Non-Importation of Goods from Great Britain.

H. OF R.

Non-Importation of Goods from Great Britain.

MARCH, 1806.

ecutors of the will of General George Washing-pretended rights of others. That there should be ton, in behalf of themselves and the other devisees a difference of opinion respecting our own regu under the said will, was presented to the House lations, was to be expected, but when your lawful and read, praying that an act may pass for the commerce is attacked by what the honorable genpurpose of confirming the title of the said execu- tleman from Virginia so emphatically terms "the tors to certain lands on the northwest side of the Leviathan of the Ocean," and attacked, too, conriver Ohio, on or near the Little Miama, granted trary to their own acknowledged principles, as to their testator, in the year one thousand seven laid down in the correspondence between your hundred and ninety, by the said State of Virginia, late worthy Minister, Mr. King, and the British and which are found to be within the territory Minister, Lord Hawkesbury, I beg leave to call ceded by the said State to the United States. on the Clerk to read that part of the Boston meReferred to the Committee on the Public Lands. morial which relates to that correspondence. The House proceeded to consider a motion [The Clerk read the article.*] made yesterday, in the words following, to wit: "That Major General Arthur St. Clair be heard at the bar of the House in support of his claim:" Resolved, That this House doth agree to the same, and that Monday next, at twelve o'clock, be assigned for that purpose.

"In 1801, in consequence of a decree of the Vice Admiralty Court at Nassau, condemning the cargo of an American vessel going from the United States to a port in the Spanish colonies, with a cargo consisting of articles the growth of old Spain, our highly respectaThe House proceeded to consider a resolution ble and able Minister at the Court of London immeof the Senate, of yesterday, for the appointment diately addressed Lord Hawkesbury, His Majesty's of a joint committee of the two Houses, to con- Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and remonstrated in a resider and report what business is necessary to be spectful, but firm and dignified manner, against this done by Congress, the present session: Where-infringement and violation of the rights of neutrals.

upon,

Resolved, That this House doth agree to the said resolution, and that Mr. EARLY, Mr. JOHN RANDOLPH, Mr. GREGG, Mr. JOHN C. SMITH, and Mr. CROWNINSHIELD, be appointed a committee, on the part of this House.

A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate have passed the bill, entitled "An act for the relief of Peter Landais," with an amendment; to which they desire the concurrence of this House.

IMPORTATIONS FROM GREAT BRITAIN.

Mr. ALSTON called for the order of the day, for the House to resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.

Mr. CLARK moved to postpone this order Monday.

till

The SPEAKER declared it out of order to postpone such an order of the day.

The question of going into a Committee was then put and carried-yeas 70.

The Committee having agreed to take up the resolution submitted by Mr. NICHOLSON

"The remonstrance met that prompt attention from the British Government which its merits demanded; the subject was referred to the consideration of the Advocate General, who reported that the sentence of the Vice Admiralty Court at Nassau was founded in error; that it was now (1801) distinctly understood, and had been repeatedly so decided by the High Court of Appeals, that the produce of the colonies of the enemy may be imported by a neutral into his own country, and may be re-exported from thence even to the mother country of such colony; and in like manner, the produce and manufactures of the mother country may, in this circuitous route, legally find their way to the colonies; that a direct trade had not been recognised as legal, and the decision of what was, or was not a direct trade, was a question of some difficulty, and that the High Court of Admiralty had expressly decided, and the Advocate General saw no reason to expect the Court of Appeals would vary the the neutral country breaks the continuity of the voyrule, that landing the goods, and paying the duties in age, and is such an importation as legalizes the trade, although the goods be reshipped in the same vessel, and on account of the same neutral proprietors, and forwarded for sale to the mother country.

