Respectfully,
S. L. ALDERMAN,
Greensboro, N. C.
THE
Trinity Archive.
Published under Supervision of the Professor of English.
Trinity College, March, 1888.
The essays which have appeared in the previous numbers of The Archive are specimens of work done in the English Department. The following essay, which has been placed at our disposal, is taken from the work done by the Freshman Class in the Department of History:
The First Hundred Years of the Constitution.
The struggle for independence had ended. The British, with the exception of a few forts in the Northwest Territory, had retired from the United States. Peace had been made four years before; yet the state of affairs in the country was such that even the most sanguine began to rue the day that the colonies had thrown off their allegiance to the British crown. Contrary to the expectations of every one, prosperity did not come with peace. The people had no money, the government had none. The roads were very bad and consequently very little headway could be made at traveling and transportation. The farmers were obliged to do a large part of their work with wooden tools, and of course it was very imperfectly done. Many who had been in a state of affluence before the war were reduced to a state of indigence. There were also very few schools. Now it is evident that this state of affairs was calculated to create discontent among the people and a spirit of distrust in the government. The soldiers who had fought so hard and had suffered so much during the war were either granted lands in the West, which at that time were of little value, since the Indians kept the settlers in a state of constant terror, or they were dismissed with the promise that they would be paid as soon as the country should recover from the financial depression which the war had caused. Congress had contracted a large debt with France and Holland, and, as it had no power under the “Articles of Confederation” to lay taxes, it had no means of paying this debt or of rewarding the soldiers. England also was injuring the commerce of the States by seizing their merchant vessels, and Congress had no means of prohibiting her. The people began to see and to feel that the “Articles of Confederation” were insufficient for the government of the country. In reply to the repeated demands of the people, Congress, in 1787, called an assembly of delegates to revise the “Articles,” and to devise such provisions as might render the “Constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.”