NOVEMBER. 1808. The Embargo. SENATE. true, that it is a regulation which affects none but ed of the impolicy of this measure, and would the United States themselves, and tells us that willingly get rid of it, if they could do so, conHis Majesty neither does nor means to complain sistently with the character of infallibility they of it. And although the gentleman from Ken-wish to preserve in the public opinion. I deduce tucky informs us, he has not met with, yet I have this conclusion from the offer they say they have seen a recent report made by a French Minister recently made to the British Government to take to the Emperor, in which the embargo is approved off the embargo as to them, and to continue it as of and applauded as, what it really is, a measure to France, provided they would rescind their Orfavorable to them, and an act of great self-denial ders of Council. An offer, which, if indeed made on our part. Under all these circumstances, and unencumbered with other terms, is a complete every gentleman here knows the facts I state to acknowledgment of a conviction of error on the be correct, why, in the name of Heaven, continue part of the Administration; because, after they it? What beneficial end can it produce? The had subjected the country to all the deprivations, country is, at this moment, bleeding at every pore and ruinous effects of the embargo for more than under it, without the remotest prospect or proba- six months, it was coming to the precise ground bility of ultimately deriving the least possible we were requested to take in relation to France, advantage or security from the measure. And by the British Government, a year before the emas it is not among the least discouraging of the bargo was laid, in the famous note of Lords Holcircumstances belonging to the present state of land and Auckland to Messrs. Monroe and Pinkthings, that we are able to make no calculation as ney, accompanying the British Treaty formed by to the probable time when we shall see the end of those gentlemen. All they then asked of us was, the evil; for, upon the same principle that the that we should "not acquiesce in the palpable embargo is continued now, it may be continued violation of our rights directed by the Berlin defor twenty or for forty years, or at least during cree if attempted to be enforced ;" and surely they the war between the two great contending Pow- could not have contemplated more than that, if ers of Europe, which, I presume, no gentleman France did attempt to enforce that decree; we here expects will be at an end in the life of the would interdict all intercourse with her, and conpresent Emperor of France, and as long as an tinue our commerce with Great Britain; which Englishman exists with the means and courage would be the very effect of the stipulation recentto defend the independence of his country. ly proposed. This proposition from the British Government, however, in December, 1806, was spurned with disdain ; and now, after the country is half ruined with the experiment of a perpetual embargo, such as I believe was never before prac tised upon any people, we condescend to beg those very terms, and they refuse to grant them. Sir, the truth is, the Administration must now be convinced that the embargo is injuring no one but ourselves, and us it must eventually ruin if persisted in. I regret, too, this proposition was made, because it has furnished to Mr. Canning an opportunity of offering a most sarcastic insult to the Government of this country. He tells Mr. Pinkney in reply to it, that "His Majesty would not hesitate to contribute in any manner in his pow I am willing to believe, and do believe, what the honorable gentleman from Kentucky has just now in substance declared, that the gentlemen who supported the embargo laws at the last session upon this floor, supposed they would be speedily productive of great and beneficial results upon our foreign relations; that they would bring the two great belligerents, and especially England, to just and reasonable terms; and that there would be no occasion for continuing them longer than till they should be known on the other side of the Atlantic. But in all this they now see and know their mistake; they now know, from the most authentic sources, that these laws have produced no alteration in the conduct of either France or England in relation to us; that, in fact.er to restore to the commerce of the United they are applauded by the one, and treated with contempt and derision by the other, while we are ourselves the suffering and bleeding victims of the rack upon which we vainly expected to torture them. It is the fate of humanity to err; the wisest and the best of men are liable to it. And all we ask of these honorable gentlemen now, is to come out openly and acknowledge, in the face of the nation, the egregious mistake into which they fell, and unite with us in redressing the injuries and healing the wounds they have so unnecessarily inflicted upon their devoted country. I make this appeal to them with the more confidence, because I know every gentleman here has too much character and patriotism to be influenced by the