Demoralization and civil strife at home were matched by ridicule and
suspicion abroad. Congress could not pay the interest on the national
debt. As early as 1783 our foreign credit was gone. Many European
statesmen scoffed at the American government. France denied the
existence of a general government in America. In England our
diplomatic representatives suffered numerous humiliations. They were
told, for example, that the British would not relinquish the western
forts promised us by the Treaty of Paris until our national government
was able to force the several American states to observe the treaty.

27. OBSTACLES TO UNION.--There are three important reasons why the
states failed to draw together into a firm union before 1787.

In the first place, each state considered itself a sovereign body, and
of governments above and beyond itself it was naturally suspicious.
Many of the Americans had regarded the British government as a super-
government, imposed against the will of the American people, and
maintained in spite of their protests. The Dominion of New England,
which, prior to the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, had
been the nearest approach to union, was recalled with anger and in
fear. This plan, forced upon the Americans in 1686 by the king, united
eight of the colonies under the rule of Governor Andros. The union was
dissolved by the Bloodless Revolution of 1688, but the arbitrary rule
of Andros was long cited by the Americans as proof of the despotic
character of any government beyond that of the individual states.

A second explanation of the failure of the states to unite before 1787
is to be found in the social and economic differences existing among
the states. Most of the inhabitants of New England were grouped in