Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856 4 of 16 by Thomas Hart Benton

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

Author: Various

Editor: John C. Rives

Release Date: November 4, 2014 [EBook #47289]

Language: English

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ABRIDGMENT

OF THE

DEBATES OF CONGRESS,

FROM 1789 TO 1856.

FROM GALES AND SEATON'S ANNALS OF CONGRESS; FROM THEIR REGISTER OF DEBATES;

AND FROM THE OFFICIAL REPORTED DEBATES, BY JOHN C. RIVES.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF THE THIRTY YEARS' VIEW.

VOL. IV.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 346 & 348 BROADWAY.

1860.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District

of New York.

Table of Contents

Tenth Congress.—Second Session. Proceedings in the Senate.
Tenth Congress.—Second Session. Proceedings and Debates in the House of Representatives.
Eleventh Congress.—First Session. Proceedings in the Senate.
Eleventh Congress.—First Session. Proceedings and Debates in the House of Representatives.
Eleventh Congress—Second Session. Proceedings in the Senate.
Eleventh Congress.—Second Session. Proceedings and Debates in the House of Representatives.
Eleventh Congress.—Third Session. Proceedings in the Senate.
Proceedings in the Senate, in Secret Session, at the Third Session of the Eleventh Congress.
Eleventh Congress.—Third Session. Proceedings and Debates the House of Representatives.
Twelfth Congress.—First Session. Proceedings in the Senate.
Twelfth Congress.—First Session. Proceedings and Debates in the House of Representatives.
Confidential Supplemental Journal
Twelfth Congress.—Second Session. Proceedings in the Senate.
Twelfth Congress.—Second Session. Proceedings and Debates in the House of Representatives.
Index to Vol. IV.
Transcriber's Notes

TENTH CONGRESS.—SECOND SESSION.

BEGUN AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 7, 1808.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE.

MONDAY, November 7, 1808.

Conformably to the act, passed the last session, entitled "An act to alter the time for the next meeting of Congress," the
second session of the tenth Congress commenced this day; and the Senate assembled at the city of Washington.

PRESENT:

George Clinton, Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate.
Nicholas Gilman and Nahum Parker, from New Hampshire.
Timothy Pickering, from Massachusetts.
James Hillhouse and Chauncey Goodrich, from Connecticut.
Benjamin Howland and Elisha Mathewson, from Rhode Island.
Stephen R. Bradley and Jonathan Robinson, from Vermont.
Samuel L. Mitchill and John Smith, from New York.
John Condit and Aaron Kitchel, from New Jersey.
Samuel Maclay, from Pennsylvania.
Samuel White, from Delaware.
William B. Giles, from Virginia.
James Turner, from North Carolina.
Thomas Sumter and John Gaillard, from South Carolina.
William H. Crawford, from Georgia.
Buckner Thruston and John Pope, from Kentucky.
Daniel Smith, from Tennessee.
Edward Tiffin, from Ohio.

James Lloyd, jun., appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, to supply the place of John
Quincy Adams, resigned, took his seat in the Senate, and produced his credentials, which were read, and the oath
prescribed by law was administered to him.
Ordered, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives that a quorum of the Senate is assembled and
ready to proceed to business; and that Messrs. Bradley and Pope be a committee on the part of the Senate, together
with such committee as may be appointed by the House of Representatives on their part, to wait on the President of the
United States and notify him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled.
A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that a quorum of the House is assembled and ready
to proceed to business; and that the House had appointed a committee on their part, jointly with the committee
appointed on the part of the Senate, to wait on the President of the United States and notify him that a quorum of the
two Houses is assembled.
Resolved, That James Mathers, Sergeant-at-Arms and Doorkeeper to the Senate, be, and he is hereby, authorized to
employ one assistant and two horses, for the purpose of performing such services as are usually required by the
Doorkeeper to the Senate; and that the sum of twenty-eight dollars be allowed him weekly for that purpose, to
commence with, and remain during the session, and for twenty days after.
On motion, by Mr. Bradley,
Resolved, That two Chaplains, of different denominations, be appointed to Congress during the present session, one by
each House, who shall interchange weekly.
Mr. Bradley reported, from the joint committee, that they had waited on the President of the United States, agreeably
to order, and that the President of the United States informed the committee that he would make a communication to
the two Houses at 12 o'clock to-morrow.

TUESDAY, November 8.

