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BOOK XI. as may CHAP. I.

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be required for the services to which it may be best adapted. I submit to congress the seasonableness, also, of an authority to augment the stock of such materials as are imperishable in their nature, or may not at once be attainable.

"In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous epoch, and estimating their claims to our attention, it is impossible to overlook those developing themselves among the great communities which occupy the southern portion of our own hemisphere, and extend into our neighbourhood. An enlarged philanthropy, and an enlightened forecast, concur in imposing on the national councils an obligation to take a deep interest in their destinies; to cherish reciprocal sentiments of good-will; to regard the progress of events; and not to be unprepared for whatever order of things may be ultimately established.

Under another aspect of our situation, the early attention of congress will be due to the expediency of farther guards against evasions and infractions of our commercial laws. The practice of smuggling, which is odious every where, and particularly criminal in free governments, where, the laws being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed on every individual as well as on the state, attains its utmost guilt, when it blends, with a pursuit of ignominious gain, a treacherous subserviency, in the transgressors, to a foreign policy adverse to that of their own country. It is then that the virtuous indignation of the public should be enabled to manifest itself, through the regular animadversions of the most competent laws.

"To secure greater respect to our mercantile flag, and to the honest interest which it covers, it is expedient, also, that it be made punishable in our citizens to accept licences from foreign governments, for a trade unlawfully interdicted by them to other American citizens; or to trade under false colours or papers of any sort.

"A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance, by our citizens, of special licences, to be used in a trade with the United States; and against the admission into particular ports of the United States, of vessels from foreign countries, authorised to trade with particular ports only.

"Although other subjects will press more immediately on your deliberations, a portion of them cannot but be well bestowed on the just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures the success they have attained, and are still attaining, in some degree, under the impulse of causes not permanent; and to our navigation, the fair extent of which it is at present abridged, by the unequal regulations of foreign governments.

"Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufacturers from sacrifices which a change of circumstances might bring on them, the national interest requires, that, with respect to such articles,

at least, as belong to our defence and our primary wants, we should not be left in unnecessary dependence on external supplies. And whilst foreign governments adhere to the existing discriminations in their ports against our navigation, and an equality or lesser discrimination is enjoyed by their navigation in our ports, the effect cannot be mistaken, because it has been seriously felt by our shipping-interests; and in proportion as this takes place, the advantages of an independent conveyance of our products to foreign markets, and of a growing body of mariners, trained by their occupations for the service of their country in times of danger, must be diminished.

"The receipts into the treasury, during the year ending on the 30th of September last, have exceeded thirteen millions and a half of dollars; and have enabled us to defray the current expences, including the interest on the public debt, and to reimburse more than five millions of dollars of the principal, without recurring to the loan authorised by the act of the last session. The temporary loan obtained in the latter end of the year 1810, has also been reimbursed, and is not included in that amount.

"The decrease of revenue, arising from the situation of our commerce, and the extraordinary expences which have and may become necessary, must be taken into view, in making commensurate provisions for the ensuing year. And I recommend to your consideration the propriety of ensuring a sufficiency of annual revenue, at least to defray the ordinary expenses of government, and to pay the interest on the public debt, including that on new loans which may be authorised.

"I cannot close this communication without expressing my deep sense of the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence in a wise and honorable result to your deliberations, and assurances of the faithful zeal with which my co-operating duties will be discharged; invoking, at the same time, the blessing of heaven on our beloved country, and on all the means that may be employed in vindicating its rights and advancing its welfare." (Signed) "JAMES MADISON. "Washington, Nov. 5, 1811."

In taking a review of this speech, we find it. labours with its own weight in order to throw a load of blame upon the British government. It begins with a complaint of the unfriendly conduct of Great Britain in refusing what the president was pleased to term their neutral rights. During the discussions of the plenipotentiaries of the two powers upon this point, the governments of England and the United States could not agree, as they referred in their respective arguments and appeals to different principles and different codes.

