Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16)

by United States. Congress

Tuesday, November 17.

Another member, to wit, Marmaduke Williams, from North Carolina, appeared, produced his credentials, was qualified, and took his seat in the House.

Frigate Chesapeake.

Mr. Blount, from the committee to whom was referred so much of the Message of the President as relates to aggressions, &c., made a report.

The report commences with an expression of sensibility at the outrage committed on the Chesapeake; states the receipt of information relative thereto from the State and Navy Departments; presents a general view of the circumstances; observes that it might be said to have been incontestably proved that William Ware, John Strachan, and Daniel Martin are citizens of the United States. But the committee add, that they conceive it unnecessary for them or the House to go into any inquiry on that part of the subject, as in their opinion whether the men taken from the Chesapeake were or were not citizens of the United States, and whether the Chesapeake was or was not within the acknowledged limits of the United States at the time they were taken, the character of the act of taking them remains the same.

“From the foregoing facts, it appears to your committee that the outrage committed on the frigate Chesapeake has been stamped with circumstances of indignity and insult of which there is scarcely to be found a parallel in the history of civilized nations, and requires only the sanction of the Government under color of whose authority it was perpetrated to make it just cause of, if not an irresistible call for, instant and severe retaliation. Whether it will receive that sanction, or be disavowed, and declared an unauthorized act of a subordinate officer, remains to be determined by the answer which shall be given to the demand of explanation. That answer (now daily expected) will either sink the detestable act into piracy, or expand it to the magnitude of premeditated hostility against the sovereignty and independence of this nation; and until its true character shall be fixed and known, your committee deem it expedient to decline expressing any opinion as to the measures proper to be adopted in relation to it. But, as other acts of aggression have been committed within our ports and waters by British ships of war, as well anterior as posterior to this, some of them manifesting the same disregard of our national rights, and seeming to flow from the same contempt for the authority of our laws; and especially as the British squadron, of which the Leopard was one, after being notified of the President’s proclamation, ordering them to depart from the waters of the United States which they knew had been published in conformity to an act of Congress, anchored within the capes of Chesapeake Bay, and in that situation remained, capturing American vessels, even within our acknowledged territorial limits, and sending them to Halifax for adjudication—impressing seamen on board American vessels—firing on vessels and boats of all descriptions, having occasion to pass near them in pursuit of their lawful trade, and occasionally denouncing threats, calculated to alarm and irritate the good people of the United States, particularly the inhabitants of Norfolk and Hampton—all which facts are substantiated by the accompanying documents, Nos. 1 to 6—the committee are of opinion that it is expedient to provide more effectually for the protection of our ports and harbors; but not being prepared to report specifically on that subject, they ask further indulgence of the House, and beg leave to submit for their consideration the following resolution:

“Resolved, That the attack of the British ship of war Leopard on the United States frigate Chesapeake was a flagrant violation of the jurisdiction of the United States, and that the continuance of the British squadron (of which the Leopard was one) in their waters, after being notified of the proclamation of the President of the United States, ordering them to depart the same, was a further violation thereof.”

The report was referred to a Committee of the Whole on Monday.

On a motion of Mr. Bassett, that the proceedings of this day, with closed doors, ought to be kept secret, the question being taken thereupon, it passed in the negative—yeas 22, nays 104.