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

It has been said, that the little portion of commerce which would remain unaffected by the belligerent edicts, would belong to us as a boon from England, were we to prosecute it. I do not understand it in this light. Our right to navigate the ocean is inherent, and belongs to us as a part of our sovereignty; but, when interdicted from any one place, if we go to another, we certainly do not accept that commerce as a boon. I might as well say, if a man interdicted me from going down one street in Georgetown, that I accept a boon from him in going down another. This is certainly not the case. The trading to these places is exercising our original right, not interfered with; and, so far as those orders and decrees do not operate, we could carry on a legitimate trade, flowing from our indisputable right, as a sovereign nation, to navigate the ocean. It does seem to me then, sir, that the residue of our trade might be carried on without submitting to the belligerent edicts. But, an honorable gentleman (Mr. G. W. Campbell) asked me, yesterday, if we were to permit our enemies to take any part, whether they would not take the remainder? This, like the horse's tail in Horace, would be plucked, hair by hair, till it was all out. True, sir, this might possibly happen. But, what have we done? Why, we have cut the tail off, for fear all the hair should be taken out. We have ourselves destroyed all that portion of our trade which the belligerents have not interdicted.

Taking the whole into view, then, I think that the continuance of the embargo, as an assertion of our rights, is not an efficient mode of resistance.

But gentlemen say, in a crisis like the present, when each individual ought to contribute his mite, it is very easy to find fault; and they ask for a substitute. I want no substitute. Take off the embargo. That is what I want. But when called upon in this manner, I cannot help looking around me to the source whence I expected higher and better information. The crisis is awful. We are brought into it by the means recommended by the head of our foreign relations. I think the President advised the embargo. If he did not, he certainly advised the gunboats and the additional military force. In these minor measures, which have been in their consequences so interesting, there was no want of advice or responsibility. Why then, in this awful crisis, shall we not look to the same quarter? The responsibility is left on us. We anti-embargoists show that things would not have been thus, had our advice been taken; and, not being taken, we have little encouragement to give more. Our advice is on the journals. We said, let us have what commerce we can get, and bring home returns to stimulate our industry. I believe the declarations of gentlemen when they say that they are friendly to commerce; but their fondness for it is the embrace of death. They say they will protect it; but it is strange that they should begin to protect it by abolishing it. I contend that their measures have not answered the purposes of protection, but on the contrary they have been prejudicial to it; and I trust in their candor that they will join us in giving elasticity to commerce, and removing this pressure. The interests of commerce and agriculture are identified; whenever one increases, the other extends. They progress pari passu. Look at your mercantile towns; and wherever you find one, like a pebble thrown into water, its influence extends in a circle more or less remotely, over the whole surface. Gentlemen from the agricultural country vote to support commerce, because it increases the value of their own product; they are not so disinterested as they suppose, and I believe the best way is to consider the two inseparable. As I am at present disposed, could I not obtain a total repeal, I would prefer a resolution laid on the table by a gentleman (Mr. Mumford) from one of the largest commercial cities in the Union, and who must be supposed to know the opinion of commercial men. I can scarcely with my knowledge or understanding point out any thing; but if I have not capacity to be one of the ins, I can readily perceive whether the present system be adequate or not. I would let our vessels go out armed for resistance; and if they were interfered with, I would make the dernier appeal. We are able and willing to resist; and when the moment arrives, there will be but one heart and hand throughout the whole Union. All will be American – all united for the protection of their dearest rights and interests.

Mr. Lyon opposed the report in a speech of an hour.

