CHAPTER IV

THE FIRST SWIFT GROWTH. 1789-1800

Protection for Shipping the Earliest Act of the Federal Congress in 1789 The Atlantic, the Coastwise, and the East Indian Trade all included - Immediate Response of our Shipowners and Seamen - A Wonderful Upspringing of Marine Activity - Bold Merchants and Bolder Masters A Fivefold Growth by 1800The Barbary Corsairs and our Shameful Tribute - French Depredations and an Ocean War - The Robbery of " Impressment

AMERICAN statesmen, merchants, and sailors of the first decade of peace and independence after the Revolution knew precisely what was needed to spread the white sails of our ships on every sea, but it was not until the machinery of national government was set in motion that this potent influence could be applied. As early as 1785, sturdy John Adams, who understood the trade of ocean-carrying, wrote from the Court of St. James in patriotic rage at the helplessness of American shipowners, "This being the state of things, you may depend upon it the commerce of America will have no relief at present, nor in my opinion ever, until the United States shall have generally passed navigation acts, and if this measure is not adopted, we shall be derided, and the more we suffer the more will our calamities be laughed at."

The first Congress under the new Federal Constitution, which met in April, 1789, found before it strenuous appeals for legislative encouragement for American shipping in the foreign trade. A memorial from the merchants and shipowners of Baltimore with true prophetic insight stated: "Your petitioners, on whichever side they may

turn their eyes, see reason to believe that the United States may soon become as powerful in shipping as any nation in the world. . . . Permit us to add that for want of national protection and encouragement, our shipping, that great source of strength and riches, has fallen into decay and involved thousands in the utmost distress." It was in response to the widespread and intense public feeling, of which this Baltimore memorial was a token, that within two days after the assembling of the first Congress, James Madison, of Virginia, though a free trader himself, brought into the House bills for protective duties on foreign merchandise and foreign ships.1

It is a memorable fact that the very first real Act of the first Congress of the United States contained vigorous provisions for the protection of the American merchant marine. This was the famous law, passed, appropriately enough, on July 4, 1789, which frankly proclaimed its purpose in its preamble: "Whereas, it is necessary for the support of the government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encouragement and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares, and merchandise imported." Thus this first law of the fathers of the republic was specifically a protective tariff Act, but it aimed to give American shipowners and seamen the same consideration which it bestowed upon American manufacturers and mechanics. This purpose was accomplished by the simple but effective expedient of allowing a discount of ten per cent of the tariff duties upon imports brought to this country in ships built and owned by American citizens

It was taking a leaf out of British practice, but it is impossible to read the debates upon this significant legislation without realizing that there was something more in the mind of Congress than a mere wish to retaliate against hostile British navigation acts. There was a deliberate

1 Henry Hall's "American Navigation."

and earnest desire to build up a great American merchant fleet, and to do this by invoking all the power of the newly created national government. Of course, this feeling was stronger in some States and among some public men than it was in and among others. The South, which had relatively few ships and few sailors, was rather lukewarm, though there were some Southern leaders like Jefferson and Madison who took a broad and truly national view of our maritime resources. In the manufacturing and commercial States of the North, however, the demand for protection for the American ship was wellnigh unanimous, and, taking the whole country over, no work of the first Congress won more cordial approval than those sections of the law which drew about our merchant marine the sheltering arm of the national government.

Those early statesmen were not content to give American shipowners a general protection of ten per cent of the customs duties on foreign goods imported in American vessels. This would perhaps suffice to gain control of the greater part of the carrying trade with Europe. But Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison looked beyond the North Atlantic, and sought for their adventurous countrymen a larger share in the romantic commerce of the Far East. The daring keels of New York, Boston, and Salem navigators had already found their way thither. In 1789 there were forty New England vessels engaged in trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope. But this traffic was still precarious. Loss was more frequent than profit, and the brave men who faced the hazards of those distant seas believed that they had a peculiar right to national assistance. Congress promptly and gladly

recognized their claim.

Tea was then the chief article of import from the East Indies. The same Act which gave American ships a general advantage of ten per cent of the customs duties. on their homeward cargoes provided another and a very

important discrimination in favor of American vessels in the new India and China trade. If tea was imported in American ships direct from those Eastern countries, it paid a duty of six cents a pound for Bohea, ten cents for Souchong, twenty cents for Hyson, and twelve cents for all other green varieties. But tea imported in a foreign ship was forced to pay a duty of fifteen cents a pound for Bohea, twenty-two cents for Souchong, forty-five cents for Hyson, and twenty-seven cents for the other varieties, — an increased rate, considerably more than double.

Nor was this all. The rich and powerful European East India companies brought large quantities of tea home to Great Britain and the Continent, whence it could be transshipped to America. These companies were, of course, determined to keep American vessels out of the direct trade with the East. But Congress was still more stoutly determined that they should not be excluded, and that we should have a great East India fleet of our own. Therefore, to persuade American merchants to send their own ships for their own cargoes, President Washington's lawmakers imposed a duty of eight, thirteen, sixteen, and twenty-six cents a pound on all teas which even American vessels might bring from the East India Company warehouses in Europe, a rate higher than if they were brought direct around the Cape of Good Hope.

This was stalwart legislation for the development of an East India commerce carried beneath the Stars and Stripes. Of course, it was immediately effective. On a cargo of one hundred thousand pounds of assorted teas an American ship coming from China or India would pay duties of $12,200, or, with the general ten per cent discount, of $10,980; while a foreign ship making the same voyage would be compelled to pay $27,800 into the Federal Treasury. The inevitable result was that no foreign vessels came into an American harbor with freights from the East, and this most noble and valuable of all branches

of ocean trade was absolutely secured to American shipowners. A report of the American Institute of the city of New York stated in 1828 that "such and so complete has been this security that your committee believes that there has not been a single pound of tea imported since the passage of the law in question which has not been imported in an American bottom."

But not even the ten per cent discrimination in customs duties and the special East India arrangement satisfied the desire of the first Congress to give every possible protection to American merchant ships. The third Act of this Congress, dated July 20, 1789, allowed American-built ships owned by American citizens to enter our ports with the payment of tonnage duties of six cents a ton, but demanded thirty cents a ton from American-built ships owned by foreigners, and fifty cents a ton from ships built as well as owned abroad. This gave our own vessels launched from our own yards an inestimable advantage in the carrying of American commerce. At the same time it was provided that American vessels in the coasting trade should pay the tonnage duty only once a year, while foreign craft which sought admission to this trade should pay it at every entry. It was not until 1817, twenty-eight years afterward, that our coastwise traffic was absolutely closed to foreign vessels, but the legislation of 1789 really established the policy of reserving this purely American trade for American carriers, a protective policy which, adhered to till the present moment, has given us the greatest and most efficient coastwise shipping in the world.

The Tariff and Navigation Act of 1789 was amended by Congress in the year 1794, and made still more energetic. Protective duties on foreign merchandise as originally imposed had proved inadequate. They were increased, — for the ruling spirit of the founders of the new nation was vigorously protectionist At the same time the method of encouraging the merchant marine by discriminating duties