When the British government saw that these provisions of the treaty were
not fulfilled, it retaliated by refusing to withdraw its troops from
the northern and western frontier posts. The British army sailed from
Charleston on the 14th of December, 1782, and from New York on the 25th
of November, 1783, but in contravention of the treaty small garrisons
remained at Ogdensburgh, Oswego, Niagara, Erie, Sandusky, Detroit, and
Mackinaw until the 1st of June, 1796. Besides this, laws were passed
which bore very severely upon American commerce, and the Americans found
it impossible to retaliate because the different states would not agree
upon any commercial policy in common. On the other hand, the states
began making commercial war upon each other, with navigation laws and
high tariffs. Such laws were passed by New York to interfere with the
trade of Connecticut, and the merchants of the latter state began to
hold meetings and pass resolutions forbidding all trade whatever with
New York.
The old quarrels about territory were kept up, and in 1784 the troubles
in Wyoming and in the Green Mountains came to the very verge of civil
war. People in Europe, hearing of such things, believed that the Union
would soon fall to pieces and become the prey of foreign powers. It was
disorder and calamity of this sort that such men as Hutchinson had
feared, in case the control of Great Britain over the colonies should
cease. George III. looked upon it all with satisfaction, and believed
that before long the states would one after another become repentant and
beg to be taken back into the British empire.
[Sidenote: The craze for paper money and the Shays rebellion, 1786.]
The troubles reached their climax in 1786. Because there seemed to be no
other way of getting money, the different states began to issue their
promissory notes, and then tried to compel people by law to receive such
notes as money. There was a strong "paper money" party in all the states
except Connecticut and Delaware. The most serious trouble was in Rhode
Island and Massachusetts. In both states the farmers had been much
impoverished by the war. Many farms were mortgaged, and now and then one
was sold to satisfy creditors. The farmers accordingly clamoured for
paper money, but the merchants in towns like Boston or Providence,
understanding more about commerce, were opposed to any such miserable
makeshifts. In Rhode Island the farmers prevailed. Paper money was
issued, and harsh laws were passed against all who should refuse to take
it at its face value. The merchants refused, and in the towns nearly all
business was stopped during the summer of 1786.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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