In regard to the constitutionality of this measure, which has been questioned, the bill supported by the gentleman from Virginia two years ago, was to enable the President to do a thing at a distant day, if he should think it expedient. What is the object of the present resolution? To put the whole commercial interest at the discretion of the President? Certainly not. If certain events take place, the President is to be authorized to suspend the operation of the embargo law. We command; he obeys. He is the agent, we the principal. The law, giving power to suspend the non-importation law, was more vague than this resolution. In that he had a perfect discretion, there was no landmark laid down in the law. Here there is. The distinction taken by the gentleman from Virginia is a distinction without a difference. The principles of both are the same. The powers given, and the consequences of the exercise of those powers, are the same.
But it seems that the gentleman from Virginia has undertaken to arraign all the measures of Government taken for some time past. A few days ago he was violently opposed to the raising a military force. At the present moment he draws consolation from the circumstance that both Great Britain and France are hostile to us. If he really feels a satisfaction in the hostile attitude of both powers, he ought certainly not to complain of the acts which he says have placed us in that situation. I cannot conceive how a man can with propriety arraign the conduct of an Administration, when he says their measures have produced the very effect for which he is so gratified. We learned from his observations the other day, and it was insinuated again yesterday, that the raising of an army was against the interest of the country. In 1805 and 1806, he was in favor of strong measures against Spain, for he said in the same proportion as we took measures against Spain, Great Britain would respect our rights; because France and Spain being one and the same, measures taken against one were also against the other. But the effects of strong measures seem now to be viewed in a different light. If it was just then to raise an army against France or Spain to make them respect our rights, it is certainly proper now to take strong measures against both France and England, except the gentleman show that the dispositions of nations as well as of men have changed since that time. At the present time the military spirit is a horrid thing; at that time, it was a very pleasant thing.
For a single moment let us consider the embargo. The gentleman says it is unconstitutional. That the constitution having prohibited the power of laying a duty on exports, denies the power to prohibit exportation altogether. There is no difference in this respect between the non-importation law and the embargo. If the argument be true, you must allow trade at all times, whether it furnish a means of annoyance against yourselves or not. Is it not a well-known fact, that Great Britain is in the utmost want of supplies for that navy which murders your citizens and blocks up your ports; and, therefore, you partially disarm them. However gentlemen please themselves and amuse the people—for that will be its only effect—with the idea that the embargo is a pleasant thing to Great Britain, we find that, even by the debates in their Parliament, their orders are considered as measures so hostile, that they expect a declaration of war. How happens it that we become their apologists? that their conduct strikes gentlemen on this floor in a more favorable light than it does the Britons themselves? They consider them as too strong. These members of Parliament must be much mistaken if some gentlemen in this House are correct.
To return to the embargo. I believe most religiously, that had it not been for sentiments expressed in this country so favorable to Great Britain; had it not been for insinuations that it was impossible for us to maintain this measure, before this time we should have been treated with respect by Great Britain. I cannot, while up, but notice what must be obvious to all—that not only in this House, but abroad, every attempt has been made to show that this measure is improper, unjust, and injurious. The table of this House has been loaded with petitions against the embargo; it is known from what source. Another circumstance attends them, that, though they come from different quarters, they owe their existence to one parent, and come from one land. It is very easy to sow the seeds of discord and discontent, if persons industriously and insidiously apply themselves to that object. Whenever a measure has been attempted against Great Britain, we have found what rancorous opposition it has met with. We are now asked to raise the embargo. What encouragement have we to do it? The Treaty of 1794 sacrificed our most important rights. Did it conciliate that Government? Did she even then respect your rights? From that moment to the present, your flag and citizens have been constantly violated. More than three, four, or five thousand seamen, have been impressed into their service. Is it possible that gentlemen can criminate the Government of the United States for not accepting a treaty which gave no security against this? Certainly not. The gentleman told us yesterday that we were contending with a great commercial nation, and had very little to offer in exchange for what we ask. Was it necessary to make this apology for Great Britain? I have thought very differently. Was our commerce of so many millions “nothing?”
