But, gentlemen say that the honor of the country is at stake; that a removal of the embargo would be submission to Great Britain, and submission to France. How is our honor affected by removing it? We say we will not trade--with whom? With them alone? No, sir; the embargo says we will not trade with anybody. All nations, when they find it convenient, can pocket their honor for profit. What is it we do for a license to go into the Mediterranean? Do we not pay an annual tribute to Algiers for liberty to navigate the sea safer from its corsairs? Have we not an undoubted right to navigate the Mediterranean? Surely; and yet we pay annually a tribute for permission to do it--and why? Because the happiness and interest of the nation are promoted by it. In a monarchy, the Prince leads his subjects to war for the honor of his mistress, or to avenge a petty insult. But, what best consults the honor of a Republican Government? Those measures which maintain the independence, promote the interest, and secure the happiness of the individuals composing it. And that is the true line of honor which, if pursued, shall bring with it the greatest benefits to the people at large. I do not know, sir, strictly speaking, whether the destruction of any commercial right is destructive to the independence of the country; for a nation may exist independent, and the happiness of the people be secured, without commerce. So, that the violation of commercial rights does not destroy our independence. I acknowledge that it would affect the sovereignty of the country and retard its prosperity. But, are not the measures which have been adopted, submission? No train of argument can make more clear the fact, that, withdrawing from the ocean for a time is an abandonment, instead of an assertion, of our rights. Nay, I think I have the authority of the committee for it, for I speak of submission as applicable to the measure recommended by the committee. They say, that "a permanent suspension of commerce, after repeated and unavailing efforts to obtain peace, would not properly be resistance; it would be withdrawing from the contest, and abandoning our indisputable right freely to navigate the ocean." If a permanent embargo, after repeated offers of peace, would not properly be resistance, but an abandonment of our rights, is not a temporary embargo--and this has been a year continued--an abandonment for the time? Unquestionably it is. So long as it continues, it does abandon our rights. And now I will show that it is submission, and not resistance. I maintain that the embargo, aided by the second and third resolutions of the committee, does complete an abandonment of our maritime rights, and is a submission to the orders and decrees.