Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.)

Mr. Moore said 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.

It has been asked whether the embargo has not operated more on the United States than on the European Powers? In estimating this, it will be proper to take into consideration the evils prevented, as well as the injury done by the embargo. If the embargo had not passed, is it not certain that the whole produce of the United States would have invited attack and offered a bait to the rapacity of the belligerent cruisers? If a few have accidentally escaped them, it is no evidence that, if the embargo had not been laid, the whole would not have been in the hands of the belligerents. That both belligerents have manifested 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?

Wednesday, November 23

The Embargo

Mr. Crawford said that one of the objects of the gentleman from Connecticut was, no doubt, to obtain information of the effects of the embargo system from every part of the United States. This information was very desirable at the present time, to assist the Councils of the nation in an opinion of the course proper to be pursued in relation to it. A Government founded, like ours, on the principle of the will of the nation, which subsisted but by it, should be attentive as far as possible to the feelings and wishes of the people over whom they presided. He did not say that the Representatives of a free people ought to yield implicit obedience to any portion of the people who may believe them to act erroneously; but their will, when fairly expressed, ought to have great weight on a Government like ours. The Senate had received several descriptions of the effects produced by the embargo in the eastern section of the Union. As the Representative of another extreme of this nation, Mr. C. said he conceived it his duty to give a fair, faithful, and candid representation of the sentiments of the people whom he had the honor to represent. It was always the duty of a Representative to examine whether the effects expected from any given measure, had or had not been produced. If this were a general duty, how much more imperiously was it their duty at this time! Every one admitted that considerable sufferings have been undergone, and much more was now to be borne.

Gentlemen have considered this subject, generally, in a twofold view, (said Mr. C.,) as to its effects on ourselves, and as to its effects on foreign nations. I think this a proper and correct division of the subject, because we are certainly more interested in the effects of the measure on ourselves than on other nations. I shall therefore thus pursue the subject.

It is in vain to deny that this is not a prosperous time in the United States; that our situation is neither promising nor flattering. It is impossible to say that we have suffered no privations in the year 1808, or that there is a general spirit of content throughout the United States; but I am very far from believing that there is a general spirit of discontent. Whenever the measures of the Government immediately affect the interest of any considerable portion of its citizens, discontents will arise, however great the benefits which are expected from such measures. One discontented man excites more attention than a thousand contented men, and hence the number of discontented is always overrated. In the country which I represent, I believe no measure is more applauded or more cheerfully submitted to than the embargo. It has been viewed there as the only alternative to avoid war. It is a measure which is enforced in that country at every sacrifice. At the same time that I make this declaration, I am justified in asserting that there is no section of the Union whose interests are more immediately affected by the measure than the Southern States – than the State of Georgia.

We have been told by an honorable gentleman, who has declaimed with great force and eloquence against this measure, that great part of the produce of the Eastern country has found its way into market; that new ways have been cut open, and produce has found its way out. Not so with us; we raise no provisions, except a small quantity of rice, for exportation. The production of our lands lies on our hands. We have suffered, and now suffer; yet we have not complained.

The fears of the Southern States particularly have been addressed by the gentleman from Connecticut, by a declaration that Great Britain, whose fleets cover the ocean, will certainly find a source from which to procure supplies of those raw materials which she has heretofore been in the habit of receiving from us; and that having thus found another market, when we have found the evil of our ways, she will turn a deaf ear to us. By way of exemplification, the gentleman cited a familiar example of a man buying butter from his neighbors. It did not appear to me that this butter story received a very happy elucidation. In the country in which he lives there are so many buyers and so many sellers of butter, that no difficulty results from a change of purchasers or customers. Not so with our raw material. Admitting that Britain can find other markets with ease, there is still a great distinction between this and the gentleman's butter case. When a man sells butter he receives money or supplies in payment for it. His wants and wishes and those of his purchasers are so reciprocal, that no difficulty can ever arise. But Great Britain must always purchase raw materials of those who purchase her manufactures. It is not to oblige us that she takes our raw materials, but it is because we take her manufactures in exchange. So long as this state of things continues, so long they will continue to resort to our market. I have considered the gentleman's argument on this point as applied to the feelings of the Southern country. No article exported from the United States equals cotton in amount. If then we are willing to run the risk, I trust no other part of the United States will hesitate on this subject.

Another reason offered by the gentleman from Connecticut, and a substantial one if true, is, that this measure cannot be executed. If this be the case, it is certainly in vain to persevere in it, for the non-execution of any public law must have a bad tendency on the morals of the people. But the facility with which the gentleman represents these laws to have been evaded, proves that the morals of the evaders could not have been very sound when the measure was adopted; for a man trained to virtue will not, whatever facility exists, on that account, step into the paths of error and vice.

Although I believe myself that this measure has not been properly executed, nor in that way in which the situation of our country might reasonably have induced us to expect, yet it has been so far executed as to produce some good effect. So far as the orders and decrees remain in full force, so far it has failed of the effect hoped from it. But it has produced a considerable effect, as I shall attempt to show hereafter.

