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 "'" ■ ■ '■' '"' ' J'<\''' ' ON THE 
 
 INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN LEGISLATION 
 
 '■ ON THE 
 
 DECLINE OF THE UNITED STATES 
 •AS A MARITIME POWER. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 \ 
 
 There is a grave question now pending between two of the fore- 
 most nations of civilisation, and between kindred races, which may 
 be got rid of by technical objections or diplomatic skill, but which 
 must for many years remain a source of heartburning and mis- 
 understanding. The " Indirect Claims " are regarded by many of 
 us as an unconscionable demand, that says more for American 
 ingenuity than for the honour of that nation. Very recently one 
 of our Commissioners implied that the love of " the almighty 
 dollar," a term which he considerately invested in a Greek phrase, 
 was at the bottom of the difficulty. Never was a charge more 
 inopportune or uncalled for. In the United States, among private 
 persons, wealth may to some extent have taken the rank that is 
 here assigned to the accident of birth ; but there is no nation more 
 reckless of pecuniary considerations than the American people, 
 where their national honour or their amour propre is at stake. 
 
 As matters now stand, even if the indirect claims are excluded 
 from the consideration of the Commission, they are sure to indi- 
 rectly influence the decision of the Commissioners in favour of the 
 reception of anything approaching a direct claim. The ingenuity 
 of American diplomacy was never more apparent than on their 
 insisting that if the " indirect claims " must be excluded, the Com- 
 missioners must incur the responsibility of excluding them. Having 
 been forced apparently to give an adverse decision against claims 
 to an enormous amount that were set up by the American Govern- 
 ment, the Commissioners wiU have to show a generous spirit in 
 dealing with the direct claims, which are likely to aome before them 
 ere long. The •* indirect claims " will never be fully discussed ; and 
 it is, therefore, desirable to show that in reality American commerce 
 iias been swept from the seas by the depredations, not of rebel 
 
!■• 
 
 2 The Injhience of American Legislation on the 
 
 cruisers, but of American statesmen, and that if the rebel flag had 
 never been seen upon the Atlantic, American shipping must have 
 nevertheless inevitably suffered a decline. 
 
 It would, however, be a grave error to suppose that the Americans 
 do not deeply and sincerely resent the ruin which has befallen their 
 foreign trade, and which they firmly believe has been brought about 
 by ourselves. A yefv" ago an opportunity was afforded me of 
 ascertaining how moderate thinking men of the United States 
 regard this matter. A preliminary International Convention of 
 all the principal Boards of Trade in North America was held at - 
 Boston in June, 1871, which had been organised by the Secretary 
 of the National Board of the United States and by myself as a lever 
 to influence legislation in favour of free trade. It was evident that 
 a very sincere and a very deep feeling of indignation had bei n 
 excited, even among the most moderate men, by the firm conviction 
 that we had, by our culpable, if not criminal, negligence, allowed 
 rebel cruisers to escape from our ports and to sweep American 
 commerce from the ocean. It therefore became a matter of the 
 utmost importance to point out to them that the disastrous decline 
 of the commercial marine of the United States had been caused, 
 not by rebel cruisers, but by the depredations of American states- 
 men on American commerce. Tliis view had never been brought 
 so prominently before them before ; and the arguments in support 
 of it, made in a friendly and candid spirit, were most favourably 
 received by the large assemblage of the commercial men of the 
 United States, from Maine to San Francisco, there met together. 
 
 Subsequently, these argiiments were embodied in a letter which 
 was published in the Boston Post, and was not only endorsed by a 
 leader in that paper, but also by a notice of it from the Secretary 
 of the National Board of the United States. The views, therefore, 
 that will now be advanced are not suggested by any desire to meet 
 the grave emergency that has arisen, but are those that have 
 invited and have passed through the ordeal of commercial criticism 
 in the United States. 
 
 That the decUne of American commerce and shipping has been 
 most striking and disastrous no one can doubt. On this point I 
 cannot do better than quote the words of an eminent American 
 statesman, the Hon. David E. Wells, late Special Commissioner of 
 Be venue of the United States, which occur in a very able paper on 
 " The Great Financial and Commercial Experiences of the United 
 States," in the publications of the Gobden Club, 1871 : — 
 
 " The most terrible blow which the events of the last ten years 
 in the United States have inflicted upon any interest have fallen 
 
1 
 
 Decline of the United States as a Maritime Power. 3 
 
 upon tho business of shipbuilding and the American Commercial 
 Marine — both foreign and domestic. In proof of this, the following 
 comparison of the official returns for the yaars 1860 and 1870 is 
 submitted, attention being at the same time called to the circum- 
 stance that during the period under consideration the population 
 of the United States had increased at least 23 per cent. 
 " Total registered and licensed tonnage : — 
 