pride of opinion to consistency in political error. I will submit to you, Mr. President, whether we have not before us sufficient evidence to show that the Administration themselves are now convinc 6 States its wonted activity; and if it were possible to make any sacrifice for the repeal of the embargo, without appearing to deprecate it as a measure of hostility, he would gladly have facilitated its removal as a measure of inconvenient restriction upon the American people." His Majesty would not hesitate to contribute in any manner in his power to restore to the commerce of the United States its wonted activity, and if it were possible, without any sacrifice, for the repeal of the embargo, would gladly facilitate its removal as a measure of inconvenient restriction upon the American people." I have no faith, Mr. President, in the sincerity of this profession; but I feel most sensibly the severity of the sarcasm, as applied to a measure of our Administration that we were confidently told was to bring England to our own terms. I will now, sir, with the indulgence of the Senate, endeavor to examine, as concisely and as cor SENATE. The Embargo. NOVEMBER, 1808. in stating, that the embargo is a premium sufficient to stimulate them to this exertion, and to enable them ultimately to supplant us in the sale of this very valuable staple of some of our Southern States. And the intimate connexion known at present to exist between the British Govern. ment and the Regency of that country, will greatly aid in producing this result. 1 rectly as I am capable of, the operation of theries of England. Surely, then, I shall be correct embargo upon the commerce and general prosperity of the United States. According to the last report of the Secretary of the Treasury, it will be found, that the goods, wares, and merchandise, of foreign growth and manufacture, exported from the United States in the year prior to the first day of October, 1807, amounted to $59,643,558. All the revenue, all the national and commercial wealth that would have arisen from this Now, sir, let me inquire, during the existence very extensive trade, is completely destroyed by of the present state of things, whence we are to the embargo; it is a total loss to the country, that derive our revenue? A consideration certainly can never be recovered. In the same report it ap- of no small importance to a Government dependpears that the goods, wares, and merchandise, of ing entirely for her revenue upon commerce. Our domestic growth and manufacture, the actual commerce is entirely at an end, and of course our produce of our own country, exported from the revenue; by the way, another loss to the nation United States, in the same year, amounted to of at least fifteen millions of dollars annually by $48,699.592. The whole commercial profits and the embargo. This, I know, cannot be felt during national wealth that would have arisen from the the present year, because our Treasury is overexportation and proceeds of this immensely valu- flowing with the proceeds of the last. But, from ble produce is for the present lost to the country, what sources are you to obtain money next year, and a large portion of the merchandise, the pro- for the support of Government, and the payment duce itself, must be forever lost if the embargo be of the national debt? Are gentlemen ready to long continued. All, or nearly all, the product of resort to a direct tax? No, sir; they love place the fisheries, amounting to $2,804,000, as likewise and power too well. That was once done for the the agricultural produce of the country, a few purpose of raising money, I believe, to defend articles, such as tobacco, cotton, rice, &c., except-commerce, and the people on that occasion taught ed, which I have not included in this estimate, their servants a lesson that, I presume, will not be amounting to $18,521,000, making in the whole shortly forgotten. The President, I know, in his twenty-one millions four hundred and twenty-five late Message, has given a favorable account of thousand dollars, that must be forever lost to the the present state of the Treasury; and most kindly fisherman, the farmer, or the merchant, because indeed expresses much concern as to the best use they are articles of a perishable kind, such as fish, to be made of the surplus revenue of the next year. wheat, flour, Indian meal, flaxseed, beef, pork, &c., Sir, among all the cares and troubles of his sucthat will not admit of being kept on hand for cessor, I venture to predict this will not be one of market. So that, if the embargo be now contin- them; he will not be plagued with surplus reveued, the country in fact may be said already to nue next year. Mr. Jefferson's overweening anxhave sustained a clear loss, in her native produce iety for the public good must have blinded him to only, of more than twenty-one million of dollars the obvious fact, that, before he can be well warm by the measure, besides the duties that would have in his seat at Monticello, the revenue now bonded arisen from near a million and a half of tonnage for will be collected, and as, in consequence of the now idle in our docks, and