DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 143 



No. 31. 1818, July 28: Extract from Letter from Mr. Adams, United 



States Secretary of State, to Messrs. Gallatin and Rush.* 



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In the expectation that the Government of Great Britain have ac- 

 cepted the proposal which Mr. Hush was instructed to make, for 

 negotiating a treaty of commerce, embracing the continuance of the 

 convention of 3d July, 1815, for an additional term of years, and 

 including other objects of interest to the two nations, I have now the 

 honour of transmitting to you the President's instructions to you for 

 the conduct of the negotiation. 



With regard to the commercial convention of the 3d July, 1815, 

 you have already been informed that the President is willing that it 

 should be continued without alteration for a further term of eight or 

 ten years. We had flattered ourselves, from the liberal sentiments 

 expressed by Lord Castlereagh in Parliament, and from various other 

 indications, that the British Cabinet would have been now prepared 

 to extend the principles of the convention to our commercial inter- 

 course with their colonies in the West Indies and North America; 

 but, from the report of two conferences between Mr. Rush and Lord 

 Castlereagh, since received, it appears that our anticipations had been 

 too sanguine, and that, with regard to our admission into their col- 

 onies, they still cling to the system of exclusive colonial monopoly. 



Our Navigation Act, passed at the last session of Congress, is well 

 calculated to bring this system to a test by which it has not hitherto 

 been tried; and if the experiment must be made complete, so that 

 the event shall prove to demonstration which of the two countries 

 can best stand this opposition of counter-exclusions, the United 

 States are prepared to abide by the result. Still, we should prefer 

 to remove them at once, if for no other reason than that it would 

 have a tendency to promote good humour between the two countries. 

 We wish you to urge this argument upon the British Cabinet; to 

 remind them of the principles avowed by Lord Castlereagh in 

 Parliament, to which I have before referred, and of their precise 

 bearing upon this question. It may also be proper to suggest that, 

 while Great Britain is pressing upon Spain the abandonment of her 

 commercial monopoly throughout the continent of South 

 84 America, her recommendation must necessarily gain great ad- 

 ditional weight by setting the example with her own colonies, 

 while at the same time her own interest in her monopoly must be 

 reduced to an object too trifling for national consideration, when 

 the Spanish colonies shall be open to the commerce of the world. 

 Finally it may be observed that the Free Port Act passed at the late 

 session of Parliament goes already so far towards the abandonment 

 of their system, that it can scarcely be perceived why they should 

 adhere to the remnant of it any longer. Other arguments may occur 

 to your own reflections and result from your thorough knowledge of 

 the subject; you will urge them with earnestness, though giving it 

 always to be understood that we shall acquiesce in their ultimate 

 determination. 



Whenever this subject has been presented to the British Cabinet, 

 since the peace, their only objection to the proposals and arguments 



Messrs. Gallatin and Rush represented the United States and Messrs. 

 Robinson and Gonlburn represented the United Kingdom in negotiations at 

 London. 



