Thursday, April 14.
Suspension of the Embargo.
Mr. D. R. Williams felt that the question which was about to be decided was one of so much importance, every member of the House must be specially responsible for his vote on it; and, laboring under that responsibility, he felt it a duty to state some of the reasons for the vote he should give. I shall vote against the resolution, said Mr. W., and in so doing shall not be influenced by the reasons assigned by my friend from Virginia, (Mr. Randolph,) nor by those of the gentleman from Maryland. When this resolution was first presented to us, I felt very much inclined to vote for it; but upon considering it more maturely I cannot. This I regret exceedingly, because I shall perhaps differ from a large majority of the friends to the embargo. Gentlemen themselves who advocate it, if all the consequences which certainly attach to it are deliberately considered, will I hope give it up. What is the object of the resolution, or rather of the embargo itself, for I presume it is intended either to fix the day or the circumstances on which it shall be suspended? [Mr. Randolph observed that while up he had forgot to propose an amendment to the resolution so as to declare it expedient to repeal the embargo.] No, sir, said Mr. W., it is not expedient. This amendment, however, has cut in upon me unexpectedly; but as the debate has heretofore been a kind of general battle, partaking of war, army, embargo, treaty, resolution, and amendment,—I shall be in order on any point, it has taken so wide a range.
The resolution is pernicious, and for this reason: the embargo is not designed to affect our own citizens, though I confess it operates hard on them; but to make an impression on Europe; and beyond all question, the firmer you stand, the more likely is your measure to have effect. What is the opinion inferable from the adoption of such a resolution? Does it not tell the belligerent powers of Europe with whom you are contending, that you are tired of the embargo; that you are sick of it, and will accept any modification of their general principles (I would rather say practice, for they have no principle) so hostile to your neutral rights, rather than submit to it any longer? I hope this consideration will have weight with gentlemen, who, like myself, are friendly to the embargo, for assuredly it is entitled to it. Besides, are gentlemen aware of the embarrassment they will not be able to avoid in framing a law on such a subject? It will be scarcely possible to define the circumstances on which you will permit the suspension to take place, without incurring one of two risks; either too precise to admit the President’s acting, for being a law its letter must be fulfilled, or so general as to invest him with a discretionary power altogether inexpedient. I cannot conceive a situation more disagreeable than would be the President’s with such a power. Though I subscribe to what I consider the sound part of the declarations of the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Randolph,) the other day, as to the tendency this resolution will have to throw a monstrous and unusual power into the hands of the President, yet I do not believe it unconstitutional; nor can I subscribe to the arguments of my friend with respect to the constitutionality of the laws laying an embargo; for, sir, if they prove any thing they prove quite too much; and did I possess but a moiety of the eloquence and ability of that gentleman, I could certainly confute them. I contend that the power to lay an embargo is granted in the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.” If you cannot prohibit commerce with a particular port or nation, of what avail is the power to regulate it? The law prohibiting all trade with St. Domingo is authorized by the same clause of the constitution, and yet it never was supposed to be unconstitutional. Will it be questioned that you can prohibit exportation from the United States in the vessels of any particular nation? Will it be questioned that you have a right to exclude foreigners from trading with the Indian tribes within your jurisdictional limits? Most assuredly you have these rights, and all derived from the same general power to regulate commerce. The embargo is not an annihilation, but a suspension of commerce, to regain the advantages of which it has been robbed; it follows that it is a constitutional regulation of commerce. The gentleman read my name among others in the negative on the passage of the section in the bill to authorize the President to suspend the non-importation law. I will not undertake to say what were the reasons of the gentleman for voting against that section, but I know that my reason was, it vested the President of the United States with power to suspend the law at the time when we ourselves should be in session. I thought then as I do now, that it is inexpedient, under any circumstances, to give the President power to suspend the operation of a law during the session of Congress.
