Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 39 
fair experiment and had been found wanting ; that more bene- 
ficial results could be accomplished “by the mild and clement 
sun of regulation, than by the fierce and rude winds of exclu- 
sion and prohibition'’.^® As a result of various amendments, 
therefore, the pointed reference to Great Britain was with- 
drawn and the resolution softened to read : 
That the Committee on Foreign Relations be instructed to inquire 
into the expediency of excluding from the ports of the United States or 
of increasing the duties on, all foreign vessels owned in, coming from, 
bound to, or touching at, any of the possessions of any nation of Europe 
in the West Indies and on the continent of America, from which the ves- 
sels of the United States are excluded; and prohibiting or of increasing 
the duties on the importation in foreign vessels, of any articles the 
growth, produce, or manufacture of such possessions.^^ 
The Committee on Foreign Relations was more in accord 
with Cyrus King’s point of view than with that of the House 
and, not attempting to conceal its purpose in general language, 
recommended that no importations be permitted from British 
colonies in America or the British West India islands, but in 
American vessels.^^ But Cyrus King and the Committee on 
Foreign Relations were in advance of public opinion. The 
country at large had little enthusiasm for this viewpoint, 
displaying rather a general apathy on the subject with at 
times even some opposition.^^ The effects of British competi- 
tion apparently had not yet been severely enough or long 
enough felt to lead Americans in general to be eager to embark 
anew upon a course of restriction after having so recently 
emerged from a war with Great Britain, the foundation of 
which had been laid by a resolution in the House at the insti- 
gation of commercial meetings in different seaport towns.®® 
The House, too, apparently adhered to its own point of view 
for the report was laid on the table and the committee dis- 
charged from further consideration of the resolution.®^ The 
attempt to secure laws retaliating the British colonial trade 
restrictions therefore failed. 
Probably the majority of Americans were more in sympa- 
thy with the resolution of Senator Rufus King of New York, 
46 /bid., 880, 919. 
4^ Ibid., 918. 
48 /bid., 1376. 
46 Letter from one of Mr. King’s constituents in Boston Daily Advertiser, Feb. 
16, 1816. 
50 Annals of Cong., 14 Cong., 1 Sess., 883. 
61 /bid., 1376. 
