MR. WILDE of Georgia, said, We seem to have accomplished within a few years a political circle: on the strange revolutions we have gone through I will not remark, further than that the same section of the country that a few years ago so decidedly opposed all sorts of commercial interdiction for important results, is now contending for it, to attain an end not so important, certainly, (though I will not detract from its importance,) as that for which formerly the same system was resort

ed to.

Gentlemen, he presumed, were not perfectly apprized, though he hardly supposed that many of them did not know the fact, that the policy which they recommended, of a total prohibition of all intercourse with the British colonies, was that policy which some of the most violent politicians in Great Britain had recommended as the means of adding to their prosperity. He alluded particularly, to a pamphlet on the colonial policy of Great Britain, which, there was some reason to suppose, recommended a system of conduct, if not pleasing, yet certainly not altogether displeasing to the British ministry. The very measure of total prohibition was that which the author of that work recommended, as the best mode of securing the consequence and importance of the North American colonies, and making the West Indies entirely independent of the United States; and of crushing the prosperity of a country which they look upon, as destined, at no very distant day, to be their commercial and political rival. Considering, Mr. W. said, that the very measure upon which the committee were now called to act had been recommended for adoption in that country, was a reason why they should deliberate, and maturely too, before they ventured on such an experiment. Nor was the reasoning contained in the book to which he had referred, so altogether destitute of foundation. The trade we carry on with the British West India possessions consists principally of lumber and bread stuffs, and a portion of live stock. With regard to the lumber, it was stated in the pamphlet, that the average annual supply for the British islands had been 117,000 loads, of which 113,000 had been imported from the United States, and 4,000 from elsewhere. But that in 1810, during the existence of our restrictive system, the port of Quebec alone had exported 160,000 loads to those islands. Possibly, Mr. W. said, a considerable portion of this came from the United States; but the whole effect was to increase the quantity exported from the British North American possessions. Of bread stuffs, perhaps, no very great supply could be calculated on from that quarter: but that was not the only dependence of the islands. It was recommended in the work referred to, and the advantages of such a change plainly shown, to grow a part of their bread stuff in some of the islands, Trinidad particularly.

The disposition of the people of the islands, particularly the island of Jamaica, and excepting Barbadoes, was generally in our favour. If that was the case, any measure affecting their interest so as to create a prejudice rather against us than the mother country, was defeating the end in view. The measure ought to be such, if any be adopted, as to make the colonies look to the mother country as the source of our regulations. To attempt to produce a relaxation of the British system by an extreme measure, did not seem to him to be the dictate of sound policy. We ought not, he said, to try the extent of our power at once. We ought not to pursue a policy which, should it fail, would leave us in despair of any alternative. He was not, he said, in favour of any temporary measure; we ought to do what we intend and believe to be effectual; but we ought not to apply the harshest and strongest measure at once.

With regard to the operation of increased duties on this trade, though he preferred them to prohibition, yet, Mr. W. said, he could not suppose they would, as the gentlemen from Massachusetts seemed to suppose, be entirely paid, or paid in any great degree by the West India islands: The opinion of the secretary of the treasury (for whose opinion, Mr. Wilde said, he had the highest degree of respect) was altogether different: that the duty would be paid altogether by ourselves. An increased duty on imports would very evidently be paid, in a great degree, by our own citizens. With regard to a tonnage duty on outward-bound vessels, indeed, it would operate, in a small degree, as an export duty attaching to the articles exported, and would be paid in the West India islands. But under correction, he should suppose the other duty would be paid by citizens of the United States; at least so much of it as was requisite to bring up the value of the article imported to the cost of the same article imported from other countries on not as favourable terms as it would otherwise have been from the West Indies. Such would certainly be the effect, unless the price should be so far enhanced by the duties, as to cause the West India productions to come so much higher than the same articles from other countries, as greatly to reduce the consumption of them.

If it could be distinctly ascertained on this subject, what was the sense of the mercantile part of the community, or of a considerable majority of those who compose it, Mr. W. said, he should be ready to go as far as any gentleman in securing to them the rights and advantages which ought to belong to the trade in question. But there seemed to be a very great diversity of opinion even among themselves on the subject; and gentlemen in favour of the bill had delivered themselves so doubtingly, that, from their argument alone, Mr. W. said, he should be almost inclined to question the propriety of acting at all on

this subject: but certainly the conclusion would be, if any thing was done, that there was no necessity for trying, in the first instance, the full extent of all our powers on this subject. If, in 1805-6, by the unanimous voice of the same class of the community, the same measures had been demanded for protecting their interests; if, subsequently, the adoption of measures similar to the one now proposed, became, in the highest degree, exceptionable to those who had called for them, there was some reason to believe, if we pursue the same course, (particularly when the opinions of the merchants are not so decidedly expressed as they were then) we shall come to the same result.

With regard to one particular branch of commerce, referred to by the gentleman who last spoke, it was certainly desirable that some regulation by duties should take place he meant the plaister trade; because, as to that trade, the government could be compelled to admit us to a participation in it, or the trade itself would be totally destroyed, the principal and almost only market being the United States. The article must either not be brought at all, or indifferently in British and American ves sels.

