I must consider this resolution as a war measure, and viewing the policy and present situation of Great Britain, against which it is pointed, I have no hesitation to say, that in my opinion, it will produce instantaneous war. A maritime war, for such a one she will wage, will not add one item to her present expenses; neither will it embarrass her measures on the continent? It can have no such effect. She has eight hundred ships on the ocean, flushed with victory and conquest, and a part of her navy is at this moment triumphantly sailing almost in sight of your shores, ready at any moment to seize, should that course appear expedient to her, all our vessels navigating the ocean. It cannot affect her continental operations. The war she will wage, will be altogether maritime. Her navy cannot be essential against her continental enemies in Europe. Already have their fleets been annihilated. The victories off Trafalgar and in the West Indies, have cleared the ocean of almost every sail, and there remains no employment for her navy but to depredate your commerce; and she will do it, you may rely upon it. Those are but indifferently acquainted with Great Britain and the genius of the first Minister, who suppose all the power in their hands will not be made use of. Gentlemen tell you this is not contemplated as a permanent system of commercial arrangement, but a temporary expedient, which by its pressure is to bring our rival to a sense of duty, and make her do us justice. But this temporary measure will have on Britain all the effect of war. Declare war to-morrow, and it can only affect her trade. Can you believe that she will, with all her advantages, remain quiet? It is not her character; she will not do it. I should think contemptuously of her if she should. Will she suffer you to take war measures and not retaliate? Will she be more afraid of you with your four thousand troops, dispersed over the whole western country, and your thirteen armed vessels rotting in the Eastern branch, than of that power whose conquering arm has extended the limits of his sway beyond former comparison, and whose ambition is bounded only by the habitable world?
Mr. Eppes.—After the discussion which has already taken place on this subject, I shall not consider myself authorized to occupy much of the time of the House. As, however, I have on some occasions ventured to express my opinions on this floor, I cannot reconcile to my feelings a silent vote on a question interesting to the people of the United States generally, and particularly so, to that portion of country which I in part represent.
Whatever difference of opinion may prevail within these walls as to the course which ought to be adopted towards a nation which under the pretence of right has commenced a system of warfare and pillage on our commerce, I hope for the honor and interest of our country we shall finally unite in something. If in a free country there is any principle which ought universally to be admitted, to enforce which reasoning or demonstration should be necessary, it is, that every class of citizens is equally entitled to protection. To secure to man his personal rights, and the fruits of his honest industry, are the two most important objects of a free Government. The Government unwilling to use for that security the means of which it is possessed, does not deserve the support of freemen. Our constitution makes no discrimination between different classes of citizens, nor can we in our legislative capacity. The citizen whose capital is vested in a ship has an equal right to protection in using for his benefit and happiness that ship, with the cultivator of the soil in using his plough. To arrest by violence his ship, and confiscate his property, is to the merchant the same injury as it would be to the farmer to arrest his plough and destroy his crop. In each case the citizen must look to the community for the removal of every obstruction thrown by violence in the way of that perfect freedom in the use of his property which constitutes its value. It is true, and no man will deny the correctness of the principle, that every nation has a right to abandon any particular commerce injurious to its interests or dangerous to its safety. This is the natural right of all nations, and particularly of free countries, where the general welfare of the community is the supreme law. While, however, a commerce remains lawful, the citizen embarks in it with the same right to expect protection as in any other lawful occupation; for a Government to refuse it, is a violation of that fundamental principle in free government; that protection on the part of the Government is the basis of support on the part of the citizen. If we are unable or unwilling to interpose in behalf of our citizens, when their personal rights have been invaded—their property captured and condemned under principles unknown to the law of nations—let us give up the farce of pretending to self-government, and go back to the degraded state of colonies.