Mr. G. W. Campbell said, I will now return to the subject before the House. The gentleman last up, (Mr. D. R. Williams,) has rendered it unnecessary for me to enter into a discussion of a part of this subject, which might otherwise have claimed more particular notice. With that gentleman I agree, in almost every thing he has said, except as to the effect which this resolution would have upon foreign nations. If I had supposed that this measure held out to foreign powers the slightest pretext for believing that we are so tired of the embargo as to be induced to repeal it, under any circumstances whatever, except such as are consistent with the honor and dignity of the nation, I would be the last man to propose it to this House. But under a conviction that this resolution can have no such effect, that it holds to foreign powers a language directly opposite to this, and that they will see in it the only object which its supporters can be fairly supposed to have, to put it in the power of the Executive to remove, a pressure, as soon as circumstances will render it proper, which is acknowledged to bear hard on the American people, and must continue so to do so long as the causes that produce it remain unchanged, I have brought it before the House, and under this impression alone am I disposed to support it. So far, sir, from thinking that it will induce foreign nations to believe we are disposed to remove the embargo, before the causes that produced it are first withdrawn, I am clearly of opinion that this resolution will convince them that we are determined the embargo laws never shall be repealed, until they revoke their orders and decrees, or until we shall have determined to appeal to war, the last resort of an injured nation. They will see, in this measure, what is believed to be the true principle that ought to direct our conduct—a firm determination to persevere in the embargo until they are brought to a sense of justice, or until that crisis in our affairs has arrived, that will make it our interest and our duty to resort to arms in vindication of those rights which have been so grossly violated—and then the embargo may not be necessary. War and an embargo at the same time are seldom supposed to be necessary; an embargo frequently precedes war, but scarcely ever accompanies it. These remarks are made, because so many misrepresentations have gone abroad with respect to the objects, the effects, and probable duration of the embargo, and the views of those who imposed it. Some considered its operations directed against one nation alone, to wit, Great Britain; while others of the same party declared it could do that power no injury. The first of these positions is not founded on any facts to support it, the laws imposing the embargo being general in their operation; and the result, as far as we can judge from the best information that has yet reached us from that nation, proves the latter to be totally incorrect. Some pretended to state it as a measure that was to be permanent, and forever unalterable, and on that ground opposed it; while others on the same side pronounced it a temporary expedient, a mere chimerical experiment, that was not designed to be persevered in for any time, and therefore declared it useless, and likely to produce no good. In answer to such contradictory objections, it would seem almost unnecessary to say any thing. The one would appear to destroy the other. Those who made them have been equally incorrect in stating the views of those who imposed the embargo, as they have been unfortunate and inconsistent in the grounds upon which they have opposed it. No one could reasonably suppose the embargo was intended to remain forever, to be a permanent, unalterable measure, or to continue longer than the existence of the causes that produced it. Neither ought it to be supposed that it would be removed during the existence of those causes, unless some alternative was resorted to in its place. These representations, or rather misrepresentations, are therefore futile, not founded in fact, and calculated only to deceive and mislead the public mind.
The objects of the embargo have already been stated to you. These were, among others, to take a stand previous to an expected war, to prepare the nation to meet it; to collect and preserve at home our resources and our seamen, from being captured by foreign powers; to produce a pressure on those foreign powers, that might make them sensible of the advantages they derived from our trade, and, by making them feel the want of it, bring them to a just estimate of their own interests, and a sense of justice toward us; and also to pause for a short time in order to determine what system we ought to pursue. These were, it is believed, the principal objects of the embargo. The time has not yet arrived that puts it in the power of this nation decisively to determine with which of the belligerent powers we must go to war, if, indeed, it be necessary to go to war with either. The conduct of those powers has not been such as to induce us to consider either the one or the other friendly disposed toward us—and it might be hazarding too much to go to war with both at the same time. It is not, therefore, the proper time, either on the ground of peace or on that of war, to remove the embargo, as has been insisted upon by those who have been opposed to the measure. But it has been contended by some who are friendly to the embargo, that the resolution before you holds out to the belligerent powers a ground for believing that we will repeal the embargo laws, without any change being first made in their measures relative to our commerce. I am unable to see any thing in the resolution that justifies such an opinion, or that presents to those powers any prospect of their removing the embargo, until they revoke their orders and decrees, or change them in such a manner as to render our commerce safe. What does the resolution say to the belligerent powers? Is not its language clear and explicit? It says to them you must act first, before the embargo shall be removed. The Council of the Nation have solemnly so determined; your orders and decrees have produced the embargo, and it shall continue until you withdraw them. It is announcing to those nations in the strongest language in our power that we are determined not to shrink from the ground we have taken; that we will not relinquish the measures we have adopted, until they first withdraw their measures so destructive to our commerce, and then the embargo shall be removed—then the commercial world will be unshackled, and trade restored to its usual channels, to its full liberty. This resolution will turn the eyes of the American people to the real source of their present difficulties—the conduct of the belligerent powers, in passing their orders and decrees, by which they have bound in chains or rather annihilated the commerce of the civilized world; in these they will see the true cause of the embargo, the reasons that render it essentially necessary to save our trade from certain ruin; and to these they must look to unbind the chains and permit trade to return to its usual channels, and pursue its natural course. On these grounds, and with this view, this measure was brought forward, and is now supported by me.