Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 161 
at the bottom of them With the revival of party spirit, 
it was charged, those who were opposed to the Administration 
were again found ''on the side of a foreign Power against their 
own Government, on the very first question of any practical 
moment that has arisen up between the two nations’'.^®® Little 
wonder that the London Courier and the London Times were 
reported to have come out for Jackson's election! On the 
question of colonial trade it was "General Jackson and Great 
Britain against Mr. Adams and the United States". 
The advocates of General Jackson, having circulated the idea that his 
election would be the means of restoring the Colonial Intercourse, and 
having, at the same time, asserted that the propositions of Great Britain 
are fair, and not to be rejected without the assumption of a severe re- 
sponsibility; the inference to be drawn by the British ministers and 
editor, is clear and irresistible, that General Jackson and his friends 
are prepared to accede to all which they offer or desire. Under these 
impressions is it to be a subject of surprise, that the Times and Courier 
should cry out in favor of General Jackson for next President? No. 
The ascendency of the commercial marine of Great Britain, and the 
perpetuation of her injurious monopoly, are questions deeply involved in 
the settlement of the Presidential contest.'^^^ 
Anyway, the Administration papers argued, the Opposition 
had unfairly exaggerated the whole question. They 
uniformly speak of the West India Trade, as if the whole were lost, 
whereas, when the British West India ports were, all of them, open, 
only one seventh part of our exports to the West India islands were 
sent to the British West Indies.^®^ 
And besides, the trade was still carried on indirectly : 
We have, since the loss of the W. India direct trade, EXPORTED MORE 
to the West Indies than we did in the corresponding months of last 
year, when the trade was open.^*^® 
Of course, it was not doubted that, "by permitting a direct 
trade upon terms prescribed by Great Britain, a few thou- 
sand dollars more might be made", but certainly "they could 
only be made at the sacrifice of the rights of our flag". 
Whether we have yet reached that point in the career of nations, where 
honour is balanced against gold, and the love of country is to be regu- 
lated and circumscribed by calculations of mere profit and loss, is a 
Neiv York American (for the country), March 20, 1827. 
Dmly National Intelligencer, April 5, 1827. 
National Journal, Sept. 11, 1827. 
185 Troy Sentinel in Daily National Intelligencer, July 23, 1827. 
^^^New York American (for the country), Sept. 28, 1827. ^ 
11—23811 