In commenting on this part of the gentleman's observations, it becomes proper to notice, not an insinuation, but a positive declaration that the secret intention of laying the embargo was to destroy commerce; and was in a state of hostility to the avowed intention. This certainly is a heavy charge. In a Government like this, we should act openly, honestly, and candidly; the people ought to know their situation, and the views of those who conduct their affairs. It is the worst of political dishonesty to adopt a measure, and offer that reason as a motive for it which is not the true and substantial one. The true and substantial reason for the embargo, the gentleman says he believes, was to destroy commerce, and on its ruins to raise up domestic manufactures. This idea, I think, though not expressly combated by the observations of the gentleman from Delaware, (Mr. White,) was substantially refuted by him. That gentleman, with great elegance and something of sarcasm, applied to the House to know how the Treasury would be filled in the next year; and observed that the "present incumbent of the Presidential palace" would not dare to resort to a direct tax, because a former Administration had done so and felt the effects of it, insinuating that the present Administration did not possess courage enough to attempt it. Now, I ask, if they dare not resort to a direct tax, excise laws, and stamp acts, where will they obtain money? In what way will the public coffers be filled? The gentleman must acknowledge that all our present revenue is derived from commerce, and must continue to be so, except resort be had to a direct tax, and the gentleman says we have not courage enough for that. The gentleman from Connecticut must suppose, if the gentleman from Delaware be correct, that the Administration seeks its own destruction. We must have revenue, and yet are told that we wish to destroy the only way in which it can be had, except by a direct tax; a resort to which, it is asserted, would drive us from the public service.

But we are told, with a grave face, that a disposition is manifested to make this measure permanent. The States who call themselves commercial States, when compared with the Southern States, may emphatically be called manufacturing States. The Southern States are not manufacturing States, while the great commercial States are absolutely the manufacturing States. If this embargo system were intended to be permanent, those commercial States would be benefited by the exchange, to the injury of the Southern States. It is impossible for us to find a market for our produce but by foreign commerce; and whenever a change of the kind alluded to is made, that change will operate to the injury of the Southern States more than to the injury of the commercial States, so called.

But another secret motive with which the Government is charged to have been actuated is, that this measure was intended and is calculated to promote the interests of France. To be sure none of the gentlemen have expressly said that we are under French influence, but a resort is had to the exposé of the French Minister, and a deduction thence made that the embargo was laid at the wish of Bonaparte. The gentleman from Connecticut told us of this exposé for this purpose; and the gentleman from Massachusetts appeared to notice it with the same view.

Now we are told that there is no danger of war, except it be because we have understood that Bonaparte has said there shall be no neutrals; and that, if we repeal the embargo, we may expect that he will make war on us. And this is the only source from whence the gentleman could see any danger of war. If this declaration against neutrality which is attributed to the Gallic Emperor be true, and it may be so, his Gallic Majesty could not pursue a more direct course to effect his own wishes than to declare that our embargo had been adopted under his influence. And unless the British Minister had more political sagacity than the gentleman who offered the evidence of the exposé in proof of the charge, it would produce the very end which those gentlemen wished to avoid – a war with Great Britain; for she would commence the attack could she believe this country under the influence of France. I would just as much believe in the sincerity of that exposé, as Mr. Canning's sincerity, when he says that his Majesty would gladly make any sacrifice to restore to the commerce of the United States its wonted activity. No man in the nation is silly enough to be gulled by these declarations; but, from the use made of them, we should be led to think otherwise, were it not for the exercise of our whole stock of charity. Now, I cannot believe that any man in this nation does believe in the sincerity of Mr. Canning's expressions, or that Bonaparte believes that the embargo was laid to promote his interest. I cannot believe that there is any man in this nation who does candidly and seriously entertain such an opinion.

The gentleman from Massachusetts says it is true that a considerable alarm was excited in England when the news of the embargo arrived there; that they had been led to believe, from their writers and speakers, that a discontinuance of their intercourse with this country would be productive of most injurious consequences; but that they were now convinced that all their writers and statesmen were mistaken, and that she can suffer a discontinuance of intercourse without being convulsed or suffering at all. To believe this requires a considerable portion of credulity, especially when the most intelligent men affirm to the contrary. In the last of March or the first of April last, we find, on an examination of merchants at the Bar of the British House of Commons, that the most positive injury must result from a continuance of non-intercourse. It is not possible that our merchants on this side of the water, however intelligent they may be, can be as well acquainted with the interests of Great Britain as her most intelligent merchants. This alarm, however, the gentleman has told us, continued through the spring and dissipated in the summer. It is very easy to discover the cause of the dissipation of this alarm. It was not because the loss of intercourse was not calculated to produce an effect, but it proceeded from an adventitious cause, which could not have been anticipated – the revolution in Spain; and there is no intelligent man who will not acknowledge its injurious effects on our concerns. No sooner did the British Ministers see a probability that the struggle between the Spanish patriots and France would be maintained, than they conceived hopes that they might find other supplies; and then they thought they might give to the people an impulse by interesting the nation in the affairs of Spain, which would render lighter the effects of our embargo. This is the cause of the change in Mr. Canning's language; for every gentleman in the House knows that a very material change took place in it in the latter part of the summer. If then the embargo has not produced the effects calculated from it, we have every reason to believe that its failure to produce these effects has been connected with causes wholly adventitious, and which may give way if the nation adheres to the measure. If, however, there be any probability that these causes will be continued for a long time, we ought to abandon it. I am not in favor of continuing any measure of this kind, except there be a probability of its producing some effect on those who make it necessary for us to exercise this act of self-denial. When I first saw the account of the revolution in Spain, my fears were excited lest it should produce the effect which it has done. As soon as I saw the stand made by the Spanish patriots, I was apprehensive that it might buoy up the British nation under the sufferings arising from the effects of their iniquitous orders, which, compared with the sufferings which we ourselves have borne, have been as a hundred to one. If there be evidence that the effects of this measure will yet be counteracted by recent events in Spain, I will abandon it, but its substitute should be war, and no ordinary war – I say this notwithstanding the petitions in the other branch of the Legislature, and the resolutions of a State Legislature which have lately been published. When I read the resolutions, called emphatically the Essex resolutions, I blush for the disgrace they reflect on my country. We are told there that this nation has no just cause of complaint against Great Britain; and that all our complaints are a mere pretext for war. I blush that any man belonging to the great American family should be so debased, so degraded, so lost to every generous and national feeling, as to make a declaration of this kind. It is debasing to the national character.

