Great Britain and the American Civil War | Page 9

Congress in 1860, were happily
removed. Britain definitely altered her policy of opposition to the
growth of American power.
In 1860, then, the causes of governmental antagonisms were seemingly
all at an end. Impressment was not used after 1814. The differing
theories of the two Governments on British expatriation still remained,
but Britain attempted no practical application of her view. The right of
search in time of peace controversy, first eased by the plan of joint
cruising, had been definitely settled by the British renunciation of 1858.
Opposition to American territorial advance but briefly manifested by
Britain, had ended with the annexation of Texas, and the fever of
expansion had waned in America. Minor disputes in Central America,
related to the proposed canal, were amicably adjusted.
But differences between nations, varying view-points of peoples,
frequently have deeper currents than the more obvious frictions in
governmental act or policy, nor can governments themselves fail to
react to such less evident causes. It is necessary to review the
commercial relations of the two nations--later to examine their political
ideals.
In 1783 America won her independence in government from a colonial
status. But commercially she remained a British colony--yet with a
difference. She had formed a part of the British colonial system. All her
normal trade was with the mother country or with other British colonies.
Now her privileges in such trade were at an end, and she must seek as a
favour that which had formerly been hers as a member of the British
Empire. The direct trade between England and America was easily and
quickly resumed, for the commercial classes of both nations desired it
and profited by it. But the British colonial system prohibited trade

between a foreign state and British colonies and there was one channel
of trade, to and from the British West Indies, long very profitable to
both sides, during colonial times, but now legally hampered by
American independence. The New England States had lumber, fish,
and farm products desired by the West Indian planters, and these in turn
offered needed sugar, molasses, and rum. Both parties desired to restore
the trade, and in spite of the legal restrictions of the colonial system,
the trade was in fact resumed in part and either permitted or winked at
by the British Government, but never to the advantageous exchange of
former times.
The acute stage of controversy over West Indian trade was not reached
until some thirty years after American Independence, but the
uncertainty of such trade during a long period in which a portion of it
consisted in unauthorized and unregulated exchange was a constant
irritant to all parties concerned. Meanwhile there came the War of 1812
with its preliminary check upon direct trade to and from Great Britain,
and its final total prohibition of intercourse during the war itself. In
1800 the bulk of American importation of manufactures still came from
Great Britain. In the contest over neutral rights and theories, Jefferson
attempted to bring pressure on the belligerents, and especially on
England, by restriction of imports. First came a non-importation Act,
1806, followed by an embargo on exports, 1807, but these were so
unpopular in the commercial states of New England that they were
withdrawn in 1810, yet for a short time only, for Napoleon tricked the
United States into believing that France had yielded to American
contentions on neutral rights, and in 1811 non-intercourse was
proclaimed again with England alone. On June 18, 1812, America
finally declared war and trade stopped save in a few New England ports
where rebellious citizens continued to sell provisions to a blockading
British naval squadron.
For eight years after 1806, then, trade with Great Britain had steadily
decreased, finally almost to extinction during the war. But America
required certain articles customarily imported and necessity now forced
her to develop her own manufactures. New England had been the
centre of American foreign commerce, but now there began a trend

toward manufacturing enterprise. Even in 1814, however, at the end of
the war, it was still thought in the United States that under normal
conditions manufactured goods would again be imported and the
general cry of "protection for home industries" was as yet unvoiced.
Nevertheless, a group of infant industries had in fact been started and
clamoured for defence now that peace was restored. This situation was
not unnoticed in Great Britain where merchants, piling up goods in
anticipation of peace on the continent of Europe and a restored market,
suddenly discovered that the poverty of Europe denied them that
market. Looking with apprehension toward the new industries of
America, British merchants, following the advice of Lord Brougham in
a parliamentary speech, dumped great quantities of their surplus goods
on the American market, selling them far below cost, or even on
extravagant credit