The ground of difference between the United States and Great Britain is too well known for me to dwell on this part of the subject. It has been stated on this floor by a gentleman from Massachusetts, in terms clear, forcible, and manly. The impressment and detention of our seamen is an injury which has justly excited the indignation of the people of America for the last ten years. Every attempt to arrest by negotiation this serious injury has failed, and each year adds new victims to the roll of impressed seamen. The recent captures of American property to the amount of six millions of dollars, under doctrines new and manifestly unjust, is a serious injury to the individuals and to the community. And although I have no doubt, as has been eloquently stated on this floor, that American merchants have in some instances disgraced that character by covering the property of the enemies of Great Britain, I am equally certain that the injuries done to bona fide American merchants, trading fairly on American capital, are sufficiently numerous to justify and demand the interposition of this Government.
While, however, I have no doubt as to the right of the citizen on the one hand to demand protection, and of the duty of the Government on the other to extend it to him, I am willing to acknowledge all the difficulties of our present situation. I consider it no disgrace to this infant nation to say we are not able to meet on the ocean a nation—a match on that element for all the world combined. I hope the period will never arrive when the substance of the citizen here shall be squandered on a navy competent to meet on the ocean the navy of Great Britain. Separated from the rest of the world, at too great a distance to fear invasion, possessing a country abounding with productions valuable to the different nations of Europe with whom we have commercial relations—if we are not able to meet on the ocean Great Britain or any other European power, we can say to them all, Respect in your intercourse with us the principles of justice, or we hold no intercourse with you; if you will not traffic with us on principles that are fair, we will neither receive your manufactures, nor send to you our productions. We are now for the first time about to test this principle so important to a nation jealous of fleets and armies. Of the various measures of the kind which may be resorted to—high discriminating duties—a prohibition of certain enumerated articles, a general prohibition, and as a dernier resort a suspension of all intercourse, are the remedies within our reach. It is a mere question of convenience and expediency to which of these we shall resort. I should prefer for myself, as a first step, the mildest. It is not, in my opinion, the interest of this nation to dissolve at a single blow its commercial connection with Great Britain. The commerce, if carried on, on principles that are fair, is mutually advantageous to the two countries. In Great Britain we find the best market for our most valuable productions, and with us she finds the best market for her manufactures. To prohibit, at a single blow, imports to the amount of thirty-five millions of dollars, however injurious it might be to the manufacturers of Great Britain, would certainly be a serious injury to our own citizens. I cannot but hope that a milder measure will cause the British Government to respect our rights and pursue a course manifestly dictated by a regard to its own interest. If, however, Great Britain is so lost to her own interest as to persevere in a system of injustice calculated to deprive her of the best market for her manufactures—a market daily increasing, with the increasing population of this infant country—let us on our part proceed with that caution and moderation, which shall evince that the course we are determined to pursue is founded on principle, and will never be abandoned until our wrongs are redressed. I am willing to adopt for the present a prohibition of enumerated articles; if that shall fail, to pass hereafter a total prohibition, and finally, to put forth our whole strength, and say, we hold no future intercourse with you; but dissolve for ever all commercial relations with a nation, which takes for its national law the base principle of necessity, and makes itself the exclusive judge of that necessity.
Mr. Nicholson said he had been desirous for some days to offer to the committee his opinions on the subject now under consideration; but as other gentlemen had manifested a similar disposition, he had yielded the floor to them. It was now his intention to offer such remarks as appeared to him pertinent.