Let us now consider the other point which is taken, that the circumstances attending the treaty alter the aspect of it—for this treaty is, to say the best of it, no better than Jay’s, which the gentleman says he so much abhorred. When Jay negotiated his treaty, almost all Europe was in arms against France; Spain, and Italy, then independent nations. When this new treaty was formed, Italy, Spain, Holland, Switzerland, &c., were at the feet of France; and that war which was engendered at the Court of St. James between Prussia and France was decided. Prussia was overwhelmed, and the knowledge of it reached our Ministers before signing this treaty. Germany was at peace. In this situation, was the attitude of Great Britain so imposing as to justify greater sacrifices than were made in 1794? It was not. It was believed and said in this country, that the arms of Bonaparte would conquer the world. Why, then, make this sacrifice? Had we any assurances, if that treaty was ratified, it would be held sacred? On the contrary, doubts were expressed and conditions annexed to it. Has not her conduct since justified a refusal of more than informal stipulations? At the moment when she attacked Copenhagen, she had a treaty with Denmark. She first attacked the town, and then offered terms of accommodation, which were of course refused. What can be said in justification of that outrage? There was, as we were told the other day, some supposition that the fleet was about to be delivered up to France. It was no such thing, sir; it was justified on the supposition that the Treaty of Tilsit contained some secret articles, and the British Government did not know what they were. When she had taken the Danish fleet and burnt the city, she asked the mediation of Russia to secure a peace between them. Can we believe her sincere in these things? If she really believed there were such secret articles, is it natural to believe that she would ask this mediation to restore friendship between her and the injured nation? If we could not see a treachery through this mist, we must be blind. But I would not have noticed the subject, except that a disposition has been manifested to criminate our Government, and prejudice the minds of the nation, instead of looking to the real cause.
I should have supposed, after what has been communicated to us, no one would have accused this Government of a want of justice in its negotiations with foreign powers. Whoever has read the instructions of the Secretary of State to our Ministers, must be convinced to the contrary. Even on the subject of impressments, they were instructed to press it in such a manner as not even to irritate the feelings of Great Britain. A peculiar solicitude has been displayed in all our proceedings to maintain friendship. It has been all in vain. We have been driven to the last alternative, either to shut up our ports for a while, or to fight. What do gentlemen now ask? That we should open our ports to Great Britain alone; for that would be the effect of raising the embargo. Has it been in the power of our Government to make a settlement? No. Are gentlemen willing to put up with what has happened? The terms which Great Britain has offered, it would have disgraced any people to accept. After she has attacked your national ship, shed the blood of your citizens, and obliged you to exclude ships of war from your ports, she requires that you rescind your proclamation before she will even tell you what satisfaction she is willing to make. She says, I have abused you; humble yourself, succumb to me, and I will make such satisfaction as I think fit. This is the nation for whom you are to lift the embargo, and these the favors you are to receive in return. I had rather see this nation again tributary to them than sacrifice so great a proportion of their independence, than acknowledge that all we have done is wrong, and all they have done is right. I consider that whenever this nation is reduced to such a state of apathy as to endure these things, our independence is not worth a straw. You have certain rights—first principles. Recede from them, and you open yourself to perpetual violation; if persisted in, they will prostrate your independence. With these sentiments I cannot consent to repeal the embargo, and the opposition to this resolution seems to be founded in a wish to do that.
Mr. Key.—I rise on this occasion with great embarrassment, because in no instance of my political life, has any measure called on me to act, in which the interests of my country were more deeply involved. In common with my fellow-citizens of Maryland, I feel a total aversion to the continuance of the embargo, and I am confident I speak the almost unanimous sense of my constituents in calling for its repeal. However proper some of them might have considered it in the first instance, as an experiment from which good might result, yet all now are satisfied that nothing short of its immediate repeal will save them from great distress, and that a long continuance of it will induce bankruptcy and ruin. I am willing, sir, to admit, that those who advocated the embargo were actuated by the purest motives, and had the best interests of their country at heart—that they adopted it as a measure from which great permanent good would result; but time, which tests the correctness of political measures, has sufficiently elapsed to convince them of their error—at least it has impressed on my mind a conviction, that we deeply suffer, whilst those it was intended to operate on, lightly feel its effects. I was originally opposed to the measure—I still am opposed to it; although I anxiously wish its immediate repeal, yet I am compelled to vote against the present resolution, because in my heart and judgment I believe it is so worded as to violate, if adopted, the Constitution of the United States—and that I am unwilling to let the repeal of this law depend on contingencies, not known or designated and which are to grow out of the acts of foreign Governments.
An honorable gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Love,) who originally voted for the measure, has this day admitted it to be a curse. I concur with him, as I hope he will now with me, in a vote and prayer for its speedy removal. I believe the embargo to be partial in its operation, oppressive, and, if persisted in, ruinous to the country. These are strong terms, but if gentlemen will lend a patient ear, I will endeavor to convince them of their truth, and I will use as much brevity as is consistent with perspicuity. The view I take of this subject is extensive, but I hope not diffusive.
The resolution proposes to vest the President with power, on the happening of certain European events, to suspend the embargo law. I am against it, because I want an immediate repeal, because it is unconstitutional to vest the President with power to suspend a law, and because it is partial in its operation, oppressive, and ruinous.
It is partial in its operation in two respects—first as it regards the persons on whom it operates, and secondly, as it respects the product operated on.