Part 52 (1/2)

The statements and arguments of this report tended to enforce the policy of making discriminations which might favor the commerce of the United States with France and discourage that with England, and which might promote the increase of American navigation as a branch of industry and a resource of defense.

This was the last official act of the Secretary of State. Early in the preceding summer he had signified to the President his intention to retire in September from the public service, and had, with some reluctance, consented to postpone the execution of this intention to the close of the year. Retaining his purpose, he resigned his office on the last day of December. He was succeeded by Edmund Randolph, whose place as Attorney-General was supplied by William Bradford, of Pennsylvania.

On the 4th of January (1794), the House resolved itself into a committee of the whole, on the report of the Secretary of State, relative to the restrictions of the commerce of the United States, when Mr. Madison, after some prefatory observations, laid on the table a series of resolutions for the consideration of the members.

These memorable resolutions embraced almost completely the idea of the report. They imposed an additional duty on the manufactures, and on the tonnage of vessels of nations having no commercial treaty with the United States; while they reduced the duties already imposed by law on the tonnage of vessels belonging to nations having such commercial treaty, and they reciprocated the restrictions which were imposed on American navigation.

The resolutions were taken up on the 13th of January (1794), and the consideration of them led to protracted and very animated debates. The friends of the administration regarded Mr. Madison's scheme as directly hostile to England and subservient to the views of France, in a degree utterly inconsistent with the policy of neutrality. On the other hand, the opposition insisted that the proposed measures were absolutely necessary to protect the commerce of the country from aggression and plunder.

Mr. Madison, in advocating the views which he held, looked especially to measures correspondent to the British navigation act, which had given England the command of the sea. He contended that America would thrive more from exclusion and contest, than from conciliating and stooping to a power that slighted her; and that now was the moment, if ever, when England was engaged in mortal strife with France, to bring her to reason. [2] Mr. Madison's plan was debated at different periods of the session, and underwent considerable modification in its progress through the House, where a resolution was finally adopted retaining the principle of commercial restrictions. It was rejected in the Senate by the casting vote of Mr. Adams, the Vice-President.

Early in January, a resolution was agreed to in the House, declaring ”that a naval force, adequate to the protection of the commerce of the United States against the Algerine corsairs, ought to be provided.” The force proposed was to consist of six frigates.

This measure was founded on the communications of the President respecting the improbability of being able to negotiate a peace with the Dey of Algiers; and on undoubted information that these pirates had, during their first short cruise in the Atlantic, captured eleven American merchantmen, and made upwards of 100 prisoners, and were preparing to renew their attack on the unprotected vessels of the United States. This bill was strongly opposed, but finally pa.s.sed both houses, and was approved by the President.

While these debates were going on, the news of the British order in council of the 6th of November (which had not become known to the American minister in England until the close of December, 1793), relative to the French West India trade, arrived in the United States, and roused afresh the hostility against England. Such was the threatening aspect of affairs, that early in the session a committee of the House was instructed to prepare and report an estimate of the expense requisite to place the princ.i.p.al seaports of the country in a state of defense.

That some steps should be taken to resist aggressions on the part of England, was very evident; but the members of Congress differed as to what measures ought to be adopted. The opponents of the administration urged the adoption of commercial restrictions, while its supporters, with the President himself, were in favor of a different course. Various plans were submitted to the House by members, in accordance with their different views of the subject.

On the 12th of March (1794) Mr. Sedgwick moved several resolutions, the objects of which were to raise a military force, and to authorize the President to lay an embargo. The armament was to consist of 15,000 men, who should be brought into actual service in case of war with any European power, but not until war should break out. In the meantime they were to receive pay while a.s.sembled for the purpose of discipline, which was not to exceed twenty-four days in each year.

After stating the motives which led to the introduction of these resolutions they were laid on the table for the consideration of the members.

On the 21st of March Mr. Sedgwick's motion, authorizing the President to lay an embargo, was negatived by a majority of two votes, but in a few days the consideration of that subject was resumed, and a resolution pa.s.sed prohibiting all trade from the United States to any foreign port or place for thirty days, and empowering the President to carry the resolution into effect.

On the 27th of March Mr. Dayton moved a resolution for sequestering all debts due to British subjects, and for taking means to secure their payment into the treasury, as a fund out of which to indemnify the citizens of the United States for depredations committed on their commerce by British cruisers, in violation of the laws of nations.

The debate on this resolution was such as was to be expected from the irritable state of the public mind. The invectives against the British nation were uttered with peculiar vehemence, and were mingled with allusions to the exertions of the government for the preservation of neutrality, censuring strongly the system which had been pursued.

Before any question was taken on the proposition for sequestering British debts, and without a decision on those proposed by Mr. Madison, Mr. Clarke moved a resolution which in some degree suspended the commercial regulations that had been so earnestly debated. This was to prohibit all intercourse with Great Britain until her government should make full compensation for all injuries done to the citizens of the United States by armed vessels, or by any person or persons acting under the authority of the British King, and until the western posts should be delivered up.