The resolution of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Gregg,) in his opinion, was objectionable in all its parts. There was no point of light in which he could view it, in which objections did not present themselves. He read and commented on the preamble; the style of which he said he did not like, because, instead of a spirit of amity and conciliation, it breathed little less than defiance. While we profess to speak the language of peace, we declare to Great Britain, that unless she will meet us at that precise point which we think proper to mark, we will, in the words of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, stab her in the vitals. While we declare that we approach her as friends, yet our style is that of an enemy. The olive branch that is held out conceals a dagger in its boughs. This threatening manner he said was not calculated to preserve peace in private life, and how could it be expected to succeed between nations? Did gentlemen imagine that Great Britain, even surrounded as she was by her enemies, was yet so tame as to submit to threats? Was the character of her first Minister so little known, as to induce a belief that he would tremble at the rod held over him? No, sir, they are not sunk so low; and if we really wish for an amicable adjustment of our differences, we ought to proceed as friends and not as enemies. A mere commercial regulation, he said, might not, perhaps, produce war; it was the threat held out in the preamble, and the hostility manifested on the floor of the House of Representatives, that were calculated to wound the national pride of Britain, and, therefore, to excite enmity between the two countries. What does the preamble say? We have marked a point from which we will not recede, and to which we demand that you shall come; if you do not, we strike at your most essential interests; in the language of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, we will stab you in your vitals. Is this the way to conciliate? Is this your method of opening a negotiation? Believe me, sir, instead of presenting the olive branch, we carry a firebrand that will kindle a flame which we may find it difficult to extinguish. Great Britain will feel all this—she will at once ask, is it fair, is it manly, is it honorable to threaten me now, when I am contending for all that is dear to me? Will you insult me in my distress, and while you sustain my enemy on one hand, with the other endeavor to unnerve the arm which you acknowledge is raised in defence of its own existence?
If the subsequent parts of the resolution were unobjectionable, the preamble itself would determine me against the whole. To preserve peace, let us proceed to our object in a peaceable manner. If, indeed, gentlemen are for war, then they are right in advocating this measure.
The resolution, he said, embraced two points: the one related to the carrying trade; the other to the impressment of American seamen. The latter had always been a source of great anxiety to him. No man in America had deplored the evil more than he did, and none should be more ready to apply the remedy, when an effectual remedy could be devised. To him, however, it was a matter of no little surprise, that gentlemen had so long slept upon a subject, on which they now appeared to manifest so much zeal. He himself twice proposed measures with a view to obtain redress, but he had not been able to carry them through the House. Gentlemen, who now zealously volunteered their services, rendered him no assistance then. At the last session he had introduced a bill on the subject, and such were the variety of objections to it, that it was committed and recommitted several times. Difficulties presented themselves from all quarters; alterations and amendments innumerable were adopted, until finally it was shuffled through the House, in so imperfect a state that it was not worth the time which had been spent on it. Strong measures were not then the order of the day, nor would they be now, if the impressment of American seamen was the only ground of complaint. Great Britain has pursued this practice for ten or twelve years past, but these patriotic merchants, who are now so clamorous, presented you with no memorials on the subject. No, sir. It is the carrying trade alone, which has covered your tables with the memorials of the merchants, because their interests are affected, and it is out of this that the resolution of the gentleman from Pennsylvania has grown. Although I do not admit the correctness of the principle assumed by Great Britain, in relation to the carrying trade, yet I am willing to acknowledge that with me it is an object of secondary importance only, when compared with the other violations of our flag, in the impressment of our seamen.
I have thus endeavored to show with what success the committee must determine, that, by adopting this resolution, we hazard a war; that the course of commerce will be materially, suddenly, and, therefore, injuriously changed; that inasmuch as we cannot procure from other countries many important articles with which Britain supplies us, the revenue will be much diminished; and that the value of our own products will be lessened to an incalculable amount. Having been a considerable time on the floor, I feel extremely exhausted, and will, therefore, close my remarks, although it was my wish to have said much more on this subject; particularly to point out the different effects to be produced by the adoption of the measure now under discussion, and that which was submitted by myself. To my own proposition, however, I am not exclusively attached. I have thought and do still think it the best which has been proposed. This I trust will be the opinion of the House. Believing the conduct of Great Britain towards this country not to be justified, I am willing to unite in such measures as may induce her to do us justice. But I will not go to the extent proposed in this resolution, because I am persuaded it will operate much more injuriously upon ourselves, than upon those whom we intend to affect by it.