| CHAPTER I. |
| RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. |
| PAGE |
| Fall of Lord North's ministry | 1 |
| Sympathy between British Whigs and the revolutionary party in America | 2 |
| It weakened the Whig party in England | 3 |
| Character of Lord Shelburne | 4 |
| Political instability of the Rockingham ministry | 5, 6 |
| Obstacles in the way of a treaty of peace | 7, 8 |
| Oswald talks with Franklin | 9–11 |
| Grenville has an interview with Vergennes | 12 |
| Effects of Rodney's victory | 13 |
| Misunderstanding between Fox and Shelburne | 14 |
| Fall of the Rockingham ministry | 15 |
| Shelburne becomes prime minister | 16 |
| Defeat of the Spaniards and French at Gibraltar | 17 |
| French policy opposed to American interests | 18 |
| The valley of the Mississippi; Aranda's prophecy | 19 |
| The Newfoundland fisheries | 20 |
| Jay detects the schemes of Vergennes | 21 |
| And sends Dr Vaughan to visit Shelburne | 22 |
| John Adams arrives in Paris and joins with Jay in insisting upon a separate negotiation with England | 23, 24 |
| The separate American treaty, as agreed upon: |
| 1.Boundaries | 25 |
| 2.Fisheries; commercial intercourse | 26 |
| 3.Private debts | 27 |
| 4.Compensation of loyalists | 28–32 |
| Secret article relating to the Yazoo boundary | 33 |
| Vergennes does not like the way in which it has been done | 33 |
| On the part of the Americans it was a great diplomatic victory | 34 |
| Which the commissioners won by disregarding the instructions of Congress and acting on their own responsibility | 35 |
| The Spanish treaty | 36 |
| The French treaty | 37 |
| Coalition of Fox with North | 38–42 |
| They attack the American treaty in Parliament | 43 |
| And compel Shelburne to resign | 44 |
| Which leaves England without a government, while for several weeks the king is too angry to appoint ministers | 44 |
| Until at length he succumbs to the coalition, which presently adopts and ratifies the American treaty | 45 |
| The coalition ministry is wrecked upon Fox's India Bill | 46 |
| Constitutional crisis ends in the overwhelming victory of Pitt in the elections of May, 1784 | 47 |
| And this, although apparently a triumph for the king, was really a death-blow to his system of personal government | 48, 49 |
| CHAPTER II. |
| THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS. |
| Cessation of hostilities in America | 50 |
| Departure of the British troops | 199 |
| John Sevier and the state of Franklin | 200, 201 |
| The northwestern territory | 202 |
| Origin of the Ohio company | 203 |
| The Ordinance of 1787 | 204–206 |
| Theory of folkland upon which the ordinance was based | 207 |
| Spain, hearing of the secret article in the treaty of 1783, loses her temper and threatens to shut up the Mississippi River | 208, 209 |
| Gardoqui and Jay | 210 |
| Threats of secession in Kentucky and New England | 211 |
| Washington's views on the political importance of canals between east and west | 212 |
| His far-sighted genius and self-devotion | 213 |
| Maryland confers with Virginia regarding the navigation of the Potomac | 214 |
| The Madison-Tyler motion in the Virginia legislature | 215 |
| Convention at Annapolis, Sept 11, 1786 | 216 |
| Hamilton's address calling for a convention at Philadelphia | 217 |
| The impost amendment defeated by the action of New York; last ounce upon the camel's back | 218–220 |
| Sudden changes in popular sentiment | 221 |
| The Federal Convention meets at Philadelphia, May, 1787 | 222 |
| Mr. Gladstone's opinion of the work of the convention | 223 |
| The men who were assembled there | 224, 225 |
| Character of James Madison | 226, 227 |
| The other leading members | 228 |
| Washington chosen president of the convention | 229 |
| CHAPTER VI. |
| THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. |
| Why the proceedings of the convention were kept secret for so many years | 230 |
| Difficulty of the problem to be solved | 231 |
| Symptoms of cowardice repressed by Washington's impassioned speech | 232 |
| The root of all the difficulties; the edicts of the federal government had operated only upon states, not upon individuals, and therefore could not be enforced without danger of war | 233–233 |
| The Virginia plan, of which Madison was the chief author, offered a radical cure | 236 |
| And was felt to be revolutionary in its character | 237–239 |
| Fundamental features of the Virginia plan | 240, 241 |
| How it was at first received | 242 |
| The House of Representatives must be directly elected by the people | 243 |
| Question as to the representation of states brings out the antagonism between large and small states | 244 |
| William Paterson presents the New Jersey plan; not a radical cure, but a feeble palliative | 245 |
| Straggle between the Virginia and New Jersey plans | 246–249 |
| The Connecticut compromise, according to which the national principle is to prevail in the House of Representatives, and the federal principle in the Senate, meets at first with fierce opposition | 250, 251 |
| But is at length adopted | 252 |
| And proves a decisive victory for Madison and his methods | 253 |
| A few irreconcilable members go home in dudgeon |
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