The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1811-12-11

TWELFTH CONGRESS;s:::::::::::FIR sEssIoa
4 HOUSE or PRESE.N7.4IIPES.


which was referred to committee OF the
whole
The committee to whom was referred that part of
the Presidents Message, which relates TO our
Foreign Affairs. beg leave TO Report in part,
That they have endeayoured to give to the
subject submitted to them, that full and dis
passionate consideration, which is due TO one
SO intimately connected with the interest, the
peace, the safety and the honour OF their
country.
Your committee will not cucumber yoar
journals and waste your patience with de-
tailed history of all the various matters grow
ing out of bur foreign relations. Ihe cold
recital of wrongs, of injuries and aggres-
sions known and felt by every member ot this
Union, could have no other effect than TO
desden the national sensibiity and render the
publick mind calous TO injuries with which
1t is already too familiar.
Without recurring then 10 the multiplied
wrongs OF partial or temporary operation, oil
which we have so Just cause Of complaint
against the two great belligerents, your COM
mittcc will only call your attention, at this
time, to the systcmatick aggressions OF those
powers, authorized by their edicts against
neutral commercc--a system, which as re-
gardcd its principles, as founded on prcten-
sions that went to the subvci @on OF our ma
,ional independence and which, although
now abandoned by one power, is, In It's broad
and destructive operation, still enforced by
the other, sapping tho foundation OF our pros
periw.
1t is more than Eve years since England
and France, in violation of those principles
Of justice and publ;ch law, held sacred by all
civilized nations, commenced this unprcce-
dented system, by seizing the property OF the
citizens Of the unlcd States pcaccably pur-
SUNG their lawful commerce on the high
seas. TO shield themselves rom the odium
which such outrage must incur, each O! the
belligerents sought pYetext IN the conduct
Of the othcI--cach attempting TO justify has
system of rapinc as retaliation tor similar
acts on the part OF his enemy. AS it the law
of nations, founded on the eternal rules OF
justice, could sanction principle, which II
engraflcd into our municipal code would ex-
cusc the crime of one robber, upon the sole
plea that the unfortunate object of his rapa-
city, was only a victim TO the injustice OF a
nother The fact of priority could be true
as TO one only of the parties and, whether
true or false, could furnish no ground Of JUS
tiiication.
The United States thus unexpectedly and
violently assailed by the two greatest powers
in Europe, withdrew their citizens and pre-
pcrty from the ocean and cbershing the
blessings of peace, although the occasion
would have fully justified war, sought re-
dress in an appeal TO the justice and magnaD-
Unity of the belligerents. When this appeal
had failed Of the success which was due to
its mode other measures, founded on
the same pecifck policy, but applying 10 the
interest, instead of the justice OF the bellig-
crents, were rcsorted TO. Such was the char
racter of the non-lntcrcourse and non-lmpor-
tation laws, which invited the return of both
powers to their former state Of umicable re-
lations, by offering commercial advantages
10 the one who should first revoke his hostile
etlicts, and imposing restrictions on the other.
'r France, at length, availing herself of the
proffcrs made equally to her and-her enemy,
by the non-importa,ion law Of May, 1910,
announced the repeal or the following Nov.
of the DEGREES Of Berlin and Milan. And it
affords subject Of sincere congratula,ion to
be informed, through the official organs Of
the government, that those DEGREES are, SO
far at least as our rights arc concerned, real
ly and prac,icably at an end.
1t was confidently expected that this act
on the part Of France, would have been i'm
mediately followed by revocation on the
part of Great. Britain of her orders in coun-
Gil. If our reliance on her justice had been
impaired by the wrongs she had inflicted !;
yet when she had plighted her faith to the
world that the sole motive Of her aggression
on neutral commerce was TO be found in tho
Berlin and Milan DEGREES, VIC looked forward
to the extinction of those DEGREES, as the
period when the freedom OF the seas would
be again restored.
In this reasonable expectation we have,
however, been Disappointed. A year has c.
lapscd-sincc the French DEGREES were rescin-