26 
Indiana University Studies 
had been impressed upon them by American writers/^ This 
seems quite probable for the British Government soon author- 
ized the opening of British North American ports to receive 
articles from the United States for re-exportation to the West 
IndiesA^ 
But the embargo had not been a year in force before some 
of the American congressmen themselves became alarmed over 
the project. A representative from Maryland bewailed the 
fact that, relative to the ninety-day prediction, ‘'double the 
number of days have elapsed, and they hold out insulting lan- 
guage”.^® A senator from Massachusetts, at the same time, 
discovered that “instead of reducing the West Indies by fam- 
ine, the planters in the West Indies . . . were enabled . . . 
in a great measure to depend upon themselves for their own 
means of subsistence”.^'^ A brother senator from Connecticut, 
adding his voice to the chorus, pointed out that the West In- 
dies were turning to South America for their needs, that they 
were finding out that they were not dependent upon the United 
States for the means of subsistence and that “the only conse- 
quence would be and that too surely felt, that we should lose 
our market; the embargo thus producing not only present 
privation and injury but permanent mischief”.'^® 
On the other hand, John Quincy Adams states that during 
the embargo the governors of the islands issued proclamations 
inviting American vessels, promising that the regular papers 
should not be required for their admission, and encouraging 
them to violate all laws of the United States to carry them 
supplies.^® And from various speeches in Congress the in- 
formation is gleaned that in the British West Indies prices 
of those products which were usually obtained from the United 
States were increased enormously, flour for instance being 
from $30 to $50 a barrel. According to a resident of St. Croix, 
which was at that time in the possession of Great Britain, 
from the commencement of the embargo to the conclusion 
of the War of 1812, no less than 7,000 slaves perished from 
hunger and bad provisions.^® A writer from St. Bartholomew's 
Benton, Abridgements of the Debates in Cong., IV, 9. 
Am. State Papers, For. ReL, IV, 411. 
Benton, Abridgements of the Debates in Congress, IV, 67. 
"'Ubid., IV, 9. 
'^Ibid., IV, 6. 
"'^Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, III, 393. 
s*’ Awi. State Papers, For. ReL, V, 9. 