The speech next alludes to the affair of the

Little Belt, and, according to the result of the trial, inculpates the British commander. It must be confessed, that America, in this respect, had offered all the satisfaction which could be ex jure required of her. She had given Captain Rodgers a trial in one of her admiralty-courts, and it is the peculiar nature of these courts, that being administered in every country alike, that is, on the law of nations and the public law of Europe, they have every where an acknowledged name, and even some portion of authority; and their judgments are deemed satisfactory and conclusive, till set aside in the same form and manner, and for their manifest and gross injustice, in some other adiniralty-court. The president, therefore, as president of America, committed no injury in assigning the wrong-doing to the party designated by his own admiralty-courts, though, as before intimated, the evidence had all the appearance of corruption. The president next congratulates his countrymen on the friendly footing of America with the northern powers, and then, recurring to the conduct of Great Britain, taxed with the daily commission of many hostile acts, calls upon America to put herself into the armour and attitude demanded by her circumstances.-The measures proposed are the four following:-1. That the army be recruited up to its war establishment.-2. That the enlistment of the regular troops be prolonged. -3. That an auxiliary force (i. e. an army of reserve) be raised for a limited term.-4. A supplemental militia.-5. That corps of volunteers be accepted.-6. Such a preparation of the great body of the American people as will render its utility in some degree proportionate to what it ought to be from its natural intrinsic capacity (i. e. the instruction of the peasantry in the use and exercise of arms.)

Of the voluminous documents which accompanied the president's speech to congress, we shall confine ourselves to a description of them.

Relative to the orders in council, Mr. Foster, in his letters of the 3d, 11th, 14th, and 16th July, 1810, to Mr. Monroe, the American minister, insisted that the Berlin and Milan decrees had not been effectually repealed, and that the regent could not therefore forego the just measures of retaliation which his majesty, in his defence, had found it necessary to have recourse to.

Mr. Monroe, in a reply to Mr. Foster, dated 23d July, considered that his government was bound to respect the solemn declaration of the French government, August 5th, 1810, that the decrees were repealed; argued, that they were repealed from the release of the New Orleans packet, the Grace, Anne, and other vessels; endeavoured to avoid the meaning Mr. Foster gave to the declaration made to the deputation from the Hanse Towns by Bonaparte (viz. that he, Bona

CHAP. I.

one of his decrees in that declaration, which, on BOOK XL the contrary, was a confirmation of them all) and concluded by declaring the determination of his government to continue the non-intercourse act, unless the British-orders were revoked.

Mr. Foster, in a letter of the 24th July, asked whether it was the determination of the president to rest satisfied with the partial repeal of the Berin and Milan decrees, which Mr. Monroe believed to have taken place. To this no reply seemed to have been given. In a letter from Mr. Foster, dated 26th July, he shewed that Mr. Monroe had not, in his letter of the 23d July, adduced any satisfactory proof of the repeal of the obnoxious decree of France, and he urged afresh the injustice of the American government in persevering in their union with the French system to crush the commerce of Great Britain.

In a reply to this letter by Mr. Monroe, on the 1st. Oct. he did not bring forward any fresh evidence to shew that the Berlin and Milan decrees were repealed, and he seemed to evade the dis

cussion.

In a note, dated 17th of Oct. from Mr. Monroe, he enclosed two letters from Mr. Russel, the American chargé d'affaires at Paris, stating, that the Berlin and Milan decrees had ceased to be executed, and a note from the Marquis Wellesley, dated on the 14th of August, to Mr. Smith, acknowledging the receipt of a letter to Mr. Foster, stating, that he had commenced his negociations with Mr. Monroe, relative to the orders in council.

Mr. Foster, in a letter, dated on the 22d of Oct. alluded to Mr. Russel's letters, announcing the liberation of four or five American vessels, captured and brought into French ports since the 1st of Nov.; and he added to Mr. Monroe, “ I hope you will not think it extraordinary if I should contend, that the seizure of American ships by France since Nov. 1st, and the positive and unqualified declarations of the French government, are stronger proofs of the continued existence of the French decrees, and the bad faith of the ruler of France, than the restoration of five or six vessels, too palpably given up for fallacious purposes, or in testimony of his satisfaction at the attitude taken by America, is a proof of their revocation, or of his return to the principles of justice."

