FOOTNOTES:
[307] ‘Reports, House of Representatives,’ Feb. 23, 1791.
[308] This “most favoured footing clause” has been a fruitful source of reclamation between the two countries.
[309] The reader will find an account of the negotiations in Mr. Jay’s correspondence, ‘Life of John Jay,’ New York, 1833.
[310] Mr. William Jay was the son and historian of his father, John Jay, the ambassador from the United States (vide vol. i. p. 324).
[311] The most ardent supporters of the war were the shipowners: the Whigs and the Radicals did all they could to neutralise the power of the executive.
[312] Privateering was finally abolished by the great Powers of Europe March, 30, 1856; but the Americans refused to agree to this unless all private property was made free from capture at sea. The right of blockade was also proposed to be given up. This the English government declined assenting to, asserting “that the system of commercial blockade was essential to its naval supremacy.” During the recent civil war in America all the great Powers agreed in disallowing privateering, and it was also forbidden by the Treaty of Washington; hence, when Jefferson Davis announced his intention of issuing “letters of marque,” Lincoln replied that the officers and men in any such ships would be shot as pirates.
[313] Of 404,135 pounds imported into the United States in 1792, no less than 373,350 came from the West Indian islands.
[314] The whole ground of dispute between France and the United States is recited in a most voluminous despatch, Jan. 16, 1797, from Mr. Pickering to Mr. Pinckney, United States Minister at Paris. It will be found in ‘American State Papers,’ vol. i. p. 559.
[315] Captain Martin’s Protest in extenso will be found in the ‘American State Papers,’ vol. ii. pp. 64-65.
[316] Vide letter of Rufus King, ‘State Papers,’ vol. ii. pp. 29-64. The case seems undoubtedly well authenticated.
[317] The duties imposed were as follows:—On pig-iron, bar-iron, and pearl ashes, ten per cent. additional, when imported without certificate from the British Colonies in America; ten per cent. upon the customs duties on pitch, tar, resin, turpentine, masts, yards, bowsprits, and manufactured goods and merchandise (except wood-staves and tobacco); and a similar percentage upon the customs duties on all manufactured wood-staves when imported from Europe in British ships. On oil of fish, blubber, whale-fins, and spermaceti, ten per cent. on the customs duties payable when imported from countries not under the dominion of Great Britain. On tobacco, one shilling and sixpence per one hundred pounds weight; and on all other American goods, ten per cent. upon the customs duties payable for the same when imported in British-built vessels from the American States. The countervailing duties were to be calculated upon the rates of duties as they stood previously to the Act of 37 Geo. III., c. 15. By the statute above recited, a tonnage duty of two shillings sterling was imposed on all American vessels arriving in the ports of Great Britain.
[318] The Americans always employ the word “discriminating” for our “differential” duty. Our sugar duties were discriminating duties. The duties on the three categories of tea, before they were made uniform, were discriminating duties, distinguishing qualities of different values. The present duty on foreign and Cape wines is a differential duty.
[319] If the word “British” is substituted for “American,” we have the exact expression constantly used by the opponents in England during the numerous meetings held in 1849 against the repeal of the British Navigation Laws.
[320] Tybert’s ‘Statistical Annals of the United States.’