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Indiana University Studies 
The order itself was received in America with mingled feel- 
ings. Some of Adams’ friends were ‘‘profoundly alarmed for 
the administration” at the probable consequences of the order, 
interdicting as it did the trade between the United States and 
the British colonies in both hemispheres.^^ Webster urged 
that “some little statement” should be issued from Washing- 
ton to satisfy “the public” that the national interests had not 
been overlooked.^" The President, altho making light of the 
situation in public, asserting that “there must be something 
to stir the blood of the public, and it might as well be this as 
anything”, confessed in the privacy of his diary that it was 
“a new trial through which we are to pass and the issue of 
which is with higher powers”.^^ 
Among the public in general, perhaps the first reaction 
was the selfish regret that the order had been issued, since it 
was believed that it would mean a loss of trade to the United 
States. “By this measure”, said the Boston Daily Advertiser, 
“we are cut off from one of the markets for our surplus prod- 
uce, and from a considerable field for the employment of our 
shipping.”^^ This was the view held by the Albany Argus, 
the New York Enquirer, and the Richmond Enquirer, the 
latter pointing out that the exclusion of American staples from 
the West India ports would bear “very hardly upon the South- 
ern States”.^" With this feeling of regret was mingled the 
hope “that we are not again to witness . . . another legis- 
lative war at the expense of both nations”,^^ tho the Phila- 
delphia Gazette believed that in a “war of commercial re- 
strictions” the United States would have a great advantage 
over great Britain.^^ 
Then, as Webster early discovered, there were those who 
embraced this opportunity “to find fault” with the Adminis- 
tration and “to produce an impression that the national in- 
terests have, in this instance, been overlooked”.^" The fol- 
29 Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, VII, 149. 
30 Webster to Clay, Oct. 13, 1826, in Colton, Works of Henry Clay, IV, 150. 
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, VII, 150. 
32 Boston Daily Advertiser, Sept. 25, 1826. 
33 Albany Argus, Oct, 10, 1826. Netv York Enquirer quoted in Richmond Enquirer, 
Oct. 3, 1826. 
^^New York Evening Post quoted in Albany Argus, Oct. 13, 1826. Netv England 
Palladium, Sept. 26, 1826. Netv Hampshire Patriot, Oct. 2, 1826. 
^^Philadelphia Gazette, Sept. 27, 1826. 
36 Colton, Works of Henry Clay, IV, 150. 
