Mr. LIVINGSTON complained that this bill went to place the power of life
and death in the hands of the PRESIDENT, with respect to every Frenchman
in this country, in case the French Government should commit any act of
violence against one of our citizens. He doubted, indeed, whether he
would not have this power, in case of any American citizen being killed
in battle on board a British ship. The Legislature, he said, had no
right to vest this power, except in case of war; nor did he believe it
would ever be exercised, if given. And as the decree complained of had
been two years in existence without being carried into effect, he
thought there was no need now to create an alarm about it. Indeed, the
last decree having been suspended, he considered the first to be so
also.
Mr. EDMOND was sorry, at this late hour, to occupy a single moment of
the time of the House; but he found himself called upon to say a few
words. It was a painful reflection, he said, that any nation in the
world should deliberately pass a legislative act for the purpose of
authorizing the commission of murder; for the _arrêt_ of the French
Republic was nothing less than a law for putting innocent men to death.
An instance like it could not be found on record. In time of war
retaliation is found necessary to prevent the enormities of an enemy.
Indeed, the intention of retaliation is always to prevent cruelty. This
decree was said to be suspended; but if it were not intended to give it
future operation, it would have been repeated. It might be convenient to
suspend the decree for a time; but when a nation is so depraved as to
pass a decree of this kind, what security have we that the decree will
not be brought into operation in the recess of Congress. If it is not,
the present law can have no effect. Mr. E. believed no one but the
gentleman from New York could have supposed that this law was meant to
retaliate for men killed in battle. If he examines the bill, he will
find that the person must have been put to death pursuant to a decree of
the French Republic. And whilst we suffer our humanity to be touched
with respect to French citizens here, we ought not to forget American
citizens, whose blood may be spilt in France under this decree.
Mr. GALLATIN observed, that three arguments had been used in favor of
passing this bill. One of them was, that it would afford protection to
our seamen; the second, to give sufficient cause of irritation by
repelling every hostile measure of the French Government by one of a
similar nature; the third, to prevent the people of America having any
belief in either the sincerity of France or the probability of a
negotiation.
Mr. G. did not believe that this bill would give the protection expected
to our seamen; and as to the power of retaliation, well knowing, both
from the character of the PRESIDENT and the general character of
America, that retaliation would be repugnant to his feelings, and the
feelings of the public at large, he did not believe a single case would
ever happen in which it would be exercised. What, said Mr. G., would be
the degree of proof necessary to carry into effect this law? A man must
have been taken on board a British vessel, or some other vessel at war
with France, and put to death or ill-treated by the French. It must also
be proved to have been done in pursuance of a French decree. In the next
place, he must be an American citizen, and have been compelled to go on
board such ship; and Mr. G. did not know how all this information was to
come to the PRESIDENT.
If, said Mr. G., it be really our intention to give protection to our
seamen, instead of authorizing the proposed retaliation, we ought to go
to the source of the evil, and endeavor to prevent the impressment of
our seamen by the British, which alone brought them into this
situation. This bill does not comprehend any American who goes on board
of a British ship of war voluntarily; they are not entitled to our
protection by the law of nations; they must seek protection from the
country under whose flag they sail. Those American citizens only,
therefore, who have been forced on board a British ship of war, and who
have been obliged to fight their battles against their will, are by this
bill to be protected, so far as retaliation can protect them.
Mr. G. said, he had been induced to mention this point, not only because
it naturally flows from the subject, but from one of the documents which
had been submitted to the House. He alluded to Lord Grenville's letter
to Mr. King, our Minister at London. [Mr. G. read an extract of that
letter.]
Mr. G. observed, upon this document, that it contained a very
extraordinary acknowledgment. Lord Grenville says, "the King feels the
protection due to those who sail under his flag." Thereby openly
acknowledging that there are a number of American seamen who do sail
under his flag. And, as not many of our seamen had selected his service
in preference to that of their own country; as our own seamen, if left
to their choice, would sooner sail on board of our own ships than those
of His British Majesty, it is therefore an explicit avowal of the
impressment of American seamen. That identical document which
communicates the offensive decree of France, is also the occasion of
this bill.
This acknowledgment, said Mr. G., leads to more than one consequence. If
we pass this bill, it will amount to this, that knowing American seamen
were impressed by the British, the fact having been thus confessed, we
choose rather to pass a retaliatory law against the French for punishing
our seamen found in a situation into which they were arbitrarily forced
by the British, than apply a remedy to the root of the evil.