On the 4th of April (1794) before any decision was made on the several propositions which have been stated, the President laid before Congress a letter just received from Thomas Pinckney, the minister of the United States at London, communicating additional instructions to the commanders of British armed s.h.i.+ps, which were dated the 8th of January.

These instructions revoked those of the 6th of November (1793), and, instead of bringing in for adjudication all neutral vessels trading with the French islands, British cruisers were directed to bring in those only which were laden with cargoes the produce of the French islands, and were on a direct voyage from those islands to Europe.

The letter detailed a conversation with Lord Grenville on this subject, in which his lords.h.i.+p explained the motives which had originally occasioned the order of the 6th of November, and gave to it a less extensive signification than it had received in the courts of vice-admiralty.

It was intended, he said, to be temporary and was calculated to answer two purposes. One was to prevent the abuses which might take place in consequence of the whole of the St. Domingo fleet having gone to the United States; the other was on account of the attack designed upon the French West India islands by the armament under Sir John Jervis and Sir Charles Grey; but it was now no longer necessary to continue the regulations for those purposes. His lords.h.i.+p added that the order of the 6th of November did not direct the confiscation of all vessels trading with the French islands, but only that they should be brought in for legal adjudication, and he conceived that no vessel would be condemned under it which would not have been previously liable to the same sentence.

The influence of this communication on the party in the Legislature which was denominated Federal was very considerable. Believing that the existing differences between the two nations still admitted of explanation and adjustment, they strenuously opposed all measures which were irritating in their tendency or which might be construed into a dereliction of the neutral character they were desirous of maintaining, but they gave all their weight to those which, by putting the nation in a posture of defense, prepared it for war should negotiation fail.

On the opposite party no change of sentiment or of views appears to have been produced. Their system seems to have been matured, and not to have originated in the feelings of the moment. They adhered to it, therefore, with inflexible perseverance, but seemed not anxious to press an immediate determination of the propositions which had been made. These propositions were discussed with great animation, but, notwithstanding an ascertained majority in their favor, were permitted to remain undecided, as if their fate depended on some extrinsic circ.u.mstance.

Meanwhile, great exertions were made to increase the public agitation and to stimulate the resentments which were felt against Great Britain.

The artillery of the press was played with unceasing fury on the minority of the House of Representatives and the democratic societies brought their whole force into operation. Language will scarcely afford terms of greater outrage than were employed against those who sought to stem the torrent of public opinion and to moderate the rage of the moment. They were denounced as a British faction, seeking to impose chains on their countrymen. Even the majority was declared to be but half roused and to show little of that energy and decision which the crisis required.

The proceedings of Congress continued to manifest a fixed purpose to pursue the system which had been commenced, and the public sentiment seemed to accord with that system. That the nation was advancing rapidly to a state of war was firmly believed by many intelligent men, who doubted the necessity and denied the policy of abandoning the neutral position which had been thus long maintained. In addition to the extensive calamities which must, in any state of things, result to the United States from a rupture with a nation which was the mistress of the ocean, and which furnished the best market for the sale of their produce and the purchase of manufactures of indispensable necessity, there were considerations belonging exclusively to the moment, which, though operating only in a narrow circle, were certainly ent.i.tled to great respect. [3]

That war with Britain, during the continuance of the pa.s.sionate and almost idolatrous devotion of a great majority of the people to the French republic, would throw America so completely into the arms of France as to leave her no longer mistress of her own conduct, was not the only fear which the temper of the day suggested. That the spirit which triumphed in that nation and deluged it with the blood of its revolutionary champions might cross the Atlantic, and desolate the hitherto safe and peaceful dwellings of the American people, was an apprehension not so entirely unsupported by appearances as to be p.r.o.nounced chimerical. With a blind infatuation, which treated reason as a criminal, immense numbers applauded a furious despotism, trampling on every right, and sporting with life as the essence of liberty; and the few who conceived freedom to be a plant which did not flourish the better for being nourished with human blood, and who ventured to disapprove the ravages of the guillotine, were execrated as the tools of the coalesced despots, and as persons who, to weaken the affection of America for France, became the calumniators of that republic. Already had an imitative spirit, captivated with the splendor, but copying the errors, of a great nation, reared up in every part of the continent self-created corresponding societies, who, claiming to be the people, a.s.sumed a control over the government and were loosening its bands.

Already were the Mountain, [4] and a revolutionary tribunal, favorite toasts, and already were principles familiarly proclaimed, which, in France, had been the precursors of that tremendous and savage despotism, which, in the name of the people and by the instrumentality of affiliated societies, had spread its terrific sway over that fine country and had threatened to extirpate all that was wise and virtuous.

That a great majority of those statesmen who conducted the opposition would deprecate such a result furnished no security against it. When the physical force of a nation usurps the place of its wisdom, those who have produced such a state of things no longer control it.