Samuel Smith and Philip Reed, from the State of Maryland, attended.
The following Message was received from the President of the United States:

To the Senate and House of

Representatives of the United States:

It would have been a source, fellow-citizens, of much gratification, if our last communications
from Europe had enabled me to inform you that the belligerent nations, whose disregard of
neutral rights has been so destructive to our commerce, had become awakened to the duty and
true policy of revoking their unrighteous edicts. That no means might be omitted to produce this

salutary effect, I lost no time in availing myself of the act authorizing a suspension, in whole, or in
part, of the several embargo laws. Our Ministers at London and Paris were instructed to explain
to the respective Governments there, our disposition to exercise the authority in such manner as
would withdraw the pretext on which aggressions were originally founded, and open the way for
a renewal of that commercial intercourse which it was alleged, on all sides, had been reluctantly
obstructed. As each of those Governments had pledged its readiness to concur in renouncing a
measure which reached its adversary through the incontestable rights of neutrals only, and as the
measure had been assumed by each as a retaliation for an asserted acquiescence in the
aggressions of the other, it was reasonably expected that the occasion would have been seized
by both for evincing the sincerity of their professions, and for restoring to the commerce of the
United States its legitimate freedom. The instructions of our Ministers, with respect to the
different belligerents, were necessarily modified with a reference to their different circumstances,
and to the condition annexed by law to the Executive power of suspension requiring a degree of
security to our commerce which would not result from a repeal of the decrees of France.
Instead of a pledge therefore of a suspension of the embargo as to her, in case of such a repeal,
it was presumed that a sufficient inducement might be found in other considerations, and
particularly in the change produced by a compliance with our just demands by one belligerent,
and a refusal by the other, in the relations between the other and the United States. To Great
Britain, whose power on the ocean is so ascendant, it was deemed not inconsistent with that
condition to state, explicitly, on her rescinding her orders in relation to the United States, their
trade would be opened with her, and remain shut to her enemy, in case of his failure to rescind
his decrees also. From France no answer has been received, nor any indication that the requisite
change in her decrees is contemplated. The favorable reception of the proposition to Great
Britain was the less to be doubted, as her Orders of Council had not only been referred for their
vindication to an acquiescence on the part of the United States no longer to be pretended, but
as the arrangement proposed, whilst it resisted the illegal decrees of France, involved,
moreover, substantially, the precise advantages professedly aimed at by the British Orders. The
arrangement has, nevertheless, been rejected.
This candid and liberal experiment having thus failed, and no other event having occurred on
which a suspension of the embargo by the Executive was authorized, it necessarily remains in
the extent originally given to it. We have the satisfaction, however, to reflect, that in return for
the privations imposed by the measure, and which our fellow-citizens in general have borne with
patriotism, it has had the important effects of saving our mariners, and our vast mercantile
property, as well as of affording time for prosecuting the defensive and provisional measures
called for by the occasion. It has demonstrated to foreign nations the moderation and firmness
which govern our councils, and to our citizens the necessity of uniting in support of the laws and
the rights of their country, and has thus long frustrated those usurpations and spoliations which, if
resisted, involved war, if submitted to, sacrificed a vital principle of our national independence.
Under a continuance of the belligerent measures, which, in defiance of laws which consecrate
the rights of neutrals, overspread the ocean with danger, it will rest with the wisdom of Congress
to decide on the course best adapted to such a state of things; and bringing with them, as they
do, from every part of the Union, the sentiments of our constituents, my confidence is
strengthened that, in forming this decision, they will, with an unerring regard to the essential
rights and interests of the nation, weigh and compare the painful alternatives out of which a
choice is to be made. Nor should I do justice to the virtues which, on other occasions, have
marked the character of our fellow-citizens, if I did not cherish an equal confidence that the
alternative chosen, whatever it may be, will be maintained with all the fortitude and patriotism
which the crisis ought to inspire.
The documents containing the correspondences on the subject of foreign edicts against our
commerce, with the instructions given to our Ministers at London and Paris, are now laid before
you.
The communications made to Congress at their last session explained the posture in which the
close of the discussions relating to the attack by a British ship of war on the frigate Chesapeake,
left a subject on which the nation had manifested so honorable a sensibility. Every view of what
had passed authorized a belief that immediate steps would be taken by the British Government
for redressing a wrong, which, the more it was investigated, appeared the more clearly to
require what had not been provided for in the special mission. It is found that no steps have
been taken for the purpose. On the contrary, it will be seen, in the documents laid before you,
that the inadmissible preliminary, which obstructed the adjustment, is still adhered to; and,
moreover, that it is now brought into connection with the distinct and irrelative case of the
Orders in Council. The instructions which had been given to our Minister at London, with a
view to facilitate, if necessary, the reparation claimed by the United States, are included in the
documents communicated.