Mr. Monroe, in his reply, dated Oct. 29, to this letter, adverted to Mr. Russel's letters, and stated, that it might have been fairly presumed, that the new evidence afforded of the complete revocation of the French decrees, as far as they interfered with the commerce of the United States with the British dominions, would have been followed by an immediate repeal of the orders in council.

Mr. Foster, in his reply, dated Oct. 31, insisted again, that, "where proof can be obtained of the

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BOOK XI. in the ports of France, in which vessels have been avowedly seized under their operation since NoCHAP. I. vember 1."

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Mr. Foster, in his correspondence on the subject of the President and Little Belt, demanded the immediate disavowal of the act of aggression committed by the President, and required a just reparation.

Mr. Monroe stated, that no orders of a hostile nature had been given to Commodore Rodgers. Mr. Monroe subsequently transmitted the result of the court of inquiry on Commodore Rodgers.

Mr. Foster replied, that he should transmit it to his government without delay.

Mr. Foster, in a letter of the 2d July, protested against the occupation of West Florida by the United States. Mr. Monroe, in his reply, dated on the 8th, argued that the province formed part of Louisiana, which was ceded to France, and bought of France by the United States. Mr. Foster, on the 5th of September, called upon the American government to explain the conduct of Governor Matthews, in attempting to subvert the Spanish authority in East Florida.

Mr. Monroe replied, that Spain had committed spoliations on American commerce, and that America looked to East Florida to indemnify her for them.

On the 12th of November, in the house of representatives, Mr. Smilie said, that it was high time the president's message should be taken into consideration. He therefore moved, "that the house resolve itself into a committee of the whole on the state of the union, for the purpose of taking it up." The house accordingly went into committee of the whole, Mr. Bibb in the chair.

Mr. Smilie then offered the following resolutions:

1. Resolved, That so much of the president's message as relates to our foreign relations, be referred to a select committee.

2. Resolved, That so much of the president's message as relates to the measures of public defence demanded by the present crisis, be referred to a select committee.

3. Resolved, That so much of the president's message as relates to the revenue, and to the provisions necessary for the ensuing year, be referred to the committee of ways and means.

4. Resolved, That so much of the president's message as relates to evasions and infractions of the non-intercourse law, be referred to the committee of commerce and manufactures.

5. Resolved, That so much of the president's message as relates to foreign licences, and to the protection of manufactures and navigation, be referred to the committee of commerce and manufactures.

6. Resolved, That so much of the president's message as relates to the Spanish American colonies, be referred to a select committee.

Mr. Dawson thought the second resolution embraced too much. He wished to know whether the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smilie) intended to place every subject connected with military and naval defence before one committee. Mr. Smilie said he did. All those subjects had been before one committee during the revolutionary war.

After some debate, the resolutions were agreed to, and the committee rose and reported them. After the committee rose,

Mr. D. R. Williams moved to amend the 2d resolution, so as to refer that part of the president's message relative to filling up the ranks, prolonging the enlistment of regular troops, and an auxiliary force, to a select committee.Agreed to.

Mr. Bibb moved farther to amend the resolution, so as to embrace the subject of the militia generally.

Mr. Dawson proposed the following additional resolution, which was adopted :

Resolved, That those parts of the president's message relative to the naval force, and to the defence of our maritime frontiers, be referred to a select committee.

The two following resolutions were also offered by Mr. Bacon, and adopted :

Resolved, That so much of the president's message as relates to the manufacture of cannon and small arms, and providing munitions of war, be referred to a select committee.

Resolved, That so much of the president's message as relates to Indian affairs, be referred to a select committee.

Besides the affair of the President, an attack had been made upon the Chesapeake, an American frigate, in order to recover some British seamen illegally detained. (See Book VII. Chap. IX. page 561.) This affair was settled by a very just and noble submission on the part of Great Britain, which detracted nothing from her honor, whilst it added infinitely to the credit of her honesty; and the following was a consequent message to the senate and house of representatives of the United States, Nov. 16.

"I communicate to congress copies of a correspondence between the envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary of Great Britain and the secretary of state relative to the aggression committed by a British ship of war on the United States frigate Chesapeake; by which it will be seen, that that subject of difference between the two countries is terminated by an offer of reparation, which has been acceded to.

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"JAMES MADISON.

