5742. NAVIGATION, Retaliatory duties.—
Where a nation refuses to our vessels
the carriage even of our own productions, to
certain countries under their domination,
we might refuse to theirs of every description,
the carriage of the same productions to
the same countries. But as justice and good
neighborhood would dictate that those who
have no part in imposing the restriction on
us, should not be the victims of measures
adopted to defeat its effect, it may be proper
to confine the restriction to vessels owned
or navigated by any subjects of the same
dominant power, other than the inhabitants
of the country to which the said productions
are to be carried. And to prevent all inconvenience
to the said inhabitants, and to our
own, by too sudden a check on the means of
transportation, we may continue to admit the
vessels marked for future exclusion, on an
advanced tonnage, and for such length of
time only, as may be supposed necessary to
provide against that inconvenience.—
Foreign Commerce Report. Washington ed. vii, 649.
Ford ed., vi, 482.
(Dec. 1793)
