1833 Andrew Jackson - Spanish Duties on US Vessels in Cuba

In 1833, President Andrew Jackson urged Congress to amend a recent act to give him an upper hand against Spain when she was reluctant to remove her discriminating duties on US merchants in the ports of Puerto Rico and Cuba.  The United States imported a lot of sugar from Cuba and this discriminating duty was hurting our merchants.  Jackson wanted Congress to give him the authority to raise duties on Spanish vessels so that he could play hard ball with Madrid.

One year earlier, the twenty-second Congress passed an act to limit the duties on Spanish vessels in the ports of the United States to be no more than those paid by American vessels in the ports of Spain.  The act was one of reciprocity and gave the president the authority to eliminate discriminating duties on foreign nations whenever they did the same for American vessels. The act itself was made as part of an arrangement with Spain to remove duties of 5 cents per ton in the ports of both Spain and the U.S. On May 5, 1832, Spain removed the discriminating duties on U.S. vessels.  Because of the Act passed by Congress, he was now obligated to remove the discriminating duties on Spanish vessels, especially since Spain had removed the duties on American Vessels even in the ports of the Balearic and Canary Islands.   These agricultural islands are in the Iberian Peninsula where the climate was well suited for growing sugarcane, tobacco and up until 1833 grapes for wine.

Jackson was in a bit of a bind, these actions of Spain were encouraging, but other actions of Spain were not, yet the only power Jackson had was to reduce our duties.  While Spain reduced their tariffs on Spanish ports in Europe, they left discriminating duties on US vessels in Cuba and Puerto Rico.  Cuba and Puerto Rico were the only two remaining colonies in South and Central America   In response to the failures of the Panama Congress and the actions of  Simón Bolívar the Venezuela,  the United States proclaimed 1826 that we would use all of our power to uphold the rights of Spain over both Cuba and Puerto Rico.  Cuba with her rich agriculture and expansive slave-based plantations became an important source for sugar.  These discriminating duties were not only an insult but were causing "serious injury to one of those great national interests".  US merchants were now complaining, and President Jackson was ready to play hard-ball with Madrid.  Jackson gave instructions to his minister Cornelius P. Van Ness to negotiate an end to these discriminating duties under threat that if Spain did not eliminate them the United States would retaliating with "suitable countervailing duties". Jackson had the power to encourage Spain to reduce their duties, but he  now needed the ability to show Spain, "the dangers to which that valuable trade is exposed by the obstructions and burdens which a system of discriminating and countervailing duties necessarily produces."

In his 1833 State of the Union Address, Jackson explained the situation to Congress and urged them to amend their 1832 act.

"By the first section of an act of Congress passed on 1832-07-13 the tonnage duty on Spanish ships arriving from the ports of Spain previous to 1817-10-20, being 5 cents per ton. That act was intended to give effect on our side to an arrangement made with the Spanish Government by which discriminating duties of tonnage were to be abolished in the ports of the United States and Spain on he vessels of the two nations. Pursuant to that arrangement, which was carried into effect on the part of Spain on 1832-05-20, by a royal order dated 1832-04-29, American vessels in the ports of Spain have paid 5 cents per ton, which rate of duty is also paid in those ports by Spanish ships; but as American vessels pay no tonnage duty in the ports of the United States, the duty of 5 cents payable in our ports by Spanish vessels under the act above mentioned is really a discriminating duty, operating to the disadvantage of Spain. 

Though no complaint has yet been made on the part of Spain, we are not the less bound by the obligations of good faith to remove the discrimination, and I recommend that the act be amended accordingly. As the royal order above alluded to includes the ports of the Balearic and Canary islands as well as those of Spain, it would seem that the provisions of the act of Congress should be equally extensive, and that for the repayments of such duties as may have been improperly received an addition should be made to the sum appropriated at the last session of Congress for refunding discriminating duties. 

