52 
Indiana University Studies 
Public opinion in favor of the measure was even more in 
evidence this year than it had been for the similar measure 
in the year preceding. The bill was ‘‘precisely what was 
wanted'’, said a Maine editor.^®® A Boston editor considered 
it “justified by the laws of fair retaliation” and generally ap- 
proved, while Niles maintained that the United States had 
passed the “age of childhood” in which it might have prudently 
submitted to the operation of a rule that would not work both 
ways, and had arrived at a degree of maturity sufficient to 
enable it to march pari passu with foreign nations in full reci- 
procity. The Connecticut Journal wished to see such a pol- 
icy adopted as would secure to American seamen equal privi- 
leges with those of every other nation, questioning only 
whether such policy was practical at that time.^°^ The Daily 
National Intelligencer, however, believed the necessity for the 
act to be so apparent as to overcome the reluctance to pass it 
which had caused its postponement at the preceding session.^®® 
Apparently this was true, for the more far-reaching bill 
was passed in the Senate with only two dissenting votes, these 
coming from Virginia and New Jersey. The House withdrew 
its bill in favor of the Senate measure which was passed by 
a vote of 123 to 16. Of the opposing votes, six came from 
states having considerable shipping interests, while the rest 
were from agricultural states, seven from the South, three 
from the Northwest. Apparently no clear-cut division was 
made on the basis of section. 
While the act might not “interweave itself with the feeh 
ing of every portion of the community”, it was joyously ac- 
claimed by the shipping centers.^®® According to one New 
York paper, it was so much in accord with the views and 
wishes of the ship-owners and merchants that they intended 
to make a public expression of their satisfaction.^°^ In Salem 
it was believed that every patriotic citizen must be proud that 
the Government had at last assumed a firm and dignified atti- 
tude toward its navigation, and a New Hampshire paper ap- 
Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, VI, 142. 
Columbian Centincl, April 11, 1818. Boston Commercial Gazette, April 13, 1818. 
Niles’ Register, XIV, 106, 107. 
Connecticut Jouimal, March 17, 1818. 
100 Daily National Intelligencer, April 13, 1818. 
101 Annals of Cong., 15 Cong., 1 Sess., 341, 1720. 
10“ Daily National Intelligencer, May 5, 1818, and May 2, 1818. 
100 New York Merchantile Advertiser quoted in Providence Patriot, May 2, 1818. 
