Study the history of the thirteen American colonies between the time of the acknowledgment of their independence by England and the formation of the United States.

This has been termed 'the critical period' of American history.

The colonies were united by recollections of common suffering and of common triumph, they were not divided by race or religion; no State aspired to separate nationality, yet they drifted rapidly towards anarchy; they were discontented at home, they were powerless abroad, above all, they nearly made shipwreck on the financial arrangements.

Congress was never able, for the satisfaction either of national needs or of national honour, to obtain fair contributions from the different States.[87] Already, further, before the Home Rule Bill has passed from the hands of the House of Commons Mr.Gladstone's very moderate demands, as they seem to Englishmen, are held by some Irish Nationalists to be outrageous.[88] The difference, moreover, is not a matter of calculation, to be settled by accounts and balances, or disposed of by auditors.

No one can read the statements of Nationalists such as Mr.Redmond or Mr.Clancy without seeing that the real difference of view lies very deep.