As the arrangement referred to, however, did not embrace the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, discriminating duties to the prejudice of American shipping continue to be levied there. From the extent of the commerce carried on between the United States and those islands, particularly the former, this discrimination causes serious injury to one of those great national interests which it has been considered an essential part of our policy to cherish, and has given rise to complaints on the part of our merchants. Under instructions given to our minister at Madrid, earnest representations have been made by him to the Spanish Government upon this subject, and there is reason to expect, from the friendly disposition which is entertained toward this country, that a beneficial change will be produced. 

The disadvantage, however, to which our shipping is subjected by the operation of these discriminating duties requires that they be met by suitable countervailing duties during your present session, power being at the same time vested in the President to modify or discontinue them as the discriminating duties on American vessels or their cargoes may be modified or discontinued at those islands. Intimations have been given to the Spanish Government that the United States may be obliged to resort to such measures as are of necessary self-defense, and there is no reason to apprehend that it would be unfavorably received. The proposed proceeding if adopted would not be permitted, however, in any degree to induce a relaxation in the efforts of our minister to effect a repeal of this irregularity by friendly negotiation, and it might serve to give force to his representations by showing the dangers to which that valuable trade is exposed by the obstructions and burdens which a system of discriminating and countervailing duties necessarily produces."

One year later, Jackson shared with Congress that no intelligence from Madrid had been received yet at the State Department.  So for, things looked hopeful that future trade with Puerto Rico and Cuba would become more free and reciprocal.

"Yielding to the force of circumstances and to the wise counsels of time and experience, that power has finally resolved no longer to occupy the unnatural position in which she stood to the new Governments established in this hemisphere. I have the great satisfaction of stating to you that in preparing the way for the restoration of harmony between those who have sprung from the same ancestors, who are allied by common interests, profess the same religion, and speak the same language the United States have been actively instrumental. Our efforts to effect this good work will be persevered in while they are deemed useful to the parties and our entire disinterestedness continues to be felt and understood. The act of Congress to countervail the discriminating duties to the prejudice of our navigation levied in Cuba and Puerto Rico has been transmitted to the minister of the United States at Madrid, to be communicated to the Government of the Queen. No intelligence of its receipt has yet reached the Department of State. If the present condition of the country permits the Government to make a careful and enlarged examination of the true interests of these important portions of its dominions, no doubt is entertained that their future intercourse with the United States will be placed upon a more just and liberal basis."

In 1835, very little had changed. Jackson again shared that no provisions were made.  Progress was stalled in part because the new Ambassador William T. Barry died en route to Madrid.  In addition, a separate death of one of the commissioners in Madrid stalled the delivery of the Florida archives needed to identify the transfer of properties.

"The internal contest still continues in Spain. Distinguished as this struggle has unhappily been by incidents of the most sanguinary character, the obligations of the late treaty of indemnification with us have been, nevertheless, faithfully executed by the Spanish Government.

No provision having been made at the last session of Congress for the ascertainment of the claims to be paid and the apportionment of the funds under the convention made with Spain, I invite your early attention to the subject. The public evidences of the debt have, according to the terms of the convention and in the forms prescribed by it, been placed in the possession of the United States, and the interest as it fell due has been regularly paid upon them. Our commercial intercourse with Cuba stands as regulated by the act of Congress. No recent information has been received as to the disposition of the Government of Madrid on this subject, and the lamented death of our recently appointed minister on his way to Spain, with the pressure of their affairs at home, renders it scarcely probable that any change is to be looked for during the coming year. Further portions of the Florida archives have been sent to the United States, although the death of one of the commissioners at a critical moment embarrassed the progress of the delivery of them. The higher officers of the local government have recently shewn an anxious desire, in compliance with the orders from the parent Government, to facilitate the selection and delivery of all we have a right to claim."

References

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Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2020). Fifth Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/sixth-annual-message-2 [Accessed 25 Mar. 2020].

Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2020). Seventh Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/seventh-annual-message-2 [Accessed 25 Mar. 2020].

Manning, W. (1939). Diplomatic correspondence of the United States. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, p.534.

Peters, R. (n.d.). The public statutes at large of the United States of America, from the organization of the government in 1789, to March 3, 1845, vol. VII. p.579.