How are these orders and decrees to be opposed but by war, except we keep without their reach? If the embargo produces a repeal of these edicts, we effect it without going to war. Whenever we repeal the embargo we are at war, or we abandon our neutral rights. It is impossible to take the middle ground, and say that we do not abandon them by trading with Great Britain alone. You must submit, or oppose force to force. Can arming our merchant vessels, by resisting the whole navy of Great Britain, oppose force to force? It is impossible. The idea is absurd.

By way of ridiculing the embargo, the gentleman from Connecticut, in his familiar way, has attempted to expose this measure. He elucidated it by one of those familiar examples by which he generally exemplifies his precepts. He says your neighbor tells you that you shall not trade with another neighbor, and you say you will not trade at all. Now this, he says, is very magnanimous, but it is a kind of magnanimity with which he is not acquainted. Now let us see the magnanimity of that gentleman, and see if it savors more of true magnanimity than our course. Great Britain and France each say that we shall not trade with the other. We say we will not trade with either of them, because we believe our trade will be important to both of them. The gentleman says it is a poor way of defending the national rights. Suppose we pursue his course. Great Britain says we shall not trade to France; we say we will not, but will obey her. We will trade upon such terms as she may impose. "This will be magnanimity indeed; this will be defending commerce with a witness!" It will be bowing the neck to the yoke. The opposition to taxation against our consent, at the commencement of the Revolution, was not more meritorious than the opposition to tribute and imposition at the present day. I cannot, for my soul, see the difference between paying tribute and a tacit acquiescence in the British Orders in Council. True, every gentleman revolts at paying tribute. But where is the difference between that and suffering yourself to be controlled by the arbitrary act of another nation? If you raise the embargo you must carry your produce to Great Britain and pay an arbitrary sum before you can carry it elsewhere. If it remains there, the markets will be glutted and it will produce nothing. For it appears, from the very evidence to which I have before alluded, that at least four-fifths of our whole exports of tobacco must go to England and pay a tax before we could look for a market elsewhere, and that out of seventy-five thousand hogsheads raised in this country, not more than fifteen thousand are consumed in Great Britain. Where does the remainder usually go? Why, to the ports of the Continent. I ask, then, if the whole consumption of Great Britain be but fifteen thousand hogsheads, if an annual addition of sixty thousand hogsheads be thrown into that market, would it sell for the costs of freight? Certainly not. The same would be the situation of our other produce.

The gentleman from Delaware (Mr. White) has said, that, by repealing the embargo, we can now carry on a safe and secure trade to the extent of nearly four-fifths of the amount of our domestic productions. There is nothing more delusive, and better calculated to impose on those who do not investigate subjects, than these calculations in gross. If the gentleman will take the trouble to make the necessary inquiries, he will find that instead of Great Britain taking to the amount he supposes of our domestic productions, she takes nothing like it. It is true that a large proportion of our domestic exports is shipped ostensibly for Great Britain; but it is equally true that a very large proportion of these very exports find their way into the continental ports. For the British merchants in their examination before the House of Commons, already alluded to, say that three-fourths of their receipts for exportation to the United States have been usually drawn from the Continent; and that even if the embargo was removed and the Orders in Council were continued, they must stop their exportation, because the continental ports would be closed against American vessels; because their coasts swarm with English cruisers, the French must know that the American vessels attempting to enter have come from an English port. That they had facilities of conveyance to the Continent prior to the Orders in Council, the merchants acknowledged; and when requested to explain the mode of conveyance, they begged to be excused. No doubt every gentleman has seen these depositions, or might have seen them, for they have been published in almost every paper on the Continent. They have opened to me and to my constituents a scene perfectly new. They tell you that the Berlin decree was nothing. Notwithstanding that decree, they had a facility of conveying produce into the continental ports; but the Orders of Council completely shut the ports of the Continent against the entrance of American vessels. On this point there was no contrariety of opinion; and several of these merchants declared that they had sent vessels to the Continent a very few days before the date of the Orders of Council. This clearly shows that any conclusion to be drawn from the gross amount of exports must be fallacious, and that probably three-fourths ought to be deducted from the gross amount. This statement of the gentleman from Delaware, which holds out to the public the prospect of a lucrative trade in four-fifths of their exports, will certainly have a tendency to render them uneasy under the privations which they are called upon to suffer by the iniquitous measures of foreign nations. Although the statement was extremely delusive, I do not say that the gentleman meant to delude by it. This, however, being the effect of the gentleman's assertion, I am certainly warranted in saying that the evidence of the British merchants who carry on this trade, is better authority than the gentleman's statements.

