The activity of the states, no longer waiting for the federal
government to construct a national system; the rapidly growing
demand for the relinquishment of the national road to the states
within which it lay; and the activity of corporations, all pointed
to a new era in internal improvements. The states were ready to
receive appropriations, but they preferred to build their own roads
and dig their own canals. The state and the corporation were
replacing the national government as the controlling power in
internal improvements, and Adams's conception of a national system
of turnpikes and canals had failed.
Nor was President Adams successful in carrying out a system of
complete maritime reciprocity. After the War of 1812, Great Britain
and the United States agreed upon the abolition of discriminating
duties on ships or products engaged in the trade between the two
countries; [Footnote: Cf. Babcock, Am. Nationality (Am. Nation,
XIII.), chap. xvi.] but England reserved her right to exempt her
American possessions from this reciprocity.
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