Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.). United States. Congress

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ 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.

      Of what nature are the rights in contest? They are maritime rights, and not territorial; and, to be used, must be exercised exterior to the limits of our territory. Whatever measures are confined within our territorial limits, is not an assertion or enjoyment of our exterior rights. Their enjoyment must be abroad, consisting of the actual use of them. If, then, all our measures be confined within our jurisdictional limits, they cannot amount to an enjoyment of the rights exterior to those limits. I will illustrate this, to every man's comprehension. There is a street in Georgetown, through which every one has a right to pass – it is a highway. A merchant, with whom I have dealt for many years, because I purchase some articles of another merchant, says I shall not go through that street. I cross over, and his enemy says I shall not pass by him. I retire home and call a consultation of my friends. I tell them that I have entered into resolutions, first, that, to submit to this will be an abandonment of my right to pass and repass. Well, what then, say my friends? Why, I declare I will neither go nor send to either of their houses – have no intercourse with them. Well, what then? Why, I will buy a broadsword and pair of pistols, and lock my door and stay at home. And do I enjoy my right of walking the street by making myself a prisoner? Surely not, sir. Now, this is precisely our case, under these resolutions. We say, that to submit, would be a wound on our honor and independence. We call a consultation. What is the result of it? We say we will have no intercourse with the nations injuring us, nor with any other; and, lastly, that we will arm and defend ourselves at home. And, I ask, is this resistance? Is it an enjoyment of our rights, or a direct, full submission? Is it not an abandonment of those rights to which we are entitled?

      It has been said, that the little portion of commerce which would remain unaffected by the belligerent edicts, would belong to us as a boon from England, were we to prosecute it. I do not understand it in this light. Our right to navigate the ocean is inherent, and belongs to us as a part of our sovereignty; but, when interdicted from any one place, if we go to another, we certainly do not accept that commerce as a boon. I might as well say, if a man interdicted me from going down one street in Georgetown, that I accept a boon from him in going down another. This is certainly not the case. The trading to these places is exercising our original right, not interfered with; and, so far as those orders and decrees do not operate, we could carry on a legitimate trade, flowing from our indisputable right, as a sovereign nation, to navigate the ocean. It does seem to me then, sir, that the residue of our trade might be carried on without submitting to the belligerent edicts. But, an honorable gentleman (Mr. G. W. Campbell) asked me, yesterday, if we were to permit our enemies to take any part, whether they would not take the remainder? This, like the horse's tail in Horace, would be plucked, hair by hair, till it was all out. True, sir, this might possibly happen. But, what have we done? Why, we have cut the tail off, for fear all the hair should be taken out. We have ourselves destroyed all that portion of our trade which the belligerents have not interdicted.

      Taking the whole into view, then, I think that the continuance of the embargo, as an assertion of our rights, is not an efficient mode of resistance.

      But gentlemen say, in a crisis like the present, when each individual ought to contribute his mite, it is very easy to find fault; and they ask for a substitute. I want no substitute. Take off the embargo. That is what I want. But when called upon in this manner, I cannot help looking around me to the source whence I expected higher and better information. The crisis is awful. We are brought into it by the means recommended by the head of our foreign relations. I think the President advised the embargo. If he did not, he certainly advised the gunboats and the additional military force. In these minor measures, which have been in their consequences so interesting, there was no want of advice or responsibility. Why then, in this awful crisis, shall we not look to the same quarter? The responsibility is left on us. We anti-embargoists show that things would not have been thus, had our advice been taken; and, not being taken, we have little encouragement to give more. Our advice is on the journals. We said, let us have what commerce we can get, and bring home returns to stimulate our industry. I believe the declarations of gentlemen when they say that they are friendly to commerce; but their fondness for it is the embrace of death. They say they will protect it; but it is strange that they should begin to protect it by abolishing it. I contend that their measures have not answered the purposes of protection, but on the contrary they have been prejudicial to it; and I trust in their candor that they will join us in giving elasticity to commerce, and removing this pressure. The interests of commerce and agriculture are identified; whenever one increases, the other extends. They progress pari passu. Look at your mercantile towns; and wherever you find one, like a pebble thrown into water, its influence extends in a circle more or less remotely, over the whole surface. Gentlemen from the agricultural country vote to support commerce, because it increases the value of their own product; they are not so disinterested as they suppose, and I believe the best way is to consider the two inseparable. As I am at present disposed, could I not obtain a total repeal, I would prefer a resolution laid on the table by a gentleman (Mr. Mumford) from one of the largest commercial cities in the Union, and who must be supposed to know the opinion of commercial men. I can scarcely with my knowledge or understanding point out any thing; but if I have not capacity to be one of the ins, I can readily perceive whether the present system be adequate or not. I would let our vessels go out armed for resistance; and if they were interfered with, I would make the dernier appeal. We are able and willing to resist; and when the moment arrives, there will be but one heart and hand throughout the whole Union. All will be American – all united for the protection of their dearest rights and interests.

      Mr. Lyon opposed the report in a speech of an hour.

      Mr. Desha said he had been particularly attentive to the whole of the debates during the very lengthy discussion of this important subject, and, said he, I am at a loss how to understand gentlemen, or what to conclude from their observations. Am I to conclude that they are really Americans in principle? I wish to do so; and I hope they are; but it appears somewhat doubtful, or they would not tamely give up the honor of their country by submitting to French decrees and British Orders in Council – that is, by warmly advocating the repeal of the embargo, without proposing something as a substitute. Do gentlemen mean an abject acquiescence to those iniquitous decrees and Orders in Council? Do gentlemen mean that that liberty and independence that was obtained through the valorous exertions of our ancestors, should be wrested from our hands without a murmur – that independence, in the obtaining of which so much virtue was displayed, and so much blood was shed? Do they mean that it should be relinquished to our former masters without a struggle? Gentlemen assign as a reason why the embargo should be removed, its inefficacy – that it has not answered the contemplated purpose. I acknowledge that as a measure of coercion it has not come СКАЧАТЬ