21 



Still more humiliating was it to appeal to British cu 

 pidity by representing that on the exercise of this right 

 the Americans depended for the means &quot; to make their 

 remittances to pay for the manufactured goods of 

 Great Britain&quot; and to hint that it would he to the ad 

 vantage of a great British interest that no unnecessary 

 stimulus should be given to the growth of American 

 manufactures, thus holding out to the British nation a 

 virtual pledge that the American government would aid 

 in no protecting system for the benefit of domestic 

 manufactures provided the Fisheries were regranted ! 



In what a wretched situation is that negotiator placed 

 who after assuming the loftiest pretensions about an un 

 questionable right, will condescend to traffic for that 

 right by holding out inducements for its purchase ; we 

 have often been called a trading nation, and surely with 

 justice, if an American minister will undertake to trade 

 away our independence ! and to lay the nation under a 

 perpetual bond to purchase British broadcloths, and 

 calicoes, and laces, and linens. 



Mr. Adams had the further mortification to hear from 

 a British minister that he was not insensible to some of the 

 considerations which had been offered, and that although 

 there was not the slightest foundation for the American 

 claim on the ground of right, yet that the ministry felt 

 that the enjoyment of &quot; the liberties formerly used by 

 the inhabitants of the United States might be very condu 

 cive to their national and individual prosperity though 

 they should be placed under some modifications ; and 

 that the feeling operated most forcibly in favour of con 

 cession.&quot; He had the mortification to hear that this im 

 portant interest, which was lost to the American people 

 from his stubborn adherence to a false principle, might 

 be regained, because a British ministry felt for the dis 

 tresses of American fishermen ! And from motives of 

 humanity alone (the British say) they regranted to us 

 by the Convention of October, 1818, a fragment of that 

 magnificent privilege, which we had so long enjoyed, 

 and to the unrestricted use of which, we might unques 

 tionably attribute a large share of our national wealth. 