The committee had been told, in the course of this debate, very confidently, from a high authority, that the necessary effect of a total prohibition would be, to compel the British government to admit us into a participation of the trade with her colonies. We all know, said Mr. W. that the colonial system is a part of the policy which European governments adhere to with the greatest pertinacity, and never relinquish. He had seen predictions somewhat similar to this on former occasions, not altogether verified by the fact.

We ought to recollect also what had been frequently heard on this floor, and what, to a certain extent, was certainly a legiti mate argument, that the tendency of all systems of total prohibition was, to promote, in that section of the country where it operates most, a spirit entirely hostile to every species of fair commerce, destructive to the morals of the people, tending to the diminution of the revenue of the government, and to the defeat of any system the government might pursue for the purpose of operating on the commerce of rival powers. A total prohibition, he said, would be evaded, particularly on the eastern frontier and on the lakes, in defiance of all the force, civil and military, of the government. A large portion of the pro ducts of the United States would thenceforth go to the ports in Canada, and thence as British property to the colonies.

The bill, he said, embraced an important question: it was the commencement of a system which might lead us to results, of which many gentlemen were not perfectly aware. There was a beautiful allegory in the history of one of the most celebrated of the ancient republics-he meant the contest of Neptune and

Minerva for the patronage of the city of Athens: to which the one had offered the olive, that elegant type of a good govern

ment

." The rich olive, underneath whose shade "The green herb greener grows;"

-the symbol of peace. While the gift of the other was the horse-the instrument of war. Seeming thus darkly to shadow out the truth, that agriculture is essentially pacific, while commerce (though commerce is not as it was then, mingled with piracy) has yet, when pursued with too much avidity, always a tendency to endanger the harmony of nations. Whether this is what was meant, or whether, as has been ingeniously supposed, it was an allusion to some attempt on the part of its first rulers, to divert the attention of the people from the navigation of their narrow sea, to the cultivation of the earth-it would, in either event, furnish an instructive lesson. All such attempts must for ever be made in vain.

An attempt on the part of congress to change essentially the dispositions of the mass of the people, "whose home is on the ocean," would be futile, ungenerous, and unjust. At the same time, Mr. W. said, he would not pursue or force navigation by measures which would hazard, in a considerable degree, the safety, interests, and general welfare of the great body of the community.

MR. CLAY (speaker) said, that in one sentiment expressed by the gentleman from Georgia, he most heartily concurredthat the measure contemplated by the bill, or by the proposed substitute, was the most important, as respected at least our fo reign relations, that had come before congress at this session, or would probably be brought before it for some years—a measure, which, whatever fate attended it, ought to attract the attention of honourable members of this house, and to which, he hoped, before the final question on it, they would give the most mature consideration.

The importance of the question by no means depended simply on the value of the trade between this country and the colonies of Great Britain. But, considering the question as it related merely to that trade, when the fact was stated, that it consisted of six millions of dollars imports, and of course a like amount of exports, it must be admitted the question was one of deep import, compared to any which at present presented itself to the attention of congress. But, as was stated in the president's message, Mr. C. said, it was not solely important on account of the effect of the colonial system on that trade, but the fact was, that the exclusion from a participation in that navigation, essentially affected the trade between this country and the British European possessions, and, by the operation of the system, deprived us, in a great measure, of the benefits of the convention

of commerce with Great Britain, which provided for the establishment of a perfect reciprocity of commerce between the United States and the British European possessions. Even if gentlemen were not disposed to do something to obtain for the navigation of this country a participation in the colonial trade, they ought to go so far as to place them on an equal footing as regarded the European trade. Some measure ought to be devised, by which the navigation of Great Britain should be prevented from enjoying peculiar advantages over us in a trade wherein reciprocity had been solemnly promised by the convention to which he had alluded.

Let us, then, said Mr. C. enquire into the character of the evil proposed to be remedied, and of the remedy that is offered. What is the evil? Great Britain says that the whole commerce between her colonies and the United States shall be carried on in British ships, absolutely excluding American ships from any participation in it. The most natural course of the exchange of commodities between nations, might be thus defined: that each nation should carry its own products to market; that we should carry of our produce what we do not want, but they do, to British ports; and that they should bring what they do not want, but we do, to our ports. With this course, however, Great Britain was not satisfied. The next and perhaps the most equal and best mode of providing for the free and fair interchange of commodities, was, to open the trade equally and reciprocally to both parties, to let each carry the commodities of both countries, in a fair competition. Great Britain was not, however, disposed to do this. She not only prohibited the carriage of her colonial commodities in our vessels; not only entirely engrossed the export trade from her colonies, but refused to allow us any participation, by conventional regulation or otherwise, in the trade to the colonies. The effect was, to deprive us of the advantages in the augmentation of our commerce and increase of our seamen, which would result from the carriage of our own produce, to the amount of six millions of dollars annually.

With regard to the importance of encouraging our navigation, he said, he need not resort to argument. The question of the importance of a navy to maintain and defend our rights which had been some years ago a question of a theoretical nature, was no longer so: it was now a question of practical experience. All felt its importance, and all acknowledged the expediency of cherishing, by all means in our power, that important branch of national defence.

Gentlemen alarmed themselves, Mr. C. said, by the apprehension that the other party would view as inimical any regulations countervailing her colonial policy, and that the issue of this conflict of commercial regulations would be war. Mr. C. said he believed in no such result. If an exclusion of the navi