Mr. Masters.—I shall not deny that Great Britain has insulted us by impressing our seamen, neither shall I deny that that nation has committed wanton aggressions and depredations on our commerce, and that commerce ought to be protected. That the resolution under consideration is the best course to be pursued for the interest of this nation, I shall contend against.
Restraints and prohibitions between nations have always arisen from two circumstances—the first, to promote their home industry or manufactures. The liberal price of wages, joined with the plenty and cheapness of land, which induces the laborer to quit his employer and become planter or farmer himself, who rewards with the same liberality which induces his laborers to leave their employment for the same reasons as the first: therefore, it is impossible for manufactures to flourish in this country in our present situation.
The case in most other countries is very different, where the price of labor is low, and the rent and the profit consume the wages of the laborer, and the higher order of people oppress the inferior, which I hope never to see in this country.
It may rationally be calculated that some of the Eastern and Middle States will eventually become manufacturing States; some of those States are nearly filled with people, and many individuals have large capitals employed in foreign commerce, to the amount in many instances of two and three hundred thousand dollars each. When peace takes place in Europe, and things come down to their natural standard, and they can no longer employ that capital to advantage in commercial speculations, they will withdraw the same from that employment; they must make use of those capitals somewhere; they cannot invest them to any advantage in our public funds, bank stock or other corporations, beyond a certain extent; they therefore, by the aid of water-works and machinery, will naturally employ those capitals in manufactures, and I trust the time is not many years distant. That is not now the case, and can have no bearing on the present question; indeed, it is hardly contended that the resolution is brought forward for that purpose; it must therefore be brought forward for some other purpose.
The other circumstance which gives rise to prohibitions between nations, arises from the violence of national animosity, which generally ends in war. This circumstance has brought this resolution into existence; the preamble speaks warlike language, and the whole taken together is a prelude to war with a nation who has two hundred ships-of-the-line, four hundred frigates, besides gun-brigs and other armed vessels, whose revenue is between forty and fifty millions sterling, who can go to war with us without any additional expense to themselves, who will sweep the ocean of American commerce, amounting to nearly one hundred millions of dollars. What then will be the situation of your carrying trade? What then will be the situation of your commerce and your country?
But the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Crowninshield) has told us “if we go to war, we can do Great Britain the most injury.” The navigation of their merchant vessels is principally carried on under convoy. Some individuals may fit out a few privateers and capture now and then a vessel, and put some prize money in their private pockets; it cannot be of any advantage to the nation, which will groan under poverty and distress.
It appears to me a matter of great deliberation how far we ought to adopt the present resolution, by prohibiting the importation of British manufactures. In every country it ever was, and always must be, the interest of the great body of the people to buy whatever they want, of those who sell it cheapest. We cannot procure the same articles so cheap elsewhere; even should the measure not involve us in a war, prohibitions and revenge naturally dictate retaliation, and nations seldom fail to do it. The honorable mover of the resolution (Mr. Gregg) asks us “how it is to be inferred, we cannot abide by and execute this system?” It is to be inferred from retaliation, and observation of nations who have preceded us. When France, in 1667, laid discriminating duties on Holland, the Dutch retaliated by the prohibition of French wines, brandies, and the like: a war followed, and the peace of Nimeguen regulated their commercial disputes. About that time the English prohibited the importation of lace manufactured in Flanders; the Government of that country, which was then under the dominion of Spain, immediately retaliated and prohibited all importation of English woollens. Soon after this, the French and English mutually began their heavy duties and prohibitions, and have ever since been in commercial disputes, quarrels, and hostilities; and we, with our eyes open, are now going into the same system. The same honorable gentleman has also said it would attack Great Britain in her vitals, in her manufactories and warehouses. It seems a bad method of compensating injuries done to us, to do another worse injury to ourselves, which I believe will be the case by adopting the present resolution; it will have a natural tendency to retaliation and revenge.
