The
stipulated time having elapsed, American vessels were definitely
excluded from the West Indies in 1826 by orders in council.
[Footnote: Adams, Gallatin, 615-620; cf. MacDonald, Jacksonian
Democracy (Am. Nation, XV.), 201.] In the campaign of 1828 Adams was
blamed for the failure to seize this opportunity, but the generally
prosperous condition of our shipping not only moderated the
discontent, but even led to a law (May 24, 1828) intended to place
American vessels in complete control of our foreign commerce by
providing for the abolition, by proclamation of the president, of
all discriminating duties against such nations as should free ships
of the United States from corresponding discriminations. In the long
run, this reciprocity act proved a mistake; the end of Adams's
administration marked the beginning of a decline in the prosperity
of the merchant marine. [Footnote: Soley, in Shaler, United States,
I., 540.]
American commerce during this period by no means kept pace with the
growing wealth and population of the country.
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