in part by any citizen or subject of either, and not excepted as aforesaid,~ shall, after the twentieth day of May next, arrive either with or without a cargo, within the limits of the United States, or of the territories thereof, such ship or vessel, together with the cargo, if any, which may be found on board shall be forfeited, and may be seized and condemned in any court of the United States or the territories thereof, having competent jurisdiction: and all and every act and acts heretofore passed, which shall be within the purview of this act, shall be, and the same are hereby repealed.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That from and after the twentieth day of May next, it shall not be lawful to import into the United States or the territories thereof, any goods, wares, or merchandize whatever, from any port or place situated in Great Britain or Ireland, or from any of the colonies or dependencies of Great Britain; nor from any port or place situated in France, or in any of her colonies or dependencies, nor from any port or place in the actual possession of either Great Britain or France. Nor shall it be lawful to import into the United States, or the territories thereof, from any foreign port or place whatever, any goods, wares, or merchandize whatever, being of the growth, produce, or mannfacture of France, or of any of her colonies or dependencies, or being of the growth, produce, or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, or of any of the colonies or dependencies of Great Britain, or being of the growth, produce or manufacture of any place or country in the actual possession of either France or Great Bitain: provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect the cargoes of ships or vessels wholly owned by a citizen or citizens of the United States, which had cleared for any port beyond the Cape of Good Hope, prior to the twenty second day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seven, or which had departed for such port by permission of the president, under the acts supplementary to the act laying an embargo on all ships and ves-sels in the ports and harbors of the United States.

Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That the president of the United States be,and he hereby is authorised, in case either France or Great Britain shall so revoke or modify her edicts, as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, to declare the same by proclamation; after which the trade of the United States, suspended by this act, and by the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, and the several acts supplementary thereto, may be renewed with the nation so doing; provided, that all penalties and forfeitures which shall have been previously incurred, by virtue of this or of any other act, the operation of which shall so cease and determine, shall be recovered and distributed, in like manner as if the same had continued in full force and virtue and vessels bound thereafter to any foreiga port or place, with which commercial intercourse shall by virtue of this section be again permitted, shall give bond to the United States, with approved security, in double the value of the vessel and cargo, that they shall not proceed to any foreign port, nor trade with any country other than those with which commercial intercourse shall have been or. may be permitted by this act. Enacted March 1, 1809.

I have already stated, that this law, was preposterously and absurdly denounced, as feeble and imbecile, by ninety-nine out of every hundred democrats, in the United States. And impartial review of it will prove the folly of this denunciation:--

It evinces a deep sense of the grievous injuries the nation had sustained from the belligerents—a sincere wish to return to the relations of peace and friendship with either or both-and an ardent desire to try every rational mode of procuring redress previous to a recourse to the horrors of war.

It held out in one hand prohibition and penalty for wrongs inflicted-in the other "the Olive Branch”—an invitation to, and premium for, a mere return to justice-a mere cessation of unprovoked hostility. The statute books of all the nations of Christendom may be searched in vain, för a law entitled to more unequivocal applause-and rarely has a law been more generally censured.

The federalists reprobated this act as well as the democrats --and with equal folly and madness-but on totally different grounds. They regarded it, forsooth, as too violent a measure as calculated to produce war-or, in fact, absurdly enough, as a species of warfare!

"Sir, the bill before you is war. It is to suspend all intercourse, to put an end to all the relations of amity. WHAT IS THAT but war? War of the worst kindwar under the disguise of NON INTERCOURSE-No power, having national feelings, or regard to national cheracter, will SUBMIT to such COERCION.*

"It [non-intercourse] is cowardly; for it is a base attempt to bring on a war with Great Britain. It is FRENCH in every feature. It is intended as a measure of hostility against Great Britain."

CHAPTER XXIX.‡

Embargo once more. Recommended to Congress by a respectable body of merchants in New-York.

THIS shall be a short chapter. cient to glance over it. I hope, least interesting in the book.

Three minutes will be suffi however, it will not be the

The embargo, we have seen, was enacted in December 1807, to preserve the property of the American merchants from depredation under French decrees and British orders in counciland likewise to coerce the belligerents, through regard to their own interests, to cease violating our rights.

The merchants, and their friends universally, throughout the nation, reprobated this measure. Independent of its pretended

*Mr. Hillhouse's speech on the non-intercourse bill before the senate, Febru ary 22, 1809

+ Boston Repertory.

This Chapter is out of its chronological order-but its immediate connexion with the subject of the preceding chapter has induced me to place it here.

unconstitutionality, it was denounced as tyranical, and oppressive, and unjust towards our own citizens-and feeble, and imbecile, and inefficient towards those nations whose insults and outrages it was intended to prevent.

That these sentiments pervaded the mercautile part of the community in 1807-8, I presume no man of character will dare deny.

Consistency is commendable. Let us enquire how far the merchants practised it. On the 15th of June, 1812, a memorial was presented to Congress, from various merchants in NewYork, praying for a continuance of the embargo, and the restrictive system generally!

You are amazed, reader. You can hardly believe me.-You are persuaded that I am not serious-that I am putting your credulity to a severe trial.

all in the wrong."

