Star.
London, England, 1809-01-10 00:00:00

AMERICA

BOSTON, NOVEMBER N.
Oa Monday a Committee of the House of Repre-
sentatives of the Legislature of this State was appoint-
tcl to consider the expediency of adopting measures
view to procure the Repeal of the Embargo
with a
Laws.
On Tuesday the Committee made the Avert
which is subjoined. A very animated and interesting
Debate ensued. The question of acceptance was
taken by yeas and nays, and decided hi the affirma-
tive by a majority of 80.
STATE OF MASSACITUSSESTS.

Ix TIIE lIOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Nov. 15, 1808.
The Committee appointed to consider " Whether
it will be expedient for this Legislature to adept any
measure with a view to procure a repeal of the laws
of the United States, interdicting to the citizens all
foreign commerce, and imposing vexatious embar-
rassments on the coasting trade ; to relieve the peo-
Tie
of the Commonwealth from their present dis-
tres
Sea state, and to arrest the progress of that ruin
which threatens to involve all classes of the commu-
nay," beg leave to. report : That the COMThittee.per.
ceive with the most serious regret, that the distreilsesi
occasioned by the several laws imposing art Erhbargo,
tare borne with extreme and increasing pressure up-
on the people ; and every day's experience justifies a
belief that a continuance: of these laws must soon
become intolerable. As measures of coercion, they
art now acknowledged to be altogether. impOtent.
They afford satisfachran to France, and are regarded
as ineffectual demonstrations of a hostile disposi-
ern by Great Britain. Upon our own country,
their effects are becoming daily and palpably more in-
jurious. The produce of our agriculture, of our fo-
rests, and our fisheries, is excluded altogether from
every foreign market ; our merchants and mechanics
are deprived of employment ; our coasting trade is
interrupted and harassed by the most grievous em-
barrassments ; and our foreign trade is becoming di. I
vetoed into chi-nines, from which there isoso prospect
of its return. The sources of our revenue arc dried
up, and Government must soon resort to direct taxa-
tion. Our sailors are forced to expatriate them-
selves. Strong temptations are offered to systemati-
cal evasions of the laws, which tend to corrupt the
spirit of honourable commerce, and will materially
Milne the public morals. In fact, the evils which are
menaced by the continuance of this policy are so
enormous and deplorable—the suspension of corn-
snerse is so contrary to the habits of our people, and
so repugnant to their feelings and interests, that they
roust soon become intolerable, and endanger our do-
riestic peace and the union of these States. As the
Embargo laws have been the cause of the public dis-
tress, yoar Committee are of opinion that no equal,
permanent, or effectual relief can be afforded to the
citizens of the commonwealth, but by the repeal of
these laws. They persuade themselves that the
Congress of the United States must be fully impressed
with a sense of the total inefficacy of these laws for
any valuable purpose, and of their direct tendency to
the , most serious consequences. Your Committee,
therefore, trust, that Congress will not fail to repeat
them. In this confidence, therefore, your Committee
ark of opinion, that, upon this subject, the Legislas
ture should, in its present . Session, confine itself- to a
repeated disapprobation- of the laws interdicting fo-
reign commerce, and to instructing our Senators,-
and requesting our Representatives in Congress to
use their utmost exertions to procure their repeal.
Your Committee might probably have contented
themselves.with the preceding remarks, had hot the
late MeSsage of the President of the United States
excited the most serious alarm ; which, in the present
critical state of the country, they conceive it a chity
to express. They perceive, with the most painful re;
Bret, that, in the estimation of the President, our
csantry is now presented with the only alternative of
a continued embargo, cr a ruinous war ; but they
cannot hesitate to express their confident belief that
'he wisdom of the Government may yet find means
ss avoid the necessity of electing between these great
public calamities. If, however, this severe necessity
eras in regard to Great Britain, they are led by the
!;.....oage to presume, that it results in a great mea-
otre, if rot entirely, from the determination of the
I-heshive to adhere to the Proclamation of July,
:sta, interdicting all British ships of war from the
A-;:*.CTs of the United States, which has been, and as
-.0::: inter frost the Message, is still dc:enied by the
British Government, a measure so inhospitable and
repressive, it' not hostile in its character, as to form
-LI irssqtrah's obstaale to amicable adjustment. '
I:pca this dcli.i.stc and important subiect;thc Com-
7iinee are far from asserting, that the attack on the
.
:agate Chesapeake did not justify the original issuing
•,t.this Brea:motion, and enforcing it, so long as the
.:11tira might be presumed to haee-the sanction of the
itritish Goesrement. But is this violation of neutral
..ghts was promi.:iy and expUcitly disavowed by the
.:,,verei;,•,r, of the arressor, before the remeinstrances
er measures of our Government could belnown ; as
.he right to search our national ships was eipressly
sssclaimed, and a special Envoy deputed. for the pro-
ehsed object of making to our Government a full, sa7
:''fac'fra. aed public reparation, on the simple con-
-I,L'lri Ci a pres ions revocation of this Proclamation ;
hair Co:manatee are constrained to declare their opi-
nion, that such a revocation, under such circumstan-
-I`,N4cald not have involved any dishonourable con-
..oaten, or an abandonment of any just right or pre-'
'teem, but would have been a fair, reasonable, and
7::%gnanimous pledge of the sincerity of the wishes of
5% Airt ri'an Government to restore the accustomed
rdations of peace and amity between the two coun-
'llea This course must have compelled the British
Fhaoy to have offered that ample and honourable re-
raratictt, which would have been deemed by our na- 1
'.on and by the world, an adequate atonement for the
(Qtrage ; or have justified, in the event of its refusal,
tot only the renewal of the Proclamation, but the
adoption of measures of the most rigorous and hos-
;its description. .
But eeen on the precise presumption that the course
adopted by the Government, in refusing to revoke
the Proclamation as a preliminary to the adjustment
ef that controversy, be sanctioned by the usages. of
iria.tioes, and the justice of our claims, your Conh-
inatee are still of opinion, that A punctilious' adhe-
rcnce to diplomatic forms and precedents should not
Le maintained, at the risk of wv-, by a nation whose