"The report of the Advocate General was accepted Mr. MUMFORD said: Mr. Chairman, it is with by the British Government, immediately transmitted great diffidence I rise to speak on this question. I by Lord Hawkesbury to Mr. King, and by His Majesam a merchant, unaccustomed to speak in a pub-ty's express command, communicated by the Duke of lic body. But, sir, when I see the dearest interests of my country unjustly attacked by a foreign nation, I must beg the indulgence of this Committee while I express my sentiments on the serious aspect of our foreign relations. Sir, I do not wish to extenuate the conduct of any nation. I have no predilection for one foreign nation more than another. I shall endeavor to speak the language of an independent American.

Sir, I had indulged the hope that the ninth Congress of the United States had assembled to deliberate on the momentous affairs of their country as Americans; but, sir, it gives me pain, and I regret extremely, to see gentlemen so far forget the interest of their own country in defending the

Portland, the principal Secretary of State, to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, with the information that it was His Majesty's pleasure that the doctrine laid down in the Advocate General's report should be immediately made known to the several Judges of the Vice Admiralty Courts, setting forth to them what is held to be law upon the subject by the superior tribunals, for their future guidance and di

rection.

"Thus are obtained so recently as within five years the deliberate opinions, on the subject under discussion, of the most eminent English civilians, and of the High Court of Admiralty, corroborated (if one of the first law officers of the Crown may be credited) by the repeated decisions of the same court of appeals which, by its late and contradictory decree in the case

MARCH, 1806.

Non-Importation of Goods from Great Britain.

This is no fiction, sir; it is a mere matter of fact. After all this I must confess I am astonished to find gentlemen in an American Congress palliating the impressment of our seamen, and the indiscriminate condemnation of our vessels and cargoes. Are we prepared to present an humble address to his most gracious Majesty on the throne, praying he would vouchsafe to take us in his holy keeping, pardon our former transgressions, and accept of us as liege subjects who have erred from the right way? No, sir. We are not colonists; we are an independent nation. Your acts and laws speak of thirty years of independence. I wish we could conquer our prejudices as easily as we did our enemies. Shall we never get rid of the idea of colonists and dependents on Great Britain?

H. OF R.

to the Committee to impute such unworthy motives to the merchants as we have heard expressed on this floor? They are men, sir; and I believe candor will allow them their share of sensibility, and that they sympathize for suffering humanity as much as a planter, a farmer, a lawyer, or any class of the community. Sir, I feel as much as any man for the sufferings of this meritorious class of citizens, having been an eyewitness to the barbarous treatment inflicted by the officers of the British Government on one of them. He was lashed to a scaffold on the gunwale of a boat, and whipped from ship to ship, until he had received five hundred lashes. What was the consequence? He expired the next morning. What was his crime? He had been impressed into their cruel bondage, and had endeavored to regain his liberty! We are asked, what is the remedy for this outrage? There is but one, sir. Demand satisfaction for the past, and in future make your flag protect your citizens, at least on the high seas, the common high road of all nations. Your merchants can insure their property against this "Leviathan of the Ocean;" but there is no alternative for the poor sailor, he is inevitably doomed to cruel slavery.

I shall now commence my observations on our unfortunate fellow-citizens in British bondage; and in answer to the honorable gentleman from Maryland, whom I very much respect, I do frankly acknowledge that amongst all the petitions presented to you by the merchants of the United States, there is not one word about our impressed seamen, Salem and another port excepted. But, sir, I beg leave to inform this Committee, and that honorable gentleman, that before we enter our ves- I now come to speak of foreign nations. We sels at the custom-house, we are called upon to wit- are told that the American merchants cover Spanness the recording of this tale of human wo before ish property. This may be the case. I believe a notary public, stating all the seamen impressed it; but it is to a very limited amount. The Spanduring the voyage. This is immediately trans-ish merchants have little capital at present to mitted to the Secretary of State, for the correct- dispose of. Their Government owes them conness of which I refer you to the documeuts from siderable sums of money, and the paper currency that department now on your table. Sir, is it of that Government is at such a discount (I bedecorous, is it candid, is it liberal, is it respectful lieve from 40 to 50 per cent.) that they are not able to extend their commerce, if they were ever of the Essex, Orne, has caused so disastrous an arso much disposed to do so. restation and condemnation of American property. "Judgment thus perspicuously stated and enforced by this high authority, it was fair to consider as intended for a beacon to the channel through which neutral commerce might be prosecuted with security. It is hoped the event will not prove they were a mere ignis fatuus to ensnare the innocent and unsuspi

cious.