You are 66 I am as perfectly serious as I have ever been. And to remove all doubt on the subject, here is the memorial-and here also the signers-forty-two federalists and sixteen democrats. Yes-deny it, who can. Here are forty-two federal merchants, invoking congress to continue the much abused “restrictive system," as likely to extort justice from Great Britain.

MEMORIAL.

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, the memorial of the subscribers, merchants and others inhabitants of the city of New-York, respectfully sheweth :

That your memorialists feel, in common with the rest of their fellowcitizens, an anxious solicitude for the honor and interests of their country, and an equal determination to assert and maintain them.

That your memorialists believe that A CONTINUATION OF THE RESTRICTIVE MEASURES NOW IN OPERATION, WILL PRODUCE ALL THE BENEFITS, WHILE IT PREVENTS THE CALAMITIES OF WAR. That when the British ministry become convinced that a trade with the United States cannot be renewed, but by the repeal of the orders in council, the distress of their merchants and manufacturers, and their inability to support their armies in Spain and Portugal, will probably compel them to that measure!

Your memorialists beg leave to remark, that SUCH EFFECTS ARE EVEN NOW VISIBLE; and it may be reasonably hoped, that a continuance of the embargo and non-importation laws a few months beyond the fourth day of July next, WILL EFFECT A COMPLETE AND BLOODLESS TRIUMPH OF OUR RIGHTS.

Your memorialists therefore RESPECTFULLY SOLICIT OF YOUR HONORABLE BODY, THE PASSAGE OF A LAW CONTINUING THE EMBARGO,

and giving to the president of the United States power to discontinue the whole of the restrictive system on the rescinding of the British orders in council.

The conduct of France in burning our ships, in sequestrating our preperty entering her ports, expecting protection in consequence of the premised repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees, and the delay in completing a treaty with the American minister, has excited great sensation: and we hope and trust will call forth from your honorable body such retaliatory measures as may be best calculated to procure justice.

A member of congress, Mr. Taylor, stated that he was informed there were on that list the names of two presidents of banks, three presidents of insurance companies, thirteen directors of banks, besides other names of "pre-eminent standing in the commercial world." Ponder, I beseech you, reader, on these things. They demand the most sober and serious consideration. The embargo and restrictive system generally, after having been defeated and rendered nugatory by mercantile opposition, are now, by the merchants themselves, proclaimed to the world as likely to effect "a bloodless triumph of our rights" What a severe satire on themselves-what a panegyr ic on their opponents-this short sentence contains!

CHAPTER XXX.

The Erskine arrangement. A most liberal and magnanimous procedure, probably never exceeded. Loudly app lauded byalt parties. Rejected by England. Then censured by the federalists. Wonderful inconsistency.

NEVER was there a measure of more fairness and candor, than the arrangement made by our government with Mr. Erskine.The annals of diplomacy may be ransacked in vain to produce

a negociation more deserving of encomium, or more honorable to both parties. In forty-four days after Mr. Madison's inauguration, Mr. Erskine made candid overtures to our government for an accommodation of the existing differences between the two nations. They were met with a proper spirit of frankness, and with a promptitude never exceeded. The overtures were dated the 17th of April-the reply the same day-Mr. Erskine's second letter, and the reply of the secretary of state, on the 18th. And, both parties being sincerely desirous of a reconciliation, an equitable arrangement was adjusted in two days, that is to say, on the 19th, whereby neither the honor nor the interest of either nation was compromitted. Friendly intercourse between them was once more restored. Never was a negociation conducted on more liberal or generous principles. It was manly and magnanimous-and affords one of the very few instances in which diplomacy was divested of her usual attendants, chicane and fraud.

To enable the reader to form a correct opinion on this subject, I annex the whole of the correspondence that took place respecting it, between our government and the British minister. It will then appear that the transaction can hardly be too highly eulogized.

(No. I.)

MR. ERSKINE TO MR. SMITH.

Washington, 17th April, 1809. "Sir-I have the honor to inform you, that I have received his majesty's commands to represent to the government of the United States, that his majesty is animated by the most sincere desire for an adjustment of the differences, which have unhappily so long prevailed between the two countries, the recapitulation of which might have a tendency to impede, if not prevent an amicable understanding.

"It having been represented to his majesty's government, that the congress of the United States, in their proceedings at the opening of the last session, had evinced an intention of passing certain laws, which would place the relations of Great Britain with the United States upon an equal footing, in all respects, with other belligerent powers, I have accordingly received his majesty's commands, in the event of such laws taking place, to offer, on the part of his majesty, an honorable reparation for the aggression, committed by a British naval officer, in the attack on the United States' frigate Chesapeake.

"Considering the act, passed by the congress of the United States on the first of March, (usually termed the non-intercourse act) as having produced a state of equality, in the relations of the two belligerent powers, with respect to the United States, I have to submit, conformably to instructions, for the consideration of the American government such terms of satisfaction and reparation, as, his majesty is induced to believe, will be accepted, in the same spirit of conciliation, with which they are proposed.

"In addition to the prompt disavowal made by his majesty, on being ap prized of the unauthorized act committed by his naval officer, whose recal as a mark of the king's displeasure, from an highly important and honorable command, immediately ensued, his majesty is willing to restore the men forcibly

K