 1860-61 .... 5,589,813 
 1869-70 .... 4,246,507 
 
 " Tonnage employed in the coasting trade, which by law is pro- 
 tected from all foreign competition : — 
 
 1860-61 .... 2,657,292 
 1869-70 .... 2,595,326 
 
 " Tonnage employed in the cod fishery: — 
 
 1860-61 .... 127,310 
 
 1869-70 .... 82,612 
 
 "And it is, furthermore, a matter of not a little significance that 
 while for the calendar year 1869 about 78 per cent, of all that 
 came in and went out of the country was carried in foreign vessels 
 or vehicles, for the calendar year 1870 the proportion thus carried 
 had increased to over 79 per cent. In all history it would be 
 difficult to find a record where any nation has experienced in so 
 short a time commercial changes of the magnitude indicated, and 
 yet continued to exist with any degree of natural strength and 
 prosperity." 
 
 Mr. Wells very properly regards *' the highly protective policy 
 which characterised the fiscal legislation of the United States since 
 1860," and the irredeemable and fluctuating paper currency of the 
 United States, as the true cause of " the flag of its commercial 
 marine having been almost swept from the ocean ; the power to 
 sell in foreign markets tho products of its manufacturing industries 
 has been greatly diminished, while the importation of the products 
 of foreign competitive industries has been continually and most 
 remarkably augmented." 
 
 Mr. Low, in his evidence before the " Select Committee to in- 
 quire into the causes of the decline ji American shipping," says 
 very truly, •' the foe to our commercial development is in cabinets, 
 and not in hostile cruisers ; money instead of guns is the instru- 
 ment employed to secure supremacy on the ocean ; and in these 
 modern days victory is won under the banner of peace. When our 
 legislators cease to be mere politicians, and learn to be states- 
 men, they will heed the voices that come up from the sea." 
 
 The Committee, in their voluminous report, say " it is difficult 
 
 a2 
 
4 
 
 The InjUience of American Legislation on the 
 
 to realise that our country, which in a little more than half a 
 century, ending in 1860, had reached the very foremost rank of 
 maritime nations, has in less than a decade lost half its merchant 
 shipping and all its maritime prestige, and that we now stand 
 debating whether we shall yield without a struggle all, and become 
 the mere commercial dependency of the nation for whose advan- 
 tage we have been thus spoiled and reduced. From 1861 to 1866 
 our tonnage engaged in foreign trade decreased from 2,642,628 
 tons to 1,492,926 tons, a loss of 1,149,902 tons, or more than 43 per 
 cent., while Great Britain in the same time gained 986,715 tons > 
 or more than 80 per cent." 
 
 " Our exports have' doubled since 1853, while the percentage 
 carried on American vessels has fallen from 67 per cent, to 34 
 per cent." The Committee also point out the fact that nearly 70 
 per cent, of the imports into New York are in foreign vessels. 
 
 In dealing with the •• causes of decline," the Committee refer to 
 one or two points that may be of service to us in considering this 
 question. *' It has been urged that this depression of our naviga- 
 tion interests is the result of general causes, such as an over-pro- 
 duction of tonnage and a depreosion in the business of the world, 
 but such causes would be temporary in their operation. The 
 period of prosperity would, as it always has, speedily follow that 
 of depression. The facts stated show a decline running through 
 a decade, a period too long to be a£fected by a mere depression 
 of business or any over-production of tonnage. 
 
 " Moreover, the decline has been wholly in the shipping of the 
 United States. While that of other nations has been depressed 
 from the causes alluded to, there has not only been no absolute 
 decline, but as has been shown, a constant increase in tonnage 
 and in the efficiency oi their vessels." 
 
 I am perfectly willing to adopt this view, and shall test the con- 
 clusions of the Committee by the statistics given by them in their 
 report. If the decline of American commerce was caused by 
 hostile cruisers, and by the transfer of American vessels to British 
 owners or registers, it is clear that as the *' Alabama " was destroyed 
 in June, 1864, this decline must have taken place in the years 
 1868 and 1864, and that as this was a temporary cause of dechne, 
 from that date an increase in American shipping must have fol- 
 lowed the large demand for American ships, to replace those that 
 had disappeared £rom their n^.arine. I shall show by the figures 
 given by the Committee that the decline in American shipping 
 continued after every rebel cruiser had disappeared from the ocean. 
 We must, therefore, look to some other causes for what, in the 
 
Decline of the United Statee at a Maritime Power. 5 
 
 « 
 
 words of the Committee, is called " a decline running through a 
 decade, a period too long to be affected by a mere depression of 
 business," and, we may add, too continuous to have been caused 
 by the temporary ravages of rebel cruisers. 
 