Again, another part of this letter of Lord Grenville, when connected
with this measure, made an extraordinary impression on his mind. The
acknowledgment having been made, it might have been supposed Lord
Grenville would have ordered all such American seamen to have been
released; but he does not do this, but says the King will cause
retaliation to be exercised. To do this might have some effect whilst
these men remained on board of the King's ships; it would, therefore,
increase his power, and prolong the time during which such seamen will
remain on board. But Lord Grenville does not stop here. He says, the
"King leaves it with the different powers to take measures accordingly."
So that he gives us advice what we ought to do, and we are about to do
it. Mr. G. had said, this bill was not likely to produce any effect;
yet, if it should be put in force, by referring once more to Lord
Grenville's letter, it will appear that the retaliation of which he
speaks is to be confined to French prisoners, whom the fortune of war
had thrown into the power of Great Britain; and he believed the present
law should be confined to persons who should be captured by vessels of
the United States. And it would be most effectual in this way; because
if it were to operate against other French citizens in this country, the
French Government would not be concerned about it, since ninety-nine out
of a hundred of those citizens are probably emigrants, or persons for
whose safety they have no interest.
If by meeting every hostile act of the French Government by a measure of
a similar kind, we could render this country more respectable, Mr. G.
should be in favor of it; but, in the present case, he did not think the
measure applicable. There was a great difference, he said, between
measures of hostility and retaliation. Measures of retaliation could do
no good, except as preventives; and as the decree in question had
already been two years in force without being carried into effect, it
could scarcely be expected that it would now be exercised.
It must be allowed, Mr. G. said, that some change had taken place in our
situation with respect to France; but it seemed as if gentlemen wished,
by the passing of this bill, to take off any impression of this kind
which might have been made on the people by the late appointment of
Ministers to treat with France. Mr. G. did not mean to express any
opinion on the probable issue of that nomination. He believed the
PRESIDENT had taken certain measures; and that nothing which he could do
or say would either accelerate or delay those measures. He wished to
leave them uncontrolled, to have the effect they may, whatever it may
be. Yet, in relation to what had been said with respect to Guadaloupe,
he believed that captures had taken place; yet, when we speak of
information, there was a letter written by one of the commanders of our
vessels, which says, that a number of vessels go there for the purpose
of being taken, in order to carry on a trade contrary to the laws of the
United States. [The SPEAKER called to order.] Mr. G. said he was about
to conclude. He considered this bill as calculated to have but little
effect, and had it not been for the arguments of the gentleman from
Massachusetts, he should have been at a loss to have known for what
reason it was passed.
Mr. DANA said, "with what measure you mete, the same shall be measured
to you again," was a doctrine long since established. It was a doctrine
which injured man had assumed in all countries, and the justice of which
had been universally admitted.
An appeal to this national sentiment, and to the writers on this
subject, would be a sufficient answer to the gentleman's humanity for
Frenchmen, to the forgetfulness of his fellow-citizens.
The general principles of the law are too just to be questioned. The
gentleman from Pennsylvania, well knowing that the national feelings of
man must approve of the principle, undertakes to distinguish away the
subject. Instead of coming forward to the point, he has gone into
complaints against British inhumanity. But why speak of British
inhumanity, if not to embarrass this bill? This bill is intended against
the French nation. If the gentleman wished a similar law against the
British, neither he nor his followers could be suspected of any
attachment to that nation, which would have prevented him or them from
bringing forward such a measure. The gentleman knew such a measure would
be embarrassed with difficulties; and, if it failed, it would deprive
him of the argument he now makes use of. Shall we, said Mr. D., because
our seamen have been first injured by Great Britain, when France uses
them still worse, abandon them? Because they have been once injured with
impunity, shall we turn our backs upon them for ever? The doctrine is
too inhuman, too absurd, to be countenanced.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania assigns another reason against this
bill. To make it effectual he says certain information must be given to
the PRESIDENT, viz: that the person ill-treated is an American seaman;
and that he has received his ill-treatment in pursuance of a decree of
the French Government. Has the gentleman to learn that, when the
officers of the French Government do an act of violence, which the
principles of humanity and the law of nations condemn, if the nation
does not punish its officers for the act, it must be done in pursuance
of the orders of Government?
The gentleman's other objection was honorable to Americans. It was that
the humanity of the PRESIDENT, and of the people of this country, would
not suffer the law, if passed, to be carried into effect. Mr. D. said it
was difficult to reason on this subject, but, admitting the fact, it
affords a decisive proof that this power will never be abused, and at
the worst, the law could only be ineffectual, and it might have the good
effect of preventing the unprincipled murder of our countrymen.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania had said that the decree of the British
Cabinet might have had some effect in procuring a suspension of the
decree of the Executive Directory.
[Mr. GALLATIN denied having said that the French Government had
suspended their decree on account of the threats of the British. Mr.
King's first letter is dated the 27th of November, and his second,
mentioning the suspension of the decree, the 28th, so that that was
impossible.]
