The Fathers of the Constitution | Page 4

North America inspired by the best of motives, there had come others
who were not regarded favorably by the governing classes of Europe.
Discontent is frequently a healthful sign and a forerunner of progress,
but it makes one an uncomfortable neighbor in a satisfied and
conservative community; and discontent was the underlying factor in
the migration from the Old World to the New. In any composite
immigrant population such as that of the United States there was bound
to be a large element of undesirables. Among those who came "for
conscience's sake" were the best type of religious protestants, but there
were also religious cranks from many countries, of almost every
conceivable sect and of no sect at all. Many of the newcomers were
poor. It was common, too, to regard colonies as inferior places of
residence to which objectionable persons might be encouraged to go
and where the average of the population was lowered by the influx of

convicts and thousands of slaves.
"The great number of emigrants from Europe"--wrote Thieriot, Saxon
Commissioner of Commerce to America, from Philadelphia in
1784--"has filled this place with worthless persons to such a degree that
scarcely a day passes without theft, robbery, or even assassination."* It
would perhaps be too much to say that the people of the United States
were looked upon by the rest of the world as only half civilized, but
certainly they were regarded as of lower social standing and of inferior
quality, and many of them were known to be rough, uncultured, and
ignorant. Great Britain and Germany maintained American missionary
societies, not, as might perhaps be expected, for the benefit of the
Indian or negro, but for the poor, benighted colonists themselves; and
Great Britain refused to commission a minister to her former colonies
for nearly ten years after their independence had been recognized.
* Quoted by W. E. Lingelbach, "History Teacher's Magazine," March,
1913.
It is usually thought that the dregs of humiliation have been reached
when the rights of foreigners are not considered safe in a particular
country, so that another state insists upon establishing therein its own
tribunal for the trial of its citizens or subjects. Yet that is what the
French insisted upon in the United States, and they were supposed to be
especially friendly. They had had their own experience in America.
First the native Indian had appealed to their imagination. Then, at an
appropriate moment, they seemed to see in the Americans a living
embodiment of the philosophical theories of the time: they thought that
they had at last found "the natural man" of Rousseau and Voltaire; they
believed that they saw the social contract theory being worked out
before their very eyes. Nevertheless, in spite of this interest in
Americans, the French looked upon them as an inferior people over
whom they would have liked to exercise a sort of protectorate. To them
the Americans seemed to lack a proper knowledge of the amenities of
life. Commissioner Thieriot, describing the administration of justice in
the new republic, noticed that: "A Frenchman, with the prejudices of
his country and accustomed to court sessions in which the officers have
imposing robes and a uniform that makes it impossible to recognize
them, smiles at seeing in the court room men dressed in street clothes,
simple, often quite common. He is astonished to see the public enter

and leave the court room freely, those who prefer even keeping their
hats on." Later he adds: "It appears that the court of France wished to
set up a jurisdiction of its own on this continent for all matters
involving French subjects." France failed in this; but at the very time
that peace was under discussion Congress authorized Franklin to
negotiate a consular convention, ratified a few years later, according to
which the citizens of the United States and the subjects of the French
King in the country of the other should be tried by their respective
consuls or vice-consuls. Though this agreement was made reciprocal in
its terms and so saved appearances for the honor of the new nation,
nevertheless in submitting it to Congress John Jay clearly pointed out
that it was reciprocal in name rather than in substance, as there were
few or no Americans in France but an increasing number of Frenchmen
in the United States.
Such was the status of the new republic in the family of nations when
the time approached for the negotiation of a treaty of peace with the
mother country. The war really ended with the surrender of Cornwallis
at Yorktown in 1781. Yet even then the British were unwilling to
concede the independence of the revolted colonies. This refusal of
recognition was not merely a matter of pride; a division and a
consequent weakening of the empire was