THE wn ALT: FISHEKY. 135 



['.upland : but much of this produce lies in store here, because it will not letch, by reason of tbo 

 duties aud restrictions on it, the price given for it in America. No political arrangements having 

 been made, both the British and American merchants expected that the trade -would have 

 returned to its old channels, and nearly under the same regulations, found by long experience 

 to be beneficial ; but they have been disappointed. The former have made advances, and the 

 latter contracted debts, both depending upon remittances in the usual articles, and upon the 

 ancient terms, but both have found themselves mistaken, and it is much to be feared that the 

 consequences will be numerous failures. Cash and bills have been chiefly remitted; neither 

 rice, tobacco, pitch, tar, turpentine, ships, oil, nor many other articles, the great sources of remit- 

 tances formerly, can now be sent as heretofore, because of restrictions and imports, which are 

 new in this commerce, and destructive of.it ; and the trade with the British West India Islands, 

 formerly a vast source of remittance, is at present obstructed. * * * There is a literal impos- 

 sibility, my lord, that the commerce between the two countries can continue long to the. advan- 

 tage of either upon the present footing.'* He continues, that these evils will increase, and 

 asserts that it is the desire of the United States to be on good terms commercially with England, 

 and not be driven to other markets with their goods, and he closes by proposing the arrangement 

 of a treaty of commerce, between the two countries. 



" It would be interesting, though not necessary in this connection, to follow the negotiations 

 through each step ; to see how the English administration felt compelled to cater to those who 

 upheld the British navigation laws ; to see how jealousy of our incipient naval power procrasti- 

 nated the treaty which it was inevitable must come ; to see how self-confident and secure the 

 English felt that our trade must unavoidably come to them ; to see how an attempt was made to 

 throw the influence of Ireland against America by ostentatious concessions, and how the attempt 

 failed ; to see how, finally, the fear of American reciprocity in restrictions led to English reci- 

 procity in concessions ; but those things can be more satisfactorily learned from the diplomatic 

 correspondence of the day.t 



" On the 24th of August Mr. Adams had a conference with Mr. Pitt for the first time in this 

 connection. Passing by the matter of the interview, so far as it relates to the other portions of 

 the proposed treaty, we find that when the treaty of commerce was proposed, Mr. Pitt inquired " 

 what were the lowest terms that might be satisfactory to America. Mr. Adams replied that he 

 might not think himself competent to decide that question ; that, because of the rapidly increas- 

 ing feeling in America, affairs had already culminated in Massachusetts in the passage of an act 

 of navigation by that State, showing the tendency of the times, and that the action of England 

 would have much to do in arresting that prejudice ; that the five hundred ships employed in the 

 commerce of the United States in 1784 might easily be compelled to become the property of 

 American citizens and navigated wholly by American seamen ; that the simple passage of an old 

 English statute, ' that none of the King's liege people should ship any merchandise out of or into 

 the realm, but only in ships of the King's liegance, on pain of forfeiture,' modified to suit the 

 American form of government, would effect this; that the nation had the legal right to govern 

 its own commerce; that the ability of the Americans to build ships and the abundance of 

 material they had for that purpose could not be doubted ; and that whatever laws England might 

 make, she would be glad to receive and consume considerable American produce, even though 

 imported through France or Holland, and sell us as many of her manufactures as we could pay 

 for, through the same channels. The conversation finally introduced the subject of ships and oil, 

 and Mr. Pitt said to Mr. Adams the Americans ' could not think hard of the English for encourag- 

 ing their own shipwrights, their manufacturers of ships, and their own whale fishery.' To which 

 " " Works of John Adams, viii, p. 288." "\Ibid., p. 307." 



