The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Thirteenth Congress, First and Second Sessions Page: 1,457
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HISTORY OF CONGRESS.
February, 1814.
The Loan Bill.
H. of It.
contest, they must have desired the success of
Bonaparte; they must have prepared themselves
to encounter the scenes which I have but so fee-
bly described, and which have filled my mind
with so much "secret dread and inward horror."
The present situation and prospects of Europe,
so far from threatening the existence of our
country, afford to my understanding the anima-
ting prospect of returning peace, and ought to
stimulate our desires and efforts to restore its
blessings. England, it is true, has now less to
fear ; she may give more efficient protection to
her Canada possessions, and increase the annoy-
ance of our exposed seacoast; but her power is
not essentially increased. Our country is in no
danger of being overrun; were this attempted, it
would become the holy cause of defence, in
which there would be no division ; in such a
cause, even "weakness would become strength."
Were it necessary, security against the power of
England would be found in those nations who
have lately redeemed themselves from the yoke
of Bonaparte. Can it be believed that ihe spirit
which animated the betrayed Spaniard, and
armed him with all the energy of despair; the
spirit which nerved the arm of the Russian, and
kindled up a holy flame among the subjected na-
tions of Europe, will be so easily extinguished?
That those nations who have thus successfully
thrown off one tyrant, will immediaiely bend
their necks to another? Sir, I will not believe
so meanly of them. They have an interest in
the proper limitations of power; they have an
interiest in commerce and in the ocean; they
haVe an interest in our friendship and our pros-
perity. These considerations, while they tend to
lessen the imagined power of England, offer ad-
ditional inducements for us to desire peace; they
imperatively demand that we should repeal the
embargo, and the whole black catalogue of re-
strictions on commerce, which serve only'to im-
poverish your citizens, and make sport for your
enemies. All imaginable inducements for con-
tinuing your suicidal restrictions are now at an
end; all the ports of the Continent are now open
to us and to Great Britain, she can neither be
starved by our embargo, or thrown into insurrec-
tion by our non-intercourse: repeal, then, your
embargo; let our industry find its reward in the
hungry markets of Europe; this will give enter-
prise to seamen, and raise the drooping spirits of
the laborer.
In reviewing the leading policy of the Ad-
ministration for the last six or seven years, the
mind is struck with the peculiar tendency (what-
ever may have been the motives) of that policy
to a direct and unequivocal co-operation with the
avowed objects of France. What has been the
great and primary object of France? The de-
struction of England. Despairing of effecting his
purpose by invasion, or the chances of ordinary
combat, the tyrant of France conceived the gigan-
tic project of accomplishing the destruction of
Great Britain by a total interdiction of her com-
merce with all Other nations. All the great
Powers on the continent of Europe were either
compelled or seduced into a co-operation with
this great continental system, which, in the lan-
guage of Bonaparte, in order to be effectual must
be complete. The history of the various decrees
and regulations by which this system was to
bind up the commerce of the world, and the
practical conformity of this Government by its
embargoes, non-intercourses, non-importations,
&c., has been so fully and clearly stated by an
honorable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
Bigelow) as to forbid even an attempt at repeti-
tion. The honorable gentleman, however, seemed
to think, that while France demanded and en-
forced compliance from the nations on the Con-
tinent, in the most public, official, and dictatorial
style, there was no -official document to prove
that a similar demand was made on the Govern-
ment of the United States.
It is true, sir, the public have not been peculi-
arly favored with official knowledge of our rela-
tions with France, and as Congress only gets
such scraps and extracts as the Executive deems
fit to communicate, and some of them most se-
cret and confidential, it is not a matter of sur-
prise that such a record as the gentleman speaks
of should not be found on our tables in hac
verba; but, sir, we are not without evidence,
and that, too, of the most public and positive
character, given by Bonaparte and his Ministers
on this very point. Turn to the Berlin decree of
1806, and the Milan decree of 1807; there you
will find all nations, without exception, required
to conform to the maritime code of France, and
denunciations, threatening the enraged vengeance
of France to alight on those who refuse or ne-
glect to comply. When the American Minister
at Paris humbly asked whether the treaty which
then existed between this country and France
was thus to be violated, by including America in
the scope of those decrees, the answer was at
first a little equivocal, but soon became certain
by the capture and condemnation of our vessels,
and the explicit declaration of Champagny <:that
the law was general, and admitted of no excep-
tions." What demand could have been more
public than those decrees; what more explicit
than their practical operations on our commerce,
and what more official than the written declara-
tion of the Minister of Foreign Affairs? I ask;
gentlemen, what better testimony could we have
given of prompt and ready acquiescence than by
our embargo of December, 1807; the recommen-
dation of which was the immediate consequence
of despatches from France, and not a knowledge
of the Orders in Council of Great Britain ? This
self-destroying measure met the smiles and ap-
probation of Bonaparte; he pronounced it a
magnanimous resistance to the maritime tyranny
of Great Britain. While this measure was con-
tinued and enforced with vigor, it was applauded
by the great author of the continental system.
Whenever the sufferings and clamors of our own
oppressed citizens caused a temporary relaxation,
we were denounced arid punished for disobedi-
ence. I will not tax you, sir, with the disgusting
recital of the multiplied and uniform declara-
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Gales and Seaton. The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Thirteenth Congress, First and Second Sessions, book, 1854; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30354/m1/11/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.