of the Embargo after a certain time. Should we not, then, avail ourselves of the intervening period to procure a retraction of the obnoxious decrees peaceably, if possible? An opening is given us by both parties, sufficient to form a basis for such a proposition. I wish you, therefore, to consider the following course of proceeding, to wit: To instruct our ministers at Paris and London to propose immediately to both those powers a declaration on both sides that these decrees and orders shall no longer be extended to vessels of the United States, in which case we shall remain faithfully neutral; but, without assuming the air of menace, to let them both perceive that if they do not both withdraw these orders and decrees, there will arrive a time when our interests will render war preferable to a continuance of the Embargo; that when that time arrives, if one has withdrawn and the other not, we must declare war against that other; if neither shall have withdrawn, we must take our choice of enemies between them. This, it will certainly be our duty to have ascertained by the time Congress shall meet in the fall or beginning of winter; so that taking off the Embargo, they may decide whether war must be declared, and against whom.-To JAMES MADISON. FORD ED., ix, 179. (W., v, 257. March 1808.) See 2558.

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time for prosecuting the defensive and provisional measures called for by the occasion. It has demonstrated to foreign nations the moderation and firmness which govern our councils, and to our citizens the necessity of uniting in support of the laws and the rights of their country, and has thus long frustrated those usurpations and spoliations which, if resisted, involve war; if submitted to, sacrificed a vital principle of our national independence.-EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. viii, 105. FORD ED., ix, 219. (1808.)

2535. By withdrawing a while from the ocean we have suffered some loss; but we have gathered home our immense capital, exposed to foreign depredation, we have saved our seamen from the jails of Europe, and gained time to prepare for the defence of our country.-R. To A. CONNECTICUT REPUBLICANS. viii, 140. (Nov. 1808.)

2537. EMBARGO, Coasting trade and.

given time to prepare for defence, and has shown to the aggressors of Europe that evil, as well as good actions, recoil on the doers.-R. TO A. PITTSBURG REPUBLICANS. viii, 141. (1808.) 2532. I have been highly gratified with the late general expressions of public sentiment in favor of a measure which alone could have saved us from immediate war, and give time to call home eighty millions of property, twenty or thirty thousand seamen, and two thousand vessels. These are now nearly at home, and furnish a great capital, much of which will go into manufactures, and seamen to man a fleet of privateers, whenever our citizens shall prefer war to a longer continuance of the Embargo. Perhaps, however, the whole of the ocean may be tired of the solitude it has made on that element, and return to honest principles; and his brother robber on the land may see that, as to us, the grapes are sour.To JOHN LANGDON. FORD ED., ix, 201. Aug. 1808.)

(M.,

2533. It alone could have saved us from immediate war, and give time to call home eighty millions of property, twenty or thirty thousand seamen, and two thousand vessels. These are now nearly at home, and furnish a great capital, much of which will go into manufactures and remain to man a fleet of privateers, whenever our citizens shall prefer war to a longer continuance of the Embargo. Perhaps, however, the whole of the ocean may be tired of the solitude it has made on that element, and return to honest principles, and that his brother robber on the land may see that, as to us, the grapes are sour.To GOVERNOR JOHN LANGDON. viii, 132. FORD ED., ix, 201. (M., Aug. 1808.)

is only to carry into full effect the intentions of the Embargo laws. I do not wish a single citizen in any of the States to be deprived of a meal of bread, but I set down the exercise of commerce, merely for profit, as nothing when it carries with it the danger of defeating the objects of the Embargo.-To ALBERT GALLATIN. V, 207. (M., May 1808.)

2538. EMBARGO, Coercion of Europe.The resolutions of the republican citizens of Boston are worthy of the ancient character of the sons of Massachusetts, and of the spirit of concord with her sister States, which, and which alone, carried us successfully through the Revolutionary war, and finally placed us under that national government, which constitutes the safety of every part, by uniting_for its protection the powers of the whole. moment for exerting these united powers, to repel the injuries of the belligerents of Europe, seems likely to be pressed upon us.-TO WILLIAM EUSTIS. V, 410. FORD ED., ix, 235. (W., Jan. 1809.)

The

2539. EMBARGO, Congress and.-The House of Representatives passed last night a bill for the meeting of Congress on the 22d of May. This substantially decides the course they mean to pursue; that is, to let the Embargo continue till then, when it will cease, and letters of marque and reprisal be issued against such nations as shall not then have repealed their obnoxious edicts. The great majority seem to have made up their minds on this, while there is considerable diversity of opinion on the details of preparation; to wit, naval force, volunteers, army, non-intercourse. -To THOMAS LIEPER. V, 417. FORD ED., ix, 238. (W., January 21, 180.)

