he American Union in 1780 was inferior to that of Holland,
and about on a level with that of Denmark or Portugal. But furthermore
the want of union made it hard to bring out such strength as there was.
In the autumn of 1777 the Articles of Confederation were submitted to
the several states for adoption; but the spring of 1781 had arrived
before all the thirteen states had ratified them. These articles left
the Continental Congress just what it was before, a mere advisory body,
without power to enlist soldiers or levy taxes, without federal courts
or federal officials, and with no executive head to the government. As
we have already seen, the only way in which Congress could get money
from the people was by requisitions upon the states, by _asking_ the
state-governments for it. This was always a very slow way to get money,
and now the states were unusually poor. There was very little
accumulated capital. Farming, fishing, ship-building, and foreign trade
were the chief occupations. Farms and plantations suffered considerably
from the absence of their owners in the army, and many were kept from
enlisting, because it was out of the question to go and leave their
families to starve. As for ship-building, fishing, and foreign trade,
these occupations were almost annihilated by British cruisers. No doubt
the heaviest blows that we received were thus dealt us on the water.

[Sidenote: Fall of the Continental currency:--"Not worth a
Continental."]

The people were so poor that the states found it hard to collect enough
revenue for their own purposes, and most of them had a way of issuing
paper money of their own, which made things still worse. Under such
circumstances they had very little money to give to Congress. It was
necessary to borrow of France, or Spain, or Holland, and by the time
these nations were all at war, that became very difficult. From the
beginning of the war Congress had issued paper notes, and in 1778 the
depreciation in their value was already alarming. But as soon as the
exultation over Burgoyne's surrender had subsided, as soon as the hope
of speedily driving out the British had been disappointed, people soon
lost all confidence in the power of Congress to pay its notes, and in
1779 their value began falling with frightful rapidity. In 1780 they
became worthless. It took $150 in Continental currency to buy a bushel
of corn, and an ordinary suit of clothes cost $2000. Then people refused
to take i