Monday, March 19.
Non-Intercourse.
The Senate resumed the consideration of the report of the managers at the conference on their part, on the bill, entitled "An act respecting the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and for other purposes."
On motion, by Mr. Clay, to postpone the further consideration thereof until to-morrow, it was determined in the negative. And the question recurring on the original motion—
Mr. S. Smith said: Mr. President, the question before the Senate is, to adhere to their amendments made to the bill "respecting the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France."
It is with extreme reluctance that I rise on the present occasion. I feel, sensibly feel, the situation in which I place myself by opposing a measure countenanced by the vote in the other House, of almost all those with whom I have been accustomed to act, and by many in the Senate, for whose superior judgment and correct opinions I have ever had the highest respect. Finding, however, that I differed with those gentlemen, I took the bill to my lodgings, and considered it with a disposition to find in it something that should induce me to give up my own opinion to that expressed by the vote in the other House; but I looked in vain, and I found myself compelled to take the ground of opposition to the bill. In doing this, I must hope for the indulgence of those with whom I differ, and of the Senate, for detailing the reasons for the motion I made to amend the bill. To do this, it may not be unprofitable to take a review of the causes that led to the measures adopted by the United States, and the course taken by Congress to resist the injuries imposed upon us by Great Britain and France.
The insult offered to the honor of the nation in the affair of the Chesapeake, so far from being redressed, was heightened by a proclamation from the King of Great Britain, authorizing publicly, in the face of the world, the boarding of our merchant ships, and taking therefrom whomsoever their officers should call a British subject; to palliate this outrage on our independence, it was recommended to the boarding officer to execute this indignity with politeness. About the same time the Government was informed of the case of the Horizon, condemned under the Berlin decree, and that the Emperor had determined that that decree should embrace Americans as well as other neutrals. This determination was directly contrary to the assurance given General Armstrong, by the French Minister of Marine, as well as to the practice under the decree. This was the first intimation given to our Government that the Berlin decree would operate on the interest of the United States.
The President (as was his duty) laid both of those subjects before Congress in a Message, and it was well known at the same time, (although not officially,) that the British Order of Council of November had been issued.
What was then our situation with those nations? France had declared every American vessel that was bound to or from Great Britain, or having on board goods, the produce or manufacture of Great Britain, to be lawful prize. Great Britain declared that every American vessel bound to any port of Europe, should first come into her ports, there land her cargo, pay a transit duty, and depart (if they pleased) to their original port of destination; and any vessel failing to do so, should be liable to condemnation; that any American vessel having a certificate of origin on board, should be considered good prize. Thus situated, we had a choice of war or embargo. To make war on France would have been idle; we could inflict no wound on her by war, except that of withholding our supplies from her West and East India colonies, and this would as effectually be done by an embargo. In a war with England, we could inflict severe wounds on her immense commerce, and she is always vulnerable on the side of Canada. A more pacific system was however adopted—the embargo. Had that measure been rigidly enforced, it could not have failed to have compelled a removal of the unjust conduct of those nations, most certainly of that of Great Britain. The Senate, aware that a measure of that kind could not be enforced without a physical force, sensible that the prospect of profit would induce many to prevent its intended operations by evasions, did immediately pass a bill authorizing the President to fit out and put to sea all the armed vessels of the United States, for the purpose of preventing evasions of the law, to employ our seamen who were thrown idle, and to be prepared for events should a war ensue. The bill slept in the other House, and, by an ill-timed economy, was ultimately rejected, by which a free scope was given to evaders of the law, and the system (which was a wise one) was in some degree frustrated; yet it had an effect highly salutary on Great Britain, it compelled her to modify the Orders of Council of November, and no longer were our ships compelled to go into her ports, and there pay tribute; no longer were our vessels subjected to condemnation for having a certificate of origin on board. The embargo was severely felt by Great Britain while in force, every article which they had been accustomed to receive from us rose immediately in price, and I am confident that had it been continued and executed, full satisfaction would have been given by Britain for the various outrages which had been committed on our honor and independence. It was relinquished, and a non-intercourse was substituted as to both nations. This measure, although less strong, was such as would have been very severely felt by the British nation. It completely excluded the importation of her manufactures into the United States; it took from her a market for more than one-half of her manufactures; it turned idle a large number of workmen, and although it did not prevent her from getting our productions, yet she obtained them in such a way, that they cost her, in some instances, double their usual price. This new system was however checked in its course by the arrangement made with Great Britain through Mr. Erskine. Our ports were thrown open, and our vessels (then nearly all in our harbors) soon filled Great Britain with every thing she wanted at low prices; flour fell instantly in England to nine and a half and ten. dollars the barrel.
Great Britain, in lieu of the Orders of Council, excluded us from France and Holland, and their colonies, and from Italy, by a paper blockade; an iniquitous, illegal system, which she had adopted in 1793, and has either contracted or extended at her pleasure ever since. Our own law excluded us from France and Italy. This tended to give a direction to a great proportion of our trade to Great Britain, and thereby completely supplied her wants. On the disavowal of Mr. Erskine's arrangement, the non-intercourse was renewed, and a stop put to our exports to Great Britain; the consequence was, that flour rose immediately to fourteen and fifteen dollars in England; cotton, tobacco, and other articles, in a proportion still greater. I mention this to show, that whenever we stop our trade to Great Britain she feels it sensibly in the high prices she has to give for our exports, and thus to show the efficacy of the system that had been taken, if it had been duly executed. But in her exports Great Britain felt little, for our merchants had given their orders under the arrangement, and it would have been unjust to have prevented them from receiving the goods they had ordered; the non-importation part, which I conceive the most essential part of the non-intercourse, had in consequence been inoperative.