But admit, for the sake of argument, and on no other ground would I admit it, that these gross statements are correct; and that, at the time the embargo was adopted, these Orders in Council notwithstanding, the trade of the United States could have been carried on to this extent. What security have we, if the embargo had not been laid, after submitting and compromitting the national dignity and independence, that the British aggressions and Orders in Council would have stopped at the point at which we find them? Have we not conclusive evidence to the contrary? Are we not officially notified that the French leeward islands are declared by proclamation in a state of blockade? And do we not know that this is but carrying into effect a report of the committee of the British House of Commons on the West India Islands, in which this measure is recommended, and in which it is stated that His Britannic Majesty's West India subjects ought to receive further aid by placing these islands in a state of blockade? I can see in this measure nothing but a continuation of the system recommended last winter in this report, and published – for the information of the United States, I suppose.

If the embargo should be repealed, and our vessels suffered to go out in the face of the present orders in Council and blockading decrees and proclamations, Mr. C. said, they would but expose us to new insults and aggressions. It was in vain to talk about the magnanimity of nations. It was not that magnanimity which induced nations as well as men to act honestly; and that was the best kind of magnanimity. The very magnanimity which had induced them to distress our commerce, would equally induce them to cut off the pitiful portion they had left to us. In a general point of view, there was now no lawful commerce. No vessel could sail from the United States without being liable to condemnation in Britain or France. If they sailed to France, Mr. C. said, they were carried into Britain; if they sailed to Britain, they were carried into France. Now, he asked, whether men who had any regard to national honor would consent to navigate the ocean on terms so disgraceful? We must be cool calculators, indeed, if we could submit to disgrace like this!

The last reason offered by the supporters of the present resolution, Mr. C. said, may properly be said to be an argument in terrorem. The gentleman from Massachusetts says, by way of abstract proposition, that a perseverance in a measure opposed to the feelings and interests of the people may lead to opposition and insurrection; but the gentleman from Connecticut uses the same expressions as applicable to the embargo. It may be a forcible argument with some gentlemen, and most likely may have had its effect on those who intended it to produce an effect on others. But I trust that this House and this nation are not to be addressed in this way. Our understandings may be convinced by reason, but an address to our fears ought to be treated with contempt. If I were capable of being actuated by motives of fear, I should be unworthy of the seat which I hold on this floor. If the nation be satisfied that any course is proper, it would be base and degrading to be driven from it by the discordant murmurs of a minority. We are cautioned to beware how we execute a measure with which the feelings of the people are at war. I should be the last to persist in a measure which injuriously affected the interest of the United States; but no man feels more imperiously the duty of persevering in a course which is right, notwithstanding the contrary opinion of a few; and though I may regret and respect the feelings of these few, I will persist in the course which I believe to be right, at the expense even of the Government itself.

Mr. Mitchill said he was not prepared to vote on the question of repealing the embargo laws, in the precise form in which it had been brought before the Senate. There was as yet a want of information; for certain additional documents, expected from the Executive, had not yet been communicated, and the select committee to which the part of the Message concerning the foreign relations of the country was lately referred, had not brought forward a report. He would have been better pleased if the proposition had been so framed as to have expressed indignation at the injuries our Government had received from foreign nations. Then he would cheerfully have given it his concurrence. But now, when those who are willing to do something, though not exactly what the motion proposes, are made to vote directly against a removal of the existing restrictions upon our commerce, their situation is rather unpleasant; indeed, it is unfair, inasmuch as they must either give their assent to a measure, to the time and manner of which they may be averse, or they must vote negatively in a case which, but for some incidental or formal matter, would have met their hearty approbation. He could, therefore, have wished that the question had been presented to the House in such terms as to afford an opportunity of expressing their sense of the wrongs our nation had endured from foreign Sovereigns, and of the restrictions laid upon American commerce by their unjust regulations, as well as on the further restrictions that, under the pressure of events, it had been thought necessary for our own Legislature to impose.

