134 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



from their profession not for want of skill and abilities 

 in the art, for here they take the rank of every nation on 

 earth but from the local, chilling policy of foreign nations, 

 who shut us out from the avenues to market. If, instead 

 of protection from government, we extend to them oppres- 

 sion, I shudder for the consequences. ... I contend 

 they are poor; they are in a sinking state; they carry on 

 their business in despair. But gentlemen will ask us, 

 'Why, then, do not they quit the profession?' I answer, 

 in the words that are often used in the eastern country 

 respecting the inhabitants of Cape Cod they are too poor 

 to live there, and are too poor to remove. ' ' 1 



The act that was passed in 1789, in lieu of a drawback 

 of the duties imposed on the importation of salt employed 

 and expended in the curing of fish, allowed a bounty of five 

 cents on every quintal of dried fish, and the same sum on 

 every barrel of pickled fish, the product of the fisheries of 

 the United States, exported to any country. 2 This act in- 

 augurated the system of drawbacks or bounties which con- 

 tinued, with a single interruption, down to the reciprocity 

 treaty of 1854. In August, 1790, the allowances were in- 

 creased to ten cents a barrel on pickled fish, and the same 

 increase on dry fish per quintal. These acts continued in 

 force, with modifications contained in the acts of the 18th 

 of February and 8th of July, 1792, second of March, 1799, 

 12th of April, 1800, and were finally repealed by the aboli- 

 tion of the salt duty, March 3, 1807. There were no boun- 

 ties or allowances on vessels engaged in fishing from 1807 

 to July 13", 1813, when allowances to fishing vessels were 

 restored; these rates were increased by the act of March 

 3, 1819, and were in force for thirty-five years thereafter. 3 



However, the assistance that was given by the Congress 



1 Annals of Congress, I, pp. 291-335, passim. 



2 Tariff Acts, p. 11. 



3 Andrews' Report on Lake Trade, p. 633. 