The gentleman has taken an opportunity of referring to the note of Lord
Grenville. If the gentleman was disposed to make a philippic against
Lord Grenville, Mr. D. said, he had no reason to vindicate him; but,
when the gentleman went so far beside the question to do it, it showed
he had little respect for his audience. But the gentleman from
Pennsylvania was certainly incorrect, when he said the note of Lord
Grenville was a direct admission that impressed American seamen were
held on board the British fleet. He would state a case in which American
seamen would be liable to the effects of the French decree, where the
British Government could not be censurable. Suppose an American vessel
captured and plundered by the French, and some of our seamen, to escape
the severities of a French dungeon, had escaped and got on board of a
British ship of war, hoping by that means, in time, to get to their own
country. Such cases, he had no doubt, had happened, and in such, the
gentleman must allow, our citizens must be liable to suffer as pirates,
without any blame resting on the conduct of the British.
Mr. OTIS said, it had been so long unfashionable to vindicate the
conduct of France, or to make apologies in her behalf, that those who
now wished to do it, attempt to excite hatred against another nation.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania has gone altogether upon this principle.
He has said but little against the principle of the bill. His only
objection to it was that it was not sufficiently extensive. Admitting
the injuries to exist with respect to Great Britain, and that many of
our seamen have been impressed by them, did the gentleman wish us to
retaliate by impressing British seamen? No, he would be the first to
oppose such a law; and yet this is the only just kind of retaliation
that could be adopted, for he would not wish us, because the British
have impressed our seamen, to put the first British subject we meet to
death; and to talk of impressing their seamen, would be perfectly
ridiculous.
It was not incumbent upon him, Mr. O. said, to enter into any argument
to distinguish between the injuries which we have received from the
French and British Governments, nor to palliate the conduct of any
nation which has done us wrong; but when things perfectly clear are
violently distorted, to excite undue prejudices, with a view of
diverting the attention of the House from the subject before them, it
becomes necessary to notice the attempt. Let it be granted that Great
Britain impresses our seamen; she renounces every right to do so. She
perseveres, it is true, in her right to reclaim her own seamen from on
board our vessels, and in making this claim, some abuses may have taken
place.
If the gentleman from Pennsylvania had seen fit to do justice to Lord
Grenville, he would have turned to another document laid before Congress
by the Secretary of State last year, wherein he says that Great Britain
had never assumed the principle of impressing American seamen. His
friend from South Carolina (Mr. PINCKNEY) affirmed what he said, and
showed that the great difficulty was in preventing false passports from
being given. This was verified in the conduct of Captain Loring and the
Baltimore sloop of war. The difference, Mr. O. said, between the conduct
of France and Great Britain towards us was palpable. Great Britain
never refused to rectify grievances; she never heaped outrages upon us.
If she had, he should have been for vengeance and war against that
country, and the cry would certainly have been echoed by the gentleman
from Pennsylvania.
Mr. O. said he disdained that sort of sensibility which his friend from
Connecticut (Mr. DANA) seemed to think redounded to the honor of the
people of this country. He owned it would not wound his feelings, in the
smallest degree, to see the law of retaliation executed upon any French
citizen in America. If one American citizen fell a sacrifice to the
decree of France, it would altogether absorb his sympathies for
Frenchmen. There is a French citizen, said he, now living in the
neighborhood of New York, who originally came here as Ambassador from
the French Republic; and I must say that I should not feel the least
sensibility if he should fall a victim to this law! Indeed, there were
French citizens enough on whom to execute the law; though he joined
gentlemen on all sides of the House in hoping that there would be no
occasion to carry it into effect.
The gentleman from New York says that a law of this kind ought not to be
passed, except in time of war; and yet, said Mr. O., the gentleman will
not let us go to war, and in the mean time our citizens may suffer with
impunity under the bloody decrees of France. But he believed Congress
had clearly the power, from those words of the constitution which say,
"they shall grant letters of marque and reprisal"--reprisal, doubtless,
not only against ships, but against property and persons, to pass a law
of this kind. Mr. O. thought it necessary, therefore, to show to the
French Republic that we are not negotiating through fear; that we are
desirous of keeping peace with all the world, so long as we can do it
consistent with our honor and independence; but no longer.
Mr. S. SMITH wished to have postponed this bill till the next session.
He thought it improper as it originally stood; as the decree which was
passed two years ago was never acted upon. Indeed he had somewhere seen
that American seamen were released on application of Mr. Skipwith, our
Consul in France. The bill, as amended, is far less objectionable, yet
he wished it were postponed till next session, because he never wished
to see a law of this kind on our code. He agreed with the gentleman from
Connecticut that it was legalizing murder.