I now come to the year 1806, an eventful year to the foreign commerce of our people. An extravagant and armed trade had for a considerable time been carried on by some of our citizens with the emancipated or revolted blacks of Hayti. The French Minister, conformably to the instructions of his Government, remonstrated against this traffic as ungracious and improper; and under an impression that our citizens ought to be restrained from intercourse with the negroes of Hispaniola, Congress passed an act forbidding that altogether. This was the second time that our Government circumscribed the commercial conduct of its citizens. It was also during this year that memorials were forwarded to the Executive and legislative branches of our Government by the merchants of our principal seaports, stating the vexations of their foreign commerce to be intolerable, and calling in the most earnest terms for relief or redress. These addresses were mostly composed with great ability; it seemed as if the merchants were in danger of total ruin. Their situation was depicted as being deplorable in the extreme. The interposition of their Government was asked in the most strenuous and pressing terms; and your table, Mr. President, was literally loaded with petitions. The chief cause of this distress was briefly this: These citizens of the United States were engaged during the war in Europe, in a commerce with enemies' colonies not open in time of peace; by this means, the produce of the French West Indies was conveyed under the neutral flag to the mother country. Great Britain opposed the direct commerce from the colony to France through the neutral bottom. The neutral then evaded the attempt against him by landing the colonial produce in his own country, and after having thus neutralized or naturalized it, exported it under drawback for Bordeaux or Marseilles; this proceeding was also opposed by the British, and much property was captured and condemned in executing their orders against it. Their writers justified their conduct by charging fraud upon the neutral flag, and declaring that under cover of them a "war in disguise" was carried on, while on our side the rights of neutrals were defended with great learning and ability in a most profound investigation of the subject.

This same year was ushered in by a proclamation of General Ferrand, the French commandant at St. Domingo, imposing vexations on the trade of our citizens; and a partial non-importation law was enacted against Great Britain by Congress about the middle of April. But these were not all the impediments which arose. Notices were given to the American Minister in London of several blockades. The chief of these was that of the coast, from the Elbe to Brest inclusive, in May. And here, as it occurs to me, may I mention the spurious blockade of Curaçoa, under which numerous captures were made. And lastly, to complete the catalogue of disasters for 1806, and to close the woful climax, the French decree of Berlin came forth in November, and, as if sporting with the interests and feelings of Americans, proclaimed Great Britain and her progeny of isles to be in a state of blockade.

Hopes had been entertained that such a violent and convulsed condition of society would not be of long duration. Experience, however, soon proved that the infuriate rage of man was as yet unsatisfied, and had much greater lengths to go. For early in the succeeding year (1807), an order of the British Council was issued, by which the trade of neutrals, and of course of American citizens, was interdicted from the port of one belligerent to the port of another. And in the ensuing May, the rivers Elbe, Weser, and Ems, with the interjacent coasts were declared by them to be in a state of blockade, and a similar declaration was made on their part to neutrals in regard to the straits of the Dardanelles and the city of Smyrna. But these were but subordinate incidents in this commercial drama; the catastrophe of the tragedy was soon to be developed. "On the 22d of June, by a formal order from a British Admiral, our frigate Chesapeake, leaving her port for a distant service, was attacked by one of these vessels, which had been lying in our harbors under the indulgence of hospitality, was disabled from proceeding, had several of her crew killed, and four taken away." Immediately the President by proclamation interdicted our harbors and waters to all British armed vessels, and forbade intercourse with them. Under an uncertainty how far hostilities were intended, and the town of Norfolk being threatened with an immediate attack, a sufficient force was ordered for the protection of that place, and such other preparations commenced and pursued as the prospect rendered proper.

In furtherance of these schemes, a proclamation was published, holding all their absent seamen to their allegiance, recalling them from foreign services, and denouncing heavy penalties for disobedience. The operation of this upon the American merchant service would have been very sensibly felt. Many British born subjects were in the employ of our merchants, and that very Government, which claimed as a British subject every American citizen who had been but two years a seaman in their service, refused to be bound by their own rule in relation to British subjects who had served an equal term on board the ships of the United States. But this was not all. The month of November was distinguished by an order retaliating on France a decree passed by her some time before, declaring the sale of ships by belligerents to be illegal; and thus, by virtue of concurrent acts of these implacable enemies, the poor neutral found it impossible to purchase a ship either from a subject of Great Britain or of France. That season of gloom was famous, or rather infamous, for another act prohibiting wholly the commerce of neutrals with the enemies of Great Britain, and for yet another, pregnant with the principles of lordly domination on their part, and of colonial vassalage on our, by which the citizens of these independent and sovereign States are compelled to pay duties on their cargoes in British ports, and receive licenses under the authority of that Government, as a condition of being permitted to trade to any part of Europe in possession of her enemies.

This outrageous edict on the part of Britain was succeeded by another on the side of France, equalling, or if possible, surpassing it in injustice. In December came forth the decree of Milan, enforcing the decree of Berlin against American trade; dooming to confiscation every vessel of the United States that had been boarded or even spoken to by a Briton, and encouraging, by the most unjustifiable lures, passengers and sailors to turn informers. The abominable mandate was quickly echoed in Spain, and sanctioned by the approbation of His Most Catholic Majesty. It has been executed with shocking atrocity. In addition to other calamities, the property of neutrals has been sequestered in France, and their ships burned by her cruisers on the ocean.

