SUMMARY
1. In 1789 the states had governments less democratic than at present; in general only property owners could vote and hold office.
2. The states were all in debt, and Congress had incurred besides a large national debt.
3. The population was less than 4,000,000, mostly on the Atlantic seaboard.
4. Cities were few and small, without street cars, pavements, water works, gas or electric lights, public libraries or museums, letter carriers, or paid firemen. Everywhere many of the common conveniences of modern life were unknown.
5. Travel was slow and tiresome, because there were no railroads, steamboats, or automobiles.
6. Occupations were far fewer than now, wages lower, and hours of labor longer. Slavery had been abolished, or was being gradually stopped, in New England and Pennsylvania, but existed in all the other states; and in the South nearly all the labor was done by slaves.
7. New Englanders were engaged in farming, fishing, lumbering, and commerce; the Middle States produced much wheat and flour, and also lumber; the South chiefly tobacco, rice, and tar, pitch, and turpentine.