the national
sentiment concerning them, are to be found the origin of a course of
action which led to the War of 1812.

Under the Navigation Act, and throughout the colonial period, the
transatlantic colonies of Great Britain had grown steadily; developing
a commercial individuality of their own, depending in each upon local
conditions. The variety of these, with the consequent variety of
occupations and products, and the distance separating all from the
mother country, had contributed to develop among them a certain degree
of mutual dependence, and consequent exchange; the outcome of which
was a commercial system interior to the group as a whole, and distinct
from the relations to Great Britain borne by them individually and
collectively. There was a large and important intercolonial
commerce,[38] consistent with the letter of the Navigation Act, as
well as a trade with Great Britain; and although each of these exerted
an influence upon the other, it was indirect and circuitous. The two
were largely separate in fact, as well as in idea; and the interchange
between the various colonies was more than double that with the mother
country. It drew in British as well as American seamen, and was
considered thus to entail the disadvantage that, unless America were
the scene of war, the crews there were out of reach of impressment;
that measure being too crude and unsystematic to reach effectively so
distant a source of supply. Curiously enough, also, by an act passed
in the reign of Queen Anne, seamen born in the American colonies were
exempted from impressment.[39] "During the late Civil War (of American
Independence) it has been found difficult sufficiently to man our
fleet, from the seamen insisting that, since they had been born in
America, they could not be pressed to serve in the British navy."[40]
In these conditions, and especially in the difficulty of
distinguishing the place of birth by the language spoken, is seen the
foreshadowing of the troubles attending the practice of Impressment,
after the United States had become a separate nation.

The British American colonies were divided by geographical conditions
into two primary groups: those of the West India Islands, and those of
the Continent. The common use of the latter term, in the thought and
speech of the day, is indicated by the comprehensive adjective
"Continental," familiarly applied to the Congress, troops, currency,
and other attributes of sovereignty, a