READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 21 



the practice of visitation and search by the 

 British commanders had been attended with 

 serious abuses, and he was ready to do every 

 thing possible to prevent their recurrence. 

 Rush ultimately agreed that the best way to 

 attain this end was to keep British seamen out 

 of American ships. Accordingly, a draft treaty 

 was actually formulated in which Great Britain 

 abandoned the visitation of American ships ex 

 cept for purposes recognized by both govern 

 ments as justifiable by international law, while 

 the United States undertook to exclude from 

 service in its merchant marine all natural-born 

 subjects of Great Britain, even those who 

 should in the future become American citizens 

 under the naturalization laws. 



This project eventually was dropped, on ac 

 count of disagreements on subsidiary points 

 concerning ratification and administration. It 

 probably involved rather too large concessions 

 for the time and circumstances on both sides. 

 America had already become as tenacious of 

 her claim concerning the rights of her natural 

 ized citizens as Britain was concerning the 

 right of her navy to recruit its forces wherever 

 it could find British seamen. The points on 

 which the treaty came to grief were so rela- 



