CHAPTER IV. THE UNITED STATES OVERREACHES 
ITSELF 
Great Britain had at length been driven by the American 
navigation acts to make some concessions and to extend some 
privileges in her colonial trade to American shipping, but she 
had not done so unconditionally. The very act of Parliament 
which had granted these privileges had also bestowed upon 
the King in Council the power to deny them to any nation 
which did not extend reciprocal rights and privileges to Brit- 
ish shipping. In order that American vessels might not be 
denied these privileges, therefore, it was necessary that the 
United States should extend similar privileges to British ves- 
sels from the British American colonies. Power to do this by 
proclamation had been conferred upon the President by Con- 
gress before its adjournment. Consequently, as soon as the 
American Government learned of the final passage of the 
British act. Secretary of State Adams undertook to draft a 
proclamation suited to meet its conditions. 
Two important questions of detail at once confronted 
Adams in this task. The act of Congress, by whose authority 
the President's proclamation should be issued, spoke only of 
ports in the British islands or colonies in the West Indies; 
but the British act opened, in addition, certain ports in Lower 
Canada, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. 
Could the President under his authority open American ports 
to British vessels from these British American ports? The 
British act limited American vessels to a direct trade with the 
colonial ports, and permitted American vessels to import into 
these ports only articles of the growth, produce, or manufac- 
ture of the United States. Should British vessels be limited 
likewise to a direct trade between those colonies and the 
United States, and their cargoes confined to articles of the 
growth or produce of the colony from which they came?^ 
After consultation with President Monroe, Calhoun, and 
Rufus King, the author of the American act of May, 1822, it 
was eventually agreed that the intention of the act of Congress 
had been to authorize the President to proceed pari passu with 
the British Government, and that American ports should 
therefore be opened to British vessels from the enumerated 
"^Memoirs of John Quincy Adamsi, VI, 52, 53. 
( 87 ) 
