Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 37 
and literally rotting in the docks”. And all this at the same 
time that American ports were filled with British ships carry- 
ing away American productions, taking from American mer- 
chants the trade which once afforded the means of their liveli- 
hood and prosperity.^^ 
Undoubtedly, as was pointed out at the time,®® some of 
these deplorable effects were produced by the return of peace 
and the confusion incident thereto, together with the restora- 
tion to several European nations of their colonies and the par- 
ticipation of those nations in the commerce and carrying-trade 
of the world, which had been for a time divided between the 
United States and Great Britain. But the average American 
merchant and ship-owner thought usually of his exclusion 
from the British West Indies, and of the unprofitable compe- 
tition in the intercourse between Great Britain and the United 
States, and ascribed all his misfortune to the late commercial 
convention and the hated colonial system of his rivals. 
Up until this time the only measures by which the United 
States had counteracted the interdict of their vessels from the 
British colonies were a very moderate discriminating duty, 
first of forty-four cents, later increased to ninety-four cents 
a ton, upon all foreign shipping entering ports of the United 
States and an additional duty of 10 per cent on the merchan- 
dise imported in foreign vessels.®® Altho these discriminations 
had been removed from British vessels and goods entering 
the United States from British European ports by the con- 
vention of 1815, they still stood for British ships entering 
from the West Indies. Many argued, however, that these 
slight discriminations were not enough to offset the great ad- 
vantages which British merchants gained from their colonial 
system. President Madison was of the opinion that sooner 
or later the eastern states would ask for countervailing regu- 
lations.^® John Quincy Adams also as early as December, 
1815, was of the mind that Congress should “try a little the 
effect of exclusion on our side too”.^^ 
As a matter of fact, the demands for countervailing acts 
had begun soon after the conclusion of peace, even before the 
Speech of Cyrus King', Annals of Cong,, 14 Cong., 2 Sess., 781, 782. 
Speech of Bradbury, Ibid., 807. 
Speech of Cyrus King, Ibid., 781. Alexandria Gazette, Feb. 3, 1817. 
“British Colonial and Navigation System” {Am. Quart. Rev., II, 283). 
Writings of Gallatin, I, 652. 
■*1 Writings of John Quincy Adams, V, 443. 
