Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.)

Mr. Chairman, I have examined the list from April, 1809, to April, 1810, with great attention, for the purpose of ascertaining the number of impressments which took place in that year, and I will now make to you one or two statements, which may cast some light on the subject of the British practice. The number which, by the list, appears to have been impressed in that year, is one hundred. It will be understood that in this number I do not include those whose names are carried out in blank, as has been stated. It is uncertain whether such persons ever were impressed; and, at all events, it is fair to presume, that their service on board British ships had commenced before 1809, or otherwise there could be no difficulty in giving dates. Of the one hundred, seventy-six were discharged, and six had deserted, leaving less than twenty to be accounted for.

Another result: Of the persons thus taken, fifty-seven were impressed on shore, and forty-three at sea. Again: Thirty of these seamen, when impressed, made part of the crews of British vessels, and thirty-four American vessels; and of the thirty-four, twelve were taken on land; leaving about twenty-two persons taken from American vessels on the high seas. It is possible, sir, that in these statements I may not be perfectly accurate; I am certain, however, that I am substantially so.

I do not mean to represent that this is a full account of all the impressments which took place in 1809; on the contrary, I admit that it is not. Many impressments were certainly made of persons undeniably British subjects, who would scarcely think of applying to Mr. Lyman, and will not, therefore, be found in his book. Many persons, also, having a right to his interference, were not then known to him. My object in making these explanations, was to show that the 6,057 document does not furnish such strong evidence of British aggression as has been supposed.

The number of our seamen impressed by the British has been so variously represented, that I have, from motives of curiosity as well as duty, been desirous to arrive at something like a reasonable certainty on the subject. We hear of ten, twenty, nay, forty thousand of our citizens, confined in the floating dungeons of Great Britain, fighting her battles against their will. The evidence of this, however, is only to be found in the imagination of gentlemen. It is the old story over again, of the "six men in buckram." In part representing the greatest commercial State in the Union, it may be expected that I have some personal knowledge on this subject, but indeed I have none such to give. Is there not in this some proof that the evil has been magnified? I have sought for information in quarters where only it is to be found, among the shipping merchants and ship owners of the country. I will now furnish you with the opinion of an intelligent gentleman from Marblehead, whose means of information are ample, and whose veracity will not be doubted. I mean my friend from Massachusetts, who sits before me. (Mr. Reed.) He has favored me with this statement.

"In answer to your inquiry relative to the seamen of Marblehead, I have to remark that the average shipping of that port, for the last twenty years, may be estimated at about 19,006 tons, of which it is fair to calculate ten thousand tons were employed in foreign commerce, and the residue in the fisheries and in the coasting trade. Allowing six men to every hundred tons, which is the usual estimate, it gives an average of eleven hundred and seventy-six seamen in all, and six hundred in our foreign trade, each year; the number of seamen, therefore, employed from Marblehead for the last twenty years, must have been considerable, say five thousand. I have resided at that place nearly twenty years, and, during the greater part of the time, have been actively engaged in commerce. According to my own recollection, aided by that of others who have the best means of information, I do not believe that twenty of the seamen of Marblehead, native or naturalized, have been impressed by the British within the twenty years, and it is not known that one has been demanded without being released."

As there is no reason to suppose that Marblehead has been more fortunate with respect to impressments than other places, we have here something whereby to form an estimate of the number of our seamen taken by the British. My own conviction is, that the American seamen, impressed and held by the British, at the commencement of this war, did not much exceed five hundred in all, and certainly did not amount to one thousand. Permit me, sir, to mention one circumstance which speaks loudly on this subject. If the practice of impressment had been as outrageous as has been represented, it must have fallen with great force on the Eastern States, as it is there the mass of our seamen are found. We are then to expect much feeling and passion on this account. The war must be popular when the cause of it is brought home to every man's door. No such thing, sir. The war is confessedly odious there. It is in States where seamen never grew that the war has its strongest advocates. It is there that you principally find the dark pictures of sailors' sufferings, and hear the loud and long appeals to the sympathies and passions of the people about seamen's rights and seamen's injuries.

I have now, sir, finished the remarks which I intended to make on the British claim and practice of impressment. We have for years past had so much idle declamation on the subject, that a dispassionate investigation of it appeared to me to be called for. In the course of these remarks, I have attempted to show that the claim was neither novel nor peculiar, and it is not wholly unsupported by reason; that our true interest calls more for a fair regulation of the practice than an abandonment of the rights; and that the conduct of the British, of late, has been such as to warrant an opinion, that an arrangement may be made, having for its object a proper regulation of the practice, leaving the rights of both nations, whatever they may be, untouched. Sir, with this view of the subject, it is not possible for me to consent to the adoption of measures, having for their object the further prosecution of the war offensively on our part; and I cannot, therefore, vote for the bill on your table. The war has not yet assumed a character. We have, indeed, added much, and are about to add more, to the public debt. Already a portion of our citizens are burdened with oppressive exactions in the form of duties, and heavy taxes are staring all in the face. But yet our homes and altars remain safe and unpolluted. Let us seize this moment to give the nation peace, and the people happiness. This is the appointed time, and if we do not improve it, I fear my country is to suffer in its prosperity and its institutions. For Heaven's sake let us pause!

