1827 John Quincy Adams - St. Kitts Hurricane

In 1827, mother nature and a gutsy governor of the British colony of St. Christopher Island opened up trade with the United States amid an ongoing trade war between the two nations. The need to rebuild the island demonstrated the power of trade, and the growing power of the American economy.  As soon as the need was over the British once again closed off the ports, but President John Quincy Adams took this opportunity to talk of American independence from the British trade maneuvers.

The little island of St. Kitts in the West Indies is also known as St. Christopher  and was discovered by Columbus in 1493.  By 1623 it was and English settlement.  For a time, the island was split between the French and the English, but by 1827 it had come into the undisputed possession of England.  Being in the Virgin Islands, St. Kitts was often damaged by frequent hurricanes, one of the most disastrous was the Hurricane of 1827 which hit the island on August 17th.  The U.S. Weather Bureau described it as a destructive hurricane equal to what was described as the "great hurricane" of 1772.   Houses in the town were torn down and public works were seriously damaged.  Aged tamarind trees were torn up out of the ground by the roots and several small vessels were lost.

The devastating hurricane, not only impacted life on the Island, but for a time provided an example of the power of open and free trade. In the aftermath of the hurricane, the Hon. Stedman Rawlins, President of His Majesty's Council of the island of St. Christoper chose to defy the British government's trade policy, and opened the ports of St. Christopher for three months to all foreign trade.  This was a big turn of events, because earlier in the year, the British Government had suddenly and unexpectedly closed all of their colonial ports to the United States except those immediately bordering US territories.  Just prior, former Secretary of Treasury and now minister to the United Kingdom, Albert Gallatin had been on his way to negotiate the reopening of trade when the British issued a new Orders-in-Council closing the West Indies ports completely to all U.S. vessels.   Great Britain refused to have any further discussions with Gallatin.    It was in part a reaction to a series of restrictive trade policies enacted by the United States to try and force the British to open up more of their colonial trade. In 1823, President Monroe tried to pressure Great Britain into eliminating their duties with a promise that the United States would respond in kind, but rather than opening up more trade, it led to even further restrictions of trade with the British Colonies (see the Great Blunder f 1823).   So, on March 17, 1827 President John Quincy Adams by proclamation rescinded the 1823 act, returning the status of trade with Great Britain back to where it was in 1818 during the early years after the War of 1812.    President John Quincy Adams described in some detail these latest events in his 1827 State of the Union Address.

"At the commencement of the last session of Congress they were informed of the sudden and unexpected exclusion by the British Government of access in vessels of the United States to all their colonial ports except those immediately bordering upon our own territories. In the amicable discussions which have succeeded the adoption of this measure which, as it affected harshly the interests of the United States, became subject of expostulation on our part, the principles upon which its justification has been placed have been of a diversified character. It has been at once ascribed to a mere recurrence to the old, long established principle of colonial monopoly and at the same time to a feeling of resentment because the offers of an act of Parliament opening the colonial ports upon certain conditions had not been grasped at with sufficient eagerness by an instantaneous conformity to them. 

At a subsequent period it has been intimated that the new exclusion was in resentment because a prior act of Parliament, of 1822, opening certain colonial ports, under heavy and burdensome restrictions, to vessels of the United States, had not been reciprocated by an admission of British vessels from the colonies, and their cargoes, without any restriction or discrimination what ever. But be the motive for the interdiction what it may, the British Government have manifested no disposition, either by negotiation or by corresponding legislative enactments, to recede from it, and we have been given distinctly to understand that neither of the bills which were under the consideration of Congress at their last session would have been deemed sufficient in their concessions to have been rewarded by any relaxation from the British interdict. It is one of the inconveniences inseparably connected with the attempt to adjust by reciprocal legislation interests of this nature that neither party can know what would be satisfactory to the other, and that after enacting a statute for the avowed and sincere purpose of conciliation it will generally be found utterly inadequate to the expectation of the other party, and will terminate in mutual disappointment. 

The session of Congress having terminated without any act upon the subject, a proclamation was issued on 1827-03-17, conformably to the provisions of the 6th section of the act of 1823-03-01 declaring the fact that the trade and intercourse authorized by the British act of Parliament of 1822-06-24, between the United States and the British enumerated colonial ports had been by the subsequent acts of Parliament of 1825-07-05, and the order of council of 1826-07-27 prohibited. The effect of this proclamation, by the terms of the act under which it was issued, has been that each and every provision of the act concerning navigation of 1818-04-18, and of the act supplementary thereto of 1820-05-15, revived and is in full force."

It was in this context, that Rawlins, then acting governor of St. Christopher defied the British government by issuing a proclamation and authorizing 'the importation into this island for the period of three calendar months ... of bards plank, sentling, shingles, stave and lumber of all descriptions; and of flour, bread biscuit, rice, beans, peas, oats, corn, corn meal, live stock, horses, mules, horned cattle, roots and fruits of all kinds, in foreign vessels of all nations ...'. (Birch 2008)  It was done as an emergency measure, but perhaps it served as an example of cooperation for the United States and Great Britain to follow.  President Adams called it a "single momentary exception".

"Such, then is the present condition of the trade that, useful as it is to both parties it can, with a single momentary exception, be carried on directly by the vessels of neither. That exception itself is found in a proclamation of the governor of the island of St. Christopher and of the Virgin Islands, inviting for 3 months from 1827-08-28 the importation of the articles of the produce of the United States which constitute their export portion of this trade in the vessels of all nations."

Once the three month period had expired, the ports were once again closed.  Not only that, the British Government declined to hold any negotiations on trade with her colonies.   The future of reciprocal trade with Great Britain remained uncertain, but as President Adams wanted Congress to know, the impact on the American economy was negligible.  The American economy was continuing to grow with nothing more than a disturbance or inconvenience "of the usual channels of trade".   As the Island of St. Christopher demonstrated during it's time of need, the United States had a tremendous amount of wealth and goods to offer, and was well on its way to American economic independence.

"That period having already expired, the state of mutual interdiction has again taken place. The British Government have not only declined negotiation upon this subject, but by the principle they have assumed with reference to it have precluded even the means of negotiation. It becomes not the self respect of the United States either to solicit gratuitous favors or to accept as the grant of a favor that for which an ample equivalent is exacted. It remains to be determined by the respective Governments whether the trade shall be opened by acts of reciprocal legislation. It is, in the mean time, satisfactory to know that apart from the inconvenience resulting from a disturbance of the usual channels of trade no loss has been sustained by the commerce, the navigation, or the revenue of the United States, and none of magnitude is to be apprehended from this existing state of mutual interdict."

References

Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). John Quincy Adams: Third Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29469 [Accessed 27 Apr. 2018].

Birch, C. (2008). The milk jug was a goat. Cambridge: Pegasus.

United States. Weather Bureau U.S. Government Printing Office Issues 26-35. (1899). pp.57-63.

Revolvy, L. (2018). "Stedman Rawlins" on Revolvy.com. [online] Revolvy.com. Available at: https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Stedman+Rawlins&item_type=topic [Accessed 27 Apr. 2018].

 
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