The Sun.
London, England, 1808-12-23 00:00:00

AMERIC.I.

PR E Si DE ESSAG E

:WASHINGTON, Nov. 7.—Both Houses made a
quorum this forenoon, and having appointed a Com-
mittee to inform the President froM each House,
they adjourned after their.Comtnittees had returned
with an answer, that he would send a written com-
munication to-morrow (Tuesday.)
NOVEMBER 8.-This day, as usual, at norm, the
following Aiessage, with the several documents ac-
co upanyiog it, was presented to both Houses :

MESSAGE.

" TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OF THE UNITED STATES.

" It would have been a source, fellow-citizens,
of much gratification, if our last communications
from Europe had enabled me to inform you, that
the belligerent nations, whose disregard of neutral

right has been so destructive to our commerce, had

become awakened to the duty and the policy of re-
voking their unrighteous Edicts. That no means
might be omitted to produce this salutary effect, I
lost no time in availing myself of the Act authorising
a suspension, in whole, or in part, of the several
Embargo laws. Our Ministers at London and Paris
were instructed to explain to the respective Govern-
ments there, our disposition to exercise the authority
in such manner as would withdraw the pretext en
,which the aggressions were originally founded, and
open the way for a renewal of that commercial
intercourse, which, it was alledged on all sides,
bad been reluctantly obstructed. As each of
these Governments had pledged its readiness
to concur in renouncing a measure, which reach-
ed its adversary through the incontestible rights
of neutrals only, and as the measure had been
assumed by each as a retaliation for an asserted
acquiescence in the aggressions of the other, it
was reasonably expected that the occasion would
.have been seized by both, for evincing the sincerity
of their professiens, and for restoring to the United
States its legitimate freedom.. The instructions to
our Ministers, with respe& to the different Bellige-
rents, were necessarily modified with a reference
to their different circumstances, and to the con-
dition annexed by law to the executive power
of suspension, requiring a degree of security to our
commerce, which would not result from a repeal of
the decrees of France. Instead of a pledge, there-
fore, for a suspension of the embargo as to her, in
case of such a repeal, it was presumed that a suffi-
cient inducement might be found in other conside-
rations, and particularly in the change produced by
a compliance with our just demands, by one Belli-
gerent, and a refusal by the other, in the relations
between this other and the United States. To Great
Britain, whose power on the ocean is so ascendant,
it was deemed not inconsistent with that condition,
to state, explicitly, that on her rescinding her Orders
in relation to the commerce of the United States,
Their trade would be opened with her, and remain
shut to her enemy, in care of his failure to rescind
his decrees also. From France no answer has been
received, nor any indication that the requisite change
is her decrees. is contemplated. The favourable re-
ception of the proposition to Great Britain was the
less to be doubted, as her Orders of Council had not
on)r,been referred for their vindication to an ac-
quiescence on the part of the United States, no
longer to be pretended; but as the arrangement
proposed, whilst it resisted the illegal decrees pf
France, involved, moreover, substantially the pre-
cise. advantages professedly aimed at by the Brit,.
WI Order's. The arrangement has, nevertheless,
been rejected.

" This candid and liberal experiment haying thus
failed, and no other event having occurred on which
,
a suspension of the Embargo by the Executive was
acthoriser,i, it necessarily remains in the extent ori-
ginally given toit. We have the satisfaaion, hoW-
eter, to reflect, that in return for the privations im-
posed by. the measure; and which our fellow-citizens
in 'general have borne with patriotism, it has had
toe -important effects of saving our mariners, and
our vast mercantile property, as well as of affording
time fOr,prosecuting the defensive and provisional
measures called for by the occasion. , It has demon-
strated to foreign nations the moderation and firm-
.
- •
which govern our Councils, and to our citizens
the.necessity of uniting in support of the laws and
th.e rights of their country; and has thus long frus-
trafed' those usurpations and. spoliations which,, if
resisted, invtived war; if submitted to, sacrificed a
vital pripCiple.of our. national independence.
'" Under a continuance.of the belligerent mea-
sures, which, in defiance of laws which consecrate
the rights of neutrals, overspread the ocean with
dangee,__;t will rest with the wisdom of Congress to
decide *on the 'course best adapted to such a state of.
things ; and bringing with them, as they do, from
every part .of the Union, the sentiments 'of. our
ecipptiti.r.n—t,iny confidence strenathened that in
4 • • • -•
i-or Ming this decision, they will, with an unerring-
iNard to the essential rights and interests pf the