Such, Mr. President, was the situation of the European world, when Congress deemed it necessary to declare an embargo on our own vessels. Denmark and Prussia, and Russia, and Portugal, had become associated or allied with France; and, with the exception of Sweden, the commerce of our citizens was prohibited, by the mutually vindictive and retaliating belligerents, from the White Sea to the Adriatic. American ships and cargoes were declared the prize and plunder of the contending powers. The widely-extended commerce of our people was to be crushed to atoms between the two mighty millstones, or prudently withdrawn from its dangerous exposure, and detained in safety at home. Policy and prudence dictated the latter measure. And as the ocean was become the scene of political storm and tempest, more dreadful than had ever agitated the physical elements, our citizens were admonished to partake of that security for their persons and property, in the peaceful havens of their country, which they sought in vain on the high seas and in European harbors. The regulations, so destructive to our commerce, were not enacted by us. They were imposed upon us by foreign tyrants. Congress had no volition to vote upon the question. In the shipwreck of our trade, all that remained for us to do, was to save as much as we could from perishing, and as far as our efforts would go, to prevent a total loss.

I touch, with a delicate hand, the mission of Mr. Rose. The arrival of this Envoy Extraordinary from Britain was nearly of the same date with an order of his Government, blockading Carthagena, Cadiz, and St. Lucar, and the intermediate ports of Spain, and thereby vexing the commerce of American citizens. The unsuccessful termination of his negotiation has been but a few months since followed by a refusal on the part of his Government to rescind its orders, that work so much oppression to our commerce, on condition of having the embargo suspended in respect to theirs. And the French Ministry has treated a similar friendly and specific overture, from our Executive, with total disregard. In addition to all which we learn, from the highest source of intelligence, that the British naval commander at Barbadoes did, about the middle of October, declare the French leeward Caribbean Islands to be in a state of strict blockade, and cautioning neutrals to govern themselves accordingly, under pain of capture and condemnation.

Thursday, November 24

The Embargo

Mr. Giles addressed the Senate:

Mr. President: Having during the recess of Congress retired from the political world, and having little agency in the passing political scenes, living in a part of the country, too, where there is little or no difference in political opinions, and where the embargo laws are almost universally approved, I felt the real want of information upon the subject now under discussion. I thought I knew something of the general objects of the embargo laws, and I had not been inattentive to their general operations upon society, as far as I had opportunities of observing thereupon.

When I arrived here, and found that this subject had excited so much sensibility in the minds of many gentlemen I met with, as to engross their whole thoughts, and almost to banish every other topic of conversation, I felt also a curiosity to know what were the horrible effects of these laws in other parts of the country, and which had escaped my observation in the part of the country in which I reside. Of course, sir, I have given to the gentlemen, who have favored us with their observations on both sides of the question under consideration, the most careful and respectful attention, and particularly to the gentlemen representing the eastern section of the Union, where most of this sensibility had been excited. I always listen to gentlemen from that part of the United States with pleasure, and generally receive instruction from them; but on this occasion, I am reluctantly compelled to acknowledge, that I have received from them less satisfaction and less information than usual; and still less conviction.

It was hardly to have been expected, Mr. President, that after so many angry and turbulent passions had been called into action, by the recent agitations throughout the whole United States, resulting from the elections by the people, to almost all the important offices within their gift, and particularly from the elections of electors for choosing the President and Vice President of the United States, that gentlemen would have met here perfectly exempt from the feelings which this state of things was naturally calculated to inspire. Much less was it to have been expected, sir, that gentlemen who had once possessed the power of the nation, and who, from some cause or other, had lost it; (a loss, which they now tell us they but too well remember, and I fear, might have added, too deeply deplore,) gentlemen too, sir, who at one time during the electioneering scene had indulged the fond and delusive hope, that through the privations necessarily imposed upon our fellow-citizens, by the unexampled aggressions of the belligerent powers, they might once more find their way to office and power, and who now find themselves disappointed in this darling expectation – it was not at all to be expected, sir, that these gentlemen should now appear here, perfectly exempt from the unpleasant feelings which so dreadful a disappointment must necessarily have produced. It was a demand upon human nature for too great a sacrifice; and however desirable such an exemption might have been at the present moment, and however honorable it would have been to those gentlemen, it was not expected.