"At any rate, whether the doctrine were sound or not, or whether it injured Great Britain or not, it cannot become the integrity and magnanimity of a great and powerful nation at once, and without notice, to reverse her rule of conduct towards other States, and to prey upon the unprotected property of a friendly Power, the extension of whose commerce had been invited by the formal avowal of her intentions, and prosecuted under a reliance on her good faith, and from the confidence reposed that her courts, uniform in their principles, would never be influenced by the time-serving politics of the moment.

"But whatever may have been the motives for the proceedings on the part of Great Britain, the effect is notorious. From her recent conduct great losses have been sustained; our commerce has been checked and embarrassed, and large quantities of produce are now remaining locked up in this country which were purchased for foreign markets, because our merchants cannot send it abroad without taking risks on themselves which prudence would not justify, or without paying such rates for insurance as the trade of the country cannot afford."

Respecting the French merchants, a great proportion of them in France are bankrupts, in consequence of heavy taxes, contributions, forced loans, and all the impositions of imperial ingenuher revenue; she collects one hundred and twenity. That country depends not on commerce for ty millions of dollars per annum, of which twelve millions only are levied upon commerce, being but ten per cent. on the whole revenue. Their merchants have it not in their power to extend their business for want of a capital, which is a fact that will be acknowledged by all commercial men. They are by no means the favorites of the Emperor; he grants them no indulgences, of which the late transactions at the national bank are a sufficient evidence.

Respecting Holland, every person conversant in business knows the cautious calculation of the Dutch merchants; they trade very little on their own account in time of war, but are constantly soliciting the American merchants to make consignments of property to sell on commission. And yet we are told in that oracle, the celebrated pamphlet, "War in Disguise," that France, Spain, and Holland, carry on the war against Great Britain with property covered by Americans! Will any rational man believe them?

I now come to Great Britain, sir; not one word has been said about property covered for

H. OF R.

Non-Importation of Goods from Great Britain.

her. She is immaculate; she is innocent; she can do no wrong. I have good authority for this last expression. The King says so, and others repeat it. Sir, immediately upon the coalition being formed on the continent of Europe, she seized upon your unsuspecting commerce, and surprised it with new principles and new doctrines in her Courts of Admiralty, which operated with her ships of war in the same manner as though they had actually received orders from the Lords of the Admiralty (how insidious! but they understand decoy) to capture and bring in all American vessels bound to enemy's ports; and if by chance any of them escape their fangs, after a mock trial, they are compelled to pay enormous charges, from five hundred to six hundred guineas, and sometimes more. This operates as a premium to carry in all your vessels, knowing beforehand they will have nothing to pay; for, although you gain your cause, you must pay the costs. This, sir, discourages your cautious and best merchants, and they are thus compelled to abandon and decline pursuing a lucrative and lawful traffic.

MARCH, 1806.

tish merchants, those monopolizers of the commerce of the whole world.