Mr. Desha said he had been particularly attentive to the whole of the debates during the very lengthy discussion of this important subject, and, said he, I am at a loss how to understand gentlemen, or what to conclude from their observations. Am I to conclude that they are really Americans in principle? I wish to do so; and I hope they are; but it appears somewhat doubtful, or they would not tamely give up the honor of their country by submitting to French decrees and British Orders in Council – that is, by warmly advocating the repeal of the embargo, without proposing something as a substitute. Do gentlemen mean an abject acquiescence to those iniquitous decrees and Orders in Council? Do gentlemen mean that that liberty and independence that was obtained through the valorous exertions of our ancestors, should be wrested from our hands without a murmur – that independence, in the obtaining of which so much virtue was displayed, and so much blood was shed? Do they mean that it should be relinquished to our former masters without a struggle? Gentlemen assign as a reason why the embargo should be removed, its inefficacy – that it has not answered the contemplated purpose. I acknowledge that as a measure of coercion it has not come entirely up to my expectations. It has not been as efficient as I expected it would have been. But what are the reasons why it has not fully come up to the expectations of its supporters, as a measure of coercion? The reasons are obvious to every man who is not inimical to the principles of our Government, and who is not prejudiced against the present Administration. Was it not for want of unanimity in support of the measure? Was it not in consequence of its having been wantonly, shamefully, and infamously violated? and perhaps winked at by some who are inimical to the principles of our Government; but who have had address and ingenuity sufficient to procure themselves to be appointed to office, and in which situation they have obtained a certain influence, and by misrepresentations as well as clamorous exertions have, in many instances, led the unwary astray, and caused the measure to become unpopular in some parts of the country? By improper representations and fallacious statements of certain prints, apparently, and I might add, undoubtedly, hostile to civil liberty and free Government, and advocates of British policy; by the baneful opposition of British agents and partisans, together with refugees or old tories, who still recollect their former abject standing, and who have never forgiven the American independence, and who, in all probability, are doing all in their power at this time to assist their master George the Third in bringing about colonization and vassalage in this happy land – by keeping up party spirit to such a height, that the tyrant of the ocean was led to believe that he had a most powerful British party in the bosom of our country – and that, by an extraordinary opposition made to the embargo, we would become restless, and could not adhere to a suspension of commerce – consequently would have to relax, and fall into paying tribute, under the Orders of Council, to that corrupt Government, Britain. These are part of the reasons why the embargo, as a measure of coercion, has not proved completely efficacious; and had it not been for this kind of conduct, our enemies would have been brought to a sense of justice, an amicable adjustment of differences would have taken place. By this iniquitous conduct they have tried to wrest from the hands of Government an engine, the best calculated of all others that could have been imagined, to coerce our enemies into a sense of justice, and bring about reciprocity of commerce, that most desirable object, a system of all others the best suited to the peaceful genius of our Government. But if it has not been entirely efficacious as a measure of coercion, it has been particularly serviceable in many instances – by keeping us out of war, which is at all times to be deprecated by civilized men, by preserving our citizens from becoming victims of British tyranny on board their war ships, and securing an immense amount of American property that was sailing on the ocean, supposed to amount in value to between sixty and a hundred millions of dollars, the principal part of which would inevitably have fallen into the voracious jaws of the monster of the deep, or into the iron grasp of the tyrant Napoleon – by which, if we are involved in war, we have preserved the leading sinews, wealth; and above all, for preventing us from becoming tributary to those piratical depredators, whose inevitable determination is to monopolize the whole trade of the world, by which they rob us of our inherent rights. If gentlemen had come forward with propositions to adopt any thing as a substitute for the embargo, that would have prevented us from the degradation of submission, or from falling into the hands of those monsters of iniquity, they no doubt would have met with support. The friends of this measure are not so particularly attached to it, but what they would willingly exchange it for one that was less sorely felt, less oppressive, and one that would preserve national honor, and bring about a redress of grievances; as it was with extreme regret that they had to resort to the measure of the embargo, and which could only be warranted by the necessity of the case. I am as anxious for the repeal of the embargo as any gentleman in this House, or perhaps any man on the continent, whenever it can be done consistent with the honor and welfare of the nation. The citizens of Kentucky, whom I have the honor to represent, feel its effects in common with their fellow men throughout the continent; but their patriotism is such that they bear it with cheerfulness, and magnanimity, and very justly consider it as a preventive of greater evils. I think that a retrograde step at this time would have the appearance of acquiescence, and be calculated to mark the Government with pusillanimity; therefore I deprecate war, believing as I do, that in a Government constructed like ours, war ought to be the last alternative, so as to preserve national honor. As such it would perhaps be advisable to adopt something like the second resolution that is under consideration, which, in addition to the embargo, would amount to a complete non-intercourse – which if systematically adhered to must produce the desired effect. If it should not, it will at least give time to make preparations for a more energetic appeal, which may probably have to be the result. But let it not be understood, because I am for avoiding war, as long as it can be avoided upon honorable terms, that I am against going to war when it becomes actually necessary. No, sir, my life and my property are at all times at my country's command, and I feel no hesitation in saying that the citizens of Kentucky, whom I have the honor to represent, would step forward with alacrity, and defend with bravery that independence in which they glory, and in the obtaining of which some of the best blood of their ancestors was spilt; for the degradation of tribute they would spurn with manly indignation. I would even agree to go further. From my present impression, I would agree to a recall of our Ministers from both England and France, and to a discharge of theirs; and have no intercourse with the principal belligerents until they learned to respect our rights as an independent nation, and laid aside that dictatorial conduct which has for years been characteristic of those European despots; for I am almost certain, under existing circumstances, that our Ministers in neither England nor France can do us any possible service, and that their Ministers here can, and in all probability do a great deal of harm, by fomenting division and keeping up party spirit, at a time, too, when unanimity is of the utmost consequence.