the immense expense present abandonment of commerce, there will cerof large detachments of militia, regular troops, tainly be no other bonds to become due, it follows and a fleet of gunboats to enforce the laws. And necessarily, in the course of your annual expendso obnoxious are those laws, that, although to en-itures, that, by the next meeting of Congress, your force their execution, we have blockaded our own ports, and hung our own citizens, they are still openly resisted by force, and seriously endanger the domestic tranquillity of the country. But, sir, it is to be observed that the actual loss sustained during the embargo, is not the only evil arising from it; another more permanent is to be apprehended. It will have the effect of throwing the commerce of the world into other and different channels; of inducing foreign nations to seek in other countries what they have heretofore been in the habit of purchasing from us, and what we now deny them. In the single article of cotton, for instance, we now, or did, export more than fourteen million of dollars' worth annually, and principally supplied the British manufactories with this article; but it is well known that the soil and climate of the Brazils are equally congenial to the growth of this crop with our own, and with due attention to the cultivation of it, is capable of supplying abundantly all the manufacto- | Treasury must be empty; so that, instead of being troubled with surplus revenue, it will require all the fiscal talents of the next incumbent of the Palace, be him whom he may, to provide the sum essential for the support of Government. The gentlemen who advocate this-I do not know what to call it-terrapin policy; I beg pardon, sir-when driven from every other hold, invariably launch into futurity, and tell us that, if we dare to put out our heads in any part of this wide world, we shall get them broke; or, in other words, if we take off the embargo, we shall have war. Laying out of view any comparison between the probable expense of war, and the actual loss annually sustained by the embargo, the former bearing no comparison with the latter, let us examine, for a moment, what foundation there is for this assertion, and whether we might not at this time, even admitting the British Orders of Council to have their full operation, carry on safely a most extensive and valuable commerce with at least three-fourths of the commercial world. I have before me those Orders in Council; the only restrictive clause is in the following words: SENATE. Gentlemen, by turning to the last report of the Secretary, to which I have before referred, and I wish them to examine for themselves, will find, that of the $48,699,592 worth of produce and other merchandise, the actual growth and manufacture of our country exported from the United States in 1807, we sent To England and her dependencies in Europe, are now the allies of France, or that the British flag is now excluded from their ports? No, sir. The gentleman knows they are, at this moment, waging a most exterminating war with France, "His Majesty is therefore pleased, by and with the in defence of their very existence; and that they advice of his Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby derive their principal support and subsistence unordered, that all the ports and places of France, and der the British flag. There is no man who can her allies, or of any other country at war with His read and understand plain English, and shall exMajesty, and all other ports or places, from which, al- amine these orders, but will tell you in a moment though not at war with His Majesty, the British flag is that the ports of Spain and Portugal, so far from excluded; and all ports or places in the colonies belong-being within their spirit, are not now even within ing to His Majesty's enemies, shall from henceforth be the letter of them. But, independent of this, subject to the same restrictions in point of trade and there was a special proclamation of the King, navigation, with the exceptions hereafter mentioned, dated on the 4th of July last, notifying to the as if the same were actually blockaded by His Majesty's world that the blockade no longer existed as to naval forces in the most strict and rigorous manner.' the ports of Spain. The advices the gentleman As much as I condemn and feel disposed to re- has been pleased to detail to us, as received in sist these arbitrary regulations, they certainly do private letters from Europe, I shall take no notice not interfere with, or in any respect embarrass our of; they are entitled to none, unless he will first trade to Hindostan, China, Java, Sweden, Gib-submit those letters to the Senate, and then we raltar, England, Portugal, Sicily, the whole extent shall give to the information they contain, that of the Mediterranean and Atlantic coast of Africa, weight to which the characters of his correspondArabia, the Western Isles, and Madeira, Nova ents, and their means of acquiring correct informScotia, Canada, the Spanish, Swedish, and Brit- ation may entitle it. ish West Indies, the Floridas, Brazils, and all the rest of South America, except