Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1809-01-23
CON G. r Els S.
Senate Of the United States.
THURSDAY, November 80.
EMBARGO. H
3DEBdTE on Dar. HilAsouse's motion ioy a
REPEAL
TcoNTINuED.
EMBARGO.

were eomprehended in the Presidents view
ofthe great and interesting dangers to which
our commerce was exposed I! lfthat were
the fact, was it not his duty to give such
information of them as he possessed, to the
Senate. He gayencn / know that those
orders were afterwards pressed into his ser
vice to Justify the measure and still later
il has been confidently said " that those Or
dels stood in front of the real causes OF the
embargo" And yet they were Invisible
to the serate. What the great, the ope-
rative cause of the embargo, before which
all other motives sunk into insignihcance, :
not seen, not known to the senate Not
glanced at by the president in his message,
nor minated TO any of the members who
were honored with his confidence, and BY
tkem to the senate
But from reasoning I will recur to writ
ten proofs, furnished BY the president niin-
self, and now on our tables.
In Mr.. Madison's letter to Mr.. Plnkncy,
the presidents minister in London, dated
December %, 1907, TIE next day after the
act laying an embargo was passed and
this after it had UNDERGONE three days Of
honest Opposition IN the house Of repressn-
tatives-during which it beloved the father
of the measure, and his friends, to furnish
every possible argument to silence opposi-
ton, and to satisfy the nation of It's expedi-
ency and necessity-after all this, Mr.. Ma
Olson in that letter, tells MIR. Pinkney, that
"the p0licy and the causes of the measure
are explained in the measure ITSELF The
contents of the message compromising the
papers 1t referred to have already stated ):
and the statement demonstrates, that they
were not the causcs or Hsotives OF the einbar-
so for an "empty menace, decree auth
out the means Of earring it into effect, could
be no ca,tse, no nlotive tor measure, whose
a001oed object was :" to save our vessels, our
seamen and merchandise, from great and
Increasing dangers"
Sir, let all the documents laid on our ia
bles by the president be examined, and you
will not find one. i'll which he hazards the
assertion, that the British orders Of Nov.
18th were known to him at the time he re-
commended the embargo, or that an expec-
tation of them determined his recommended
ton. 1t was not until the Cd OF February,
when they had been officially Communicated
by the British master, that he offered them
to Congress ssas a farther proof Of the en-
creasing dangers to our navigation s COM
merce, which led to the providsnt measure
Of the act laying al embargo" And Mir.
Madison. N his letter to Mr.. Pinkney. of
February 10, 1903, cautiously avoids as
cribing the orsg'i's of TIE embargo to the Bri-
tish orders though he says, the proaa5ih-
ty of such DEGREES was among the consider
atoms which /" enforced" the measure /; the
language of the British gazettes, with other
indications, having Che said left little doubt
that such orders were meditated.' And
he adds, that the appearance Of these de-
crees (meaning the British orders) had
much effect In reconciiing all descriptions
among us tothe embargo"
But must notice the change of language
IN Mr.. Madison's last letter. In that Of
December 50, to Mr.. Finknev, he says,
!" the policy and the eases of the embargo
are explained in the presidents message"
But in his letter Of February 10, he SAYS,
9 my last Chat Of December % enclosed ::
copy OF the act OF the embargo, and explain
ed the b0!fcy Of the measure y leaving out
causes, and Introducing the raAsnovvn Bri-
tssh orders as among the considerations
which entcrcedit.
The president too, in his answer to the
Boston petition for suspending the enlbar-
SO, says not that the British orders were
knozun to exist at the time when the smbar-
so was laid; but only that they zvere in es.
isteace at the date OF the law from which,
the llnwary reader might suppose that they
were knozoqa to exist at that date.
From llthesc considerations it appears to
y -. ~ ~,