Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 33 
As soon as the contents of the convention became known 
in the United States, a universal outcry was voiced against it 
by Federalist newspapers which rejoiced at the opportunity 
to avenge the attacks which had formerly been made upon the 
Jay Treaty. Their criticisms as a rule were general in nature, 
usually contrasting the new convention to its disadvantage 
with the earlier efforts of Jay and of Monroe and Pinkney.^® 
Occasionally the failure to regulate the British West India 
trade was pointed out,^^ the Connecticut Courant accomplish- 
ing this most effectively by printing the following excerpt to 
remind President Madison of his speech at the time of the rati- 
fication of the Jay Treaty : 
I never could have believed, that the time was so near, when all the 
principles, claims, and calculations which have heretofore prevailed 
among all classes of people were to be so completely renounced. A 
treaty of commerce with Great Britain excluding a reciprocity for our 
vessels in the West India trade, is a phenomenon which fills one with more 
surprise than I know how to express."'^ 
Altho there was chagrin and disappointment at the failure 
of the convention to secure for American shipping participa- 
tion in the British West India trade, it was little realized at 
the time that the loss of this trade might be detrimental to 
Americans in the trade between British European ports and 
the United States. Apparently the men who negotiated the 
convention failed to understand its possible operation in con- 
nection with the British colonial system. Still, in one or two 
cases it was very soon pointed out that the reciprocity which 
had been established in the commercial intercourse between the 
two countries was more apparent than real.^^ 
As a matter of course, the strict enforcement of the British 
colonial system had a very noticeable effect on that part of 
American shipping which had formerly been engaged princi- 
pally in trade with the British West Indies. Three-fourths 
of the tonnage employed in this trade for the year 1816 was 
Daily Federal Republican (Georgetown), Dec. 28, 1815. Columbian Centinel 
(Boston), Dec. 30, 1815. Neivport Mercury, Dec, 30, 1815. Massachusetts Spy (Wor- 
cester), Jan. 3, 1816. Boston Commercial Gazette, Jan. 1, 1816. United States Gazette 
(Phila.) in Boston Daily Advertiser, Jan. 9, 1816. Alexandria Gazette, Jan. 18, 1816. 
Newport Mercury, Dec. 30, 1815. Daily Federal Republican, Dec. 28, 1815. 
20 Connecticut Courant, March 5, 1816. 
21 Lije and Correspondence of Rufus King, VI, 42. 
New York Evening Post, Jan. 8, 1816. Netv York Commercial Advertiser quoted 
in Boston Daily Advertiser, Jan. 15. 1816. 
3—23811 
