f m f 



loo 



foclly underslnnd wlmt is due to propriety; you have all ^-our life por- 

 fori! ed your dutios. I pray you to consider how 3'ou propose to fulfil 

 thc>so which arc due to the Kin,<2:." 



The policy ofEnglnnd towards the people "who assumed an inde- 

 pendency which separated them from her sovereignly" was soon devel- 

 oped. An order in council was promulgated by proclamation in July, 

 1783, prohibiting American fish from being carried to the British West 

 Indies. This order was regarded as the result of loyalist or "tory" 

 iiilluence. It was probably so, and was not only aimed at our fish- 

 eries, but intended to encourage those of Nova Scotia and other British 

 possessions north and east of the United States. An extensive trade 

 was thus destroyed. While colonies, the New England States had 

 bart(n-ed their "West India, fish" for sugar, rum, and molasses, w^ith 

 the planters of the British islands, with pr(,)fit to all parties. Congress 

 declared that retaliatory measures were necessary, in order that Amer- 

 ican commerce should not pass into the hands of foreigners ; and asked 

 to be invested with powers from the States to provide lor the exigency. 

 But no adequate authority was or could be conferred upon the confed- 

 eracy. The restrictive policy thus commenced was long continued; 

 nor was the vexed question of our commercial relations with the pos- 

 sessions of England in this hemisphere adjusted for nearly half a cen- 

 tury. 



We pass to notice the proceedings of the convention that framed the 

 constitution of the United States. Those relating to our subject, though 

 transmitted in mere allusions, are still significant and important. 



Thus upon the proposition that "no treaty shall be madc> without the 

 consent of two-thirds of the members present," and upon Mr. Madison's 

 suggestion to " except treaties of peace," Mr. Gerry was of the opinion 

 that in such treaties a greater, rather than a less, proportion of votes 

 should be required, for the reason that, in terminating hostilities, our 

 ^'^(harest ififcrests icill he at sidle, as the ji slier ics, territories,'''' ^'c. So, too, 

 Mr. Gouverneur Morris* expressed the sentiment that " if two-thirds of 

 the Senate should be required for peace, the legislature will be unwill- 

 ing to make one for that reason, on account of the fisheries or the Missis- 

 sippi — the tivo great objects of the Union.''^ 



The records of the discussions in the conventions of the different 

 States for the adoption or rejection of the constitution are less frag- 

 mentary. In that of South Carolina, Charles Cotesworlh Pinckney, in 

 reply to some ill-natured remarks against New England, generously s id 

 that, in the Rtnolutioii, "the eastern States had lost everything but their 

 country and freedom ;" that "it was notorious that some ports at the 

 eastward which used to lit out one hundred and fifty sail of" vessels do 

 not now fit out thirty; that their trade of sliip-bnilding, which used to 

 be very considerable, was now annihilated ; iliat their fisheries were 

 trifling, and their mariners in want of bread ;" and that the South were 



* linn. fioiivcmcurMorriHw.iH n son of LewiM Mnrris. onoof tli<' siijncrs of rtio Pcclnration of 

 In(l<'i)i'n(li'iiro. He WAS a iiK'intjiT ot" tlif (JontiiH'iital ("ongrcss, imd iif llir convention wliicli 

 fi-iinicd flic coiisiiiuiion of'ilic rnircd .Stiitcs. In Wjishiiiijron's iidniiiiistriirion ln' was minister 

 to France. Ilcdit-d at Morrisauia, Nuw York, iu J^^Ki, a;;cd(31. lie possessed the conlideuco 

 of \Vasliiii<,'tou. 