Our relations with the other powers of Europe have undergone no material changes since our
last session. The important negotiations with Spain, which had been alternately suspended and
resumed, necessarily experience a pause under the extraordinary and interesting crisis which
distinguishes her internal situation.
With the Barbary Powers we continue in harmony, with the exception of an unjustifiable
proceeding of the Dey of Algiers towards our Consul to that Regency. Its character and
circumstances are now laid before you, and will enable you to decide how far it may, either now
or hereafter, call for any measures not within the limits of the Executive authority.
Of the gun boats authorized by the act of December last, it has been thought necessary to build
only one hundred and three in the present year. These, with those before possessed, are
sufficient for the harbors and waters most exposed, and the residue will require little time for
their construction when it shall be deemed necessary.
Under the act of the last session for raising an additional military force, so many officers were
immediately appointed as were necessary for carrying on the business of recruiting; and in
proportion as it advanced, others have been added. We have reason to believe their success
has been satisfactory, although such returns have not yet been received as enable me to present
you a statement of the number engaged.
The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the injustice of the belligerent powers,
and the consequent losses and sacrifices of our citizens, are subjects of just concern. The
situation into which we have thus been forced has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry
and capital to internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this conversion is daily
increasing, and little doubt remains that the establishments formed and forming will, under the
auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence, the freedom of labor from taxation with us, and
of protecting duties and prohibitions, become permanent. The commerce with the Indians, too,
within our own boundaries, is likely to receive abundant aliment from the same internal source,
and will secure to them peace and the progress of civilization, undisturbed by practices hostile to
both.
The accounts of the receipts and expenditures during the year ending on the thirtieth day of
September last, being not yet made up, a correct statement will hereafter be transmitted from
the Treasury. In the mean time, it is ascertained that the receipts have amounted to near eighteen
millions of dollars, which, with the eight millions and a half in the Treasury at the beginning of the
year, have enabled us, after meeting the current demands, and interest incurred, to pay two
millions three hundred thousand dollars of the principal of our funded debt, and left us in the
Treasury, on that day, near fourteen millions of dollars. Of these, five millions three hundred and
fifty thousand dollars will be necessary to pay what will be due on the first day of January next,
which will complete the reimbursement of the eight per cent. stock. These payments, with those
made in the six years and a half preceding, will have extinguished thirty-three millions five
hundred and eighty thousand dollars of the principal of the funded debt, being the whole which
could be paid or purchased within the limits of the law and our contracts; and the amount of
principal thus discharged will have liberated the revenue from about two millions of dollars of
interest, and added that sum annually to the disposable surplus. The probable accumulation of
the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be applied to the payment of the public debt,
whenever the freedom and safety of our commerce shall be restored, merits the consideration of
Congress. Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults? Shall the revenue be reduced? Or, shall it
not rather be appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education, and other
great foundations of prosperity and union, under the powers which Congress may already
possess, or such amendment of the constitution as may be approved by the States? While
uncertain of the course of things, the time may be advantageously employed in obtaining the
powers necessary for a system of improvement, should that be thought best.
Availing myself of this, the last occasion which will occur, of addressing the two Houses of the
Legislature at their meeting, I cannot omit the expression of my sincere gratitude for the
repeated proofs of confidence manifested to me by themselves and their predecessors since my
call to the administration, and the many indulgences experienced at their hands. The same
grateful acknowledgments are due to my fellow-citizens generally, whose support has been my
great encouragement under all embarrassments. In the transaction of their business I cannot
have escaped error. It is incident to our imperfect nature. But I may say with truth my errors
have been of the understanding, not of intention, and that the advancement of their rights and
interests has been the constant motive for every measure. On these considerations I solicit their
indulgence. Looking forward with anxiety to their future destinies, I trust that, in their steady
character, unshaken by difficulties, in their love of liberty, obedience to law, and support of the
public authorities, I see a sure guarantee of the permanence of our Republic; and retiring from
the charge of their affairs, I carry with me the consolation of a firm persuasion that Heaven has
in store for our beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness.

TH. JEFFERSON.

November 8, 1808.

The Message and papers were in part read, and one thousand copies ordered to be printed for the use of the Senate.
A confidential Message was also received, with sundry documents therein referred to, which were read for
consideration.

WEDNESDAY, November 9.

Jesse Franklin, from the State of North Carolina, attended.

FRIDAY, November 11.

A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that the House have appointed the Rev. Mr. Brown
a Chaplain to Congress, on their part, during the present session.

MONDAY, November 14.

Joseph Anderson, from the State of Tennessee, and Andrew Moore, from the State of Virginia, attended.

WEDNESDAY, November 16.

Andrew Gregg, from the State of Pennsylvania, attended.

MONDAY, November 21.

The Embargo.

