ng the Revolution was
that of Captain Robert Gray in the Columbia, which was the first ship
to visit and explore the northwest coast and to lead the way for such
adventurers as Richard Cleveland and Amasa Delano. On his second voyage
in 1792, Captain Gray discovered the great river he christened Columbia
and so gave to the United States its valid title to that vast territory
which Lewis and Clark were to find after toiling over the mountains
thirteen years later.

CHAPTER VI. "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS"

When the first Congress under the new Federal Constitution assembled
in 1789, a spirit of pride was manifested in the swift recovery and the
encouraging growth of the merchant marine, together with a concerted
determination to promote and protect it by means of national
legislation. The most imperative need was a series of retaliatory
measures to meet the burdensome navigation laws of England, to give
American ships a fair field and no favors. The Atlantic trade was
therefore stimulated by allowing a reduction of ten per cent of the
customs duties on goods imported in vessels built and owned by American
citizens. The East India trade, which already employed forty New England
ships, was fostered in like manner. Teas brought direct under the
American flag paid an average duty of twelve cents a pound while teas in
foreign bottoms were taxed twenty-seven cents. It was sturdy protection,
for on a cargo of one hundred thousand pounds of assorted teas from
India or China, a British ship would pay $27,800 into the custom house
and a Salem square-rigger only $10,980.

The result was that the valuable direct trade with the Far East was
absolutely secured to the American flag. Not content with this, Congress
decreed a system of tonnage duties which permitted the native owner to
pay six cents per ton on his vessel while the foreigner laid down fifty
cents as an entry fee for every ton his ship measured, or thirty cents
if he owned an American-built vessel. In 1794, Congress became even more
energetic in defense of its mariners and increased the tariff rates on
merchandise in foreign vessels. A nation at last united, jealous of its
rights, resentful of indignities long suffered, and intelligently alive
to its shipping as the chief bulwark of prosperity, struck back with
peaceful weapons and gained a victory of incalculable advantage.
Its Congress, no longer feeble and divided, laid the foundations for
American greatness