1824 James Monroe - Our next blunder, the famous act of March, 1823

"Our next blunder, was the famous act of March, 1823; an act which will render its projector, our present Chief Magistrate, immortal."

These were the words of Congressman Duteee Jerauld Pearce  during a debate in the house on the accounts of  President John Quincy Adams Tuesday February 27, 1827 .   Pearce, was elected to Congress as a supporter of John Quincy Adams, but gave a blistering attack on the President Adams' handling of British Colonial trade negotiations.  The famous act of March 23,  was when Congress replaced the previous British trade acts of 1818 and 1820 regarding trade with a much more restrictive one.  The goal of the new act was to force, Great Britain to open up trade with the British West Indies.  At the treaty of Ghent in 1815, Great Britain had opened up it's colonies to the United States, but left out trade with the coveted West Indies.  The Monroe administration  along with Secretary of State John Quincy Adams continuously pestered Great Britain to open up trade to the West Indies, but Great Britain would not budge.  In 1824, President Monroe expressed some hope that this "famous act" which placed "commerce with the colonies, likewise, on a footing of reciprocal advantage" would be seen as fair and just by Great Britain.

"With Great Britain our commercial intercourse rests on the same footing that it did at the last session. by the convention of 1815, the commerce between the United States and the British dominions in Europe and the East Indies was arranged on a principle of reciprocity. That convention was confirmed and continued in force, with slight exceptions, by a subsequent treaty for the term of 10 years from [1818-10-20], the date of the latter.

The trade with the British colonies in the West Indies has not as yet been arranged, by treaty or otherwise, to our satisfaction. An approach to that result has been made by legislative acts, whereby many serious impediments which had been raised by the parties in defense of their respective claims were removed. An earnest desire exists, and has been manifested on the part of this Government, to place the commerce with the colonies, likewise, on a footing of reciprocal advantage, and it is hoped that the British Government, seeing the justice of the proposal and its importance to the colonies, will ere long accede to it."

Titled, "An act to regulate the commercial intercourse between the United States and certain British colonial ports", the bill was passed on March 1, 1823 and offered to Great Britain the following:

• If Great Britain removes foreign tonnage duties on the U.S. vessels, then the U.S. would reciprocate by removing foreign tonnage duties on British vessels.  But, until then British vessels leaving Colonial British Colonies would pay all foreign tonnage duties, including all duties prescribed by the regulations of 1816.
• No British vessels coming from the British Colonial ports may include "guns, tackle, apparel or furniture".
• No British vessels may import god from the British Colonial ports to the United States, unless the vessel sails directly to the ports of the United States.  It may not make stops at any other foreign ports along the way.

But rather, than opening up more trade with Great Britain, the act led to additional restrictions of trade with British Colonies in 1826 by the British Parliament under George IV.   It was in this context, that Congressman Pearce called the act our "next blunder".  I could do no better to explain what happened than did Pearce himself:

"Instead of removing our discriminating Duties, by the act of March, 1823, we continued them upon new conditions - such as never had been sanctioned before by the laws of our country;  and conditions, too, which were impossible for Great Britain to comply with, without surrendering every attribute of sovereignty.  By that act, we required that Great Britain should permit us to carry to her Colonies, every article which could be earned hither from the mother country, or from any other of her colonies, paying no higher duty than would be imposed on similar merchandise, when imported from the mother country, or her Colonies.  In short we claimed the privileges of a British Colony, and required that we should be commercially, an integral part of the British Empire!   There was another principle of this act that was peculiarly obnoxious to Great Britain.   It prohibited British vessels from the mother country from proceeding hence to the Colonies; a restriction which we applied to British vessels alone, and which we never applied to the ships of Sweden, Denmark, Holland, France or Spain - nations which had not granted us a colonial commerce, even as free and enlarged as we enjoyed under the British act of 1822.  Thais restriction, moreover, was not necessary to secure to us a fair proportion of the trade;  for, notwithstanding the circuitous voyage enjoyed by Great Britain, seven-eighths of the tonnage employed in that commerce was American.  We had no right to complain;  it was no our interest to do so;  for the trade was substantially our own."

But, however obnoxious this act of 1823 may have been to Great Britain, she was content with merely imposing countervailing alien duties precisely equal to ours and was still willing to negotiate.  Negotiations were renewed by  (U.S. minister, Richard Rush) Mr. Rush, in January, 1824  and then again there was no obstacle but that which we had persisted since 1818;  and they were closed in June , 1824, by a fourth proposal on the part of Great Britain, which was according to the custom of this negotiation, received "ad referendum" and remained with our government from June, 1824, until August 1826.  The terms offered us on the 8th of June, 1824, were substantially what Great Britain had proposed on the 19th of October, 1818. It is now conceded on all sides that we ought to have accepted them."

Finally, on March 17, 1827 President John Quincy Adams by proclamation rescinded the Act of March 3, 1823.

"Now, therefore, I, John Quincy Adams, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that the trade and intercourse authorized by the said act of Parliament of the 24th of June, 1822, between the United States and the British colonial ports enumerated in the aforesaid act of Congress of the 1st of March, 1823, have been and are, upon and from the 1st day of December, 1826, by the aforesaid two several acts of Parliament of the 5th of July, 1825, and by the aforesaid British order in council of the 27th day of July, 1826, prohibited."

Resources

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29466
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=66694
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutee_Jerauld_Pearce


An Act to regulate the commercial intercourse between the United States and certain British Colonial ports. Passed March 1, 1823. (An Act for carrying into effect the Convention of Navigation and Commerce between the United States and France. Passed March 3, 1823.), United States 1823

Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress, United States Congress, Gales & Seaton (1829)  pg. 1467

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/%281899%29_MAP_OF_WEST_INDIES_-_comp._by_Irvine.jpg