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Chapter 4. ‘‘Rendering Us Great and Respectable in the Eyes of the World’’: The Diplomatic Imperative for the Federal Constitution
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4 . ‘‘Rendering Us Great and Respectable in the Eyes of the World’’ The Diplomatic Imperative for the Federal Constitution [T]he new federal government o√ers the most flattering prospect to your petitioners of restoring system, firmness, and energy, to the present embarrassed and relaxed Union; of reviving our declining commerce , of supporting our tottering credit, of relieving us from the pressure of an unequal and ine≈cacious taxation, of giving us concord at home, and rendering us great and respectable in the eyes of the world. —Petition to the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention, November 1787 On 17 September 1787, the Philadelphia Convention concluded the work that it had been involved in for almost four months—debating and drafting a new frame of government for the United States of America. In the years that followed the conclusion of peace with Great Britain, a significant number of Americans had come to agree with the Chevalier de la Luzerne that the Articles of Confederation ‘‘were an incomplete and irregular System of government.’’∞ While the violent Shays’ Rebellion in Massachusetts during the winter of 1786–87 and the ongoing crisis of a shrinking money supply and rising taxes in many states gave the general unease Americans felt a greater sense of urgency in 1787, some of the most fundamental problems that confronted Americans and their governments had been present for years, and were visible as soon as the Revolutionary War came to a close. Particularly obvious was the inability of the diplomats of 120 Revolutionary Negotiations the United States to achieve what its national leaders wanted in the realms of the Westphalian and borderlands diplomatic systems. While the Articles of Confederation had given the Continental Congress the power to appoint diplomats and make treaties, individual states retained the powers to enact commercial regulations, which complicated the negotiation of commercial treaties with the European powers. Individual states also continued to engage American Indian nations in diplomacy, which frustrated congressional e√orts to bring peace to the western borderlands and consolidate the national domain. The diplomatic weakness of the Confederation was apparent to almost every American, even those who did not approve of the Constitution that the Philadelphia Convention produced.≤ The desire to give the United States’ central government a stronger hand in making diplomacy was a key argument marshaled by the supporters of the new Constitution, the Federalists of 1787–88. For example, as the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention began its deliberations in November 1787, newspaper essayists lobbying in support of ratification of the new Constitution constantly invoked the American Confederation’s lack of power on the world stage. ‘‘A Plain Citizen’’ complained that ‘‘the American name’’ was ‘‘insulted and despised by all the world!’’ and implored his fellow citizens to support ratification in order to ‘‘guide [the] tottering footsteps’’ of ‘‘your bleeding country’’ from ‘‘the brink of ruin.’’≥ Using slightly less hyperbole was a group of petitioners from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. With ‘‘the strongest conviction,’’ they suggested that ‘‘the new Federal Government o√ers the most flattering prospect’’ of ‘‘restoring firmness and energy, to the present embarrassed and relaxed Union.’’ The petitioners asserted that a strong federal government would have the e√ect of ‘‘reviving our declining commerce, of supporting our tottering credit,’’ and of ‘‘giving us concord at home, and rendering us great and respectable in the eye of the world.’’∂ The inability of the Confederation to engage with polities external to it, either in North America or in Europe, in a meaningful, orderly, and sustained fashion was one of the most potent arguments in favor of first revising the Articles of Confederation and then abandoning them for the federal Constitution.∑ Americans quickly learned that their acceptance into the Westphalian states system—signaled first by the Treaty of Alliance with France, then by the recognition of the Netherlands, and finally by the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain itself—was a starting point rather than an ending point in [3.238.79.169] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 21:27 GMT) ‘‘Rendering Us Great and Respectable’’ 121 their desire to sustain the United States as independent sovereignties. While European powers easily recognized the United States, especially after Great Britain had done so, getting these same European states to open their doors to American trade based on principles of reciprocity, or mostfavored -nation status, was a far more di≈cult task. First, many European states doubted the ability of the weak Confederation government to enforce any treaty it might sign with the United...