The evil will not, however,
be viewed by Congress without a recollection that manufacturing
establishments, if suffered to sink too low or languish too long,
may not revive after the causes shall have ceased, and that in the
vicissitudes of human affairs situations may recur in which a dependence
on foreign sources for indispensable supplies may be among the most
serious embarrassments.
The depressed state of our navigation is to be ascribed in a material
degree to its exclusion from the colonial ports of the nation most
extensively connected with us in commerce, and from the indirect
operation of that exclusion.
Previous to the late convention at London between the United States
and Great Britain the relative state of the navigation laws of the two
countries, growing out of the treaty of 1794, had given to the British
navigation a material advantage over the American in the intercourse
between the American ports and British ports in Europe. The convention
of London equalized the laws of the two countries relating to those
ports, leaving the intercourse between our ports and the ports of the
British colonies subject, as before, to the respective regulations of
the parties. The British Government enforcing now regulations which
prohibit a trade between its colonies and the United States in American
vessels, whilst they permit a trade in British vessels, the American
navigation loses accordingly, and the loss is augmented by the advantage
which is given to the British competition over the American in the
navigation between our ports and British ports in Europe by the
circuitous voyages enjoyed by the one and not enjoyed by the other.
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