Prosperity was the positive goal of America's postwar policy. For several years, the United States was successful in her attempt to be at the same time politically aloof and economically opportunistic. But politics and economics were radically intertwined in the reparation settlement, and when reparations interfered with the prosperity of the Atlantic community, it shattered as well America's resolve to "let Europe stew in her own juice," and caused American reinvolvement in European concerns. America's postwar settlement can be expressed in two words: disentanglement frustrated.

The Provincial Congress assumed the leadership of North Carolina at a time when, almost simultaneously, the seeds of the American Revolution were beginning to take root throughout the neighboring provinces. The task faced by that body was, therefore, not only one of reinstituting their own civil government, but also of providing for the protection of North Carolina and working, in union, for the defense of the entire continent.