This being the day fixed for the discussion of the following resolution, offered by Mr. Hillhouse:

Resolved, That it is expedient that the act, entitled "An act laying an embargo on all ships and
vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States," and the several acts supplementary
thereto, be repealed; and that a committee be appointed to prepare and report a bill for that
purpose:

Mr. Hillhouse opened the debate. When the reporter entered the Senate chamber, Mr. H. had been speaking for a few
minutes, and was then discussing the effect which the embargo had had upon France, and the light in which it was
viewed by her rulers. He alluded to the declaration of satisfaction at the measure, contained in a late French exposé,
and made many observations tending to show that it was not a measure of hostility or coercion, as applied to France.
On England it had little or no effect. Her resources were immense. If deprived of a supply of grain here, she could
obtain it elsewhere. The Barbary Powers were at war with France and at peace with England, who might thence obtain
wheat in any quantity she pleased. Great Britain, he said, was a nation with the whole world before her; her commerce
spread over every sea, and she had access to almost every port and clime. Could America expect to starve this nation?
It was a farce, an idle farce. As to her West India Islands, they raised Indian corn; all their sugar plantations could be
converted into corn-fields, and would any man say that they would starve because they could not get superfine flour?
Was this a necessary of life without which they could not subsist? On the contrary, a great proportion of the American
people subsisted on it, and enjoyed as good health as if they ate nothing but the finest of wheat flour. The moment
people understood that they could not get their necessary supplies from a customary source, they would look out for it
in another quarter, and ample time had been given to them to make arrangements for this purpose. A man of the first
respectability in the town in which Mr. H. lived, had been there during this embargo, under the President's permission.
What accounts did he bring? Why, that the trade in corn-meal and live cattle, articles of great export from Connecticut,
and comprising not only the product of that State, but of parts of the neighboring States, would be entirely defeated;
that, where they had formerly sent a hundred hogsheads of meal, they would not now find vent for ten; and that, from
South America, where cattle had, in times past, been killed merely for their hides and tallow, cattle in abundance could
be procured. Were these people to be starved out, when they could actually purchase cheaper now from other places
than they had formerly done from us? No; the only consequence would be, and that too severely felt, that we should
lose our market; the embargo thus producing, not only present privation and injury, but permanent mischief. The United
States would have lost the chance of obtaining future supplies, they would have lost their market, and ten or twenty
years would place them on the same footing as before. Mr. H. said the West Indians would have learnt that they can do
without us; that they can raise provisions cheaper on their own plantations than we can sell them; and knowing this, they
would never resort to us. Though we might retain a part of this commerce, the best part would be lost forever. The
trade would not be worth pursuing; though this might answer one purpose intended by the embargo, and which was not
expressed.
Having considered the article of provisions as important to various parts of the Union, Mr. H. said he would now turn to
another article, cotton. It had been very triumphantly said, that the want of this article would distress the manufacturers
of Great Britain, produce a clamor amongst them, and consequently accelerate the repeal of the Orders in Council. Mr.

