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THE CONFEDERATION.
When peace came in 1783 there were in the United States approximately three million people, who were spread over the whole Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia and back into the interior as far as the Alleghany Mountains; and a relatively small number of settlers had crossed the mountain barrier.

About twenty per cent of the population, or some six hundred thousand, were negro slaves.

There was also a large alien element of foreign birth or descent, poor when they arrived in America, and, although they had been able to raise themselves to a position of comparative comfort, life among them was still crude and rough.

Many of the people were poorly educated and lacking in cultivation and refinement and in a knowledge of the usages of good society.