"To have waited for the receipt of the proclamation, in order to make use of it for the liberation of the New Orleans Packet, appeared to me a preposterous and unworthy course of proceeding, and to be nothing better than absurdly and basely employing the declaration of the President, that the Berlin and Milan decrees had been revoked, as the means of obtaining their revocation. I believed it became me to take higher ground, and without confining myself to the mode best calculated to recover the property, to pursue that which the dignity of the American Government required.
"A crisis, in my opinion, presented itself, which, was to decide whether the French edicts were retracted as a preliminary to the execution of our law; or whether, by the non-performance of one party, and the prompt performance of the other, the order in which these measures ought to stand was to be reversed, and the American Government shuffled into the lead, where national honor and the law required it to follow."
It would have been base to have employed the President's proclamation, that the Berlin and Milan decrees had been revoked as the means of obtaining their revocation. But what, sir, is the price we have at length paid for the repeal? The President's proclamation was not enough; the act of March added to it was not enough; we could not procure the revocation till we went to war. For, sir, the Emperor would not issue this decree till he knew that we were pledged and committed to go to war with Great Britain. How he knew this, sir, it is not for me to say. We all know, however, that he had all the acts of this Government to satisfy him of the course we were pursuing—the step we were about to take. He had the President's Message, the report of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the war speeches of the members of this House, the laws for raising armies, and the embargo. In the month of May, then, when the policy of this country in relation to Great Britain was settled, he issued his decree, just in such time, too, sir, that it could not reach this country till we had plunged into the war. And well, in such a state, might he repeal his decrees, which, by the war itself, would be superseded—would become a nullity.
Thus, sir, believing the French decrees to be repealed, we departed from our neutral stand by enforcing the non-intercourse law against Great Britain. We have in vain waited for such evidence of their repeal as would have induced Great Britain to rescind her Orders in Council—the great cause of the war. Their revocation depended upon the repeal of the French decrees; and had they been revoked, there would have been no war between the United States and Great Britain. The decree, declaring the edicts of France to be revoked, is at length issued, when the Emperor knows it is too late to prevent the war. The decree is communicated to the English Government, the Orders in Council are revoked on the ground of the repeal of the French decrees, but the United States have declared war. How, sir, can I make this matter plainer? Our whole course against Great Britain has proceeded from the belief of the repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees; but that evidence of their repeal, which would have stopped our course, by means of which the Orders in Council would have been revoked, and the war would have been avoided, is withheld till the Emperor knows that war is inevitable. Thus, sir, have we been duped, deceived, and inveigled.
I repeat it, sir, had we, on the 17th June, understood our foreign relations as we now understand them, we should not have declared war. And would it not have been just and magnanimous in this Government, when all doubt was removed on the subject of the French decrees, to have acknowledged its error? Did not the honor, the character, the independence of the country require of us to go back to our original neutral ground? I rose principally for the purpose of presenting this view of the arts and deceit of the French Emperor to the committee. I regret that I have not done it more fully and clearly; and I hope that some gentleman more competent to a proper examination of the subject will yet take it up before we get through this discussion.
Mr. Tallmadge said he felt a peculiar embarrassment in rising to offer to the consideration of the committee some of his own reflections on the important subject now under debate, from a twofold consideration. In the first place, the magnitude of the question might claim the aid of more exalted talents than he pretended to possess, and, therefore, to do it justice, he feared, would not be in his power. For, said Mr. T., in the extensive range of debate which has been permitted by the Chair, the whole field of our foreign relations has been open to examination, and the policy of our own Government in relation to Great Britain has been deemed fairly within the range of discussion.
In the second place, the gentlemen who had preceded have occupied the ground so ably, and discussed the subject so extensively, that it was somewhat difficult to present arguments entirely novel to arrest the attention of the committee. Having a belief, however, that there were some important considerations, in relation to the bill now under debate, which had not yet been brought into view, he begged the attention of the committee while he endeavored to lay before them the views which he had taken of the subject, and which constrained him most decidedly to oppose the passage of the bill.
Before I enter upon the merits of the subject, said Mr. T., I take occasion to express my hearty assent to declarations made by honorable gentlemen that this is no time to indulge the bickerings of party; and that it is greatly to be desired that all distinctions of this sort were entirely laid aside and forgotten. Sir, I should consider it the most auspicious event of my life if I could see every gentleman on this floor determined to take and maintain the true old American ground occupied by the patriots of '76. Although it may be painful to the feelings of an honorable mind to be assailed with odious appellations, and charged with duplicity and falsehood, yet the mind which has virtue for its basis, a conscious integrity for its support, and firmness sufficient to enable the man to do his duty, may hope to pass unhurt by such malicious darts.
Standing, as I do, in the highly-responsible situation of one of the legislators of this extensive country, I hope to have stability and integrity sufficient to enable me to discharge my duty to my constituents. If, after having passed through the Revolutionary war, and having never changed my political creed to the present day, an odious epithet could induce me to alter my course, I should be unworthy the confidence of my country. But whence, Mr. Chairman, proceeds this system of slander and abuse? From the foul presses of our country. To whom are some of the fairest characters which have ever adorned this or any other country indebted for the odious epithets of monarchists, foreign agents, tories, and the like? To your imported patriots, who, weary of the dull pursuits of industry on their native soil, or escaping from the justice of the laws of their own country, have fled to this happy land to instruct its inhabitants in the true principles of liberty and equality.
To this set of newly-fledged politicians, and men of a similar stamp, is this once happy country indebted for one-half the miseries and much of the disgrace which it suffers.