H. said he would examine this a little, and see if all the evil consequences which opened on him at the time of the
passage of the embargo law were not likely to be realized. He had hinted at some of them at that time, but the bill had
gone through the Senate like a flash of lightning, giving no time for examination; once, twice, and a third time in one day,
affording no time for the development of all its consequences. This article of cotton was used not only by Britain, but by
France and other nations on the Continent. Cotton, not being grown in Europe, must be transported by water carriage.
This being the case, who would now be most likely to be supplied with it? Not the Continental Powers who have so
little commerce afloat nor any neutrals to convey it to them; for the United States were the only neutral which, of late,
traded with France, and now the embargo was laid, she had no chance of getting it, except by the precarious captures
made by her privateers. To Great Britain, then, was left the whole commerce of the world, and her merchants were the
only carriers. Would not these carriers supply their own manufacturers? Would they suffer cotton to go elsewhere, until
they themselves were supplied? America was not the only country where cotton was raised; for he had seen an account
of a whole cargo brought into Salem from the East Indies, and thence exported to Holland, with a good profit. Cotton
was also raised in Africa, as well as elsewhere; and this wary nation, Great Britain, conceiving that the United States
might be so impolitic as to keep on the embargo, had carried whole cargoes of the best cotton seed there for the
purpose of raising cotton for her use. Great Britain had possessions in every climate on the globe, and cotton did not,
like the sturdy oak, require forty or fifty years to arrive at maturity; but, if planted, would produce a plentiful supply in a
year. Thus, then, when this powerful nation found America resorting to such means to coerce her, she had taken care to
look out for supplies in other quarters; and, with the command of all the cotton on the globe which went to market,
could we expect to coerce her by withholding ours? Mr. H. said no; all the inconvenience which she could feel from our
measure had already been borne; and Great Britain was turning her attention to every part of the globe to obtain those
supplies which she was wont to get from us, that she might not be reduced to the humiliating condition of making
concession to induce us to repeal our own law, and purchase an accommodation by telling us that we had a weapon
which we could wield to her annoyance. Mr. H. wished to know of gentlemen if we had not experience enough to
know that Great Britain was not to be threatened into compliance by a rod of coercion? Let us examine ourselves, said
he, for if we trace our genealogy we shall find that we descend from them; were they to use us in this manner, is there an
American that would stoop to them? I hope not; and neither will that nation, from which we are descended, be driven
from their position, however erroneous, by threats.
This embargo, therefore, instead of operating on those nations which had been violating our rights, was fraught with evils
and privations to the people of the United States. They were the sufferers. And have we adopted the monkish plan of
scourging ourselves for the sins of others? He hoped not; and that, having made the experiment and found that it had not
produced its expected effect, they would abandon it, as a measure wholly inefficient as to the objects intended by it,
and as having weakened the great hold which we had on Great Britain, from her supposed dependence on us for raw
materials.
Some gentlemen appeared to build up expectations of the efficiency of this system by an addition to it of a non-
intercourse law. Mr. H. treated this as a futile idea. They should however examine it seriously, and not, like children,
shut their eyes to danger. Great Britain was not the only manufacturing nation in Europe. Germany, Holland, France,
Spain, Portugal, and Italy, manufactured more or less, and most of them had colonies, the exclusive supply of whose
manufactures they had heretofore reserved to themselves. While we had enjoyed the carrying trade, we had supplied
the deficiency in navigation of those nations; and all the inconvenience felt for the want of it ceased because we stepped
in and aided them. This trade had been cut up, and perhaps it was not a trade which the energies of the nation should be
embarked in defending. Who was there now to supply all these various colonies that used to be supplied by us? None
but England, the sole mistress of the ocean. Whose products, then, would Great Britain carry? Would she carry
products of other nations, and let her own manufacturers starve? No; and this exclusion from the colonies of other
manufactures, and leaving her merchants the sole carriers of the world, produced a greater vent for her manufactures
than the whole quantity consumed in the United States.
This, however, was arguing upon the ground that the United States would consume none of her manufactures in case of
a non-intercourse. Mr. H. said he was young when the old non-intercourse took place, but he remembered it well, and
had then his ideas on the subject. The British army was then at their door, burning their towns and ravaging the country,
and at least as much patriotism existed then as now; but British fabrics were received and consumed to almost as great
an extent as before the prohibition. The armies could not get fresh provisions from Europe, but they got them here by
paying higher prices in guineas for them than was paid by our Government in ragged continental paper money. When
the country was in want of clothing, and could get it for one-fourth price from the British, what was the consequence?
Why, all the zealous patriots—for this work of tarring and feathering, and meeting in mobs to destroy their neighbor's
property, because he could not think quite as fast as they did, which seemed to be coming in fashion now, had been
carried on then with great zeal—these patriots, although all intercourse was penal, carried on commerce
notwithstanding. Supplies went hence, and manufactures were received from Europe. Now, what reliance could be
placed on this patriotism? A gentleman from Vermont had told the Senate at the last session, that the patriotism of
Vermont would stop all exportation by land, without the assistance of the law. How had it turned out? Why, patriotism,
cannon, militia, and all had not stopped it; and although the field-pieces might have stopped it on the Lakes, they were
absolutely cutting new roads to carry it on by land. And yet the gentleman had supposed that their patriotism would
effectually stop it! Now, Mr. H. wanted to know how a non-intercourse law was to be executed by us with a coast of
fifteen hundred miles open to Great Britain by sea, and joining her by land? Her goods would come through our Courts
of Admiralty by the means of friendly captors; they would be brought in, condemned, and then naturalized, as Irishmen
are now naturalized, before they have been a month in the country.