 " According to the best available data, 019,466 tons of American 
 shipping disappeared from our lists during the rebellion. Of this 
 amount 110,168 tons were destroyed by Anglo-Confederate pirates, 
 while 806,303 tons were either sold to foreigners or passed nomi- 
 nally into their hands and obtained the protection of their flags. 
 Here was an actual loss to the private owners of less than 5 per 
 cent., and a loss to the nation of about 87 per cent, of the total 
 American tonnage engaged in the foreign carrying trade." But 
 it has been already stated by the Committee that the decrease from 
 1860 to 1866 was 1,149,002 tons, and, as I shall show, the decrease 
 subsequently continued, and is still continuing. Let us, then, turn 
 to the tables given by the Committee, and let us see whether this 
 diminution of over 1,000,000 tons took place in 1863 and 1864. 
 
 The following is a statement exhibiting the amount of registered 
 tonnage of the United States, steam and sail, employed in naviga- 
 tion annually £rom 1860 to 1869, and its annual increase and de- 
 crease of each class ; also of tonnage built : — 
 
 Year ending 
 Jane 30. 
 
 
 Annnal Increase 
 
 Annnal Increase 
 
 
 Total Tonnage. 
 
 or Decrease of 
 
 or Decrease of 
 
 Tonnage Bailt. 
 
 
 Sail Tonnage.* 
 
 Steam Tonnage.* 
 
 
 1860 
 
 2,546,237 
 
 •34,287 
 
 *4,548 
 
 212,892-45 
 
 1861 
 
 2,642,648 
 
 *91,079 
 
 •6,312 
 
 233194-35 
 
 1862 
 
 2,291,251 
 
 t362,767 
 
 ♦11,390 
 
 175,075-84 
 
 18P3 
 
 2.026,114 
 
 t284,354 
 
 •19,217 
 
 810,884-34 
 
 1864 
 
 1,581,895 
 
 t4l7,523 
 
 t26,696 
 
 514,740-64 
 
 1865 
 
 1,602,LJ3 
 
 •29,199 
 
 t8,511 
 
 383,805-60 
 
 1866 
 
 1,492,926 
 
 t209,938 
 
 •100,281 
 
 336,146-56 
 
 1867 
 
 1,568,032 
 
 •75,280 
 
 tl74 
 
 803,528-66 
 
 1868 
 
 1,565,732 
 
 t26,124 
 
 •23,824 
 
 285.304-73 
 
 1869 
 
 1,566,421 
 
 •42,825 
 
 t8,687 
 
 275,23005 
 
 Increase marked by •, and decrease by t> 
 
 This table is a very suggestive one, and we shall find it hard to 
 reconcile with it the assertion that the decline of American com- 
 merce in the last decade of over 1,149,902 tons must be attributed 
 to the ravages of cruisers in 1863 and 1864. 
 
 It will be noticed that the decline in 1862 was greater than that 
 in 1868, more nearly approaching that of 1864 ; and that American 
 tonmi,ge has decreased since 1885. It will also be observed that 
 
 ti.- 
 
 ■»^. 
 
 -"-"'*■* — ""rr^"' 
 
6 
 
 The Influence of American Legislation on the 
 
 nhipbuiUling has steadily decreased sinoe 1865 from 614,740*04 
 tons to 275,280-05 tons in 1869. 
 
 This remarkable decline of American shipping and shipbuilding 
 after the destruction of the rebel cruiaera is best illustrated by the i al- 
 lowing table, giving a comparison of American and foreign tonnage 
 entered at ports of the United States from foreign countries : — 
 
 
 Excess of American 
 
 Excess of Foreign over 
 
 
 over Foreign Tonnage. 
 
 American Tonnago. 
 
 I860 
 
 3,667,374 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 1861 
 
 2,806,363 
 
 — 
 
 1862 
 
 2,872,407 
 
 — 
 
 1863 
 
 1,974,326 
 
 — 
 
 1864 
 
 — 
 
 404,785 
 
 1865 
 
 — 
 
 273,306 
 
 1866 
 
 — 
 
 1,038,364 
 
 1867 
 
 — 
 
 863,621 
 
 1868 
 
 — 
 
 944,915 
 
 1869 
 
 ■^~ 
 
 1,945,026 
 
 It is impossible to assign all the striking features of this com- 
 parison to the effects of the rebel cruisers. In 18G5, American and 
 foreign tonnage, it will be seen, were very nearly equal, but since 
 that year foreign tonnage increased until, in 1809, it was nearly 
 two milUons of tons in excess of American. 
 
