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

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

      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 ofRepresentatives 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.

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