Mr. Pope said it had been his opinion this morning that this resolution should have been referred to that committee, but
after what had been said, it was his wish that some commercial gentleman, whose knowledge of commercial subjects
would enable him to explore the wide field taken by the gentleman from Connecticut, would have answered him. He
had hoped, at this session, after the Presidential election was decided, that all would have dismounted from their
political hobbies, that they would have been all Federalists, all Republicans, all Americans. When they saw the ocean
swarming with pirates, and commerce almost annihilated, he had hoped that the demon of party spirit would not have
reared its head within these walls, but that they would all have mingled opinions and consulted the common good. He
had heretofore been often charmed with the matter-of-fact arguments of the gentleman from Connecticut; but on this
day the gentleman had resorted to arguments from newspapers, and revived all the old story of French influence, in the
same breath in which he begged them to discard all party feelings and discuss with candor. The gentleman had gone into
a wide field, which Mr. H. said he would not now explore, but begged time till to-morrow, when he would endeavor to
show to the nation and to the world that the arguments used by the gentleman in favor of his resolution were most
weighty against it. If patriotism had departed the land, if the streams of foreign corruption had flowed so far that the
people were ready to rise in opposition to their Government, it was indeed time that foreign intercourse should cease. If
the spirit of 1776 were no more—if the spirit of commercial speculation had surmounted all patriotism—if this was the
melancholy situation of the United States, it was time to redeem the people from this degeneracy, to regenerate them, to
cause them to be born again of the spirit of 1776. But he believed he should be able to show that the proposition of the
gentleman from Connecticut hardly merited the respect or serious consideration of this honorable body. Mr. P. said he
had expected that in advocating his resolution the gentleman would have told the Senate that we should go to war with
Great Britain and France; that he would have risen with patriotic indignation and have called for a more efficient
measure. But to his surprise, the gentleman had risen, and with the utmost sang froid told them, let your ships go out,
all's well, and nothing is to be apprehended. Mr. P. said he would not go into the subject at this moment; he had but
risen to express his feelings on the occasion. He wished the subject postponed, the more because he wished to consult
a document just laid on their table, to see how the memorials presented a short time ago from those whose cause the
gentleman from Connecticut undertook to advocate, accorded with the sentiments he had this day expressed for them.
Mr. Lloyd said he considered the question now under discussion as one of the most important that has occurred since
the adoption of the Federal Constitution. It is a subject, said Mr. L., deeply implicating, and perhaps determining, the
fate of the commerce and navigation of our country; a commerce which has afforded employment for nearly a million
and a half of tons of navigation; which has found occupation for hundreds of thousands of our citizens; which has spread
wealth and prosperity in every region of our country, and which has upheld the Government by furnishing the revenue
for its support.
A commerce which has yielded an annual amount of exports exceeding one hundred millions of dollars; an amount of
exports three times as great as was possessed by the first maritime and commercial nation of the world at the
commencement of the last century, when her population was double that of the United States at this time; an amount of
exports equal to what Great Britain, with her navy of a thousand ships, and with all her boasted manufactures,
possessed even at so recent a period as within about fifteen years from this date; surely this is a commerce not to be
trifled with; a commerce not lightly to be offered up as the victim of fruitless experiment.
Our commerce has unquestionably been subject to great embarrassment, vexation, and plunder, from the belligerents of
Europe. There is no doubt but both France and Great Britain have violated the laws of nations, and immolated the rights
of neutrals; but there is, in my opinion, a striking difference in the circumstances of the two nations; the one, instigated
by a lawless thirst of universal domination, is seeking to extend an iron-handed, merciless despotism over every region
of the globe; while the other is fighting for her natale solum, for the preservation of her liberties, and probably for her
very existence.
The one professes to reluct at the inconvenience she occasions you by the adoption of measures which are declared to
be intended merely as measures of retaliation on her enemies, and which she avows she will retract as soon as the
causes which occasion them are withdrawn. The other, in addition to depredation and conflagration, treats you with the
utmost contumely and disdain; she admits not that you possess the rights of sovereignty and independence, but
undertakes to legislate for you, and declares that, whether you are willing or unwilling, she considers you as at war with
her enemy; that she had arrested your property, and would hold it as bail for your obedience, until she knew whether
you would servilely echo submission to her mandates.
There is no doubt that the conduct of these belligerents gave rise to the embargo; but if this measure has been proved
by experience to be inoperative as it regards them, and destructive only as it respects ourselves, then every dictate of
magnanimity, of wisdom, and of prudence, should urge the immediate repeal of it.
The propriety of doing this is now under discussion. The proposition is a naked one; it is unconnected with ulterior
measures; and gentlemen who vote for its repeal ought not to be considered as averse from, and they are not opposed
to, the subsequent adoption of such other measures as the honor and the interest of the country may require.
In considering this subject, it naturally presents itself under three distinct heads:
1st. As it respects the security which it gave to our navigation, and the protection it offered our seamen, which were the
ostensible objects of its adoption.
2dly. In reference to its effect on other nations, meaning France and Great Britain, in coercing them to adopt a more just
and honorable course of policy towards us: and,