Cayenne, as likewise the Northwest coast of America. These countries, too, as will appear by the last report of the Secretary of the Treasury, receive annually nearly four-fifths of the whole native exports of the United States, and are certainly, none of them, notwithstanding what has been said by the gentleman from Maryland, (Mr. SMITH,) within the purview of the British Orders of Council. That gentleman, when on this part of the subject, I will do him the justice to acknowledge, told us he had risen in great haste, and was unprepared; and, indeed, sir, it would require great haste and great want of preparation to justify some of the statements made by the gentleman to the Senate. Among other things equally extravagant, he told us, in the face of the British Orders of Council, I have just read, that we were now interdicted by those orders from any trade with Spain or Portugal; and, after referring to Mr. Canning's reply to the committee of merchants viz: "That neutrals were not now excluded from the ports of Almost four-fifths of the whole native exports Portugal and Spain by those orders," triumph- of the United States for that year, which we aatly asked us to tell him, as lawyers, whether, if might export nearly as safely now as then, but a vessel engaged in that trade was carried into a for the embargo; for it cannot, it certainly will British Court of Admiralty, she would be tried not, be now contended, that any part of this comby Mr. Canning's conversation with the mer- merce is embraced by the British Orders of Counchants, or according to the law of the land? I cil; and the French decrees in relation to it, from answer the gentleman, not as a lawyer, but as a a total inability to execute them, are a mere nulman of common sense, that she would be tried lity. It is not, therefore, as has been said, the deaccording to the law of the land. And I wonder crees and orders of foreign Powers that have it had not occurred to that gentleman, as a man reduced our country to its present distressed and of common sense, that, according to the law of embarrassed condition. It is our own folly, the the land, she must be acquitted. Sir, the express embargo, that now palsies the labor, the energies, language of these orders is, "that all the ports and enterprise of our citizens, and locks up more and places of France and her allies, or of any than thirty-five millions of dollars, the native other country at war with His Majesty, and all produce of our country, to perish and sink upon other ports or places in Europe, from which, al- our hands. I want to hear, sir, for I have not though not at war with His Majesty, the British heard yet, how this enormous, this unnecessary, 'flag is excluded," &c. And will the gentleman and ruinous sacrifice of individual and national undertake to say here, that Spain and Portugal | wealth, can be justified to the public. There is To Portugal and her dependencies in To Sweden and Swedish West In dies To China, the East and West Indies, ica Making in the whole 3,998,575 1,399,616 472,666 1,919,908 $35,707,842 no man who holds more indignantly than I do, those French Decrees and British Orders; but, before my God, I do most religiously believe that the embargo is a thousand times more injurious to our country than they both could be rendered. Instead of availing ourselves of the immensely extensive and valuable commerce now open to us, with at least three-fourths of the commercial world, it has now become a great favor, if we can be permitted, by the President and his gunboats, to sneak along shore, from one of our ports to another, with as much flour and pork as we can eat on the passage. NOVEMBER, 1808. Sir, this is the next commercial country in the world to England; we are, in fact, in this respect, their only competitors, and while, as at present, they have an opportunity of monopolizing all the commerce of the world, do you believe they will ever ask you to take off the embargo laws? No, sir. This would be an act of madness in them, equal almost to our continuing them. They do not wish to meet upon the ocean again their in-country, that, with commerce, is rich and happy; dustrious and enterprising rivals. They are, no doubt, pleased to see us shackling and crippling ourselves. adopt; there is marked a safe, a high, and an honorable course, that, if pursued, without, I believe, endangering our peace, would add alike to our national character and our national wealth. It has been well observed by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. GILES) that it was time we had become a nation, that we were nationalized. The sentiment was worthy of that gentleman, and one to which I entirely subscribed. But is the system of which this measure is apprehended by many to be but the commencement, calculated to nationalize? No, sir; much better calculated, I fear, to estrange the extremes of the Union from each other, and to familiarize our ideas to an event, that I deem it almost treason to think of, and that every honorable and patriotic American must view as the most calamitous curse that could be forced upon this country. I beseech gentlemen, therefore, to beware