SPECIAL MESSAGES.
DECEMBER 9, 1813.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
The tendency of our commercial and navigation laws in their present state to favor the enemy and thereby prolong the war is more and more developed by experience. Supplies of the most essential kinds And their way not only to British ports and British armies at a distance, but the armies in our neighborhood with which our own are contending derive from our ports and outlets a subsistence attainable with difficulty, if at all, from other sources. Even the fleets and troops infesting our coasts and waters are by like supplies accommodated and encouraged in their predatory and incursive warfare.
Abuses having a like tendency take place in our import trade. British fabrics and products find their way into our ports under the name and from the ports of other countries, and often in British vessels disguised as neutrals by false colors and papers.
To these abuses it may be added that illegal importations are openly made with advantage to the violators of the law, produced by undervaluations or other circumstances involved in the course of the judicial proceedings against them.
It is found also that the practice of ransoming is a cover for collusive captures and a channel for intelligence advantageous to the enemy.
To remedy as much as possible these evils, I recommend:
That an effectual embargo on exports be immediately enacted.
That all articles known to be derived, either not at all or in any immaterial degree only, from the productions of any other country than Great Britain, and particularly the extensive articles made of wool and cotton materials, and ardent spirits made from the cane, be expressly and absolutely prohibited, from whatever port or place or in whatever vessels the same may be brought into the United States, and that all violations of the nonimportation act be subjected to adequate penalties.
That among the proofs of the neutral and national character of foreign vessels it be required that the masters and supercargoes and three-fourths at least of the crews be citizens or subjects of the country under whose flag the vessels sail.
That all persons concerned in collusive captures by the enemy or in ransoming vessels or their cargoes from the enemy be subjected to adequate penalties.
To shorten as much as possible the duration of the war it is indispensable that the enemy should feel all the pressure that can be given to it, and the restraints having that tendency will be borne with the greater cheerfulness by all good citizens, as the restraints will affect those most who are most ready to sacrifice the interest of their country in pursuit of their own.
JAMES MADISON.
JANUARY 6, 1814.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit, for the information of Congress, copies of a letter from the British secretary of state for foreign affairs to the Secretary of State, with the answer of the latter.
In appreciating the accepted proposal of the Government of Great Britain for instituting negotiations for peace Congress will not fail to keep in mind that vigorous preparations for carrying on the war can in no respect impede the progress to a favorable result, whilst a relaxation of such preparations, should the wishes of the United States for a speedy restoration of the blessings of peace be disappointed, would necessarily have the most injurious consequences.
JAMES MADISON.
FEBRUARY 26, 1814.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
It has appeared that at the recovery of the Michigan Territory from the temporary possession of the enemy the inhabitants thereof were left in so destitute and distressed a condition as to require from the public stores certain supplies essential to their subsistence, which have been prolonged under the same necessity which called for them.
The deplorable situation of the savages thrown by the same event on the mercy and humanity of the American commander at Detroit drew from the same source the means of saving them from perishing by famine, and in other places the appeals made by the wants and sufferings of that unhappy description of people have been equally imperious.
The necessity imposed by the conduct of the enemy in relation to the savages of admitting their cooperation in some instances with our arms has also involved occasional expense in supplying their wants, and it is possible that a perseverance of the enemy in their cruel policy may render a further expense for the like purpose inevitable.
On these subjects an estimate from the Department of War will be laid before Congress, and I recommend a suitable provision for them.
JAMES MADISON.
MARCH 31, 1814.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
Taking into view the mutual interests which the United States and the foreign nations in amity with them have in a liberal commercial intercourse, and the extensive changes favorable thereto which have recently taken place; taking into view also the important advantages which may otherwise result from adapting the state of our commercial laws to the circumstances now existing, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of authorizing, after a certain day, exportations, specie excepted, from the United States in vessels of the United States and in vessels owned and navigated by the subjects of powers at peace with them, and a repeal of so much of our laws as prohibits the importation of articles not the property of enemies, but produced or manufactured only within their dominions.
I recommend also, as a more effectual safeguard and encouragement to our growing manufactures, that the additional duties on imports which are to expire at the end of one year after a peace with Great Britain be prolonged to the end of two years after that event, and that, in favor of our moneyed institutions, the exportation of specie be prohibited throughout the same period.
JAMES MADISON.