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
certainly are its effects in the State of Maryland; and I should illy
represent my own district, if I did not so declare. Gentlemen will say
that I should rather be pleased with the change than regret it; but, so
help me God, Mr. Speaker, I am much less anxious what description of
citizens administers the affairs of the country, than that they should
be well administered; that it should protect the liberty, give to
labor its just reward, and promote the happiness and prosperity of the
citizens.
But it is alleged, by the honorable chairman of the committee, (Mr.
CAMPBELL,) that this is a delusion; that the people do not comprehend
the subject; for that it is the Orders in Council which have produced
our embarrassments, and not the embargo. Here then, sir, I am precisely
at issue with that learned and honorable gentleman. I contend that the
pressure on the people is caused by the embargo, and not by the Orders
in Council. However speculative theorists may reason, there is proof
abroad, and stubborn facts to contradict their reasoning. Test the
market from Boston to Savannah, as to the price which you may get at
ninety days credit, the embargo being continued, or on condition that
the embargo be repealed in thirty days. Is there no difference in the
price under these circumstances? I know well from experience, and the
whole country knows, that if the embargo be now taken off, the price
of every species of produce will rise fifty per cent. The depreciation
in price then flows from the embargo. Remove it and they will give you
more; keep it on and they will give you less. These are stubborn facts,
and every man who has gone to the market will attest their correctness.
You may reason as you please; but there is not a farmer that can be
reasoned out of his senses, especially when they are sharpened a
little by necessity. I hold these facts to be more conclusive than any
abstract reasoning to prove that the embargo does work a diminution
in the value of the articles which we have for sale. If this be the
case, it results, sir, that we must ascribe to the operation of that
measure the loss our country now so greatly feels. Our citizens are
not so uninformed as the gentleman from Tennessee imagines. He thinks,
and I agree with him, that the public voice will be generally right
when the people are well informed. They have seen all the official
communications which have been published, and are competed to judge
whether the Orders in Council justified the embargo, and whether, if
the embargo had not been laid, they would have wrought that effect
which we now so sensibly feel. Instead of being deluded, sir, their
eyes are open, and the film removed; and they see that the embargo
was not justified by necessity, and as far as their opinion has been
expressed, that it was impolitic and unwise.
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