3dly. As it regards the effects which it has produced and will produce among ourselves.
In thus considering it, sir, I shall only make a few remarks on the first head. I have no desire to indulge in retrospections;
the measure was adopted by the Government; if evil has flowed from it, that evil cannot now be recalled. If events have
proved it to be a wise and beneficial measure, I am willing that those to whom it owes its parentage should receive all
the honors that are due to them; but if security to our navigation, and protection to our seamen, were the real objects of
the embargo, then it has already answered all the effects that can be expected from it. In fact, its longer continuance will
effectually counteract the objects of its adoption; for it is notorious, that each day lessens the number of our seamen, by
their emigration to foreign countries, in quest of that employment and subsistence which they have been accustomed to
find, but can no longer procure, at home; and as it regards our navigation, considered as part of the national property, it
is not perhaps very material whether it is sunk in the ocean, or whether it is destined to become worthless from lying and
rotting at our wharves. In either case, destruction is equally certain, it is death; and the only difference seems to be
between death by a coup de grace, or death after having sustained the long-protracted torments of torture.
What effect has this measure produced on foreign nations? What effect has it produced on France?
The honorable gentleman from Connecticut has told you, and told you truly, in an exposé presented by the French
Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Emperor, that this measure is much applauded: it is called a magnanimous measure of
the Americans! And in a conversation which is stated to have passed recently at Bayonne, between the Emperor of
France and an American gentleman, it is said, and I believe correctly, that the Emperor expressed his approbation of
the embargo. I have no doubt that this is the fact; the measure is too consentaneous with his system of policy, not to be
approbated by him. So long as the extreme maritime preponderancy of Great Britain shall continue, with or without the
existence of an American embargo, or with or without the British Orders in Council, France can enjoy but very little
foreign commerce, and that little the Emperor of France would undoubtedly be willing to sacrifice, provided that, by so
doing, he could insure the destruction of a much larger and more valuable amount of British and American commerce.
It is therefore apparent, that this measure, considered as a coercive measure against France, is nugatory in the extreme.
What, sir, are, or have been its effects on Great Britain?
When the embargo was first laid the nation were alarmed. Engaged in a very extended and important commerce with
this country, prosecuted upon the most liberal and confidential terms, this measure, whether considered as an act of
hostility, or as a mere municipal restrictive regulation, could not but excite apprehension; for most of our writers, in
relation to her colonies, had impressed the belief of the dependence of the West India settlements on the United States
for the means of subsistence. Accordingly, for several months after the imposition of the embargo, we find it remained
an object of solicitude with them, nor have I any doubt that the Ministry, at that time, partook of the national feeling; for
it appears, so late as June, that such a disposition existed with the British Ministry, as induced our Minister at the Court
of London to entertain the belief, and to make known to his Government the expectation he entertained, that an
adjustment would take place of the differences between this country and Great Britain.
But, sir, the apprehensions of the British nation and Ministry gradually became weaker; the embargo had been
submitted to the never-erring test of experience, and information of its real effects flowed in from every quarter.
It was found that, instead of reducing the West Indies by famine, the planters in the West Indies, by varying their
process of agriculture, and appropriating a small part of their plantations for the raising of ground provisions, were
enabled, without materially diminishing their usual crops of produce, in a great measure to depend upon themselves for
their own means of subsistence.
The British Ministry also became acquainted about this time (June) with the unexpected and unexampled prosperity of
their colonies of Canada and Nova Scotia. It was perceived that one year of an American embargo was worth to them
twenty years of peace or war under any other circumstances; that the usual order of things was reversed; that in lieu of
American merchants making estates from the use of British merchandise and British capital, the Canadian merchants
were making fortunes of from ten to thirty or forty thousand pounds in a year, from the use of American merchandise
and American capital: for it is notorious, that great supplies of lumber, and pot and pearl ashes, have been transported
from the American to the British side of the Lakes; this merchandise, for want of competition, the Canadian merchant
bought at a very reasonable rate, sent it to his correspondents in England, and drew exchange against the shipments; the
bills for which exchange he sold to the merchants of the United States for specie, transported by wagon loads at noon-
day, from the banks in the United States, over the borders into Canada. And thus was the Canadian merchant enabled,
with the assistance only of a good credit, to carry on an immensely extended and beneficial commerce, without the
necessary employment, on his part, of a single cent of his own capital.
About this time, also, the revolution in Spain developed itself. The British Ministry foresaw the advantage this would be
to them, and immediately formed a coalition with the patriots: by doing this, they secured to themselves, in despite of
their enemies, an accessible channel of communication with the Continent. They must also have been convinced, that if
the Spaniards did not succeed in Europe, the Colonies would declare themselves independent of the mother country,
and rely on the maritime force of Great Britain for their protection, and thus would they have opened to them an
incalculably advantageous mart for their commerce and manufactures; for, having joined the Spaniards without
stipulation, they undoubtedly expected to reap their reward in the exclusive commercial privileges that would be
accorded to them; nor were they desirous to seek competitors for the favor of the Spaniards: if they could keep the
navigation, the enterprise, and the capital of the United States from an interference with them, it was their interest to do
it, and they would, from this circumstance, probably consider a one, two, or three years' continuance of the embargo as