Mr. S. believed the gentleman from Massachusetts mistaken in many
respects. He himself believed France was disposed to make peace. Mr. S.
proposed an amendment to the bill confining the retaliation to persons
captured in pursuance of any of the laws of the United States. If this
amendment was agreed to, the bill would be less exceptionable; for,
though the gentleman from Massachusetts had said he should not regret
the murder of any French citizen, under this law, nothing surely but the
heat of argument could have led him to say this; he must own he should:
nor did he believe that that gentleman, or any other, could lay hold of
an unfortunate Frenchman, and put him to death, though one of our
citizens might have suffered unjustly and cruelly in France.
The amendment was carried.
Mr. MACON did not wish to see this law in our code. In his opinion
nothing but the utmost necessity ought to induce us to pass it. Nor
could he believe that the gentleman from Massachusetts could see any
man, even if taken in arms, put to death in cold blood! Though it might
be right to punish those who passed the decree, if they could be laid
hold of, it was a mournful thing to retaliate upon innocent persons the
offences of the guilty.
The gentleman from Connecticut had quoted a scriptural passage--"With
the same measure that you mete, the same shall be measured unto you." In
the same volume, Mr. M. said, he would also find, "Do unto others as ye
would they should do unto you;" and a law of this kind could not be
justified upon the latter principle.
It is said we ought to show that we do not act from fear. He thought
this one of the last measures the House should pass to evince that. Mr.
M. hoped, that on the last evening of the session, a bill of this kind
would not be pressed. The members had heretofore been accustomed to part
in good humor, at the close of the session, however they might have
differed in the course of it. He hoped they should not now depart from
this custom. He therefore moved to postpone the bill till next session.
The question for postponement was negatived--48 to 37.
After a few observations from Mr. MCDOWELL, against the bill, it was
ordered to be read a third time and passed--yeas 56, nays 30.
A motion was made by Mr. LIVINGSTON, to adjourn till ten in the morning,
as it would be impossible to get through the business to-night, and he
understood the Senate were about to adjourn to that time.
Mr. DANA proposed to adjourn till seven in the evening; but that motion
being negatived, the House adjourned till ten o'clock on Sunday morning.
SUNDAY MORNING, March 3.
Several reports were made by the Committee of Enrolment, and sundry
messages communicated from the Senate relative to the bills in their
passage.
_Vote of Thanks._
Mr. CHAMPLIN rose and addressed the House as follows:
"Sensible as I am of the importance of the duties that at all times
attach to a gentleman who presides over the deliberations of this
assembly, and more especially in times of imminent danger; impressed
with the able and honorable manner in which those duties have been
discharged by the gentleman who now fills the chair; and believing the
sentiments I entertain on this occasion to be in perfect unison with
those of every member of this House--I beg leave to submit a resolution
expressive of the sense of the House on this subject:"
He then moved the following resolution:
"_Resolved_, That the thanks of this House be presented to
Jonathan Dayton, in testimony of their approbation of his
conduct in discharging the arduous and important duties
assigned him whilst in the chair."
This motion was received by the Clerk, and the question being put upon
it by him, there appeared for it 40, against it 22.
The resolution being carried, the SPEAKER rose and addressed the House
as follows:
No language, gentlemen, can do justice to those feelings
which this second vote of approbation of my conduct, after
four years' presidency in the House of Representatives, has
excited in my breast. It would be unjust in me not to
acknowledge, that to the support uniformly afforded, and to
the confidence unremittedly reposed in me, rather than to
any merit of my own, is to be ascribed the success with
which you are pleased to declare that the duties of the
chair have been executed.
Permit me to say, that far from being displeased, I have,
on the contrary, been very much gratified at hearing that
the resolution of thanks has not been passed, as a mere
matter of form, unanimously. As in all public bodies, there
have ever been found men whose approbation must be
considered by the meritorious as a censure, so in this
body, there are, unhappily, some whose censure will be
regarded by all whose esteem I value, as the highest
testimony of merit. About to abandon the seat which I have
held in this branch of the General Legislature for eight
successive years, I take advantage of the moment which
precedes our separation to bid you, gentlemen, an
affectionate farewell.
Mr. MACON moved the usual resolution appointing a joint committee with
the Senate, to inform the PRESIDENT, that Congress is ready to adjourn
without day, unless he has any further communication to make them; which
being agreed to, Messrs. OTIS, MACON, and BROOKS, were appointed a
committee on the part of this House.
Mr. OTIS, from the committee appointed to wait upon the PRESIDENT,
informed the House that they had performed that service; and he informed
them "that he had no further communication to make, except to express
his wish for the health and happiness of the members, and a pleasant
journey home to their families and friends."
The SPEAKER then adjourned the House without day.