Our commercial relations with Great Britain will deserve the serious
consideration of Congress and the exercise of a conciliatory and
forbearing spirit in the policy of both Governments. The state of them
has been materially changed by the act of Congress, passed at their last
session, in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on imports,
and by acts of more recent date of the British Parliament. The effect of
the interdiction of direct trade, commenced by Great Britain and
reciprocated by the United States, has been, as was to be foreseen, only
to substitute different channels for an exchange of commodities
indispensable to the colonies and profitable to a numerous class of our
fellow-citizens. The exports, the revenue, the navigation of the United
States have suffered no diminution by our exclusion from direct access
to the British colonies. The colonies pay more dearly for the
necessaries of life which their Government burdens with the charges of
double voyages, freight, insurance, and commission, and the profits of
our exports are somewhat impaired and more injuriously transferred from
one portion of our citizens to another.
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