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Indiana University Studies 
threatened with by the new Navigation System of the United 
States'', and praying for some measures to avert them.®^ Later 
the merchants of Jamaica joined those of New Providence in 
petitioning the British Privy Council to make the latter island 
a depot for a trade with the United States because of the 
conveniences and benefits which would accrue to Jamaica from 
such a measure.®^ Occasionally governors of the various 
islands, under pressure of dire necessity, took matters into 
their own hands. The Governor of St. Lucia, in consequence 
of the destruction of native provisions by an excessive drought, 
issued a proclamation, opening the port of Castries to any 
vessels laden with provisions or lumber “the growth and 
produce of the United States of America" altho such vessels 
might not he furnished with a register or clearance from the 
port whence they came, or with any other papers whatever, 
except a general manifest of cargo” During the next year 
the Virgin Islands, St. Christopher, and Nevis were opened 
under much the same circumstances and in much the same 
way.^® 
There were, therefore, toward the close of the year 1819, 
three reasons which might be advanced for the enactment of 
a more vigorous measure of retaliation against the British 
colonial system. First, the general need for some coercive 
action still existed : Great Britain continued to adhere to her 
colonial laws, and had spurned the American offer of reci- 
procity in the West India trade. Second, the former naviga- 
tion act had proved to lack sufficient coercive power: it had 
been neutralized to a great degree by British regulation. Third, 
evidence was not lacking that a more vigorous measure on the 
part of the American Government would work such havoc 
among the West India planters as to compel Great Britain 
to let down the bars of her colonial system for their relief: 
even the defective act of 1818 had provoked cries for relief 
from these same planters. 
Actuated by these motives, perhaps, or, what is more 
likely, by his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, Presi- 
dent Monroe, having pointed out that the American efforts 
53 Niles* Register, XV, 156. Daily National Intelligencer, Oct. 21, 1818. 
Neio Providence Gazette quoted in St. George's Chronicle and Grenada Gazette, 
Aug. 7, 1819. 
Daily National Intelligencer, Oct. 21, 1818. 
Boston Daily Advertiser, Nov. 8, 1819, Nov. 15, 1819. Columbian Centinel, Nov. 
17, 1819. 
