Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.). United States. Congress
that. Out of eleven electors, nine men are returned as elected who have approved this system of measures. Does this prove that the embargo was the cause of the change of the politics of the Maryland Legislature? I think not, sir.
But the gentleman has said that the embargo, and not the Orders in Council and decrees, has destroyed the commerce of this country. I do not know, after all the arguments which I have heard, if the gentleman listened with the same attention as I did, how he could make such an assertion. When our ports are blockaded, and all the world is against us, so that, if the embargo was raised, we could go nowhere with perfect freedom, can gentlemen say that the embargo has ruined our commerce? Is it not these acts which have shut us out from a market? The gentleman says we may trade to England. Yes, sir, we may, provided we will pay all such duties as she chooses, and go nowhere else. And would not the doing this place us in precisely the same situation as we were in before the Revolution? England says we may trade with her, paying heavy import and export duties, but says we shall go nowhere else. If you go anywhere else, she says you shall go by England, take a license, and pay a duty, and then you may trade. Is it to be supposed that the people of the United States will agree to this? Are they reduced to that situation, that they will become the vassals of a foreign power – for what? Why, sir, for the prosecution of a trade with that foreign power, who, if her present impositions be submitted to, may cut up our trade in any manner she pleases; for, through our trade, she will raise a revenue to almost an equal amount with the value of your whole produce carried hence. She levies a higher tribute on some articles than the article itself is worth, and this trade the gentleman wants to pursue. He wants no substitute; "take off the embargo," says he, "and let us trade." Sir, if we could trade upon equal terms, I, too, should say, "take off the embargo, and let us trade." But if we cannot trade, except under the license of a foreign power, I say it would be ruinous to us. And has it come to this, for all the arguments go to this, that the American people, for the sake of pounds, shillings, and pence, for the sake of hoarding up a few pence, are to give up their independence, and become vassals of England and France? I hear nothing from the gentleman about the honor of the nation. It would appear as if gentlemen on the other side of the House are willing to sell their country if they can put money in their pocket. Take off the embargo, they cry – for what? money. Pay tribute – for what? money. Surrender your independence – for what? all for money, sir. I trust the people have a different feeling from these gentlemen. The people love money, sir; but they love liberty and independence much better. If money had been the sole object, the Revolution would never have happened; and if that be our sole object now, the blood spilt and money spent in our Revolution was all in vain. But the gentleman says, that our honor is not concerned; that Republics have none; that their honor is to pursue that course by which they can make the most money.
Mr. Key said that he did not say that the honor of the nation was money; but that the line of conduct was most honorable which best secured the happiness and independence of the people.
Mr. Nelson. – I ask pardon of the gentleman if I misrepresented him; because the gentleman's argument was quite vulnerable enough, without my making it more so than it really was. I did understand the gentleman to say, and had he not contradicted me, should still believe so, that the honor of the Republic is precisely that which brings the most riches to the nation. But I ask, whether the line of conduct recommended by that gentleman be such a one as would be proper to secure and take care of the independence of the people? Is it to secure the independence of the people, to suffer a foreign nation to impose upon them any terms which it thinks proper? Is it for the honor or happiness of this nation that we should again pass under the yoke of Great Britain? Is it for the honor of the nation to remove the embargo, without taking any other measure, and to bear with every indignity? No, sir; and yet the gentleman tells you, "take off the embargo, I want no substitute." I did not suppose, sir, that gentlemen who oppose our measures (for I have great charity for them) would openly tell us to take off the embargo, and trade as foreign nations choose to dictate.
But the gentleman talks about the pressure of the embargo. That it does press hard is beyond doubt. It is an evil thing in itself; something like the dose a doctor gives us; it is a disagreeable thing in itself, but it cures your complaint. Thus the embargo is a disagreeable thing; but if we swallow it, however disagreeable, it may bring the political body to health. The gentleman gilds the pill he would give us; but it is a slow poison that would creep upon us, and bring on a distemper heretofore unknown to us, that sooner or later would carry us to the grave. We take off the embargo, and trade on their terms; what will be the consequence? Will they not forever hereafter compel us to trade as they please? Unquestionably. And is it not better to submit to some inconveniences, eventually to insure a free trade?
The gentleman says that, if produce be offered for sale, on condition that the embargo be raised, it will bring a higher price than if on a certainty that the embargo is to be continued. No doubt, sir, when the embargo is taken off, a momentary spur will be given to exportation; but how long will it continue? It will last but a very few weeks. Produce will soon be reduced to its proper level in the market. Take flour, for instance, the principal article raised for exportation in the gentleman's district and mine. It would rise, on a removal of the embargo, to ten or twelve dollars; and how long would that price last? It would be a thing of a day, and to the people who live in our districts of no sort of consequence; it would be of no benefit but to those who have flour at the market; to the merchants who have bought it up at a low price. Before the honest farmer can bring his produce to market, the great price will be all over; and though no embargo affects it, will be down to its present price, of four or five dollars; so that, although a removal of the embargo would reduce the price of produce at first, I cannot see how gentlemen would make that an argument for taking off the embargo. If the gentleman can show that the price will continue, and that we can traffic without dishonor, then, sir, would I cordially join hands with him to take off the embargo.
But the gentleman says, that the pressure is so very great that some of the States have passed laws for suspending executions. I know not what has been done in other States on this subject, nor what has been done in my own. If the gentleman has any information on the subject, I should like to hear it. A bill was before the House of Delegates for that purpose, but I did trust in God that it would be unanimously rejected. That such a law would pass in Maryland I never had an idea, because it is totally unnecessary. There are fewer men confined in jail for debt on this day than there ever were before for sixteen years that I have been in the practice of the law in that State. No man has gone to jail but those who, to use an emphatic expression, have broken into jail, who were too idle to work to pay their debts; who would get a friend to put them into jail, if they could get no other; and who stay there awhile, and then come out new men. This being the case, there can be no reason for shutting the courts of justice there.
On the subject of revenue, I can only say, that at present there appears to be no deficiency of money in the Treasury. It is very certain that if this embargo and non-intercourse system be continued long, our Treasury will run short, and we shall have no means of filling it but by loans or direct taxation. But I trust and hope that before the money already in the Treasury is fairly expended, if we pursue our object we shall get over our embarrassments. Rather than pursue this subject much further, I would not only arm our merchantmen at sea, but our citizens on the land, and march to the North and East, and see if we could not do them some injury in return for all that we have received from them, even if we should do ourselves no good by it. It would do me some good to be able to do them some injury. I confess I do not like this Quaker policy. If one man slaps another's face, the other ought to knock him down; and I hope this will be our policy.
But the gentleman says that the President recommended this measure to Congress as a measure of precaution. I do believe that, at the time the embargo was laid, it was done as a measure of precaution, and the President viewed it in that light. After its having answered every purpose as a measure of precaution, I am for continuing it as a measure of coercion. For, whatever gentlemen say about turning sugar plantations into cotton-fields, if the embargo be rigidly enforced, that we shall distress the West Indies very considerably, I do believe. I am unwilling to involve this country in a war if I can avoid it, but I am still more unwilling to take off the embargo and embrace the proposition of my colleague: for I have no idea of a free trade being permitted to us. In any country a war is to be deprecated; in this country particularly, where every thing