=Alarm over Dangers to the Republic.=—­Leading American citizens, watching the drift of affairs, were slowly driven to the conclusion that the new ship of state so proudly launched a few years before was careening into anarchy.  “The facts of our peace and independence,” wrote a friend of Washington, “do not at present wear so promising an appearance as I had fondly painted in my mind.  The prejudices, jealousies, and turbulence of the people at times almost stagger my confidence in our political establishments; and almost occasion me to think that they will show themselves unworthy of the noble prize for which we have contended.”

Washington himself was profoundly discouraged.  On hearing of Shays’s rebellion, he exclaimed:  “What, gracious God, is man that there should be such inconsistency and perfidiousness in his conduct!  It is but the other day that we were shedding our blood to obtain the constitutions under which we now live—­constitutions of our own choice and making—­and now we are unsheathing our sword to overturn them.”  The same year he burst out in a lament over rumors of restoring royal government.  “I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical government without horror.  From thinking proceeds speaking.  Hence to acting is often but a single step.  But how irresistible and tremendous!  What a triumph for our enemies to verify their predictions!  What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves!”

=Congress Attempts Some Reforms.=—­The Congress was not indifferent to the events that disturbed Washington.  On the contrary it put forth many efforts to check tendencies so dangerous to finance, commerce, industries, and the Confederation itself.  In 1781, even before the treaty of peace was signed, the Congress, having found out how futile were its taxing powers, carried a resolution of amendment to the Articles of Confederation, authorizing the levy of a moderate duty on imports.  Yet this mild measure was rejected by the states.  Two years later the Congress prepared another amendment sanctioning the levy of duties on imports, to be collected this time by state officers and applied to the payment of the public debt.  This more limited proposal, designed to save public credit, likewise failed.  In 1786, the Congress made a third appeal to the states for help, declaring that they had been so irregular and so negligent in paying their quotas that further reliance upon that mode of raising revenues was dishonorable and dangerous.

THE CALLING OF A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION