as
entertained by the king and approved by many people. There was an
intention of humiliating the Americans, and it was commonly said that
under a sufficient weight of commercial distress the states would break
up their feeble union, and come straggling back, one after another, to
their old allegiance. The fiery spirit of Adams could ill brook this
contemptuous treatment of the nation which he represented. Though he
favoured very liberal commercial relations with the whole world, he
could see no escape from the present difficulties save in systematic
retaliation. "I should be sorry," he said, "to adopt a monopoly, but,
driven to the necessity of it, I would not do things by halves.... If
monopolies and exclusions are the only arms of defence against
monopolies and exclusions, I would venture upon them without fear of
offending Dean Tucker or the ghost of Dr. Quesnay." That is to say,
certain commercial privileges must be withheld from Great Britain, in
order to be offered to her in return for reciprocal privileges. It was a
miserable policy to be forced to adopt, for such restrictions upon trade
inevitably cut both ways. Like the non-importation agreement of 1768
and the embargo of 1808, such a policy was open to the objections
familiarly urged against biting off one's own nose. It was injuring
one's self in the hope of injuring somebody else. It was perpetuating in
time of peace the obstacles to commerce generated by a state of war. In
a certain sense, it was keeping up warfare by commercial instead of
military methods, and there was danger that it might lead to a renewal
of armed conflict. Nevertheless, the conduct of the British government
seemed to Adams to leave no other course open. But such "means of
preserving ourselves," he said, "can never be secured until Congress
shall be made supreme in foreign commerce."

[Sidenote: Reprisal impossible; the states impose conflicting duties.]

It was obvious enough that the separate action of the states upon such a
question was only adding to the general uncertainty and confusion. In
1785 New York laid a double duty on all goods whatever imported in
British ships. In the same year Pennsylvania passed the first of the
long series of American tariff acts, designed to tax the whole community
for the alleged benefit of a few greedy manufacturers. Massachusetts
sought to establish committees of correspondence for the purpose of
entering into a new non-importation agreement, and