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Indiana University Studies 
An experiment is in operation by this country to compel Great 
Britain to relinquish her colonial system. We wish it might succeed; for 
the freer commerce is, the better we doubt not for the world. But our 
system has now gone several years without that effect: the British col- 
onists are more and more enured to the privations to which it subjects 
them, and the prospect of producing the desired result seems as distant 
as at first. Should it eventually fail, the system will perhaps be suffered 
to expire by its own limitation. In the mean time it may be more 
proper, more dignified, to make a thorough trial, than to shrink from the 
measure, and suddenly repeal a law which was very deliberately adopted. 
This latter expedient is desired by our Southern brethren, who have no 
shipping and naturally desire to have their produce freighted at the 
cheapest rate, whether by foreign or our own vessels; it is at the same 
time opposed in this quarter, as the present navigation laws secure to 
our own ships the carrying of whatever supplies the British Islands 
must of necessity have from this country, by whatever indirect and cir- 
cuitous course.'*”® 
The deluge of memorials, resolutions, and petitions from 
various parts of the Atlantic states called for some action on 
the part of Congress. The matter was brought to a head in 
the Senate when Senator Lloyd, after presenting the memorial 
of the Chamber of Commerce of Baltimore, offered a resolution 
that the Committee on Foreign Relations be instructed to in- 
quire into the expediency of removing the restrictions on 
American commerce which were imposed by the acts of 1818 
and 1820.“® This committee, of which Rufus King was chair- 
man, in a long report vindicated the expediency and policy 
of the restrictive system, and recommended that the committee 
be discharged from the further consideration of the subject. 
The general attitude of the committee was revealed in the con- 
cluding words of the report : 
We are ready to abandon the restrictions on the English navigation 
as soon as England manifests a disposition to give up the restrictions 
which she was the first to impose on our navigation.'*” 
This report of the committee was almost unanimously adopted 
by the Senate.^^ 
Similar action was taken in the House of Representatives. 
Here the various memorials were referred to the Committee 
on Commerce of which Colonel Newton of Virginia was chair- 
man. In spite of all the agitation which had taken place 
^0® Saicm Gazette, Feb. 22, 1822. 
Annals of Cong., 17 Cong., 1 Sess., I, 224, 241. 
Reports of Com. on For. Rel., IV, 528-531. Annals of Cong., 17 Cong., 1 Sess., I, 
293-297. 
“2 Niles' Register, XXIV. 105. 