Mr. Macon said after failing in his attempt to amend the bill, he had considered it of very little importance; indeed, in its present form, he was not anxious whether it passed or not; and he had intended not to have troubled the committee on the subject, but the strange course which the debate had taken had called him up almost against his own consent. He could truly say that he would not have offered a word to the committee, had not those who oppose the bill have brought into the discussion French influence, operating by a sort of magic on every act of the Executive. The conduct of the Executive had undergone the strictest scrutiny by these gentlemen, and their own arguments would, in his opinion, convince every impartial man, that it had been perfectly fair and upright to all foreign nations; the least attention to the documents, which have from time to time been published, would also convince every man of it, and satisfy all that the great object of the Government had been peace, and that peace was maintained until it could no longer be done without surrendering almost every national right worth preserving. Mr. M. said he would endeavor in his observations to follow the example which had been set the last two days: not to utter a word to wound the feelings of any one; nor would he refer to the documents, because every member possessed them, and they had been published for the information of the people; and he was sure that the committee must be tired with hearing a sentence here, and a paragraph there, read from them. The true way to understand them was to read the whole. But he had never been in the practice of making many quotations from books or documents, and he thought it unnecessary to make any now. He was clearly of opinion that the gentlemen who were opposed to the Administration had the right to say whatever they thought of it, and to select the subject on which they would speak; and as they had made the selection, he hoped they would have an opportunity now to deliver their sentiments. He, however, regretted that they had selected this bill; because, of all the bills which may be brought before the House the present session, not one, he thought, would require despatch more than this. The loss of a day now may be the loss of the next campaign. He had expected that this general debate, which seems to include every thing but the bill, would have been delayed until the loan should be under discussion.

The points made in the debate seem to be: impressment; the right to expatriate; the right to naturalize; and French influence; neither of which have any connection with the bill, which is to raise troops for one year. Sir, said Mr. M., I will not retort a charge of British influence, and so balance one assertion against the other, because I do not believe that there is much of either in the nation; but if I was to say there was none, I should not say what I believe. People may honestly differ in opinion as to the effect which the success of England or France over the other might have on the interests of the United States, without being under the influence of either; and this, no doubt, is the case with thousands.

I will, before I proceed further, notice some of the observations made by the gentleman from New York, (Mr. Emott.) If I have not understood him or any other gentleman correctly, I hope that I shall be corrected; because it is my sincere desire to state their statements fairly; and it is not always possible to take down their own words. He said, if there was any English influence, it was the influence of Locke and Sidney. As well might he have spoken of the influence of any other patriots who lived before us. Their influence will be respected wherever their works shall be read; but that sort of influence is not the influence of which we have heard so much, and which I intend hereafter to notice. He also mentioned the influence which drove the first settlers to Plymouth. Yes, sir, that influence was truly British, and that sort of influence Great Britain has been exercising ever since the first settlers, by their own industry and exertions, got into a situation to be useful to her; and that influence, or rather that persecution, compelled the first settlers of Carolina to leave the other provinces, and to settle a second time in the woods, and, as soon as they were able, to pay taxes. That same influence followed them, and made their condition much worse. It pursued the people in every part of the continent, until they declared themselves independent; and, from that day to this, she has not treated the United States as she has treated other independent nations.

Mr. Chairman, I was astonished when the gentleman told us he was not a friend to standing armies; and, almost in the same breath, said that, at the last session, he voted for raising the twenty-five thousand men, and that he did not mean to go to war when he gave the vote. For what purpose, then, could they be wanted? Experience had already shown that the old establishment was quite sufficient in time of peace. Indeed, a very considerable part of that was raised soon after the affair of the Chesapeake, and under an expectation that war would follow, and not for a regular peace establishment.

