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. With many, therefore, the desire of counteracting a system which appeared to them so injurious, triumphed over their attachment to state sovereignty; and the converts to the opinion that congress ought to be empowered to regulate trade, were daily multiplied. Meanwhile, the United States were unremitting in their endeavours to form commercial treaties in Europe. Three commissioners had been appointed for that purpose; and at length, as the trade with England was peculiarly important, and the growing misunderstandings between the two countries threatened serious consequences should their adjustment be much longer delayed, Mr. John Adams was appointed minister plenipotentiary to the court of St. James. His endeavours to form a commercial treaty were not successful. His overtures were declined by the cabinet of London, because the government of the United States was unable to secure the observance of any general commercial regulations; and it was deemed unwise to enter into stipulations which could not be of reciprocal obligation. In fact, it is not probable that, had even this difficulty been surmounted, Britain could have been induced to grant advantages that would have been satisfactory to America. The latter expected great relaxations of the navigation act, and a free admission into the colonies of the former; and believed its commerce of sufficient importance to obtain these objects, if it could be regulated by a single legislature. The reflecting part of America did not require this additional evidence of the sacrifice which had been made of national interest on the altars of state jealousy, to demonstrate the defectiveness of the existing system. On the mind of no person had this impression been more strongly made, than on that of General Washington. His extensive correspondence bears ample testimony to the solicitude with which he contemplated the proceedings of the states on this interesting subject. The opinion he sought to inculcate was, that the trade between the United States and Great Britain was equally important to each; and therefore, that a commercial intercourse between the two nations might be established on equal terms, if the political arrangements in America would enable its government to guard its interests; but without such arrangements, those interests could not be protected, and America must appear in a very contemptible point of view to those with whom she was endeavouring to form commercial
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