136 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., 



promptly and definitively announced to him. The foundation of this 

 determination was avowed to consist principally in the reiterated 

 refusals of this Government to accept of the only terms to which 

 Great Britain would agree, and a subsequent change of the Colonial 

 policy of that Government, by opening her Colonial Ports to all 

 Foreign Nations upon the conditions set forth in their Acts of Parlia- 

 ment. The whole subject was laid before Congress by the President 

 in the winter of 1827, and an unsuccessful attempt made to obtain the 

 passage of a Law requiring our Ports to be closed also. Congress 

 having adjourned without doing anything in the matter, the Presi- 

 dent, by his Proclamation dated the 17th day of March, 1827, declared 

 the trade between The United States and all the British Colonies, 

 with which it had been allowed by the Act of Parliament of 1822, 

 to be prohibited, and the Acts of Congress of 1818 and 1820 to be 

 revived. 



On the 16th of July, 1827, another British Order in Council was 

 issued, embracing the regulation of the Colonial trade of Great 

 Britain with all Nations; reciting the passage of an Act of Parlia- 

 ment, by which it was declared that one Year from the time of pass- 

 ing the Act of July, 1825, should be the period in which an acceptance 

 of its provisions by Foreign Nations should be valid; declaring what 

 Nations had so accepted the same, and closing their Ports against 

 all those that had not; among the latter, The United States were 

 included. 



The extent and operations of our Acts of 1818 and 1820 have been 

 before stated. The commercial relations between the United States 

 and the British Colonies have been regulated by their provisions, 

 and the British Order in Council of July, 1827, from that period to 

 the present day. By instructions from this Department of the llth 

 of April, 1827, Mr. Gallatin was authorized to announce to the Gov- 

 ernment of Great Britain the acquiesence of this, in the proposition 

 that the Colonial Trade should be regulated by Law, and to ascertain 

 the disposition of the British Government to open the Trade by sepa- 

 rate Acts of Legislation. This was distinctly done by Mr. Gallatin, 

 in his Note to Lord Dudley of the 4th of June, 1827. He was further 

 informed that the President was willing to recommend to Congress, 

 at its next Session ; 



1st. To suspend the alien Duties on British Vessels and Cargoes, 

 and to allow their entry into our Ports with the same kind of British 

 Colonial produce as may be imported in American Vessels the Ves- 

 sels of both Countries paying equal charges. 



2d. To abolish the restrictions in the Act of 1823 to the direct inter- 

 course between The United States and the British Colonies, thus 

 leaving Great Britain in the exclusive possession of the circuitous 

 Trade between Great Britain proper through her Colonies; and he 

 was directed to inquire whether the passage of an Act of Congress 

 to that effect would lead to the revocation of the Order in Council of 

 July, 1826, to the abolition of the discriminating Duties on American 

 Vessels in the British Colonial Ports, and to the enjoyment of our 

 Vessels of the advantages offered by the Act of the 5th of July, 1825. 

 The effect of these concessions, it was pointed out to him, would be 

 a waiver of the claim of The United States, as made in the Act of 

 March, 1823, to the admission into the Colonial Ports of our produce, 



