COMMEKCIAL AGREEMENT OP 1830. 141 



avowed motive for the stand taken by Great Britain in relation to 

 the Colonial trade. This is a subject on which each Nation must 

 judge for itself. It is one upon which, it is well known, there exists 

 great diversity of opinion among our own Citizens, but in respect to 

 which no stipulations can be made with a Foreign Power; at least 

 without reciprocal engagements on the part of such Power-engage- 

 ments into which there is no reason to believe that the Government 

 of Great Britain would at this time enter. If by the imposition of 

 those duties, The United States can secure the production of the 

 same articles at home, it is their right and their duty to persevere. 

 If not, the principal burthen falls upon their own Citizens, and con- 

 sequently furnishes no cause of complaint on the part of others. 



If the encouragement, by Great Britain, of her North American 

 Possessions in the growth and production of similar articles to those 

 with which we supply her West India Colonies, is the motive, the 

 objection is no less obvious. To that end, the parent Government 

 now exercises, without complaint or objection on our part, the com- 

 mon right of imposing higher Duties on articles which are not, than 

 on those which are, the growth or produce of their North American 

 Possessions; and in doing so she exercises to the full the right con- 

 ceded to all Nations, of encouraging home productions, by the impo- 

 sition of protecting Duties. The exclusion of one Nation from the 

 privilege of bringing into the Ports of another, articles that come 

 in competition with home productions, whilst their introduction 

 is conceded to the rest of the World, is a measure which cannot find 

 its justification in any principles applicable to the protective system. 

 If. however, the President should be disappointed in his expecta- 

 tions, founded on these and other corresponding views of the subject, 

 he wishes you to ask (a request which he is confident will be readily 

 granted) that you may be favored with an early and definitive 

 answer to the propositions you are authorized to submit. He makes 

 this appeal to the candor of the British Government, that he may be 

 enabled (in the event alluded to) to lay before Congress, at the com- 

 mencement of the next Session, the result of this overture, to the end 

 that that portion of the capital and enterprise of our Country which 

 is now waiting the decision of the question may seek other channels 

 of employment. Should your advances be met in the spirit in which 

 they are offered, it will become important to consider of the form 

 in which the proposed adjustment ought to be made. 



This Government has heretofore strenuously contended for an 

 arrangement by Treaty, and that of Great Britain has as strenuously 

 opposed any other mode than that of separate legislation. The Presi- 

 dent is willing to adopt either mode. If the views of the British 

 Government are now different in that respect, and an arrangement by 

 Treaty be acceptable, you are authorized to conclude it upon the prin- 

 ciples of these Instructions. In that event, the President relies upon 

 your known discretion and intelligence that the Articles to which you 

 agree shall be in such form as will carry into full and fair effect the 

 views of this Government as now expressed. 



If, (which is more probable) a resort to mutual legislation is pre- 

 ferred, the consideration of the mode best calculated for the satis- 

 faction of both parties will occupy your attention. 



That may be effected in one of two ways, viz; either by an Order 

 in Council, opening the British Ports to American Vessels after a 



