CONGRESS. (NON-IXTERCOUKSE.) 



181 



the United States and the provinces of Canada 

 depend entirely upon the statutes of the two 

 countries, and not upon any treaty engage- 

 ments ; so that in legislating upon this ques- 

 tion we have an open field in which we are 

 permitted to exercise our own sweet will with- 

 out question on the part of Great Britian. We 

 can establish by act of Congress any of the 

 ordinances that we see proper for the regula- 

 tion of our commercial relations with those 

 provinces, and so they can do the same thing. 



" When two countries, thus neighbors to 

 each other, are thus situated in respect of 

 their treaty obligations and are left only to 

 provide for their mutual interests by legisla- 

 tion, it is very clear that if the Dominion of 

 Canada, backed by the Government of Great 

 Britain, shall legislate in hostility to our trade, 

 it becomes not only our duty but our only al- 

 ternative to legislate in hostility to theirs, to 

 legislate according to the principles of retro- 

 sion and of retaliation, it' you please. 



"If we had commercial treaties with Great 

 Britain respecting our relations to the Cana- 

 dian provinces, we should of course be at- 

 tempting to understand whether the proposed 

 legislation of the Committee on Foreign Eela- 

 tions was in any sense in conflict with those 

 commercial regulations agreed upon by treaty; 

 but having nothing of the kind, as I before 

 observed, the field is entirely open to us, and 

 we have no alternative but either to negotiate 

 our first treaty of commerce with Great Brit- 

 ain in respect of the provinces, or to go on in 

 the old line of legislating pro and con so as to 

 balance up our interests and make them mutu- 

 ally agreeable. 



" It is not a credit to these great English- 

 speaking peoples on both sides of the Atlantic 

 Ocean, who control so immensely the destinies 

 of commerce and all other destinies of the in- 

 habitants of this earth, that we should have 

 been all this long time, more than a hundred 

 years since our independence, without a treaty 

 of commerce to regulate our relations with 

 that part of the British possessions which lies 

 next to us and upon this continent. But so it 

 is, so it has been, and so it is likely to remain. 



" The Senator from 'Kansas was anxious to 

 know whether the committee proposed to go 

 to war. About what should we go to war? 

 Not certainly on account of the breach of any 

 commercial treaty with Great Britain in re- 

 spect of the Canadian provinces, for we have 

 not got any. It would be a war of words, ne- 

 cessarily followed by a war of acts of a com- 

 mercial character simply, if we should have a 

 war, for there is to be no broken engage- 

 ments brought to the attention of any govern- 

 ment in consequence of the conduct either of 

 Great Britain or of our Government upon these 

 questions, unless it may be that some rights 

 which have been guaranteed to our fishermen 

 in the Treaty of 1818, not commercial rights, 

 but fishery rights, shall have been violated by 

 the Canadian Government or by ourselves. 



" The Treaty of 1818 is the real point of dis- 

 pute between us the construction of it, the 

 question of its proper enforcement, and the 

 question of the responsibility of the British 

 Government for the acts of the Dominion in 

 regard to that treaty. That is the real bone of 

 controversy between us to-day, and it is about 

 that which we differ. We are undertaking to 

 improve our condition in respect of our differ- 

 ences on that subject, and other commercial 

 questions between us and Great Britain or the 

 Canadian provinces, by the reformation of our 

 statutes, so as to give to our own Government 

 by the authority of Congress under the sanc- 

 tions of law that degree of power which is ne- 

 cessary to enable our Government to protect 

 itself and to protect its people against aggres- 

 sive acts on the part of the Canadian provinces 

 or the Government of Great Britain, as you 

 please. That is all of it." 



February 23, the measure was reported to 

 the House from the Committee on Foreign Af- 

 fairs, with an amendment by way of substitute, 

 the main point of which was that it provided 

 for retaliation by stopping intercourse with 

 Canada by land as well as by sea. This sub- 

 stitute was adopted by the House by the fol- 

 lowing vote : 



YEAS J. J. Adams, J. M. Allen, Ballentine, Bar- 

 bour, Barksdale, Barnes, Barry, Beluiont, Bennett, 

 Blanchard, Bland, Bliss, Blount, Boyle, Bragg, C. R. 

 Breckinridge, W. C. P. Breckinridge, Bynum, Ca- 

 bell, J. M. Campbell, J. E. Campbell, Carleton, Catch- 

 ings, Clements, Cobb, Compton, Comstock, Cowles, 

 W. E. Cox ; Crain, Crisp, Culberson, Daniel, Dargan, 

 A. C. Davidson, R. H. M. Davidson, Dawson, Dib- 

 ble, Dockery, Dougherty, Dunn, Eden, Ermentrout, 

 Findlay, Fisher, Foran," Forney, Gay, Geddes, C. H. 

 Gibson, Glass, Green, Hall, Halsell, Hammond, Har- 

 ris, Hatch, Heard, Hemphill, J. S. Henderson, Her- 

 bert, Hill, Holman, Howard, Hudd, Hutton,-Irion, 

 T. p. Johnston, J. H. Jones, J. T, Jones, King, 

 Kleiner, Laffoon, Landes, Lanham, Lawler, Le Fevre, 

 Lqvering, Martin, Matson May bury, McCreary, Mc- 

 Millin, McRae, Merriman, Miller, Mills, Mitchell, 

 Morgan, Morrison, Muller, Murphy, Neal, Neece, 

 Norwood, Gates, O'Ferrall, J. J. O'Neill, Outhwaite, 

 Peel, Perry, Randall. Reagan, Richardson, Eiggs, Rob- 

 ertson, Rogers, RUSK, Savers, Scott, Seymour, Shaw, 

 Singleton, Snyder, Sowden, Spriggs, Springer, Stahl- 

 necker, Storm, Swope, Tarsney, Taulbee, J. M. Tay- 

 lor, Tillman, Townshcnd, Tucker, Turner, Van Eaton, 

 T. B. Ward, A. J. Warner, William Warner, J. B. 

 Weaver, Wilkins, Willis, Wilson, Wise, Wortnington 

 137. 



NATS G. E. Adams, C. H. Allen, J. A. Anderson, 

 Atkinson, Baker, Bayne, Bound, Brady, C. E. Brown, 

 W. W. Brown, Brumm, Buck, Bunnell, Burleigh, 

 Burrows, Butterworth, Cannon, Caswell, Conger, 

 Cutcheon, Davis, Dingley, Dorsey, Dunham, Ely, 

 Evans, Everhart, Farquhar, Felton, Fleeger, Ford, 

 Frederick, Fuller, Funston, Gallinger, Gilfillan, Goff, 

 Grout, Gucnther, Hale, Hanback, Manner, Haydcn, 

 Haynes. D. B. Henderson, T. J. Henderson, Hepburn, 

 Hermann, Hiestand, Hires, Hiscock, Hitt, Holmes, 

 Hopkins, Houk, Jackson, James, F. A. Johnson, J. T. 

 Johnston, Kelley, Ketcham, La Follette, Laird, Lehl- 

 bach, Libbev. Lindsley, Little, Long, Louttit, Lyman, 

 Markham, McCornas, McKenna^ McKinley, Millard, 

 Moffatt, 

 nell, 

 ker.J 



sions, Skinner, Smalls', Spooner, Stecle, Stcphensbn, J. 