As to our commerce being driven from the ocean, I am not disposed to take a lengthy retrospect, or to examine minutely in order to discover which of our enemies, England or France, was the first aggressor; it is sufficient for me that both France and England have done nearly all in their power to harass and oppress us in every imaginable way. I am not the apologist of either France or England. I am an American in principle, and I trust whenever it is thought necessary to call my energies into action I shall prove myself to be such, by defending and protecting the rights and independence of my own country, from any encroachments, let them come from what quarter they may. By those iniquitous decrees of France, all vessels bound to or from England are deemed lawful prize, and if spoken by an English ship they were condemned in the prize courts of France. When a ship arrived in any of the French ports, bribery and corruption was practiced; in order to succeed in her condemnation, a separate examination of the crew would be resorted to, as to the events that happened on the voyage; offers made of one-third of the ship and lading as their portion of the prize money, if they would give information of their vessel having touched at any of the ports of England, or that any English cruiser had visited her on the voyage. Consequently, by the French decrees, all property afloat belonging to the Americans was liable to seizure and condemnation. Are gentlemen, possessing the feelings of Americans, prepared to submit to such degradation? Are they prepared to say the embargo shall be raised, while our commerce is subjected to this kind of depredation? I trust not.

As respects the British Orders in Council, all American vessels bound to French ports, or to any of the allies of the French, are considered good prize in the courts of Britain. England says you must not carry on any trade to any of the places that I have interdicted, without obtaining my leave – pay me a duty, and then you shall be permitted to go to any port – by paying me a tribute you may trade to any port you please. Degrading to freemen! Britain in her goodness says, you shall have the liberty to bring flour from the United States of America to England, land it, and re-export it, by paying two dollars on every barrel into my coffers. On cotton, which is certainly a very important article, a duty is charged on its exportation of about nine pence per pound sterling; nearly equal to the full value of that article in the parts of America where it is raised, exclusive of the import duty, which is two pence in the pound. Therefore, if our traders wish to go to the Continent of Europe, the condition is, a tribute must be paid nearly equal to the value of the cargo, exclusive of the insurance and risk. If I mistake not, about two-thirds of the cotton exported from this country is made use of in England; on the balance a tribute must be paid of about nine pence sterling per pound, which is about twenty millions of pounds – on a calculation the sums will be found to be enormous – purely for the liberty of selling cotton; as also high and oppressive duties on other articles. If these impositions are submitted to, I pronounce your liberties gone – irretrievably lost – a blot made in the American political character, never to be obliterated. No man possessing an American heart will submit to the degradation of paying tribute to any nation on earth, nor suffer the freemen of America to be taxed without their consent. Will gentlemen say the embargo law must be repealed, and suffer our commerce to flow in its usual channel, while the decrees of France and the British Orders in Council are enforced, by which they would not only be liable to seizure and condemnation, but what is more degrading, pay a tribute of many millions of dollars annually, too degrading to be thought of with patience? We received liberty in its purity from our heroic ancestors – it is a duty incumbent on us to transmit it to posterity unsullied, or perish in the undertaking.

But, sir, it has been said that the people of the East would not bear the continuance of the embargo any longer – that they would force their way in trade; hinting, I presume, that they would openly rebel against your laws if they were not allowed to pursue their usual course in commerce, by which they subscribe to those nefarious Orders in Council, which is tribute of the most degrading kind. Who are these people of the East that have the hardihood to insinuate any thing like rebellion against the laws of the land, or that would wish to degrade themselves so far as to pay tribute? It cannot be the descendants of the heroes of '76, that bravely stepped forth and fought against a tyrant for liberty! It cannot be the descendants of those brave fellows that struggled on the brow of Bunker's Hill for independence! No. It must be the descendants of refugees or old tories, or otherwise it must be British agents or partisans; for no man possessing the feeling that an American ought to feel, would throw out such threats, or degrade himself by coming under tribute. If patriotism has left the land of freedom – if it has taken its flight from the mild and peaceful shores of Columbia – if foreign influence and corruption has extended itself so far that the people are disposed to rebel against the Government of their country – if the dissemination of foreign gold has had the baneful effect of suppressing all noble and patriotic sentiments, it is indeed time that foreign intercourse should cease. If the spirit of commercial speculation and cupidity had surmounted all patriotism, it is time that more energetic measures should be resorted to, in order that the chaff might be separated from the wheat; in a word, that traitors might be known.

Mr. Nelson said it was with very considerable reluctance that he rose to make a few remarks on this subject, after the very lengthy and very eloquent discourse of the gentleman from Maryland, (Mr. Key.) I did not intend, said he, to have troubled the House upon this question; but as I am a man who generally speaks off-hand, it is necessary for me to answer the arguments of any gentleman promptly, if I intend to do it at all. For this reason I rise to do away some false impressions which may have been made by the gentleman's eloquence on the House, and on the by-standers, in the galleries, for I must say that his speech was better calculated for the galleries than for the sober members of this House. The gentleman commenced his argument with stating, what I do not believe, with due submission, is true in point of fact, that, although at their last session the Legislature of Maryland passed resolutions approving the embargo, yet another election having taken place, the present Legislature have passed contrary resolutions.