 In case ingenuity may suggest some connection between this 
 very remote cause and this most disastrous state of things, I may 
 give some figures which are not liable to bo connected with rebel 
 cruisers. The coasting trade of the United States is carefully pre- 
 served for the benefit of American shipowners, and is therefore 
 ahke safe from cmisers and from competition. Yet what do we 
 find ? That the same decline observable in the foreign trade is 
 equally palpable in the coasting trade of the United States, and 
 that there has been a steady and uniform decrease since 1865. 
 
 Estimated value of American coastwise and inland carrying 
 trade — the estimated specie value of gross yearly earnings being 
 i)8\ per cent. 
 
 1860 , 
 
 . $38,370,957 
 
 1865 . 
 
 . 152,412,970 
 
 1861 
 
 . 39,594,861 
 
 1866 . 
 
 . 42,267,780 
 
 1862 
 
 . 42,313,710 
 
 1867 . 
 
 . 41,046,810 
 
 1863 
 
 . 46,499,505 
 
 1868 . 
 
 . 41,790,390 
 
 1864 
 
 . 51,067,590 
 
 1869 . 
 
 . 38,673,285 
 
 It will be noticed that the gross earnings steadily increased from 
 over $38,000,000 in 1860 to over $52,000,000 in 1865, from which 
 date there has been a steady decline until in 1869 the figures stand 
 
Decline of the United States us a Mwritime Poic^.r. 
 
 again at over ^88,000,000. It iu probable tbat uinoe 1808 the 
 Pacific Railway may have diverted a portion of the carrying trade, 
 but it could not possibly have caused so great a decline, and one, 
 too, which began to show itself before the construction of that 
 line. 
 
 From 1866 to 1869 the exports and imports in American vesse. . 
 decreased from ^325,711,861 to $289,950,272, and the foreign 
 commerce of the country decreased during the same years from 
 $1,010,988,552 to ^876,442,284. 
 
 Mr. Secretary Boutwell's report for 1871 shows that the decUne 
 is still progressing. " Returns for the fiscal year 1870-71 show 
 that the ocean commerce of the United States is rapidly passing 
 into the hands of foreign merchants and shipbuilders. In the 
 year 1860 nearly 71 per cent, of the foreign commerce of the 
 United States was in American ehips ; in 1864 it had fallen to 46 
 per cent. ; in 1868 to 44 per cent. ; and in 1871 it is reported at 
 less than 88 per cent." — i.e. that in the last three years th^re has 
 been a far greater decline than in the four years after the de- 
 struction of the " ylldbama." 
 
 It was a great convenience to them to have a scapegoat, especi- 
 ally when a rich nation is to be held responsible for the blunders 
 and the sins of American statesmen. Mr. Boutwell, therefore, very 
 naturally, in trying to explain this singular dechne of American 
 shipping, gives the " Alabama " a prominent place. 
 
 " The loss of the shipping of the United States is due chiefly to 
 tv<ro causes ; first, the destruction of American vessels by rebel 
 cruisers during the war ; and secondly, the substitution of iron 
 steamships for the transportation of freight and passengers upon 
 the ocean in place of sailing vessels and steamships built of 
 wood." 
 
 The best answer to the latter solution for the diflficulty is the 
 fact that Canadian shipping has not only held its own, but has 
 even increased, although iron shipbuilding has not yet been intro- 
 duced into the Dominion ; and as to the Alabama, it is clear that 
 even if she and her sister cruisers had never left port, American 
 commerce must have dechned. This disastrous change may have 
 been slightly accelerated by these cruisers, but it was inevitable. 
 American shipowners sold their ships because they could not a£Ford 
 to sail them. American commerce has been driven from the ocean 
 by the evil genius of protection, that has pressed like a nightmare 
 upon American industry, and rendered competition with foreign 
 nations a hopeless task. 
 
 It would almost seem as if some deadly foe to the Repubho had 
 
 s 
 
a 
 
 The Infiuence of American Legislation on the 
 
 4) 
 
 inspired her councils, and had left no device untritd by which the 
 nation might be deprived of its proud position as a maritime and 
 commercial power. I shall endeavour to sketch the effectual 
 course which seems to have been suggested. 
 