how they press this system too far. There is a section, a very respectable and powerful section of this deprived of that commerce a large portion of its population must starve. That population expect, and, as a portion of the community, have a right Much has been said by the gentleman from to expect, that their only means of subsistence Maryland (Mr. SMITH) on the subject of tribute, will be fostered and defended, and not sacrificed and in a manner I do not well understand, unless to manufacturing whims or local prejudices. I it be to retort upon the gentleman his own lan- do not mean to intimate that the embargo grew guage, ad captandum. I wish it, however, to be out of either of these causes; but the continudistinctly understood, that no part of the com- ance of it at present, under existing circumstanmerce, I have undertaken to show the United ces, after the galling experience we have had, and States might now carry on, would be subject to when it can obviously produce nothing but disany tribute. I wish it to be further understood, tress and embarrassment to ourselves, may engensir, that I would not only see this country clad in der and nurture jealousies that, perhaps, time homespun, but covered in sackcloth and ashes, will not allay. I believe the people of this counrather than that she should consent to pay tribute. try will submit to any privations for the public I would see every commercial city upon our good, but they must first be convinced that the shores, and every rag of canvass we hold in public good requires the sacrifice. It must, it will flames. I would see our soil smoking with the astonish every unprejudiced and reflecting man best blood of its inhabitants, and the bones of our in the community, if this ruinous measure be percitizens mingled with the ashes of their dwell-sisted in, after the experience we have received, ings, rather than see this people submit to pay tribute to any nation on earth. I trust there is hot in either House a member who would not sooner risk his life, and spill his blood, than give a vote that should reduce his country to a condition so slavish and degrading. And I hope, Mr. President, that no insinuation has or will be made here calculated even to intimate an idea that the gentlemen of this body who may vote for the repeal of the embargo laws, would subject this nation to tribute. Such an insinuation would not only be unfounded, illiberal, and derogatory of this floor, but, in other respects, highly unjustifiable. It has been asked by the gentleman from Kentucky, why do not those who oppose the embargo propose some substitute? Certainly it cannot be expected of us to offer ourselves as the pioneers of this Administration; but, in reply to the question, I will refer gentlemen to a confidential letter, submitted to the Senate a few days past: gentlemen need not be alarmed, I am not going to tell what that letter contains. If any substitute be necessary, in that is pointed out the one I would and when we have before us the most conclusive and irresistible evidence to show that it is utterly inadequate to the accomplishment of any of the objects for which it was said to be intended. And conduct that cannot be accounted for on any reasonable ground, is apt, however unjustly, to be attributed to unworthy motives. I trust, therefore, that gentlemen, on their own accounts, will not reject this resolution; that they will, at least, first deliberate and look to consequences; that they will feel well the public pulse before, by this rash prescription, they stagnate the national blood. Mr. MOORE said he was not a little surprised to hear insinuations of the disaffection of any portion of the people of the United States; but the Senate was now called upon to beware how they drove the people of the Eastern States to rebellion. The Councils of the United States were not to be inflamed by these suggestions; he could not believe them to be well founded; he could not believe that the citizens who, in our Revolution, exhibited such incontestable marks of patriotism, under the privations which the peculiar situation of our country rendered necessary, would now revolt against the Government which they themselves had constituted. He held no such opinion. On the contrary, he believed that they would unite with their fellow-citizens who were sufferers in the common cause with themselves, and unite every effort to maintain that independence they had assisted to gain. The gentleman from Connecticut had asked, if the embargo had been productive of the consequences expected to result from it when passed? Had it not been more injurious to the United States than to foreign nations? It is certainly true (said Mr. M.) that it has not been productive of all the effects expected by those who were its advocates when it passed, but it has not had a fair experiment. The law has been violated, and an illicit commerce carried on, by which the belligerents have received such supplies as to have partially prevented its good effects. The publications throughout the United States, and thence in England, that the embargo could not be maintained, have induced the belligerents