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was not the less effectual for being indirect/® And yet here 
again, Adams appears to be attempting to obtain for Amer- 
ican ships the advantages which British vessels had when en- 
gaged in commerce within the British empire. 
Meanwhile, since the privileges extended by the President’s 
proclamation would expire with the close of that present ses- 
sion of Congress, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 
had been considering the draft of a bill which should meet the 
British act of 1822. In maturing this bill they had before 
them that act of Parliament, the President’s proclamation, and 
the correspondence between Canning and Adams concerning 
it.®® They were therefore cognizant of the complaints which 
the British minister had already made. On January 18, 1823, 
the bill as finally drawn up was reported to the Senate which, 
in the course of the following month, passed it with little dis- 
cussion and no modification. Being transmitted to the House, 
it was passed within two weeks by that body without amend- 
ment.®^ 
The chief features of this act, which gave unmistakable 
evidence of the guiding hand of Adams, provided: (1) that 
ports of the United States should be open to any British ves- 
sel coming directly from any of the enumerated British colo- 
nial ports, and that the importation in such vessel of any 
articles of any of those colonies should be permitted provided 
articles of a like nature from elsewhere were not prohibited 
by law, and provided that they might be exported from the 
enumerated ports to the United States on equal terms in ves- 
sels of either state; (2) that 
on proof being given to the President of the United States, satisfactory 
to him, that, upon the vessels of the United States admitted into the 
above enumerated British colonial ports, and upon any goods, wares, or 
merchandise, imported therein, in the said vessels, no other or higher 
duties of tonnage or impost, and no other charges of any kind, are 
levied or exacted than upon British vessels, or upon the like goods, 
wares, and merchandise, imported into the said colonial ports from else- 
where, 
the President might issue a proclamation, declaring that no 
other or higher duty of impost or tonnage should be levied on 
British vessels from the enumerated colonial ports, or upon 
goods imported in such vessels, than upon American vessels 
Am. State Papers, For. Rel., VI, 228, 220. 
20 Ibid. 
^Annals of Cong., 17 Cong., 2 Sess., I, 102, 224, 331, 960, 1070, 1121. 