Mr. Smilie.—I am in favor, Mr. Chairman, of the resolution under consideration; and lest it should be supposed that I am an enthusiast in respect to commerce, and deserve to be classed among that desperate order of men called merchants, according to the representation which we have had yesterday from the gentleman from Virginia, I beg leave to make a few remarks on the abstract question, whether commerce ought to be considered as beneficial in its relation to the United States. I have long thought that there was an essential difference between what is, in the common language of the world, a splendid, and great, and a happy people. I have been led to think that the situation of the people of the United States, separated from the rest of the world by an ocean of three thousand miles, possessing an immense region of land, having full employment for all her people in the cultivation of the earth—having, from the variety of her climate and the difference of her soil, the means of supplying herself, not only with all the necessaries of life in abundance, but with many of its comforts, and even some of its luxuries—from these considerations, I have been led to think it had been happier if the American people, when they became an independent nation, had found themselves without commerce, and had still remained so. Thus circumstanced, they would certainly have avoided those dangers which flow from the weakness of an extended trade, and those luxuries which have hitherto proved so fatal to morals, happiness, and liberty. In my opinion, we should have been a happier people without commerce. Among the considerations which have induced me to believe that this would have been a happy state, is, that we should have enjoyed a perfect state of safety. We should not have been under the necessity of conflicting with foreign nations; because commerce, and commerce alone, can produce those conflicts. I have expressed this opinion, to show that I have not been led by any particular attachment to commerce, to take that part which I have declared I would do on the present occasion. But what was the situation of the American people when they first found themselves a nation? And what are the duties imposed upon us by the compact we entered into? As to any abstract opinions we may entertain on this subject, they ought to have no influence here upon us. I stand here on other ground, and dare not resist the dictates of duty. I was astonished yesterday to hear it mentioned by the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. J. Randolph,) and boldly asserted, referring to the constitution, that the American Government was under no obligation to protect any property of its citizens one foot from the shore. I was astonished at this declaration, because I could see to what it went. I saw, if this was the opinion of the Southern States, where it would end. The situation of this people, when they became a nation, was this: the Eastern States might properly be said to be a commercial people, as they lived by commerce; the Middle States were partly commercial and partly agricultural; the Southern States, properly speaking, were agricultural. This opposition of character must have created great difficulty in forming the constitution, and, in truth, this and other points threw great obstacles in the way of its formation. But a spirit of concession overcame all difficulties. Is it, however, to be believed, that the Eastern States, properly commercial, or the Middle, partaking equally of the commercial and agricultural character, would have united with the Southern States, if they had been told that commerce was to receive no protection? No, sir, it cannot be believed. But I take higher ground—the compact itself, referred to by the gentleman from Virginia. Let us examine the powers vested in Congress under this compact, and decide whether commerce was, or was not intended to be protected. If there was nothing specific in these powers, the first page would show the intention of its framers. “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare,” &c. If we go on to the tenth page, we shall there find the power given to Congress, “to provide and maintain a navy.” Is the protection of commerce contemplated here, or is it not? In other parts of the instrument, we perceive the power to regulate commerce vested in Congress. Will any man pretend to say that the power of establishing a navy can be exercised independent of commerce? Every man of common sense knows that a navy cannot even exist without it.
Having sufficiently established the right of commerce to protection under the constitution, I come now to consider the resolution under consideration. We find our rights invaded by foreign nations, and an attack made by one nation on our carrying trade, which, in my opinion, cannot be warranted by the law of nations. I shall not condescend to argue this point. I believe it to be a lawful trade, let whoever may deny it. I have taken some pains to make myself acquainted with the subject, by reading several treatises upon it; and, notwithstanding the contempt with which a certain book was yesterday treated by the gentleman from Virginia, I will venture to predict that, when the mortal part of that gentleman and myself shall be in ashes, the author of that work will be considered a great man. Nor do I judge in this exclusively from my own opinion, but from the opinions of men of distinguished talents, from different and distant parts of the Union, who all concur in saying that the writer has conclusively established the principle he contends for. Indeed, I could not have believed, had I not heard it, that a Representative of the American people, in the face of the Legislature, would have relinquished so precious a principle! But there was a curious feature in all the luminous discoveries yesterday disclosed to us by the gentleman from Virginia, in which he strictly observed the rule of the rhetorician—where a point could not be justified, to get over it as well as he could. On the impressment of our seamen he said nothing. He knew that the American feelings would not bear it. When I think of what is called the carrying trade, I consider it a small evil compared to this. It has been compared to Algerine slavery, but it is worse. What is this impressment? Your citizens are seized by the hand of violence, and if they refuse to fight the battles of those who thus lay violent hands upon them, you see them hanging at the yard-arm. In the first place, they are obliged to expose their persons to murder, in fighting the battles of a nation to which they owe no allegiance. They are obliged to commit murder, for it is murder to take away the life of a man who has given us no offence, at the same time that they expose their own persons to the commission of murder. This is the true point of light in which I have always considered this horrid and barbarous act, for which, indeed, I cannot find language sufficiently strong to express the indignation I feel. This is the situation of our country. Our commerce depredated upon in every sea, our citizens dragged from their homes, and despoiled of all they hold dear. We are told we are not to mind these things—that the nation who commits the outrages is a powerful nation. But really, as an American, I cannot feel the force of this observation.
The gentleman from Virginia yesterday assumed it as a principle, and the whole of his argument turned on it, that this is a war measure, and that its friends are for going to war. Were I satisfied with the truth of this remark, I should change my mind with regard to the resolution. But is it a war measure? I believe the same duties and obligations exist between nations, as between individuals in a state of nature. If my neighbor treats me with injustice, I have a right to decline all intercourse with him, without giving him a right to knock me down. If we deem it our interest not to trade with a particular nation, have we not a right to say so?—a nation with whom we have no commercial treaty, and towards whom, therefore, in regard to trade, we have a right to act as we please? If a commercial treaty existed between us, it would be our duty to observe it; but, without one, we have an undoubted right to say whether we have or have not a use for her productions. If, then, this be a peace measure, why treat it as a war measure? But it is said that it will lead to war. Britain is said to be a great nation, high spirited, and proud, and therefore we must not take this step for fear of the consequences. Trace this argument—see where it leads us. It leads us to this: that, with a powerful nation we must on no account whatever quarrel, though she may commit ever so many aggressions on our right. No, we must not, let her go whatever length she may, until, on this same principle, we shall be called upon to surrender our independence, because we have to deal with a powerful nation! If we do not make a stand now against her aggressions, when or where shall we do it? But one alternative will remain—to bend our necks, to crouch beneath the tyrant, to submit without murmur to her insolence and injustice.