It was Page's business to protect the rights of the United States, just as it was Grey's to protect the rights of Great Britain.

Both were vigilant in protecting such rights, and animated differences between the two men on this point were not infrequent.

Great Britain did many absurd and high-handed things in intercepting American cargoes, and Page was always active in "protesting" when the basis for the protest actually existed.
But on the great overhanging issue the two men were at one.

Like Grey, Page believed that there were more important things involved than an occasional cargo of copper or of oil cake.

The American Ambassador thought that the United States should protect its shipping interests, but that it should realize that maritime law was not an exact science, that its principles had been modified by every great conflict in which the blockade had been an effective agency, and that the United States itself, in the Civil War, had not hesitated to make such changes as the changed methods of modern transportation had required.