[139] The plan then was that the colonies should contribute money in proportion to their white population. This was afterward amended. See Articles.
[140] Mr. Chase's amendment (to count slaves in apportioning representatives in Congress) was lost. Seven States, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina voted for it. Georgia was divided.
[141] A suggestion almost of a two-house Congress, similar to the "Connecticut Compromise" adopted for our present Constitution.
[142] Did Adams then think that, before the new Articles should have been accepted, the states were constitutionally one nation or thirteen? Cf. American History and Government, § 187 and notes.
[143] Summarize briefly the enumeration of powers in this Article.
[XXV. THE NATIONAL DOMAIN]
148. Desire for Statehood; Self-confidence of the West
Early in 1784, North Carolina ceded her western territory (afterward Tennessee) to Congress, giving that body two years in which to accept. The Westerners, already bitterly dissatisfied, now complained loudly that the mother State had cast them off; they would not wait two years, in anarchy, for possible action by the dilatory Congress; they would take their fate at once into their own hands. Accordingly, the three counties of eastern Tennessee (the outgrowth of the Watauga settlement, numbering now some 10,000 souls) established themselves for a time as the State of Frankland ("Land of the Freemen").
The militia had been organized by territorial units, each "company" from one group of hamlets, or "stations." Each "company" now chose delegates to a central convention. This "preliminary" convention recommended the people to choose another "constitutional convention,"[144] with full powers to set up a government. August 23, 1784, this second convention, composed of forty delegates with John Sevier as president, resolved on immediate statehood, and put forth an interesting address to justify that action. The following passage from that address illustrates the wild hopes of the West as to immediate development. (Cf. also American History and Government, §§ 173-175.)
"If we should be so happy as to have a separate government, vast numbers from different quarters, with a little encouragement from the public, would fill up our frontier; which would strengthen us, improve agriculture, perfect manufactures, encourage literature and everything truly laudable. The seat of government being among ourselves would evidently tend, not only to keep a circulating medium in gold and silver among us,[145] but would draw it from many individuals living in other States, who claim large quantities of land that would lie within the bounds of the new State."