It was confidently expected that this act on the part of France, would have been immediately followed by a revocation on the part of Great Britain of her orders in council. 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 the Berlin and Milan decrees, we looked forward to the extinction of those decrees, 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 A year has elapsed since the French decrees were rescinded, and yet Great Britain, instead of retracting pari passu that course of unjustifiable attack on neutral rights in which she professed to be only the reluctant follower of France, has advanced with bolder and continually increasing strides. To the categorical demands lately made by our government for the repeal of her orders in council, she has affected to deny the practical extinction of the French decrees: and she has, moreover, advanced a new and unexpected demand, increasing in hostility the orders themselves. She has insisted, through her accredited minister at this place, that the repeal of the orders in council must be preceded, not only by the practical abandonment of the decrees of Berlin and Milan, so far as they infringe the neutral rights of the United States; but by the renunciation on the part of France, of the whole of her system of commercial warfare against Great Britain, of which those decrees originally formed a part.

This system is understood to consist in a course of measures adopted by France and the other powers on the continent subject to, or in alliance with her, calculated to prevent the introduction into their territories of the products and manufactures of Great Britain and her colonies;\ and to annihilate her trade with them. However hostile these regulations may be, on the part of France towards Great Britain; or however sensibly the latter may feel their effects, they are, nevertheless, to be regarded only as the expedients of one enemy against another, for which the United States, as a neutral power, can, in no respect be responsible: they are, too, in exact conformity with those which Great Britain has herself adopted

and acted upon in time of peace as well as war. And it is not to be presumed that France would yield to the unauthorized demand of America what she seems to have considered as one of the most powerful engines of the present war.

Such are the pretensions upon which Great Britain founds the violation of the maritime rights of the United States-pretensions not theoretical merely, but followed up by a desolating war upon our unprotected commerce. The ships of the United States, laden with the products of our own soil and labour, navigated by our own citizens and peaceably pursuing a lawful trade, are seized on our own coasts, at the very mouths of our harbours, and condemned and confiscated.

Your committee are not, however, of that sect whose worship is at the shrine of a calculating avarice. And while we are laying before you the just complaints of our merchants against the plunder of their ships and cargoes, we cannot refrain from presenting to the justice and humanity of our country the unhappy case of our impressed seamen. Although the groans of these victims of barbarity for the loss of (what should be dearer to Americans than life) their liberty-although the cries of their wives and children in the privation of protectors and parents, have, of late, been drowned in the louder clamours at the loss of property yet is the practice of forcing our mariners into the British navy, in violation of the rights of our flag, carried on with unabated rigour and severity. If it be our duty to encourage the fair and legitimate commerce of this country by protecting the property of the merchant, then, indeed, by as much as life and liberty are more estimable than ships and goods, so much more impressive is the duty to shield the persons of our seamen, whose hard and honest services are employed, equally with those of the merchants, in advancing, under the mantle of its laws, the interests of their country.

To sum up, in a word, the great causes of complaint against Great Britain, your committee need only sayThat the United States as a sovereign and independent power, claim the right to use the ocean, which is the common and acknowledged highway of nations, for the purposes of transporting, in their own vessels, the products of their own soil and the acquisitions of their own industry,

to a market in the ports of friendly nations, and to bring home, in return, such articles as their necessities or convenience may require, always regarding the rights of belligerents, as defined by the established laws of nations. Great Britain, in defiance of this incontestable right, captures every American vessel bound to or returning from a port where her commerce is not favoured; enslaves our seamen, and in spite of our remonstrances perseveres in these aggressions.

To wrongs so daring in character, and so disgraceful in their execution, it is impossible that the people of the United States should remain indifferent. We must now tamely and quietly submit, or we must resist by those means which God has placed within our reach.

Your committee would not cast a shade over the American name, by the expression of a doubt which branch of this alternative will be embraced. The occasion is now presented when the national character, misunderstood and traduced for a time by foreign and domestick enemies, should be vindicated.

If we have not rushed to a field of battle like the nations who are led by the mad ambition of a single chief, or the avarice of a corrupted court, it has not proceeded from a fear of war, but from our love of justice and bumanity. That proud spirit of liberty and independence, which sustained our fathers in the successful assertion of their rights against foreign aggression, is not yet sunk. The patriotick fire of the revolution still burns in the American breast with a holy and inextinguishable flame, and will conduct this nation to those high destinies, which are not less the reward of dignified moderation, than of exalted valour.

But we have borne with injury until forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. The sovereignty and independence of these States, purchased and sanctified by the blood of our fathers, from whom we received them, not for ourselves only, but as the inheritance of our posterity, are de liberately and systematically violated. And the period has arrived, when in the opinion of your committee, it is the sacred duty of Congress to call forth the patriotism and resources of the country. By the aid of these, and with the blessing of God, we confidently trust we shall be ena bled to procure that redress, which has been sought for by justice, by remonstrance and forbearance in vain.

Your committee, reserving for a future report, those ulterior measures, which in their opinion ought to be pursued, would at this time earnestly recommend, in the words of the President, "That the United States be immediately put into an armour and attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations."

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO CONGRESS. JANUARY 16, 1812.

I TRANSMIT to the Senate a report of the Secretary of State, complying with their resolution of the 18th of No

vember.

JAMES MADISON.

REPORT.

THE Secretary of State, to whom was referred the resolution of the Senate requesting information on certain points respecting the trade of the United States to France, has the honour to report to the President, that he has examined the files of this department, and found no precise information on the subject of the said resolution, which has not been heretofore communicated to Congress.

That in consequence thereof he applied to the French minister for the requisite information, who, not possessing it, referred the application to the consul-general of France, from whom, as yet, nothing has been received, as will more fully appear by the accompanying letters, marked A and B.

It may be proper to observe, that it is generally understood, as well from the letters of Mr. Russell, communicated to Congress at the commencement of the present session as from other sources, that the trade of the United States to France is subjected to very severe restrictions; but the precise extent and nature of them is not distinctly

known to this department. The instructions of the minister of the United States at Paris embracing this as well as other subjects, communications from that source may soon furnish more particular information. An expectation of the speedy arrival of despatches from France, together with a hope that the French consul-general would have been enabled to throw some light upon the inquiry, have caused the postponement of this report until the present

time.

JAMES MONROE.

Department of State, Jan. 16, 1812.

(A.)

Department of State, Jan. 4, 1812.

SIR,-When I did myself the honour to submit to you a copy of the resolution of the Senate of the United States of the 18th of November last, asking information as to the commercial regulations of France, as they applied to the trade of this country, you told me that it was not then in your power to give precise information as to these regulations, but that you would obtain it for me from Mr. Lescallier, his imperial majesty's consul-general in Philadelphia. I have now the honour to inquire whether Mr. Lescallier has made a report to you on this subject; and if he has, to request that you will furnish me with the result, as soon as your convenience will permit.

I have the honour, &c.

JAMES MONROE.

Mr. Serrurier, &c. &c. &c.

(B.)

TRANSLATION.

Washington, Jan. 5, 1812.

SIR,-The documents for which the Senate called upon you not being in my possession, in consequence of the desire you manifested to obtain them through me, I charged the consul-general to procure them for me. I have not yet received his answer. It would not be extraordinary if