132 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., 



British American Colonies on the same footing. The Government of 

 Great Britain would not then consent to that arrangement, and it 

 was consequently stipulated in the Treaty, that the intercourse be- 

 tween The United States and His Britannic Majesty's Possessions in 

 the West Indies, and on the Continent of North America, should not 

 be affected by any of its provisions, and that each Party should re- 

 main in complete possession of its respective rights with regard to 

 such intercourse. The trade and intercourse between The United 

 States and the British Colonies, previous to and at that time, were 

 only such as were permitted by British legislation, or regulation by 

 Orders in Council. It had always been of a restricted and unequal 

 character, and every previous attempt to place it upon just terms 

 had wholly failed. Since 1815, both Governments have uniformly 

 admitted it to be their belief, that a commercial intercourse between 

 The United States and the British Colonial Possessions referred to, 

 upon terms of fair reciprocity, would promote their mutual interests. 



To establish it upon such terms has always been the sincere object 

 of this Country, and until a very late period, the avowed wish of 

 Great Britain. 



The 12 years which have elapsed have, with occasional intermission, 

 been employed in endeavors to arrange those terms by negotiation, 

 or to secure them through the agency of separate legislative Enact- 

 ments; and although the 2 Governments have more than once con- 

 curred in each other's views, as to the conditions to which they would 

 assent, their respective Acts have resulted in the almost entire sup- 

 pression of the trade. Since the 1st December, 1826, there has been 

 a total non-intercourse between The United States and the British 

 American Colonies in British Vessels, and the same in regard to 

 American Vessels, (with the exception of the permission allowed to 

 the latter, to carry on a direct trade with the British North American 

 Possessions, the Bahama Islands, and the Island of Anguilla, upon 

 terms prescribed by Great Britain alone.) The Acts of the 2 Gov- 

 ernments which have led to this result are so intimately connected 

 with the positions which they respectively occupy, and of a nature 

 calculated to have so much influence on the measures of conciliation 

 and redress which may be adopted, as to render it important that 

 they should be fully known and accurately understood. Your par- 

 ticipation in the public Councils has given you a general view of 

 their principal outlines; but it is thought advisable to furnish you 

 with a more particular exposition than the opportunities you have 

 enjoyed would allow you to obtain. A very brief sketch of such 

 as are most prominent is, with this view, submitted to you. 



The direct trade between The United States and Great Britain was 

 found to be so interwoven with, and dependent upon, that between 

 The United States and the Colonies, as, in a great measure, to de- 

 prive the former of the advantages intended to be secured to them 

 by the Treaty of 1815, so long as the intercourse with the Colonies 

 was monopolized by British Navigators. Several efforts were conse- 

 quently made, between the years 1815 and 1818, to induce the British 

 Government to adjust this collision of interests by amicable nego- 

 tiation. They were unsuccessful. In 1817, a proposition was sub- 

 mitted to our Minister at London by the Secretary of State for For- 

 eign Affairs. Lord Castlereagh, which was said to contain all that 



