d British America, insular and continental, important to the
inhabitants of both countries; but it had been interdicted by Great
Britain upon a principle heretofore practiced upon by the colonizing
nations of Europe, of holding the trade of their colonies each in
exclusive monopoly to herself. After the termination of the late war
this interdiction had been revived, and the British Government declined
including this portion of our intercourse with her possessions in the
negotiation of the convention of 1815. The trade was then carried on
exclusively in British vessels till the act of Congress, concerning
navigation, of 1818 and the supplemental act of 1820 met the interdict
by a corresponding measure on the part of the United States. These
measures, not of retaliation, but of necessary self-defense, were soon
succeeded by an act of Parliament opening certain colonial ports to the
vessels of the United States coming directly from them, and to the
importation from them of certain articles of our produce burdened with
heavy duties, and excluding some of the most valuable articles of our
exports. The United States opened their ports to British vessels from
the colonies upon terms as exactly corresponding with those of the act
of Parliament as in the relative position of the parties could be made,
and a negotiation was commenced by mutual consent, with the hope on our
part that a reciprocal spirit of accommodation and a common sentiment of
the importance of the trade to the interests of the inhabitants of the
two countries between whom it must be carried on would ultimately bring
the parties to a compromise with which both might be satisfied. With
this view the Government of the United States had determined to
sacrifice something of that entire reciprocity which in all commercial
arrangements with foreign powers they are entitled to demand, and to
acquiesce in some inequalities disadvantageous to ourselves rather than
to forego the benefit of a final and permanent adjustment of this
interest to the satisfaction of Great Britain herself. The negotiation,
repeatedly suspended by accidental circumstances, was, however, by
mutual agreement and express assent, considered as pending and to be
speedily resumed. In the meantime another act of Parliament, so doubtful
and ambiguous in its import as to have been misunderstood by the
officers in the colonies who were to carry it into execution, opens
again certain colonial ports upon new