileges and over disputed boundaries until a civil war seemed to be quite within the bounds of possibility. [Sidenote: Impotence of the Congress.] Why did not the Congress of the Confederation intervene to prevent this drift to anarchy? The Congress would gladly have done so but it had no power. It had no authority to intervene in disputes between the states, or even to prevent war among them. It had no army of its own, no money to raise an army. Some of the states, now that the war was over, took so little interest in the Confederation that they stopped sending delegates to the Congress altogether. Time and again it was found impossible to get a quorum in order to do business. The utter weakness of the Congress was tragically displayed in 1783 when it was driven out of its quarters at Philadelphia by a mob of soldiers clamoring for their pay. [Sidenote: The economic disorder.] The whole country was in a bad way. During the war a huge debt had been created, and Congress now found itself with no money to pay interest on it. Millions in paper money had been issued, but nowhere was there any gold to redeem them. Prices had been high during the war, as prices always are during war time. When the war ended there was a general fall in prices with the result that the farmers got less for their products and became discontented. Farmers, in those days, formed ninety per cent of the population and they completely controlled the legislatures of the various states. They clamored for relief from the effects of the decline in prices, called for the issue of more paper money, for high tariffs, and for measures that would lessen the burden of mortgages on their lands. In some of the states there was open rioting and disorder. These years have been well called the “critical period” of American history. It looked for a time as though independence was to be merely a prelude to anarchy. [Sidenote: The leaders in despair.]