File:Actual government of New York.. (1918) (14758742486).jpg

Identifier: actualgovernmen00boyn (find matches)
Title: Actual government of New York..
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Boynton, Frank D. (from old catalog)
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Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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union, and they were following the dictates ofthe merest self-interest in sending to Congress their ablestmen and in granting to that body, however grudgingly, thenecessary means for conducting the government. As thefierceness of the struggle abated, however, the necessity forunion was no longer so keenly felt. State interests loomedlarger and larger; federal interests dwindled. The mostdistinguished statesmen no longer sat in the federal leg-islature; their talents were demanded at home for thesolution of difficult problems of state government; sothat the national legislature, given by the Articles ofConfederation no means of providing for its own needs andleft wholly dependent upon the good will of the states,soon found itself deprived of even such power of persuad-ing the states as it had possessed through the pressure ofthe war and the personal influence of its members. Attitude of the States. Gradually the states, havingwithdrawn from the service of the federal government its 176
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178 ACTUAL GOVERNMENT OF NEW YORK best ability, assumed toward it, if not an attitude of actualdefiance, at best one of distrust or indifference. More thanonce, whether through indifference or a more active senti-ment, they made it impossible for Congress to proceed tobusiness at the proper time by failing to send delegates fromenough states to transact important business or to settleimportant questions. National appeals for money manyof the states simply disregarded, so that between 1782 and1786 Congress obtained only about one sixth of the amountasked for. Threats of secession were heard from morethan one quarter, and even overt acts of defiance were notunknown. The Feeling between the States was no belter than thatbetween the national government and the states. Ques-tions of trade involved them in continual quarrels. NewEngland sought to secure a virtual monopoly of the carry-ing trade by demanding the exclusion of British vessels — ademand to which the Southern states would not

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