But, sir, I had indulged a hope that the extraordinary dangers and difficulties pressed upon us by the aggressing belligerents, attended, too, with so many circumstances of indignity and insult, would have awakened a sensibility in the bosom of every gentleman of this body, which would have wholly suppressed, or at least suspended, these unpleasant feelings, until some measures, consulting the general interests and welfare of the people, could have been devised, to meet, resist, and if possible, to subdue the extraordinary crisis. But, sir, even in this hope, too, I have been totally disappointed. I was the more encouraged in this hope, when upon opening this debate the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Hillhouse) seemed sensible of this sacred obligation, imposed by the crisis; when he exhorted us, in conducting our deliberations, utterly to discard the influence of party spirit. It would have given me great pleasure, sir, if the gentleman had afforded us a magnanimous example of a precept so admirably suited to the present state of things. But in this too, sir, I have been unfortunately disappointed. That gentleman's observations consisted almost exclusively of retrospective animadversions upon the original objects and horrible effects of the embargo laws, without seeming to think it was worth his attention to favor us with any reflections upon the prospective course of measures which the people's interests, the public safety, and general welfare, so imperiously demand. That gentleman represented the embargo laws as mere acts of volition, impelled by no cause nor necessity; whilst the British orders, and French edicts, were scarcely glanced at, and certainly formed the least prominent feature of his observations. He represented these laws as a wanton and wicked attack upon commerce, with a view to its destruction, whilst he seemed scarcely to have recollected the extraordinary dangers and difficulties which overspread the ocean – indeed, sir, he described the ocean as perfectly free from dangers and difficulties, unruffled by any storms, and that we had nothing to do but to unfurl our canvas to the wind, that it would be filled with prosperous gales, and wafted to the ports of its destination, where it would be received with open arms of friendship and hospitality. I wish, sir, with all my heart, the gentleman could but realize these dreaming visions; their reality would act like a, magic spell upon the embargo laws, and dissipate them in a moment! But, alas! sir, when we come to look at realities, when we turn our eyes upon the real dangers and difficulties which do overspread the ocean, we shall find them so formidable, that the wisdom of our undivided counsels, and the energy of our undivided action, will scarcely be sufficient to resist and conquer them. To my great regret, sir, we now see, that the United States cannot even hope to be blessed with this union of mind and action, although certainly their dearest interests demand it.

Mr. President, perhaps the greatest inconvenience attending popular governments, consists in this: that whenever the union and energy of the people are most required to resist foreign aggressions, the pressure of these aggressions presents most temptations to distrusts and divisions. Was there ever a stronger illustration of the truth and correctness of this observation than the recent efforts made under the pressure of the embargo laws? The moment the privations, reluctantly but necessarily imposed by these laws, became to be felt, was the moment of signal to every political demagogue, who wished to find his way to office and to power, to excite the distrusts of the people, and then to separate them from the Government of their choice, by every exaggeration which ingenuity could devise, and every misrepresentation which falsehood could invent: nothing was omitted which it was conceived would have a tendency to effect this object. But, Mr. President, the people of the United States must learn the lesson now, and at all future times, of disrespecting the bold and disingenuous charges and insinuations of such aspiring demagogues. They must learn to respect and rally round their own Government, or they never can present a formidable front to a foreign aggressor. Sir, the people of the United States have already learnt this lesson. They have recently given an honorable and glorious example of their knowledge in this respect. They have, in their recent elections, demonstrated to the nation and to the world that they possess too much good sense to become the dupes of these delusive artifices, and too much patriotism to desert their Government when it stands most in need of their support and energy.

The gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Hillhouse) has made the most strict, and I had almost said, uncharitable scrutiny into the objects and effects of the embargo laws, in the delusive hope, I presume, of obtaining a triumph over his political adversaries. I propose to follow the gentleman, in a fair and candid comparison of information and opinions upon this subject; and I shall do so in the most perfect confidence, that whenever a thorough examination of the objects and effects of the embargo laws shall be made known, and the merits of the measure fully understood, that there is not a man in the United States who will not applaud and support the Administration for its adoption, who has the uncontaminated heart of an American throbbing within his bosom.

Sir, I have always understood that there were two objects contemplated by the embargo laws. The first, precautionary, operating upon ourselves. The second, coercive, operating upon the aggressing belligerents. Precautionary, in saving our seamen, our ships, and our merchandise, from the plunder of our enemies, and avoiding the calamities of war. Coercive, by addressing strong appeals to the interests of both the belligerents. The first object has been answered beyond my most sanguine expectations. To make a fair and just estimate of this measure, reference should be had to our situation at the time of its adoption. At that time, the aggressions of both the belligerents were such, as to leave the United States but a painful alternative in the choice of one of three measures, to wit, the embargo, war, or submission. I know that this position has not been admitted, though but faintly denied in the discussion. I shall however proceed upon this hypothesis for the present, and in the course of my observations will prove its correctness by the statements of the gentlemen in favor of the resolution.

Before the recommendation of the measure, the laudable and provident circumspection of the Administration had obtained tolerably correct estimates of the amount and value of the ships and merchandise belonging to the citizens of the United States then afloat, and the amount and value of what was shortly expected to be afloat; together with a conjectural statement of the number of the seamen employed in the navigation thereof.

It was found that merchandise to the value of one hundred millions of dollars was actually afloat, in vessels amounting in value to twenty millions more. That an amount of merchandise and vessels equal to fifty millions of dollars more, was expected to be shortly put afloat, and that it would require fifty thousand seamen to be employed in the navigation of this enormous amount of property. The Administration was informed of the hostile edicts of France previously issued, and then in a state of execution, and of an intention on the part of Great Britain to issue her orders, the character and object of which were also known. The object was, to sweep this valuable commerce from the ocean. The situation of this commerce was as well known to Great Britain as to ourselves, and her inordinate cupidity could not withstand the temptation of the rich booty she vainly thought within her power. This was the state of information at the time this measure was recommended.

