Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 113 
in these new acts— and they were never officially communi- 
cated to the American Government^® — in spite of their more 
or less obvious aims and probable effects upon the United 
States, it certainly behooved the latter to take some action re- 
garding them if it wished to safeguard its trade with the Brit- 
ish colonies, as the act specifically stated that the privileges 
in the colonies were to be limited to those powers only which 
extended certain privileges to Great Britain in return. Two 
courses were open to the United States Government to meet 
this situation : either immediately to resume the negotiations 
suspended in 1824 in an endeavor to arrange a satisfactory 
settlement between the two countries by convention before 
January 5, 1826; or to prepare to legislate upon the subject 
soon after Congress should convene. 
The former course was the one favored by the American 
Administration. Both Adams and Clay were reported to be 
decidedly of opinion, that, after ten years unavailing efforts by legis- 
lation, ... it would be wiser and better to leave the attempt to 
be made to adjust it upon fair and equal principles, by convention, than 
to surrender at once the whole game; give to the British a carte 
blanche; take away all the offsets we have to offer, and admit them in 
our ports precisely on the same terms as our own vessels, or those of 
the most favored nation are admitted, while they placed the admission 
of our produce into their ports, on terms so disadvantageous as to give 
a full freight, and beyond it, to the like articles, when imported into 
the West Indies from elsewhere; that is, from Canada, Nova Scotia and 
New Brunswick, and have excluded altogether some of the principal 
staples of some of the states . . 
More than a year had already elapsed since the British 
Government had submitted its proposals regarding the colo- 
nial trade for reference to the American Government, and as 
yet no action had been taken by the latter. Rush had been 
recalled and his place had been taken by Rufus King, but no 
instructions had been given to the new minister in regard to 
the British proposals. The suspicion is aroused that perhaps 
the American Government was content to let the matter drag 
along as it was, especially since, under the mutual discriminat- 
ing duties, American vessels monopolized most of the trade 
between the United States and the British West Indies. But 
even after the new British regulations had been passed with 
the threat of excluding the ships of those countries which 
Richardson, Messages and Papers, II, 355. 
On authority of Senator Lloyd, in Register of Debates, II, Pt. 1, p. 588. 
8—23811 
