Preface 
The great importance of the British West India carrying- 
trade to the merchants of the North American colonies dur- 
ing the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has long been 
recognized. The success of the American Revolution, how- 
ever, placed the United States outside the British colonial 
system and brought the legal exclusion of American ships 
from the remaining British colonies. But, since American 
merchants were reluctant to lose this valuable trade, they 
induced their Government to undertake to recover it for them. 
The purpose of this study is to trace the diplomatic and legis- 
lative struggle waged by the United States Government in 
the attempt to regain for American merchants the right to 
participate in the trade between the United States and the 
British colonies in the West Indies. 
This campaign of the American Government began with 
the negotiations leading to the treaty of peace in 1783 and 
continued for nearly a half-century thereafter; but for vari- 
ous reasons it became a real struggle only during the years 
from 1815 to 1830. This study is therefore concentrated on 
the later period, and the preceding campaign from 1783 to 
the War of 1812 is but briefly sketched in an introductory 
chapter. Following this, one chapter is devoted to each of 
the five more or less distinct phases into which the struggle 
proper falls. During these later years the question con- 
stantly aroused suspicion, jealousy, fear, and enmity on each 
side of the Atlantic; threats and rumors of war were heard 
in both countries in the heat of the discussions. Not until 
the final settlement of the question by the Reciprocity of 1830 
did the carrying-trade between the United States and the 
British West Indies cease to constitute a persistent, disturb- 
ing factor in Anglo-American relations. 
My research in this particular field of history was under- 
taken at the suggestion of Professor George Hubbard Blakes- 
lee of Clark University. To him I am indebted for helpful 
guidance in the search for material, and for careful reading 
and stimulating criticism of the original manuscript. For 
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