Instructions to commissioners. inconsistent conduct of England, and loudly accused her of robbery and injustice. Indignation meetings, as they have since been termed, were convened in all the principal commercial cities of America; declarations and resolutions were voted; and petitions and remonstrances were addressed to the President and Legislature. Congress, as was natural, caught the flame with which it was surrounded, and after a multitude of injudicious and inflammatory resolutions, passed a non-importation Act[1] against the manufactures of Great Britain, to take effect in the ensuing month of November. In the meantime the commissioners sent to negotiate with Great Britain were instructed to obtain from the government a clear and precise rule for regulating their trade with the colonies of the enemy, which should not be liable to be changed by Orders in Council or instructions to cruisers.
Proceedings of the shipowners of New York. Before examining the third point of the complaints urged by the Americans, it will conduce to the general comprehension of the whole scope of the quarrel if reference is made to the proceedings of the merchants and shipowners at New York shortly before this period. It requires very little penetration to perceive that the arming of vessels in the ports of the United States, under pretence of being bound to the East Indies, was a mere cloak for privateering. There were then plenty of freebooters under the American flag, who cared but little which side they espoused, so as they could succeed in a very profitable maritime adventure. In fact their depredations on the seas rose to such a height that Congress was at last compelled to
- ↑ Act of April 18, 1806.
