Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. From The Definitive Treaty Of Peace To The Annapolis Convention. The definitive Treaty of Peace was signed September 3rd, 1783. It was ratified by Congress January 14th, 1784. The amazement in England1 over the fact that Congress had difficulty in assembling a quorum even for this important negotiation gives 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 train—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 Examination of unpublished dispatches in the Colonial Offi...