I mention these facts, sir, to vindicate the character of the real American merchants; it will stand the test with that of any other nation in the world. Sir, look at your revenue system, examine all the records of your district courts, see how very few fines and forfeitures they have incurred, and then compare them with any class of citizens you please, and you will, I am confident, Mr. Chairman, exculpate them from such disingenuous reflections as have been animadverted upon in this Committee. Sir, they make it a point of honor to discourage smuggling, knowing the whole revenue of their country to depend upon that fidelity which they have never ceased to inculcate. I cannot but persuade myself that, on mature reflection, gentlemen will not withhold from that class of the community the protection guarantied to them by the constitution of their country. It is a fact well known to this Committee that the Federal Constitution, under which we now hold our seats in this House, grew out of the great inconveniences we then experienced in our comIf there be any property covered for Great Bri-mercial affairs with foreign nations. Surely they tain, I have every reason to believe, from facts I will are not outlawed. I trust not sir. I hope better state to the committee, that it appertains almost ex- treatment from the hands of my country. clusively to some British merchants lately adopted I now come to the true history and the cause citizens of the United States, for they take good of the aggressions of Great Britain. It is very difcare to keep all their business in their own hands. ficult to trace her in all her ramifications of fraud They are the honest merchants who own the hon-on your neutrality and of injustice on your comest vessels we have heard so much about, and they are engaged in exporting cotton, tobacco, and other produce of our country. Why should they have the preference? it will be asked. I will not tell you what I do not know, (as has been said in this Committee,) but I will tell you what I do know. Sir, the real American merchants cannot enter into competition with them. They have their particular friends in England, who are interested, and will of course give them the preference. By a variety of ways they obtain all the freights, to the exclusion of your vessels. Sir, we are often compelled to take in ballast along side of those very ships who have full freights engaged. Thus, sir, the real American merchant is the dupe of these honest adopted British citizens. These are your slippery-eel merchants, so justly denominated by the honorable gentleman from Virginia, whose acme of mind I much admire. They were indeed, sir, so slippery in some of your districts, that it was found necessary to pass a law excluding all of them who resided in foreign countries from owning any ship or vessel belonging to the United States; for a number of them, after having made fortunes out of your neutrality, had slipped off to Great Britain to spend the money and the remainder of their days. And in order that we might not compromit our neutrality in this deceptive business, our National Legislature has been careful to pass a law in the first session of the eighth Congress, dated 27th March, 1804, to correct the abuse, which has in some measure put a check to it; and yet we are emphatically told it is only coffee, sugar, and East India goods that are guilty of the sin of interfering with Bri

merce. Sir, when the present continental coalition was concluded, the "lords of the ocean" with that colossus the East India Company, the merchants trading from London to the continent of Europe, the West India merchants, and some of our honest adopted citizens from Great Britain, all agreed with common consent to be in the fashion; and they formed a coalition against your commerce, and ordered a book to be written, in which they took a conspicuous part, called " War in Disguise." This was truly on their part war in dis guise, and the first act of hostility they commenced upon your unsuspecting commerce; and I hope they may ultimately meet the fate of all other coalitions, at least as far as respects our country. They had ordered, as all coalitions do, a large supply of ammunition; one hundred thousand copies of this instrument of death to your commerce were distributed, at sixpence each, to all parts of the British dominions, in order that your property might be plundered for the use of the naval commanders, who could no longer find any other property on the ocean. This book says, "they must retire on a handsome competency at the close of the war," no matter from whom it is taken.

Next comes the East India Company, that colossus of mercantile avarice, whose monopoly draws into its vortex all the demand for East India produce in Europe. Your lawful commerce to those markets interfered with them, and was considered incompatible with this monopoly and must be doomed to destruction.

Next come the merchants trading from London to the continent of Europe. They attend the public auctions, purchase your condemned vessels

785

MARCH, 1806.

HISTORY OF CONGRESS.
Non-Importation of Goods from Great Britain.

and their cargoes, procure a license from their Government, and send the same cargo on their own account to the very market your own citizens intended it for.

I now come to some of those honest adopted British merchants; and in order to elucidate that subject, I will beg leave to read a copy of a letter from one of the first houses of respectability in London, said to be in the confidence of the Minister:

H. of R.

her exports to our country. You cannot impose
any on your exports to that country; it is uncon-
stitutional.