Washington, Nov. 13, 1811."

Mr. Foster to Mr. Monroe.

CHAP. I.

The following was the correspondence al- should be introductory to a removal of all the BOOK XI. Juded to. differences depending between our two countries, the hope of which is so little encouraged by your past correspondence. A prospect of such a result will be embraced, on my part, with a spirit of conciliation equal to that which has been expressed by you. "JAMES MONROE

Washington, Oct. 30. "SIR,-I had already the honor to mention to you, that I came to this country furnished with instructions from his royal highness the princeregent, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, for the purpose of proceeding to a final adjustment of the differences which have arisen between Great Britain and the United States of America in the affair of the Chesapeake frigate; and I had also that of acquainting you with the necessity under which I found myself of suspending the execution of those instructions, in consequence of not having perceived that any steps whatever were taken by the American government to clear up the circumstances of an event which threatened so materially to interrupt the harmony subsisting between our two countries, as that which occurred in the month of last May, between the United States ship President, and his majes. ty's ship Little Belt, when every evidence before his majesty's government seemed to shew that a most evident and wanton outrage had been committed on a British sloop of war by an American commodore.

“A court of inquiry, however, as you informed me in your letter of the 11th instant, has since been held by order of the president of the United States, on the conduct of Commodore Rodgers; and this preliminary to farther discussion on the subject being all that I asked in the first instance, as due to the friendship between the two states, I have now the honor to acquaint you that I am ready to proceed, in the truest spirit of conciliation, to lay before you the terms of reparation which his royal highness has commanded me to propose to the United States' government, and only wait to know when it will suit your convenience to enter upon the discussion. "AUG. J. FOSTER, "The Hon. James Monroe, S. S."

Mr. Monroe to Mr. Foster. Department of State, Oct. 31, 1811. "Sir, I have just had the honor to receive your letter of the 30th of this month.

"I am glad to find that the communication which I had the honor to make to you on the 11th instant, relative to the court of inquiry, which was the subject of it, is viewed by you in the favorable light which you have stated.

"Although I regret that the proposition which you now make in consequence of that communication, has been delayed to the present moment, I am ready to receive the terms of it whenever you may think proper to communicate them. Permit me to add, that the pleasure of finding them satisfactory will be duly augmented, if they

(Signed)

"A. J. Foster Esq. &c."

Mr. Foster to Mr. Monroe.

Washington, Nov. 1, 1811. "Sir,-In pursuance of the orders which I have received from his royal highness the princeregent, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, for the purpose of proceeding to a final adjustment of the differences which have arisen between Great Britain and the United States in the affair of the Chesapeake frigate, I have the honor to acquaint you-First, that I am instructed to repeat to the American government the prompt disavowal made by his majesty (and recited in Mr. Erskine's note of April 17, 1809, to Mr. Smith,) on being apprised of the unauthorised act of the officer in command of his naval forces on the coast of America, whose recal from an highly important and honorable command immediately ensued as a mark of his majesty's disapprobation.

"Secondly, that I am authorised to offer, in addition to that disavowal, on the part of his royal highness, the immediate restoration, as far as circumstances will admit, of the men who, in consequence of Admiral Berkeley's orders, were forcibly taken out of the Chesapeake, to the vessel from which they were taken; or, if that ship should be no longer in commission, to such seaport of the United States as the American government may name for the purpose.

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Thirdly, that I am also authorised to offer to the American government a suitable pecuniary provision for the sufferers in consequence of the attack on the Chesapeake, including the families of those seamen who unfortunately fell in the action, and of the wounded survivors.

"These honorable propositions, I can assure you, Sir, are made with the sincere desire that they may prove satisfactory to the United States; and I trust they will meet with the amicable reception which their conciliatory nature entitles them to. I need scarcely add how cordially I join with you in the wish that they might prove introductory to a removal of all the differences depending between our two countries.

“AUG. J. FOSTER

"To the Hon. James Monroe, &c."

Mr. Monroe to Mr. Foster. Washington, Nov. 12, 1811. "Sir, I have had the honor to receive your

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BOOK XI. letter of the 1st Nov. and to lay it before the president. CHAP. I.

- 1811.

