Star.
London, England, 1808-04-26 00:00:00

GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

• r rsR from the Honourable TIMOTIIT FICKRILING. a Senator
the United States from the State of Massachusett's, exhibit-
Lig to his Constituent's view of the imminent danger of an un-
rx and ruinous war, addressed to his Excellency lames
Sullivan, Governor of the said State.
City of Washington, Feb. 16, 1808.
-Sta—ln the even current of ordinary times, an
address from a Senator in Congress to his Constitu-
ents might be dispensed with. In such times the pro-
ceedings of the Executive and Legislative of the Uni-
tzd States, exhibited in their public Acts, might be
sufficient. But the present singular condition of our
Country, when its most interesting concerns, wrapt
up in mystery, excite universal alarm, requires me
to be no longer silent. Perhaps lam liable to cen-
'sure, at such a crisis, for not sooner presenting to you
and them, such a view of our national affairs as my
official situation has placed in my power. I now ad-
dress it to you, Sir, as the proper organ of communi-
cation to the Legislature.
The attainment of truth is ever desirable, and I
cannot permit myself to doubt, that the statement I
now make must be acceptable to all who have an
agency in directing the affairs, and who are guar-
,::ans of the interests of our commonwealth, which so
materially depend on the measures of the Government
cf the nation. At the same time, lam aware of the
icalousy with which, in these unhappy days of party
dissensions, my communications may, by some of my
Constituents, be received. Of this I will not corn-
plain ; while I earnestly wish the same jealousy to be
extended towards all public men. Yet I may claim
:.ume share of attention and credit ; that share which
is due to the man who defies the world to point, in
the whole course of a long and public life, at one in-
stance of deception—at a single departure from truth.
The Embargo demands the first notice ; for per-
haps so act of the National Government has ever pro-
duced so much solicitude, or spread such universal
alarm ; because all naturally conclude, that a mea-
sure pregnant with uncalculable mischiefs to all classes
of our fellow citizens, would not have been proposed
by the President, and adopted by Congress, but for
causes deeply affecting the interests and safety of the
nation. It must have been under the influence of
this opinion that the Legislative Bodies of some States
have expressed their approbation of the embargo, ei-
ther explicitly or by implication.
The following were all the Papers laid by the Pre-
sident before Congress, as the grounds of the em-
bargo :
1. The Proclamation of the King of Great Britain, requiring
the return of his subjects, the seamen especially, from foreign
countries, to aid in this hour of peculiar danger, in the defence of
their own. But it being an acknowledged principle, that every
nation has a right to the service of its subjects in time of war, that
Proclamation could not furnish the slightest ground for an en'.

b:trgo.
2. The Extract of a Letter from the Graend Judge Reviler to
the French Attorney-General for the Council of Prizes This
contained a partial interpretation of the Imperial Decree of No-
vember 21,1806. This Decree, indeed, and interpretation, pre-
sent flagrant violations of our Neutral Rights, and of the existing
Treaty between the United States and France; but still, the exe-
cution of that Decree could not, frog the small number of French
cruizers, extensively interrupt our trade. These two Papers were
public.
a. The Letter from our Minister, Mr. Armstrong, to Mr.
Champagny, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs: and
4. Mr. Champagny 's Aswer.—Both these ought, in form or
substance, also to have been made public. The latter would have
furnished to our nation some idea of the views and expectations
of France. But both were withdrawn by the President, to be
aposited among the other Executive secrets; while neither pre-
sented any new ground to justify an embargo.
In the Senate, these Papers were referred to a Com-
mittee. The Committee quickly reported a Bill for
laying an Embargo, agreeably to the President's pro-
posal. This was read a first time, a second, and a
third time, and passed ; and all in the short compass
of four hours ! A little time was repeatedly asked to
obtain further information, and to consider a measure
of such moment, of such universal concern ; but these
requests were denied. We were hurried into the pas-
sage of the Bill, as if there was danger of its being
rejected, if we were allowed time to obtain further
information, and deliberately consider the subject.
For to that time our vessels were freely sailing on fo-
-eign voyages; and in a national point of view, the
parture of half a dozen or a dozen more, while we
;ere enquiring into the necessity or expediency of the
.mbargo, was of little moment. Or if the danger to
it vessels, seamen, and merchandize, had been so
.treme as not to admit of one day's delay, ought
A that extreme danger to have been exhibited to
.ongress ? The Constitution, which requires the
President " to give to Congress information of the
State of the Union," certainly meant, not partial, but
molete information on the subject of a communica-
ton, so far as he possessed it. And when it enjoins
im " to recommend to -their consideration such
teasures as he should judge necessary and expedient,"
as certainly intended that those recommendations
.iould be bottomed on information communicated, not on
pets withheld, and locked up in the Executive Cabinet.
Had the public safety been at stake, or any great
)üblic good been presented to our view, but which
,could be lost by a moment's delay, there would have
been some apology for dispatch, though none for act-
ig without due information. In truth, the measure ap-
peared to me then, as it still does, and as it appears
to the public, without a sufficient motive—without a
zeitimate object. Hence the general inquiry, " For),
what is the embargo laid ?" And I challenge any
man, not in the secrets of the Executive, to tell. I
avow, Sir, that the President said the Papers above
mentioned " shewed that great and increasing dan-
gers threatened our vessels, our seamen, and our
merchandize;" but I also 'know; that they exhibited
no new dangers—none of which our merchants and sea-
men had not been well apprized. The British Pro-
clamation had many days before been published in
the newspapers, (the copy laid before us by the Presi-
dent had been cut out of a newspaper) an'cl so had the
substance, if not the words of Regnier's letter. Yet
they had excited little concern among merchants and
seamen, the preservation of whose persons and pro-
perty was the professed object of the President's- re-
commendation of an embargo. -The merchants and
seamen could acturately estimate the dangers of con-
tinuing their commercial operations; of which ilan-
leers, indeed, the actual premiums of insurance were
a satisfaction. Those premiums had very little in-
Creased i by the British Proclamation, not a cent.;
and by the French Decree So little, as not to stop corn.
tnercial enterprizes. The great numbers of vesseh
}Jading or loaded, and prepared for sea; the maim

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