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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

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

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

Total Tonnage.

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^"'

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

The Infiuence of American Legislation on the

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

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

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

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.