 In 1860 the United States occupied a most enviable position. 
 Emigration was in every decade adding nearly twenty-five per cent, 
 to their population. Their foreign trade was rivalling that of 
 Enf'V",nd. They had, in a large variety of articles, almost a mono- 
 poly of the West Indian and of some South American markets. A 
 Reciprocity Treaty threw open a country larger than the United 
 States, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, to American 
 manufactures and products, while American enterprise drew the 
 raw products of that vast country across the frontier, and exported 
 them to foreign ports in American shipping. Practically they 
 were the commercial owners of nearly the whole North American 
 Continent. Want of enterprise left the Canadian at the mercy of 
 his more energetic neighbour. The low rate of wages in the United 
 States enabled them to manufacture for the continent. Boots, 
 woodenware, farming implements, castings — almost everything 
 needed by the Canadian, were sent to him in ships or on railways 
 that brought back raw materials that only needed to be sent abroad 
 to realise a large profit. The manufacturer of the Eastern States 
 got cheap coal from Nova Scotia and from Britain, and not only 
 had the benefit of cheap fuel, but also of low rates of freight for 
 the export of the productions of his industry. Enghsh manufac- 
 turers and shippers utilise the export of '•oal, salt, pottery, ai 1 
 other bulky articles, and thereby save the ^utward freight. The 
 United States enjoyed the very same privilege, except that with 
 them their return cargoes were inward instead of outward. When 
 we remember that in one year the shipping interests of England 
 realised six millions on the export of coal by way of freights, and 
 that the coal-owners only realised four millions, we can understand 
 the benefit, in point of return freights alone, that the importation 
 o^ coal, gypsum, salt, pottery, &c., brought to American shipping 
 and to American merchants. 
 
 Every one of these advantages was most bhndly and deliberately 
 sacrificed. A great war broke out, which was in itseK a soro 
 strain upon the United States, and endangered its future as a 
 maritime and commercial Power. The utmost caution was needed 
 to lighten the burden of war-taxes as much as possible, and to 
 make, them press lightly on American industry. 
 
 Instead of this wise course the very opposite was adopted. To 
 make the taxation as heavy as possible it was necessary to pay 
 
i 
 
 
 
 Decline of the United States as a Maritime Power. 9 
 
 off the huge debt without delay, although delay was sure to 
 greatly increase the population and wealth of the Eepublic, and 
 its consequent ability to pay. But even this was not enough ; 
 the people must also bear not only the war debt, but also the 
 grievous burden of building up rich monopohes. The tariff was 
 not a revenue, but a protective one. Prohibitive duties were put 
 on that excluded many articles ne^ ded by the labourer and artisan, 
 and cut off a source of revenue, while the price was enormously 
 enhanced to the consumer. What the consumer lost in one way 
 he equally lost in another. The revenue that was indirectly 
 diverted into the pockets of monopolists had to be made up in 
 some way, and fresh taxes and duties were needed to supply the 
 deficiency. 
 
 Agricultural produce and coal were almost excluded, and every 
 consumer and manufacturer felt the consequence in the increased 
 cost of fuel and wages. The United States had become the fu,ctors 
 of British America, and Colonists were content to let Americans 
 reap the harvests while they themselves had all the toil. In 1863 
 $30,000,000 worth of products, which the Canadians could have 
 more cheaply shipped abroad in their own ships, was carried over 
 American railways, and sent abroad in American ships. The 
 wonderful discovery has recently been made that there was a 
 balance of trade of $30,000,000 against the United States under the 
 Eeciprocity Treaty, because while we imported only from them 
 what we consumed, they not only imported articles for con- 
 sumption, but also in addition an enormous amount of our raw 
 materials, in order to export them abroad. In fact, this thirty 
 miUions of our raw material — i.e., of our capital on which we were 
 stupidly allowing them to trade — we are told, was a balance of 
 trade against them ! 
 
 The fact that this absurdity has been within the past six months 
 urged in the United States against any renewal of reciprocity 
 proves how little the Americans understand the suicidal policy 
 which they have adopted. 
 
 The American shipowner and manufacturer soon learned it to 
 their cost. The American shipper found that a barrier of not less 
 25 per cent, was put up to cut off his supplies of timber, agri- 
 cultural produce, &c., which he had been used to carry to foreign 
 ports. The manufacturer, oppressed by direct and indirect taxes 
 and by enormously enhanced wages, found it hard enough to 
 manufacture, except at a loss ; but freights were also en- 
 hanced. If he sent his manufactures to Canadian or English 
 ports there was no back freight. Coal was almost excluded by a 
 
10 
 
 The Inflv£nce of American Legislation on the 
 
 prohibitory tariff, and salt, " the blood of the poor," was kept out 
 by an increase of 150 per cent, in the burdens upon it, in order 
 that a few hundred workmen might find employment, and that a 
 score or two of capitalists might become millionaires. 
 