What, then, was our situation when Congress met? The French privateers were capturing our defenceless merchant ships, burning those of little value, and carrying into their ports for condemnation those which were valuable. Great Britain had, by a pretended blockade, excluded us from entering the ports of Holland, France, Italy, and their West and East India colonies. She had sent a Minister to succeed Mr. Erskine, who, so far from offering any explanations on the disavowal of the arrangement made with his predecessor, added insult to injury, and bearded us to our teeth; he gave us to understand that the terms proposed in the instructions to Mr. Erskine would be insisted on—terms that I am confident no citizen of the United States would accede to.
In this state of our foreign relations Congress met, the members brought with them the feelings of the people, who were all alive to the late indignity offered their Government, all expected that measures of energy would be pursued. This House felt and acted. Resolutions passed almost unanimously, expressive of their sense of the insult offered by the British Minister.
The Senate passed a bill ordering the whole of the vessels of war to be put in commission, (which bill sleeps still in the other House,) and were progressing in preparations for the defence of the honor and safety of the nation, when the bill now under consideration was reported by the Committee of Foreign Relations. It operated instantly like an electric shock, it paralyzed every effort, and gentlemen were astonished when they were told that this bill was the great measure that was to preserve our honor in the eyes of all the world; that it was the grand panacea which was to heal the wounds that had been inflicted on our rights by the belligerents. In fact, it was the only measure on which we were to rely for a redress of all our grievances.
Mr. President, I read this grand effort with attention. In vain did I look for something therein that would tend to obtain satisfaction for the insult on the Chesapeake; in vain for any thing that would tend to prevent the future impressment of our seamen; in vain for any thing that would induce or coerce the belligerents to repeal their unjust orders and decrees against our lawful commerce. One great feature, and one only, was to be discovered, to wit: the repeal of the non-intercourse law—covered by a thin veil, composed, as the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Clay) has said, of shreds and patches. Not so, Mr. President; if it had been patchwork alone, I should not have disturbed its arrangement. But I found in it, or believe I did, that which would be ruinous to the commerce of the United States, and therefore felt myself bound by the duty I owe to my constituents to remove the veil, and leave the measure open to public view; the Senate concurred with me in opinion, to wit: to strike out the injurious sections, to which opinion I shall vote to adhere.
I have been asked, shall Congress rise and do nothing? I answer, that it is better to do nothing than to do that which will only injure ourselves. But, sir, I wished to do something; I proposed, in select committee, to strike out those sections which would only do us injury, and then fill their place with sections (which I had draughted and presented for consideration) authorizing the arming of the merchant ships, not for defence alone, but with authority to capture and make prize of any vessel that might assail them while engaged in lawful commerce, and to employ the public ships of war in convoying the trade of the nation. I met with no support in this system; there were in committee four against my motion. Discouraged by so large a proportion voting against me, I neglected, or was deterred from making the same motion in Senate, and this error I regret, although I know not whether I should have been more successful in Senate than I had been in committee; but I should have been better pleased with my own conduct. I had, it is true, an expectation that, in a committee of conference between the two Houses, that something might be introduced that would please both branches of the Legislature; and I presumed that the convoy system would be substituted. I have been mistaken. The conferees met, and the committee of Senate submitted a section, "authorizing the President, under his instructions, made conformably to the laws of nations, to grant convoy to the merchant ships of the United States engaged in lawful commerce." That proposition spoke this language to the belligerents: The United States have taken every pacific means of obtaining justice from you without success. We will no longer deprive ourselves of commerce; we will open our trade, and we will defend it. We are ready to meet the consequences that may arise, and will stand prepared for war, if war shall ensue. This, Mr. President, appeared to your committee as a course that would be honorable to the nation. It was unanimously rejected by the committee on the part of the House, who, in turn, proposed that "British ships should be permitted to bring into the United States the produce and manufactures of that nation, but should not be permitted to carry from the United States any of the produce thereof," and the same as to France. This most extraordinary proposition was unanimously rejected by the conferees on the part of the Senate. Strip the proposition, and what language does it speak? That the British merchant may send into your ports his ships and fill your market with British goods, to the great injury of your infant manufactories; he may enter into competition with them and work their destruction. But he must not enter into competition with the merchants in the purchase of a return cargo, nor with the ship owners in the carrying of the produce of the country. No, sir, that was hallowed ground, and must not be trodden. The conferees of the two Houses could not agree, and the question now before the Senate is, to adhere to their amendments. For which I shall vote, although the bill will then not be such as I wish it had been. But, sir, it cannot in this stage be amended. I am aware that my vote will be disapproved by many of my friends. But, sir, I trust that time, and a further consideration of the subject, will convince them that my objections to the rejected sections have not been unfounded.
The question being then taken that the Senate adhere to their amendments, it was determined in the affirmative—yeas 17, nays 15, as follows:
Yeas.—Messrs. Anderson, Bayard, Champlin, Gaillard, German, Gilman, Goodrich, Gregg, Hillhouse, Horsey, Leib, Lloyd, Parker, Pickering, Smith of Maryland, Sumter, and Whiteside.
Nays.—Messrs. Bradley, Brent, Campbell, Clay, Condit, Crawford, Franklin, Giles, Lambert, Mathewson, Meigs, Pope, Smith of New York, Tait, and Turner.