The President of the United States, ever watchful and anxious for the preservation of the persons and property of all our fellow-citizens, but particularly of the merchants, whose property is most exposed to danger, and of the seamen whose persons are also most exposed, recommended the embargo for the protection of both; and it has saved and protected both. Let us now suppose, for a moment, that the President, possessed of this information, had not apprised the merchants and seamen of their danger, and had recommended no measure for their safety and protection; would he not in that case have merited and received the reproaches which the ignorance or ingratitude of merchants and others have so unjustly heaped upon him, for his judicious and anxious attentions to their interests? It is admitted by all, that the embargo laws have saved this enormous amount of property, and this number of seamen, which, without them, would have forcibly gone into the hands of our enemies, to pamper their arrogance, stimulate their injustice, and increase their means of annoyance.

I should suppose, Mr. President, this saving worth some notice. But, sir, we are told that instead of protecting our seamen, it has driven them out of the country, and into foreign service. I believe, sir, that this fact is greatly exaggerated. But, sir, suppose for a moment that it is so, the Government has done all, in this respect, it was bound to do. It placed these seamen in the bosoms of their friends and families, in a state of perfect security; and if they have since thought proper to abandon these blessings, and emigrate from their country, it was an act of choice, not of necessity. But, what would have been the unhappy destiny of these brave tars, if they had been permitted to have been carried into captivity, and sent adrift on unfriendly and inhospitable shores? Why, sir, in that case, they would have had no choice; necessity would have driven them into a hard and ignominious service, to fight the battles of the authors of their dreadful calamities, against a nation with which their country was at peace. And is the bold and generous American tar to be told, that he is to disrespect the Administration for its anxious and effectual attentions to his interests? for relieving him from a dreadful captivity? Even under the hardships he does suffer, and which I sincerely regret, every generous feeling of his noble heart would repel the base attempt with indignation. But, sir, the American seamen have not deserted their country; foreign seamen may and probably have gone into foreign service; and, for one, I am glad of it. I hope they will never return; and I am willing to pass a law, in favor of the true-hearted American seamen, that these foreign seamen never should return. I would even prohibit them from being employed in merchant vessels. The American seamen have found employment in the country; and whenever the proper season shall arrive for employing them on their proper element, you will find them, like true birds of passage, hovering in crowds upon your shores.

Whilst considering this part of the subject, I cannot help expressing my regret that, at the time of passing our embargo laws, a proportion of our seamen was not taken into the public service; because, in my judgment, the nation required their services, and it would have been some alleviation to their hardships, which the measure peculiarly imposed upon them, as a class of citizens, by affecting their immediate occupation; and the other classes, as well as the public Treasury, were able to contribute to their alleviation; and I am willing to do the same thing at this time. Indeed, its omission is the only regret I have ever felt, at the measures of the last Congress. I like the character – I like the open frankness, and the generous feelings of the honest American tar; and, whenever in my power, I am ready to give, and will with pleasure give him my protection and support. One of the most important and agreeable effects of the embargo laws, is giving these honest fellows a safe asylum. But, sir, these are not the only good effects of the embargo. It has preserved our peace – it has saved our honor – it has saved our national independence. Are these savings not worth notice? Are these blessings not worth preserving? The gentleman from Delaware (Mr. White) has, indeed, told us, that under the embargo laws, the United States are bleeding at every pore. This, surely, sir, is one of the most extravagant effects that could have been ascribed to these laws by the frantic dreams of the most infatuated passions. Bloodletting is the last effect that I ever expected to hear ascribed to this measure. I thought it was of the opposite character; but it serves to show that nothing is too extravagant for the misguided zeal of gentlemen in the opposition. I have cast my eyes about in vain to discover those copious streams of blood; but I neither see nor hear any thing of them from any other quarter. So far from the United States bleeding at every pore, under the embargo, it has saved them from bleeding at any pore; and one of the highest compliments to the measure is, that it has saved us from the very calamity which the gentleman attributed to it; but which, thanks to our better stars and wiser counsels, does not exist.

Mr. President, the eyes of the world are now turned upon us; if we submit to these indignities and aggressions, Great Britain herself would despise us; she would consider us an outcast among nations; she would not own us for her offspring: France would despise us; all the world would despise us; and what is infinitely worse, we should be compelled to despise ourselves! If we resist, we shall command the respect of our enemies, the sympathies of the world, and the noble approbation of our own consciences.

Mr. President, our fate is in our own hands; let us have union and we have nothing to fear. So highly do I prize union, at this awful moment, that I would prefer any one measure of resistance with union, to any other measure of resistance with division; let us then, sir, banish all personal feelings; let us present to our enemies the formidable front of an indissoluble band of brothers, nothing else is necessary to our success. Mr. President, unequal as this contest may seem; favored as we are by our situation, and under the blessing of a beneficent Providence, who has never lost sight of the United States in times of difficulty and trial, I have the most perfect confidence, that if we prove true to ourselves, we shall triumph over our enemies. Deeply impressed with these considerations, I am prepared to give the resolution a flat and decided negative.

Friday, November 25

John Milledge, from the State of Georgia, attended.