 In the meantime labour of all kinds was heavily burdened by all 
 sorts of direct and indirect taxes. Bents rose to an inordinate 
 price. Agricultural produce became almost a luxury. Fuel was 
 a dearly bought comfort, and the very matches with which the 
 labourer kindled his fire, were compelled to contribute to the treasury 
 of the State and to the coffers of capitalists. As a matter of 
 course building ships became a profitless task. Universal pro- 
 tection took out of one pocket as much, aid even more, than it put 
 into the other. To encourage shipbuilding was a first duty to the 
 State. Admiral Porter says that a few efficient ships would have 
 stopped blockade-running; but the State could not protect its 
 commerce, and unhappy shipowners, who sold unprofitable ships, 
 which were at the mercy of one or two privateers, were de- 
 nounced as unpatriotic and traitors, and were prevented from re- 
 storing to an American register the ships which they had been 
 forced by a high tariff and a useless navy to place under the pro- 
 toction of a foreign flag. Shipbuilding must be encouraged, but so 
 must timber merchants, owners of copper mines, Penusylvaniau 
 coal-owners, and a swarm of vampyres that had fastened on the 
 Eepublic, and were sucking out the feeble tide of life that survived 
 in American enterprise. While monopolists have thrived, the 
 labour of the country has starved on high wages, like Midas in the 
 midst of his gold. 
 
 " We cannot hope," said an eminent shipbuilder, in his evidence 
 before the Committee on the decline of the American shipping, 
 ♦' for a reduction in the price of labour, as we find it more difficult 
 for our workmen to support themselves and their families on the 
 present rate of wages with the greatly enhanced cost of everything 
 consumed by them , than it was when their wages ruled at the 
 lowest : and until the cost of living is greatly reduced, we cannot 
 hope :«at the wages of the mechanic and labouring man will rule 
 much below what they are at present ; in fact, it cannot be with- 
 out being oppressive upon them. 
 
 As the Americans are unable to build ships except at a loss, 
 they are imitating the dog in the manger. They cannot build 
 ships themselves, and they will not let any other nation build for 
 them ; in the meantime they are jealously protecting their empty 
 ship-yards. 
 
 But not satisfied |with this absurdity, and not content with 
 
Decline of the United States as a Maritime Potver. 11 
 
 having enhanced the cost of production, they have made the car- 
 riage and transit of goods, as far as they can, a monopoly. It is 
 needless to say that the two great desiderata in successful com- 
 petition in manufactures, &c., are, first, cheap cost of production, 
 and next, cheap transport to market. Many thousands of tons 
 that go to California by the Pacific Eailway pass over some 
 hundreds of miles of Canadian railways. The idea of taxing these 
 goods to prevent the encouragement of Canadian lines would be 
 too absurd to be thought of. Yet transit by water is a monopoly ; 
 and though Colonial ships could carry American produce more 
 cheaply than their rivals, they are prohibited from doing so. 
 American commerce must pay tribute to protection. The pohcy 
 is as useless as it is unwise, for even the coasting trade, protected 
 as it is, is steadily dechning. 
 
 In the meantime other nations have been reaping the fruits, 
 while the people of the United States have had only the husks left 
 to them. Gnce the American manufacturer supplied British 
 America and the West Indies with manufactures in wood, leather, 
 iron, &c. The tide has turned at last. Manufacturers have 
 sought refuge across the frontier. Canadians are supplying Ame- 
 ricans with clothing, whisky, furniture, &c., and have become suc- 
 cessful competitors in the foreign markets of the United States. 
 
 How American statesmen got rid of " that balance of trade " of 
 thuty millions of dollars, was discussed a year ago by myself in 
 the letter to which I have already referred. 
 
 Lest it may be supposed that I am speaking strongly of the 
 policy of the Americans because I am addressing an English 
 audience, I had better quote the criticisms on the protective tariff 
 of the United States made a year ago by myself in the Boston Post, 
 and very cordially endorsed by that paper : — 
 
 " Those who attended the meeting of the Council of the National 
 Board, or who were present at the dinner given by the Boston 
 Board, had an opportunity of knowing the views of our people at 
 the present juncture. But there are many who were not there, 
 ^;hom I beg leave to address through the columns of your paper. 
 I shall confine my remarks to the subject of the Reciprocity Treaty, 
 the repeal of which we regard as an unjustice not to our country, 
 but to your own. We had been reduced to a state of commercial 
 serfdom, but we were w^illing to serve you. We had made a treaty 
 like that of the Qibeonites ; and had it continued we should none 
 of us have been free from being • hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water ' to the Republic. We toiled in the forests, the fields and 
 seas of the Dominion, and gleaned a meagre profit on our labour. 
 