2540. EMBARGO, Duration of.-The embargo may go on a certain time, perhaps through the year, without the loss of property to our citizens, but only its remaining unemployed on their hands. A time would come,

however, when war would be preferable to a continuance of the Embargo.-To CHARLES PINCKNEY. v, 266. (W., March 1808.)

2541. The absurd opinion has been propagated, that this temporary and necessary arrangement was to be a permanent system, and was intended for the destruction of commerce. The sentiments expressed in the paper you were so kind as to enclose to me, [address of Boston republicans] show that those who have concurred in them have judged with more candor the intentions of their government, and are sufficiently aware of the tendency of the excitements and misrepresentations which have been practiced on this occasion.— TO DR. WILLIAM EUSTIS. V, 410. FORD ED., ix, 235. (W., January 1809.)

2542. EMBARGO, Effect on industry.— Of the several interests composing those of the United States, that of manufactures would, of course, prefer to war a state of non-intercourse, so favorable to their rapid growth and prosperity. Agriculture, although sensibly feeling the loss of market for its produce, would find

many aggravations in a state of war. Commerce and navigation, or that portion which is foreign, in the inactivity to which they are reduced by the present state of things, certainly experience their full share in the general inconvenience; but whether war would to them be a preferable alternative, is a question their patriotism would never hastily propose. It is to be regretted, however, that overlooking the real sources of the sufferings, the British and French edicts which constitute the actual blockade of our foreign commerce and navigation, they have, with too little reflection, imputed them to laws which have saved them from greater, and have preserved for our own use our vessels, property and seamen, instead of adding them to the strength of those with whom we might eventually have to contend. The Embargo, giving time to the belligerent powers to revise their unjust proceedings, and to listen to the dictates of justice, of interest and reputation, which equally urge the correction of their wrongs, has availed our country of the only honorable expedient for avoiding war; and should a repeal of these edicts supersede the causé for it, our commercial brethren will become sensible that it has consulted their interests, however against their own will. It will be unfortunate for their country if, in the meantime, these their expressions of impatience, should have the effect of prolonging the very sufferings which have produced them, by exciting a fallacious hope that we may, under any pressure, relinquish our equal right of navigating the ocean, go to such ports only as others may prescribe, and there pay the tributary exactions they may impose; an abandonment of national independence and of essential rights, revolting to every manly sentiment. While these edicts are in force, no American can ever consent to a return of peaceable intercourse with those who maintain them.TO THE CITIZENS OF BOSTON. viii, 136. (Aug. 1808.)

2543. EMBARGO, Enforcing.-I am for going substantially to the object of the law, and no further; perhaps a little more earnestly because it is the first expedient, and it is of great importance to know its full effect.-To ALBERT GALLATIN. V, 292. (M., May 1808.)

2546.

In the support of the Embargo laws, our only limit should be that of the appropriations of the department.-To ROBERT SMITH. v, 337. (M., Aug. 1808.)

2547. The great leading object of the Legislature was, and ours in execution of it ought to be, to give complete effect to the Embargo laws. They have bidden agriculture, commerce, navigation, to bow before that object, to be nothing when in competition with it. Finding all their endeavors at general rules to be evaded, they finally gave us the power of detention as the panacea, and I am clear we periment, know the power of this great weapon, ought to use it freely that we may, by a fair exthe Embargo.-To ALBERT GALLATIN. v, 287. (May 1808.)

2549. The pressure of the Embargo, although sensibly felt by every description of our fellow citizens, has yet been cheerfully borne by most of them, under the conviction that it was a temporary evil, and a necessary one to save us from greater and more permanent evils, the loss of property and surrender of rights. But it would have been more cheerfully borne, but for the knowledge that, while honest men were religiously observing it, the unprincipled along our sea-coast and frontiers were fraudulently evading it; and that in some parts they had even dared to break through it openly, by an armed force too powerful to be opposed by the collector and his assistants. To put an end to this scandalous insubordination to the laws, the Legislature has authorized the President to empower proper persons to employ militia, for preventing or suppressing armed or riotous assemblages of persons resisting the custom-house officers in the exercise of their duties, or opposing or violating the Embargo laws. He sincerely hopes that, during the short time which these restrictions are expected to continue, no other instances will take place of a crime of so deep a dye. But it is made his duty to take the measures necessary to meet it. He, therefore, requests you, as commanding officer of the militia of your State, to appoint some officer of the militia, of known respect for the laws, in or near to each port of entry within your State, with orders, when applied to by the collector of the district, to assemble immediately a sufficient force of his militia, and to employ them efficaciously to maintain the authority of the laws respecting the Embargo. * He has referred this appointment to your Excellency because your knowledge of characters, or means of obtaining it, will enable you to select one who can be most confided in to exercise so serious a power, with all the discretion, the forbearance, the kindness even, which the enforcement of the law will possibly admit, -ever to bear in mind that the life of a citizen, is never to be endangered, but as the last melancholy effort for the maintenance of order