"It is much to be regretted that the reparation due for such an aggression as that committed on the United States frigate the Chesapeake, should have been so long delayed; nor could the translation of the offending officer from one command to another, be regarded as constituting a part of a reparation otherwise satisfactory: considering, however, the existing circumstances of the case, and the early and amicable attention paid to it by his royal highness the prince-regent, the president accedes to the proposition contained in your letters; and in so doing, your government will, I am persuaded, see a proof of the conciliatory disposition by which the president has

e en actuated.

"The officer commanding the Chesapeake, now lying in the harbour of Boston, will be instructed to receive the men who are to be restored to that ship. I have the honor, &c. "JAMES MONROE."

Though the non-importation act was in force in the United States against the manufactures of Great Britain, yet they still found their way to America, by circuitous means. Amelia Island, which is situated not far from the mouth of the Mississippi, was the great entrepôt for British commodities; however, at this time it was so narrowly watched by the American gun-brigs, that very little business was done. But great quantities of British commodities were introduced into the United States, by the way of Canada; which commerce, from the extent of the frontier, it was impossible to prevent. Large consignments were sent out to Canada for this traffic.

To the measures adopted by Mr. Madison, Mr. Pickering was a formidable opponent: this gentleman had addressed the people of the United States in the following manner:

"Fellow citizens.-By cherishing and animating the prejudices of the people in favor of France, and exasperating their antipathies to England, the leaders rose to power; and by persevering in the same means, they retain it; now and then faintly intimating, in a whisper, that some of the emperor's decrees are not just; and a few, the better to conceal their subserviency, and gain to themselves the character of independence, will even venture, occasionally, to call him a tyrant; with which his imperial majesty will not be offended, while they continue to serve him. For the seizure and confiscation of American vessels under the Rambouillet decrees,-an act of such distinguished atrocity,-such a shameless violation of the most obvious rules of justice as demonstrate the emperor's utter contempt for the opinion of the world, as well as for the rulers of the American republic, Mr. Madison made the kindest apology imaginable. The property of

our citizens (says he) was seized under a misapplication of the principles of reprisal, combined with a misconstruction of the laws of the United States! when Mr. Madison, perfectly acquainted with the nature and character of the seizure, knew it to be an act of sheer deliberate villainy; that the principle of reprisal had nothing to do with it; and that the law was so plain, as to be incapable of misconstruction in relation to this point. Besides, if the law had appeared in any respect uncertain and doubtful, there was an intelligent American minister on the spot to explain it, if a right understanding of it had been desired. But such an understanding, a correct construction of the law, was not desired. A glaringly false construction alone could furnish the emperor with his shameless pretence for the seizure. These considerations, with those exhibited in the preceding address, shew that it was impossible for Mr. Madison to "anticipate" or "expect" the restoration of the property. Why, then, did he hazard the making of such a declaration to congress? On the foundation-principle formerly mentioned, and repeated, with some illustrations, in this address,-the maintenance of the prejudices of the people in favor of France, as the essential means of maintaining in power the party of which he is, at least, the ostensible head. A full and faithful display of the nature and effects of the Rambouillet decree would naturally and necessarily have led him to detail the multitude of other acts of France, alike unjust, insulting, and injurious to the United States, and their citizens. This, if the people continued under the delusion in which he, with his predecessor, and their own coadjutors, had involved them, would have destroyed his popularity. If such a display by the president of the United States served to open the eyes of the people, they, thus made sensible of the deceptions which had been practised upon them by the same leaders, would have cast them off; and the cause of democracy might have been ruined. Such a display, therefore, of wholesome truths, by Mr. Madison was not to be expected. Besides, it would have contradicted the course, and been subversive of the predilections of his whole life, in relation to France. But there was also an immediate object which forbad such a display: it would have deprived him of all apology for accepting the declarations of a conditional and future, instead of an actual, repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees: and thereby have deprived him of a pretence for reviving the non-intercourse law against Great Britain. An adjustment of our differences with Great Britain must not take place. The rulers of republican France, by intrigues, by bribery, endeavoured to prevent any amicable treaty between the United States and Great Britain: any treaty, which, by enlarging and securing our own

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