12 The Influence of American Legislation on the 
 
 American enterprise, that shamed us, reaped a rich harvest, and 
 shipped abroad our products to foreign ports ; building up your 
 trade, and employing your railways, merchants, and shipping. 
 All this has been changed. You have turned us from your door, 
 and forced us to rely on ourselves, and to send our products 
 abroad in our own ships, instead of in those of the EepubUc. We 
 have profited by the lesson, and have been forced into the position 
 of competitors und rivals, and you are everywhere met in foreign 
 ports by those coloninl products of which you once had the mono- 
 poly. Commercial pressure on your part has been the hoop that 
 has bound us into a Confederation. Such a step would have 
 been an impossibility but for the repeal of the treaty. You had 
 tapped our trade in the East ^nd West, and had almost made the 
 Canadians strangers and aliens in the eyes of the people of the 
 Maritime Provinces. You forced us to become friends hj repeal- 
 ing the treaty. The blow was at first a heavy one, but we have 
 recovered from it, and there is not one interest now in the Domi- 
 nion that is not prosperous, excepting the coal trade, the pro- 
 sperity of which is a matter of greater moment to your country 
 than it is to ours. Independently of the heavy burdens that have 
 been thrown by the coal-tax on every householder and manufac- 
 turer in the Eastern States, as a mere question of freights, you 
 were even more largely interested in the continuance of our coal 
 trade with you than the owners of Nova Scotian coal-mines. 
 
 " This point I need not discuss here, as it has been fully argued 
 before the Council of the National Board of Trade, as well as re- 
 ferred to at the dinner at Havard. 
 
 •* If ever a lying spirit was sent to mislead a nation, it was the 
 evil genius that induced your Government to repeal . the Eecipro- 
 city Treaty. At the outbreak of your war, startling as the fact 
 may appear to you, we were even more unanimously in favour of 
 the preservation of the Union than you yourselves were. We 
 had no political ties or party influences to warp our judgments ; 
 and we were to a man on the pide of the country with which we 
 were closely connected, against a distinct section of your Eepublic, 
 of which we knew little except through the fugitive slaves that 
 sought a refuge in our country. If we knew little of the South, 
 we certainly cared less for it. When the telegraph announced the 
 bombardment of Fort Sumpter, our Legislature adjourned for the 
 day, as if some great calamity had befallen us, and adopted a 
 strong resolution of sympathy with the Republic. But it was not 
 in words only that this feeling was evinced. Hundreds of our 
 people enlisted in your army, many of whom returned maimed 
 
 •■■■ »■: 
 
♦■'--• J. 
 
 Decline of the United States as a Maritime Power. 13 
 
 from your battle-fields, or left their bones to whiten in the scenes 
 of your struggles. Hundreds more would have joined your ranks, 
 but they found to their amazement that they must remain at home 
 to fight for the protection of their own country, not for you, but 
 against you. A question of which we know nothing arose between 
 England and your country, as to whether the struggle on the part 
 of the South should be regarded alroad as a bona fide war. It 
 proved in time to be not only a war, but also one of the greatest 
 wars of modern times. To our intense indignation and surprise, 
 we heard the proposal made to settle your difficulties by invading 
 us. The Demon of Discord was to be appeased by sacrificing us 
 as victims upon its altar. I need not say how we felt. How would 
 you feel in such a case ? Having irritated a friendly people, you 
 completed the work by having fortifications erected along our lines, 
 not for defence, but for invasion. Then the next step was to 
 never the commercial ties that bound us to you in willing bondage. 
 We were not cordial sympathisers with you, therefore the treaty 
 must be repealed to punish us ; and a barrier was erected 
 against us. You cut off the sources that fed the vast volume of 
 your foreign trade, and then you wondered why the stream dried 
 up, and why your ships were idle and your trade paralysed. The 
 "Alabama " was blamed ; but the diminution continued at an in- 
 creased rate after she was destroyed. 
 
 " What is now to be done ? To exorcise the Evil Spirit by 
 invoking the memory of kindred ties, by forgetting and forgiving 
 the faults and the failings of the past, and by renewing those bonds 
 that were severed in passion, and that should be restored in calmer 
 and more generous moments of reflection. A time must come when 
 the dead must * bury their dead.' Surely the time has now come 
 for a general forgetfulness even of wrongs." 
 