Mr. Key said he had spoken of the House of Representatives of Maryland, and not of the Legislature.

Mr. Nelson said the House of Representatives have, to be sure, passed resolutions bottomed on the same principles as those on which the gentleman himself has spoken, and which I have heard echoed in the electioneering campaign from almost every stump in the district in which I live. Whilst the gentleman was on this subject, I wish he had told us of the philippic these resolutions got from the Senate of Maryland. The fact is not, as I understood the gentleman to say, that the Legislature of Maryland have passed resolutions disapproving the measures of the Government. But the gentleman intimates that the politics of Maryland have undergone a great change, and that the party formerly uppermost, is now under. Sir, the question which turned out the old members of the Legislature in the county where I live, was not the embargo system, but a question as to a State law. The militia system was the stumbling-block which caused many of the old members to be turned out, and thus the opposite party got the ascendency in one branch of the Legislature of Maryland. But, since that election, another has taken place for members of Congress; and how has that turned out? Why, sir, that gentleman and two other anti-embargoists are elected, whilst six men, who have always approved of it, are also returned; making six to three. Does this prove a change? No, sir. But we have had another election since that. Out of eleven electors, nine men are returned as elected who have approved this system of measures. Does this prove that the embargo was the cause of the change of the politics of the Maryland Legislature? I think not, sir.

But the gentleman has said that the embargo, and not the Orders in Council and decrees, has destroyed the commerce of this country. I do not know, after all the arguments which I have heard, if the gentleman listened with the same attention as I did, how he could make such an assertion. When our ports are blockaded, and all the world is against us, so that, if the embargo was raised, we could go nowhere with perfect freedom, can gentlemen say that the embargo has ruined our commerce? Is it not these acts which have shut us out from a market? The gentleman says we may trade to England. Yes, sir, we may, provided we will pay all such duties as she chooses, and go nowhere else. And would not the doing this place us in precisely the same situation as we were in before the Revolution? England says we may trade with her, paying heavy import and export duties, but says we shall go nowhere else. If you go anywhere else, she says you shall go by England, take a license, and pay a duty, and then you may trade. Is it to be supposed that the people of the United States will agree to this? Are they reduced to that situation, that they will become the vassals of a foreign power – for what? Why, sir, for the prosecution of a trade with that foreign power, who, if her present impositions be submitted to, may cut up our trade in any manner she pleases; for, through our trade, she will raise a revenue to almost an equal amount with the value of your whole produce carried hence. She levies a higher tribute on some articles than the article itself is worth, and this trade the gentleman wants to pursue. He wants no substitute; "take off the embargo," says he, "and let us trade." Sir, if we could trade upon equal terms, I, too, should say, "take off the embargo, and let us trade." But if we cannot trade, except under the license of a foreign power, I say it would be ruinous to us. And has it come to this, for all the arguments go to this, that the American people, for the sake of pounds, shillings, and pence, for the sake of hoarding up a few pence, are to give up their independence, and become vassals of England and France? I hear nothing from the gentleman about the honor of the nation. It would appear as if gentlemen on the other side of the House are willing to sell their country if they can put money in their pocket. Take off the embargo, they cry – for what? money. Pay tribute – for what? money. Surrender your independence – for what? all for money, sir. I trust the people have a different feeling from these gentlemen. The people love money, sir; but they love liberty and independence much better. If money had been the sole object, the Revolution would never have happened; and if that be our sole object now, the blood spilt and money spent in our Revolution was all in vain. But the gentleman says, that our honor is not concerned; that Republics have none; that their honor is to pursue that course by which they can make the most money.

Mr. Key said that he did not say that the honor of the nation was money; but that the line of conduct was most honorable which best secured the happiness and independence of the people.

Mr. Nelson. – I ask pardon of the gentleman if I misrepresented him; because the gentleman's argument was quite vulnerable enough, without my making it more so than it really was. I did understand the gentleman to say, and had he not contradicted me, should still believe so, that the honor of the Republic is precisely that which brings the most riches to the nation. But I ask, whether the line of conduct recommended by that gentleman be such a one as would be proper to secure and take care of the independence of the people? Is it to secure the independence of the people, to suffer a foreign nation to impose upon them any terms which it thinks proper? Is it for the honor or happiness of this nation that we should again pass under the yoke of Great Britain? Is it for the honor of the nation to remove the embargo, without taking any other measure, and to bear with every indignity? No, sir; and yet the gentleman tells you, "take off the embargo, I want no substitute." I did not suppose, sir, that gentlemen who oppose our measures (for I have great charity for them) would openly tell us to take off the embargo, and trade as foreign nations choose to dictate.