Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 4 (of 16)United States. Congress
History
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 4 (of 16)
United States. Congress
Law -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
Do the wrongs of this nation end with this outrage? No. Clouds thicken
upon us; our wrongs are still increased; during the sensibility of this
nation, and without atonement for the attack upon the Chesapeake, on
the 16th October, 1807, a proclamation issues from the British Cabinet
respecting seafaring persons, enlarging the principles of former
encroachments upon the practice of impressment. This proclamation makes
it the indispensable duty of her naval officers to enter the unarmed
merchant vessels of the United States, and impress as many of the
crew as a petty and interested naval officer may without trial point
out as British subjects. The pretension is not confined to the search
after deserters, but extended to masters, carpenters, and naturalized
citizens of the United States--thus extending their municipal laws
to our merchant vessels and this country, and denying us the right
of making laws upon the subject of naturalization. The partners of
British and Scotch merchants can cover their property and their
merchandise from other nations under the neutral flag of the United
States to Leghorn, Amsterdam, Hamburg, &c. But the patriotic Irishman
or Englishman who has sought this protecting asylum of liberty, are not
secured by our flag from the ruthless fangs of a British press-gang.
And at this very moment our native citizens and adopted brethren, to
a considerable number, are doomed to the most intolerable thraldom in
the British navy by this degrading practice. There the freedom of our
citizens depends upon the mercy of naval officers of Great Britain;
and, upon this subject, every proposition for arrangement is trampled
down by these unjust pretensions. Information was just received of the
execution of the Berlin Decree, when the papers from every quarter
announced the existence of the British Orders in Council, making a
sweeping dash at our rightful commerce. Something must be done. The
events which been have retraced, all pressed upon us. The treatment
of our Minister, and his unavailing exertions; the result of the
negotiation which gave birth to the rejected treaty; the memorials of
the merchants; the outrageous conduct of the British naval officers
upon our seaboard; the connivance at their conduct by the British
Government; the proclamation of October 16, 1807; the execution of the
Berlin Decree, and the Orders in Council. These considerations required
the arm of Government, and at this inauspicious period, when the
clouds which had so long threatened and darkened our political horizon
gathered to a thick and horrible tempest, which now seemed about to
burst upon our devoted nation, the embargo snatched our property
from the storm, and deprived the thunderbolt of its real calamities.
The effects of this measure at home and abroad, notwithstanding its
inconveniences, will best attest the wisdom of the measure, which
will be increased in its efficacy by a total non-importation law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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