The same gentleman told us, that impressment by the British Government was no new thing. This is certainly true as far as regards her own subjects, and from her own vessels; but the systematic impressment of foreigners from foreign ships, is a new thing; and that, too, when the men and the ships both belong to the same nation. That Government never attempted to impress Spaniards, Dutch, French, Swedes, or Danes, from vessels belonging to the same nation with the person; and it is this new doctrine, which operates solely on us, of which we complain. The question between us and England has nothing to do with the doctrine that free ships shall make free goods, or free men, if gentlemen please. And why draw that into the debate on the impressment of American citizens from American vessels? No law or precedent can be produced for this abominable and wicked practice. It was never attempted to be justified, notwithstanding impressment is no new thing with her. Every Sovereign, said the gentleman, has a right to the service of all his subjects in time of war. But this right is like some others which Sovereigns claim; it is without a remedy. Of what avail is the proclamation of the Prince Regent in this country, ordering the British subjects home? None. Many of them are still here, and, probably, will remain until the termination of the war, and the British Government will never dream of punishing one of them for disobedience. But, admit this right in Sovereigns to its fullest extent, and it does not give one Sovereign the right to impress the citizens or subjects of another; nor does it justify such an act; of course it does not touch the act of which we complain; that is, the impressing of American seamen from American vessels.

It is curious that, throughout this whole debate, there seems to have been drawn a distinction between the rights of a man who cultivates the soil, and of him who follows the sea, and that this distinction should have been drawn by those who claim to be the champions of commerce and of a navy, and who have told us that agriculture and commerce were inseparable. Ought it not, then, to follow, that the rights of those employed on land or water should also be inseparable? This strange doctrine, as was observed by the gentleman from Louisiana, (Mr. Robertson,) may dust the eye, but cannot stagger the understanding of any one.

The same gentleman said, that we had taken no measures to exclude British seamen from American vessels. For what purpose were protections given to American seamen? Surely to protect them against impressment, and to show that we had no desire to protect others; and what more ought to have been done, he did not tell us. I ask, did any nation ever do more? Besides, has not the United States, over and over again, offered to make an arrangement with England on the subject of sailors, which should be satisfactory to both, by securing to each the use of their own sailors? and has she not always refused to make any arrangement about them? And it may be fairly asked here, what measures Great Britain has taken to prevent her officers from impressing our seamen? None that I have heard of, and she is the aggressor. We have not injured her, while she has been impressing our sailors whenever she wanted and could find them. If the United States wanted sailors ever so much, they could not impress one of hers, and she knows this; and she would not suffer one of them to be impressed by any foreign power; and we must determine to defend the rights of ours, or it will be idle to talk about navigation, commerce, and a navy. Indeed, if commerce and agriculture be inseparable, you must defend the rights of the persons concerned in both, or both must be injured. There are no neutrals able to carry our products to market, and if you will not protect your seamen, they will not carry them.

It is worthy of remark, that, for twenty years past, the Government of the United States has been trying to settle the question of sailors with Great Britain, and that every attempt has failed, and that it is just now discovered that we have always begun wrong. My colleague (Mr. Pearson) and the gentleman from Connecticut, (Mr. Pitkin,) it appears, could settle this great question without much difficulty. If they can, I wish most sincerely they would. I am, however, apprehensive that they are a little mistaken, because General Washington, when President, having Major Pinckney, now Major General Pinckney, for Minister at London, tried without effect. Mr. Adams renewed it with Mr. King for Minister; Mr. Jefferson with Colonel Monroe and Mr. Pinkney, now the Attorney General; and Mr. Madison, with the last named Pinkney. All these Presidents and Ministers, with the aid of every Cabinet, have failed. Every description of political opinion, with the greatest talents, have been employed and done nothing. At the end of twenty years we have gained nothing, and lost our labor; the question is as unsettled as ever; and we have been worsted in this way, that, while we were negotiating, they were impressing seamen.

We have been told by my colleague, that it is not the right, but the abuse of impressment of which we complain. It is true, sir, that we do not complain of Great Britain impressing her own subjects; she may do as she pleases with them; that is no concern of ours; all we ask of her is to keep her hands off our people; and we deny her right to impress American citizens; and if the abuse be the impressing them, of that we do complain, and not without just cause, because she has impressed many of them, and compelled them to fight her battles; and I have understood, after we had declared that war existed between her and us, that she detained those she had before impressed as prisoners of war, and this may be a part of her public law. Indeed, we have heard much about universal law and public law, neither of which, from the statements made, seem to have much regard to right or justice, which ought to be the foundation of all law. One universal law seems to be, that Sovereigns can command their subjects to return home in case of war; another, that no person can expatriate himself; and Great Britain is no doubt willing to acknowledge another, by which she might impress sailors from all the world. As to the first, we need not trouble ourselves about it; and the second, the United States have not acknowledged; and we are now contending against impressment; and permit me here to observe, that the republicans have always considered the impressment of citizens a more serious injury than the spoliation of property.