to believe that we wanted energy, and that we are too fluctuating in our councils to persevere in a measure which requires privations from the people. Under these circumstances, it appears to me that the embargo has not had a fair trial. I have ever been of opinion that the only warfare which we could ever carry on to advantage, must be commercial; and, but for evasions and miscalculations on our weakness, we should before this have been suffered to pursue our accustomed trade. SENATE. we tamely acquiesce, have we reason to expect that she will not, as long as she is a nation, exercise the same policy? Suppose it even to be policy, adopted in time of war, if we calculate the number of years she is in war in proportion to the number of years she is at peace, and suppose such a regulation to exist during all her wars, I conceive that we have lost our independence, if we submit for it. It appears to me that, for many years, Great Britain has adopted new regulations, and added new principles to the established law of nations, to the subversion of lawful neutral commerce. It cannot be doubted then, that if it be in her power she will totally destroy it.. I am not competent to enter into examination of the private evils or benefits resulting to commerce from the measure of the embargo. But I will state a point which, in my mind, is all important in this case: When the Revolutionary war commenced, it was not merely the paying a small duty on tea which was the subject of contest, for it was considered as unimportant; but it was the right of Great Britain to impose a tax without our consent. This is the question now in contest, affecting our independence, as in former times it affected our rights. It is a question affecting our very existence as a nation. If this embargo be removed, and that is the only question now under consideration, no gentleman in the opposition has stated what he would wish in its room. Therefore I shall take the question on the ground of acquiescence on the part of the United States in the Orders of Council. Then, I It has been asked whether the embargo has not ask, will the United States so far abandon their operated more on the United States than on the independence as to subject themselves to the regEuropean Powers? In estimating this, it will ulations of Great Britain and France, and be dicbe proper to take into consideration the evils pre- tatorially told that they shall trade to such and vented, as well as the injury done by the embargo. such places only? Shall we admit the right of If the embargo had not passed, is it not certain foreign Powers to restrict us? If we do, with that the whole produce of the United States what propriety can we at any future day contest would have invited attack and afforded a bait to the principle? In my mind this is the important the rapacity of the belligerent cruisers? If a point, and I still remain to form my opinion whefew have accidentally escaped them, it is no evi- ther the embargo is the very best measure that dence that, if the embargo had not been laid, the could be adopted. Yet, to show to the world that whole would not have been in the hands of the I will not surrender my rights, that I will strugbelligerents. That both belligerents have mani-gle for our independence, I shall certainly vote fested hostilities by edicts which prostrated our commerce will not be denied by any gentleman. Great Britain, on a former occasion, passed an order, sent it out secretly, and before our Minister was officially notified it was in full operation. Their late orders included all our commerce which was afloat. Was it not to be expected that such would have been the policy of Great Britain in this case, and such our proportionate loss, if the embargo had not been laid, and thus snatched this valuable commerce from their grasp? against this resolution till I see whether anything else can with propriety take its place. Mr. S. SMITH said he did not rise to go into the discussion, for he had already taken his share in it, but to answer one observation of the gentleman from Delaware. It would be recollected that the gentleman had some days ago called for all the orders and decrees of the belligerents affecting neutral commerce; it would be recollected that the subject had been pressed upon the Senate yesterday, before these documents could have been received; that, at the request of a gentleman from Great inconveniences are apprehended from Massachusetts, the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. this measure, giving another direction to com- BRADLEY) had withdrawn his motion for postmerce, and from our losing that to which we ponement; that the gentleman from Massachuhave been accustomed. I have no such appre-setts had then spoken, and that he (Mr. SMITH) hensions. If, on the contrary, we tamely acquiesce, I will not say in paying tribute, for every one seems to disclaim it-Great Britain, however, having excluded us from the Continent, if had replied to him. I stated facts as they occurred to me, without paper or document, and asked the opinion of legal gentlemen on the subject of the operation of the Orders of Council on |