172 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



West India islands direct; and, thirdly, we asked that the duties on 

 articles imported from the United States into the islands in Ameri- 

 can ships, should be no higher than on the same articles when im- 

 ported in British ships from the United States, or from any other 

 country, without saying foreign country. These three provisions, 

 particularly the second and third, would form insurmountable ob- 

 stacles to the conclusion of any convention which should purport to 

 embrace them. 



I contented myself with replies as general. The communications 

 from the joint mission last year, as well as some separate ones from 

 this legation after it was over, will have informed the President 

 how fully the views of our Government, on the injustice of this sys- 

 tem, in all its past effects upon us, have heretofore been stated. On 

 this occasion I remarked, as to the first objection, that it was plain 

 that, if the ports were not specially named, the privilege of admission 

 to them would, at any time, be revocable whenever Great Britain 

 thought fit to exclude from them any other foreign vessels. It would 

 be, in short, a privilege with nothing positive or certain in its char- 

 acter. As to the second, I said that, should an indirect trade be 

 opened \vith the islands in any greater extent than the direct trade, 

 nothing was more clear than that the greater part, or the whole, 

 would soon be made to flow in the channel of the former, to the mani- 

 fest advantage of British bottoms. On the third objection, I 

 101 said that an explanatory remark or two was all that I should 

 add (it would be but repetition) to what had often been urged 

 before. That we should deny to Great Britain the common right of 

 protecting the industry of a part of her own dominions, by laying 

 discriminating duties in its favour, might be thought, at first blush, 

 to wear an appearance not defensible; but it would be found, on a 

 moment's examination, to be strictly so. The system built up by 

 Britain must be looked at altogether. It was in itself so inverted and 

 artificial, that principles not disputed in the abstract ceased to be 

 just when applied to it. Though one and all of these colonies were, 

 indeed, of her dominion, yet were they made to stand, with respect 

 to us, in the light of separate and independent countries. This was 

 the keystone of the colonial doctrine. Why should we not, in turn, 

 adopt and apply it to Great Britain? If we stipulated not to impose 

 upon articles imported into the United States from the British West 

 Indies any higher duties than upon the same articles coming from 

 any other foreign country, a similar provision by Great Britain, to 

 impose on articles exported from the United States to her islands 

 no higher duties than on the same articles when brought from any 

 other foreign country, would obviously be one of but nominal reci- 

 procity; since, after her own dominions on the continent of America, 

 there was no other place whence such exportations lo her islands 

 would ever be made. Thus it was that this third provision, com- 

 bined with the two others, became necessary to enable the United 

 States, whilst prosecuting a trade with the British West Indies, to 

 place their navigation upon a footing, not of verbal merely, but of 

 real equality. It was the latter alone that could lay the foundations 

 of a compact between the two nations that could ever be satisfactory 

 or lasting. 



His lordship did not hold to such views, and the conversation was 

 not prolonged. It is proper for me to add, that he requested it to be 