 The following are the comments of the Boston Post : — " The more 
 obvious disadvantages to which we impulsively subjected ourselves 
 by the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty with Canada and the 
 Provinces are set forth with much force in a communication from 
 Mr. Haliburton, to be found in another column. He proceeds 
 to show in a few words how, to use a well-known phrase, we 
 bit off our nose to spite our face ; and demonstrates what he 
 asserts so positively, that it was owing to our own commercial 
 pressure on the Provinces that they embarked in Confederation, 
 and that we now find them rivals in markets which were before 
 wholly our own. It was not necessary to show us that, both by 
 the weight of our coal-tax and the loss of our remunerative 
 freights, we had needlessly relinquished profits that no one had 
 
14 
 
 The Influence of American Legislation on the 
 
 disputed our rightful poBsession of till then. Of course the view 
 of Mr. Haliburton concerning the whole matter is from the 
 other side of the line, but that ought to help us to take the 
 larger and clearer one ourselves. 
 
 " The writer presents an impre^.sive sketch of the causes and 
 progress of the ali*^nation that was suflfered to interpose between 
 the United States and the Canadas, whose culmination was the 
 annulment of the Reciprocity Treaty and a fanatic proposal to 
 heal our domestic feuds by joining in 't, crusade to wrest the 
 Provinces from the British Empire. He lays too much stress, 
 however, on the latter, for it at no time was entertained by any 
 sane mind in the country. We felt certain, on our part, that 
 peace and justice and neighbourly kindness would effect an ulti- 
 mate union, through natural economic agencies, such as no 
 measures of violence could accomplish. It is quite enough to 
 know that, in the hour of passion. Congress snapped the strong 
 commercial bonds that held us together, and would eventually 
 have made us one, and that until the present day, under the 
 shelter of the new Treaty of Washington, no opportunity has 
 offered for reversing mistakes and restoring relations which should 
 never have been allowed to remain so long neglected." 
 
 Their blundering policy has been due to the fact that the Ame- 
 rican Republic is governed not by the people, but by a monied 
 aristocracy, by gigantic coal and railway companies, by wealthy 
 salt speculators, and by a powerful ring that can control legisla- 
 tion, even if it cannot influence elections. Much of the strong 
 feeling that has been excited against England and Canada has 
 been stimulated by Protectionists. The plea of starving Canadians 
 into annexation was a plausible excuse for keeping up a heavy 
 duty on coal and timber ; and within the past few days the first 
 rumour of the rejection of the " Alabama " Treaty was followed by a 
 patriotic cry in the United States of " Let us punish them by 
 heavy duties on British products." My friend, Mr. Atkinson, of 
 Boston, one of the ablest advocates of free trade, has in his clear, 
 incisive style laid bare the selfishness of American Protectionists ; 
 and only a few weeks ago the ruinous effect of their influence on 
 American shipping was most conclusively demonstrated. A depu- 
 tation of persons interested in the commerce of the Lakes protested 
 against the coasting trade of the Lakes being thrown open to 
 Canadian ships, because the result would be to drive American 
 shipping from those inland seas. This is a startling assertion, for 
 there are surely no " Alabamas " there. The solution for this enigma 
 is in the fact that American commerce has been so heavily 
 
Decline of the United States as a Maritime Power. 15 
 
 burdened by protection that American vessels cannot sail in the 
 same waters with British shipping. 
 
 There is a great truth which Americans seem to have forgotten, 
 that universal protection is but another term for universal burdens. 
 Where every man is protected, every man must contribute to pro- 
 tect liis neighbours. He has therefore to pay in taxes, &o., as 
 much out of one pocket as he receives from protection in the other. 
 But the process is a losing one. The taxpayer and consumer have 
 to pay to the uttermost farthing, but all that pay does not go to 
 the Treasury, or even to the coffers of the rich monopolist. The 
 cost of collecting oppressive taxes, and the amount fraudulently 
 retained by an army of officials — all make up a grave percentage 
 of the amount taken from the taxpayer. 
 
 The American people at the present moment remind me of three 
 Irishmen who, fifteen years ago, were by accident left at Halifax 
 by the English steamer, and were compelled to travel overland 
 mimis their luggage. A fellow-passenger of theirs was the late 
 Judge Haliburton, who condoled with one of them on their having 
 no change with them. " Faith, Judge," said one of them, who 
 was a humorist, "we've got a change, such as it is; but it's no 
 great shakes after all, for sure, the only change we've got is changing 
 with one another." The Americans have fancied that they would 
 grow rich by protection, and are beginning to find that they have 
 been merely " changing with one another.''^ > 
 
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 UNwm bkothee:, pkintees, London and chilwobth.