Agreeably to the Secretary of the Treasury's report, it appears we had the last year, 672,000 tons of shipping employed in foreign commerce, the net revenue of which has been called the carrying trade

In the course of debate on this subject, the honorable gentleman from Virginia observed: "Is there a man so credulous as to believe that we possess a capital not only equal to what may be 'called our own proper trade, but large enough 'to transmit to the respective parent States the vast, wealthy products of the French, Spanish,. ' and Dutch colonies?" I will not pretend to say "This Government has granted licenses to neutral vessels, who take in a proportion of their cargoes in how much of this wealth we do carry in our own Great Britain, to proceed to the Spanish colonies to the vessels. I am sure we do not transport the whole south of the line, provided the returned cargoes are to of it; but the following statement of the capital be brought to this country; and I have now several ex-employed in the carrying trade, (so called,) will peditions of this nature under my direction for the ac- show that we have sufficient funds to load our count of houses on the continent, who prefer subjecting own vessels, and that it is worth our while to give themselves to the conditions Ministers have imposed it protection: for the toleration of that trade, to the risk of detention and its consequences even in the event of restitution." This is no fiction, sir, it is a fact. It cuts your commerce like a two-edged sword, involves your neutrality, and prevents your own merchants from going to the same market, the profit on which ultimately centres in Great Britain. There are at this moment British agents in two of your commercial cities, and I suppose more in other parts of the United States as well as in Europe, for they swarm on the industry of all nations. They are acting in concert to carry on this licensed trade with the Spanish colonies, their enemies jeopardizing your neutrality, to the manifest injury of the real American merchants. This is a very valuable branch of commerce, as you may readily suppose from the price that sagacious calculating nation sets upon it. What is the result of all this? Why, sir, if it were not for the interference of this very Government, so much extolled at the expense of your own, we should enjoy the benefit ourselves. They themselves license vessels to carry on a commerce, which if pursued by your citizens,

Deduct, to make it average with the tonnage
of the last thirteen years of neutrality

$850,000

105,000

745,000

Five hundred and fifty thousand tons of American shipping have been employed in foreign commerce, per Treasury reports, will average for the last thirteen years neutrality, calculating at the low estimation of one voyage per annum (some vessels make two voyages, and others are lost,) it will leave an average of fourteen dollars per ton net gain to the $7,700,000 United States for each year, is

do

Freight to Europe, average
East Indies,
West Indies,

&c.

do

without their permission, is sure to be plundered, Deduct wages, provisions, commissions, insurance, Thus, sir, that Government assails your commerce at home, and condemns it abroad, on the most vexatious and unwarrantable pretensions.

Sir, I beg leave to call the attention of the Committee to an important fact. Examine your treaty with Spain, your treaty with France, your treaty with Holland, your treaties with some of the Northern Powers, what do they say? "Free ships make free goods." What does Great Britain say? "You shall give up the goods of my enemies," and you accede to it. Is this reciprocal? Is it just? Is it not a humiliating concession? Is this cause of war? What says that oracle, that celebrated pamphlet, on this occasion? Not a word, sir; it is as silent as the grave. Who now has the greatest cause of complaint, Great Britain or her enemies? Her motto is "Úniversal domination over the seas"-the common highway of all nations-and, unless you assert your rights, you will be swept into the general vortex. We are told that this is a war measure. true, and commercial regulations are of that nature, we are at war with Great Britain at this very moment, for she imposes four per cent, on

If it be

Average per ton

42

Calculating thirteen years of neutrality, from February, 1793, to February, 1806, on 550,000 tons, the average, as above stated, makes $8,445,000 per annum, gained in the carrying trade. It must be understood that the freight is calculated on the produce of our own soil, as well as the foreign produce carried in our vessels. No reference to profit is made; it is uncertain, but may be presumed to be at least $104,445,000 as much as the freight

the banks in the United States

Add to this, about the actual capital of all

most of the banks divide from eight to
nine per cent. per annum; and as they
are only allowed six per cent. per an-
num on the capital, they must of course
loan out this amount to the merchants
and others, which answers all the pur-
poses of money

To this must be added fifty per cent., as

Total

35,000,000

17,500,000

156,945,000