I must return to Porcupine's paper,31 which, as well as I now recollect, never contained a sentence in favor of the Revolution, or much in praise of the constitution, if it was praised at all; no outrage was committed which it did not approbate; a few of the outrages of that time shall be stated: The Rogue's March was played under the window of the man who drew the Declaration of Independence, The man who first took up arms after the fall of Charleston, and whose body had been almost riddled in defence of his country, was a member of Congress, and was insulted at the circus. Another member, of no common cast of mind, was insulted at the theatre; a man who will do his duty in whatever situation he may be placed. Another, returning home with his family, was insulted and almost mobbed; he is now one of the Cabinet, mentioned by the gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. Quincy.) If I was not almost exhausted I would give some of the details of these then fashionable transactions. I will only add, it was nothing in those days for a few men to whip a printer whose publications they did not like. All these outrages and violations of law, it is believed, were not only approved by the editor of the before-named paper, but other Federal papers also. This same editor claimed to have more subscribers for his paper than any other editor in the Union. And after he returned to Europe, he wrote and published about some of his former supporters. Had this have been a French editor, and acted toward the Federal party as he did toward the Republican, and the subscribers to his paper Republicans, could not those who look at every thing now done to find French influence, have had as good a field to hunt in as any they have yet found? At the very time these events took place, the majority talked as much about French influence as the minority now does; they had clues, sub-plots, ocean massacres, and a hundred other equally ridiculous and unfounded tales, which circulated for a day. I have mentioned these things not with an intent to wound the feelings of any man living, but with a view of trying to persuade those who talk so much about French influence, to look at both sides of the question about foreign influence; and if they will, I hope we shall never hear of it again in this House.

Mr. Genet, when he was Minister of France, began to intrigue, for which he was dismissed. Mr. Liston, when he was Minister of England, began the same work, for which he was not dismissed. If the Republicans had then been in power, and Liston a French Minister, could not a strict examination of the documents have placed it as easily as many other acts have been to French influence?

While all these things were doing, and many others quite as strange, the gentlemen call themselves the followers of General Washington. If they be truly his followers, they ought to adhere to his principles, and attend to his last advice. Every act of his went to perpetuate the Union and to attach the States to each other. I fear the sentiments contained in his farewell address to the nation are getting out of fashion with those who claim to be his exclusive followers; or why do we hear within these walls, the foundation of which he laid for union, union, union; disunion spoken of, "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must;" and why listen to idle and unfounded tales about foreign influence, which can never injure us as long as we stick to the old maxim – united we stand, divided we fall? Straws show which way the wind blows! What has become of the newspaper called the Washington Federalist? The name was, I have understood, changed to the Independent American; out of that, I believe, was raised the Federal Republican – all good names; but why lose the name of Washington to a paper supported by his exclusive followers? And this is the first time to my recollection that they have adopted Republican in their calendar.

I have heard that Federalism is not now the same that it was when Mr. Adams was President: we shall know more about this if ever they get into power again; be this as it may, every man has a right to change his opinion; it is a right which no Government can take from him, and when convinced that he is wrong, it is his duty to change. But I had thought, when Mr. Adams was President, we were told that he followed the plan of General Washington, and that he was then a favorite with the party who elected him, but a great change has taken place in regard to him. I always thought him an honest man, and I think so still. After Mr. Adams got out of fashion, Colonel Burr became so great a favorite with the Federal gentlemen who were then in Congress, that they voted thirty-five times for him to be President, when they must have known that not one elector who voted for him intended him for President. Afterward, Mr. Madison was a favorite; but, after the refusal of the British Government to ratify the arrangement made with Mr. Erskine, they examined the matter, and discovered he had not done right, and he got out of fashion. Then the late worthy and venerable Vice President and Colonel Monroe became favorites; Colonel Monroe got out of fashion about the time he was appointed Secretary of State; and, lastly, Mr. De Witt Clinton became a favorite. I hope he will not be injured by it, but he seems to be losing ground, as we have been told it was not his merit that induced the Federalists to support him for President, but the demerit of Mr. Madison. This does not appear to be a good reason, because they might have selected a man from their own party, who they thought had merit. But all these things may be the doings of those who, a former member of this House called ultra-Federalists; and it will be recollected that all these men became favorites, on the old doctrine of, "divide and conquer;" and it ought not to be forgotten that, when Messrs. Ellsworth and Davie returned from France, their political friends were a little shy of them; indeed, I should not be surprised if Messrs. Jay, King, Walcott, and Dexter, should not much longer be favorites. If we may judge from the public prints, Commodore Rodgers is no longer one, though he, like the others, is understood to be a Federalist; but these men will never say, "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." I would really thank any gentleman to tell me what is now meant by the party name, Federalist.