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

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, we may go on condition of paying a tribute equal to the value of the cotton, in addition to risk or insurance. It is generally understood that two-thirds of the cotton exported by us, may be consumed in England, when all her manufactures are in good work. On the remaining third the people of the Southern country are subject to a tribute – on twenty millions of pounds, at the rate of 17 cents per pound. Let this be calculated, and it will be seen what tax we must pay for leave to sell that article.

      The English Orders had told us we might trade as usual with the West India Islands; but now, believing no doubt that this Government has not strength or energy in itself to maintain any system long, what has she done? Proclaimed a blockade on the remaining islands of France, so that we are now confined to British islands alone! We are restricted from trading there by blockade, and what security have we, that if the embargo be taken off – for I wish it were off: no man suffers more from it, in proportion to his capital, than I do; but I stand here the Representative of the people, and must endeavor to act in such a manner as will best secure their interests; and I pledge myself to join heart and hand with gentlemen to take it off, whenever we can have a safe and honorable trade – that, from our submitting to these interdictions, as a right of Great Britain, she may not choose to interdict all trade, she being omnipotent, and sole mistress of the ocean, as we were told by the gentleman from Connecticut. I have seen a late English pamphlet, called "Hints to both Parties," said to be by a ministerial writer, to this effect: that Great Britain, having command over all the seas, could and ought to exclude and monopolize the trade of the world to herself. This pamphlet goes critically into an examination of the subject; says that by a stroke of policy she can cut us off from our extensive trade; that she has the power, and, having the power, she ought to do it.

      Tuesday, November 22

The Embargo

      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