a boon to them.
Mr. Smith, of Maryland, said he was not prepared to go as largely into this subject as it merited, having neither
documents nor papers before him. He would therefore only take a short view of it in his way, and endeavor to rebut a
part of the argument of the gentleman from Massachusetts, and perhaps to notice some of the observations of the
gentleman from Connecticut. He perfectly agreed with the latter gentleman that this subject ought to be taken up with
coolness, and with temper, and he could have wished that the gentleman from Connecticut would have been candid
enough to pursue that course which he had laid down for others. Had he done it? No. In the course of the discussion,
the gentleman had charged it upon some one, he knew not whom, that there was a disposition to break down
commerce for the purpose of erecting manufactures on its ruins. If this was the disposition of those who had advocated
the embargo, Mr. S. said he was not one to go with them, and perfectly corresponded with the gentleman in saying that
such a plan would be extremely injurious; that possibly it could not be enforced in the United States; and that, if it could,
merchants would conceive themselves highly aggrieved by it. But the gentleman's ideas had no foundation. Mr. S. said
he had before seen it in newspapers, but had considered it a mere electioneering trick; that nothing like common sense
or reason was meant by it, and nobody believed it. The gentleman surely did not throw out this suggestion by way of
harmonizing; for nothing could be more calculated to create heat.
The gentleman last up, throughout his argument, had gone upon the ground that it is the embargo which has prevented
all our commerce; that, if the embargo were removed, we might pursue it in the same manner as if the commerce of the
whole world was open to us. If the gentleman could have shown this, he would have gone with him heart and hand; but
it did not appear to him that, were the embargo taken off to-morrow, any commerce of moment could be pursued. Mr.
S. said he was not certain that it might not be a wise measure to take off the embargo; but he was certain that some
other measure should be taken before they thought of taking that. And he had hoped that gentleman would have told
them what measure should have been taken before they removed the embargo. Not so, however. A naked proposition
was before them to take off the embargo; and were that agreed to, and the property of America subject to
depredations by both the belligerents, they would be foreclosed from taking any measure at all for its defence. For this
reason this resolution should properly have gone originally to the committee on the resolution of the gentleman from
Virginia, (Mr. Giles.)
Mr. S. said he was not prepared for a long discussion, he should take but a short view. He would not go back to see
which nation had been the first offender. He was not the apologist of any nation, but, he trusted, a fervent defender of
the rights, honor, and interests of his own country. By the decrees of France every vessel bound to or from Great
Britain, was declared good prize. And still further; if spoken alone by any British vessel, they were condemned in the
French prize courts. When a vessel arrived in the ports of France, Mr. S. said, bribery and corruption were made use
of in order to effect her condemnation. Every sailor on board was separately examined as to what had happened in the
course of the voyage; they were told, you will have one-third of the vessel and cargo as your portion of the prize-
money, if you will say that your vessel has touched at a British port or has been visited by a British cruiser. Of course
then, by the decrees of France, all American property that floats is subject to condemnation by the French, if it had
come in contact with British hands. Were gentlemen willing to submit to this: to raise the embargo, and subject our trade
to this depredation? Yes, said the gentleman from Connecticut, who was willing, however, that our ships should arm
and defend themselves. Mr. S. said that he had hoped the honorable gentleman would have gone further, and said not
only that he would in this case permit our vessels to defend themselves, but to make good prize of any vessel which
should impede the trade admitted by the laws of nations. But the gentleman had stopped short of this.
By the orders in Council, now made law, (said Mr. S.,) all neutrals—all neutrals, this is a mere word ad captandum,
as it is well known there is no neutral commerce but American—all American vessels, then, bound to France, or
countries in alliance with her, are made good prize in the British courts. When bound to any part of the continent of
Europe, or any possessions in Turkey or Asia, they are a good prize, Sweden alone excepted. We are then permitted
to trade—for it is a permission to trade, since we must acknowledge ourselves indebted to her for any she permits—we
are graciously permitted to go to Sweden, to which country our whole exports amount to $56,157! This petty trade is
generously permitted us as a boon, and this boon will be struck off the list of permission, the moment any difference
arises between Great Britain and Sweden. I am aware, sir, that gentlemen will say this may require explanation. I will
give it to them. Great Britain says you shall not trade to any of the countries I have interdicted till you have my leave;
pay me a duty and then you may go to any port; pay me a tribute, and then you shall have my license to trade to any
ports you choose. What is this tribute? Not having the documents before me, I may make an error of a fraction, but in
the principle I am correct. On the article of flour, they tell us, you may bring flour to Great Britain from America, land it,
and, if you re-export it, pay into our treasury two dollars on every barrel. For every barrel of flour which we send to
Spain, Portugal, or Italy, where the gentleman from Massachusetts has correctly told us much of it is consumed, little of
it being used in Great Britain or France, you must pay two dollars besides your freight and insurance. And this tribute is
to be paid for a permission to trade. Are gentlemen willing to submit to this?
On the article of wheat, exported, you must pay in Great Britain a duty of, I believe, two shillings sterling a bushel,
before it can be re-exported. On the important article of cotton they have charged a duty on its exportation of nine
pence sterling per lb., equal to the whole value of the article itself in Georgia or South Carolina. This is in addition to the
usual import duty of two pence in the pound. Thus, if we wish to go to the Continent,...