ed in negotiating a temporary
treaty which improved the position of American sea-borne
trade with the West Indies. His government urged him to
get explicit statements of principle inserted, more
especially anything that would make cargoes neutral when
under neutral flags. This, however, was not possible, as
Jay himself pointed out. 'That Britain,' he said, 'at
this period, and involved in war, should not admit
principles which would impeach the propriety of her
conduct in seizing provisions bound to France, and enemy's
property on board neutral vessels, does not appear to me
extraordinary.' On the whole, Jay did very well to get
any treaty through at such a time; and this mere fact
shows that the general attitude of the mother country
towards her independent children was far from being
unfriendly.
Unfriendliness began with the new century, when Jefferson
first came into power. He treated the British navigation
laws as if they had been invented on purpose to wrong
Americans, though they had been in force for a hundred
and fifty years, and though they had been originally
passed, at the zenith of Cromwell's career, by the only
republican government that ever held sway in England.
Jefferson said that British policy was so perverse, that
when he wished to forecast the British line of action on
any particular point he would first consider what it
ought to be and then infer the opposite. His official
opinion was written in the following words: 'It is not
to the moderation or justice of others we are to trust
for fair and equal access to market with our productions,
or for our due share in the transportation of them; but
to our own means of independence, and the firm will to
use them.' On the subject of impressment, or 'Sailors'
Rights,' he was clearer still: 'The simplest rule will
be that the vessel being American shall be evidence that
the seamen on board of her are such.' This would have
prevented the impressment of British seamen, even in
British harbours, if they were under th