SENATE.

Trade with St. Domingo.

FEBRUARY, 1806.

hostility were not commenced against France in people of St. Domingo, when it may probably consequence of any commerce she did or might become so? Suppose, for instance, the French carry on with the colonies, but upon the ground should continue this inefficient kind of warfare of these treaties, and of Mr. De Noailles's note, upon them, if even such it may be considered, for which in the manifesto is called an open declara- a century to come, holding as at present but a tion of war, it being an overt act of France, ac-single post in the island, while the natives are in knowledging the independence of these States. full possession of the sovereignty of the country, The gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. LOGAN,) and administering a regular Government? Will however, tells us that trading with St. Domingo it be said, under such circumstances, that no namay involve us in a war, and therefore we had tion is to be allowed to trade with them for a cenbetter quit it. This argument, sir, would have tury to come? Or will gentlemen hold them as equal force if urged against a peaceable man's rebels to all eternity, and never suffer the rest of going out into the street, lest somebody should the world to have intercourse with them? Sir, knock him down. But as another means of en- those people will never be reduced by General dangering our peace, he has told us further, that Ferrand's war of proclamations; and while on our merchants send arms and ammunition to St. this subject I must be permitted to express my Domingo. This, indeed, if so, I confess is to be astonishment at a very extraordinary document regretted, and I wish could be prevented. It is, of this kind that has been recently laid upon our however, at their own risk, unsanctioned by the tables, signed by General Ferrand, and purporting Government; they know and must abide the con- to be a proclamation or decree of his, directed sequences. Such articles, if taken, are liable to chiefly at the citizens and commerce of the Uniconfiscation, and this is the course pursued every ted States. It is indeed, throughout, calculated day throughout the world, under similar circum- to inspire no other sentiment than contempt; the stances; it is a control over the commerce of neu- arrogance and presumption of its style and mantrals allowed to belligerents by the laws of nations, ner is equalled only by the emptiness of its threats. and has grown out of the necessity of the case. General Ferrand, shut up in the city of St. DoBut who ever heard of a nation being involved in mingo, with scarcely the power of conveying his war, because a private citizen or subject, of his proclamation beyond the redoubts of his garrison, own mere will, was pleased to sell arms and am- undertakes to prescribe to all the neutral nations munition to one of the belligerents? If the gen- of the earth the extent of their rights, and the tleman's doctrine be correct, to what point would manner in which they shall conduct their comit, or rather would it not, carry us? Whenever merce, and expresses truly great surprise that his any two foreign Powers may choose to engage in former decree on the subject had not been better war, we shall be under the necessity of interdict-attended to by them; in which, as he says, he had ing all commerce abroad, on the part of our citi-"left no doubt as to the sentiments of respect due zens, lest some rash, adventurous merchant, by to the freedom of navigation and neutral rights." vending articles contraband to one of the parties, As if the navigation, the commerce, and all the should likewise involve us in the contest. Sir, rights of neutral nations depended now upon the such a principle, if I may use the expression, such caprice of a French officer, and were, like the a phantom of a principle, had never before even police of a camp, to be settled by general orders. the shadow of existence. Its palpable absurdity And this same Captain General, as he calls himwill not bear the test of a moment's investigation; self, pro tempore, besieged by a parcel of unarmed, whereas the principle I have had the honor of undisciplined, half-starved negroes, without the stating in relation to contraband goods, is not only means of making even a sortie upon them, talks that which governs among nations generally, and of the impudence of our public officers, and threatbottomed on the laws of nations, but is explicitly ens with the vengeance of his mighty arm, all recognised in the thirteenth article of our treaty the people of the United States that go contrary with France, in which, after particularizing the to his orders. Sir, I can liken this proclamation articles that shall be deemed contraband between to nothing but the idle vaporings of a fettered mathe parties, it is thus expressly stated: "All the niac, menacing, from the grates of his cell, the above articles, whenever they are destined to the overthrow of the world. If the Pope had issued port of an enemy, are hereby declared to be con- a bull of excommunication against the whole of traband, and just objects of confiscation; but the us, it could not have been half so ridiculous as ' vessel in which they are laden, and the residue this proclamation, upon which the gentleman ' of the cargo, shall be considered free, and not in from Maryland on my left (Mr. WRIGHT) has in'any manner infected by the prohibited goods, advertently rested as one of the strong holds of whether belonging to the same or a different his argument; telling us, to use his own words, 'owner." If, then, there is any faith or confidence that it was a requisition too imperious to be reto be reposed in treaties, the honorable member sisted. Then, sir, such is the ground we now may quiet his fears as to the danger of private occupy among nations, that the mandate of a adventures of this kind, involving the nation in a French officer, besieged in the West Indies by a war with France; the two Powers, anticipating rabble of starving negroes, is a requisition too imthe evil, have wisely provided a milder remedy perious for us to resist. Were I of opinion with for it in this compact. that honorable member, I should at once be for soliciting the protection of those blacks, and praying of them, in Heaven's name, to keep where he

I must here inquire if, as gentlemen contend, it is not now lawful to carry on commerce with the

FEBRUARY, 1806.

tion.

Trade with St. Domingo.

SENATE.

is this mighty warrior, this terror of our land; have acted as pirates, and that some vessel or vesbut, thinking as I do, sir, the imperious mansels of this country, may have afforded them proner of this decree is one of the reasons why I tection upon the high seas. Is this any ground should not only resist it if necessary, but treat it upon which to inhibit the whole commerce bewith the most marked and sovereign contempt. tween the United States and St. Domingo? I General Ferrand might have been serious in writ-ask, would any citizen or citizens of the United ing such a proclamation, or decree, expecting it States, becoming pirates upon the coast of Engto have some operation upon the feelings and the land, or trading, combining, or confederating with fears of the ignorant blacks of St. Domingo, but pirates there, which, by the 8th statute of George he certainly, even himself, could never have been the First, is made the same thing, be any justificrazy enough, for a moment to suppose, that any cation on the part of that Government to intercitizen of the United States, arrived at years of dict all intercourse with this country? No man maturity, or rather of discretion, would be serious in his senses can believe or say so. It could not, in reading it, or that the Government of this coun- however, have escaped the attention of the Sentry would give it a moment's serious considera- ate, that this circumstance, so much relied upon by General Ferrand, has never been even hinted As a sample, Mr. President, of what this proc-at, either by the French Minister, or by Mr. Tallamation soldier would do, it may not be amiss. while his decree is before us, to examine a few of its most prominent features. By the first article, all neutral vessels bound, or plausibly suspected to be bound to, or coming from, what he calls the rebel ports, are liable to detention; that, in the West Indies, means condemnation. By the 8th article, the officers, passengers, and crews of such vessels, are directed to be sent, as soon as possible, prisoners to the city of St. Domingo, to be prosecuted according to the rigor of the laws. And by the 13th article, a privateer taking one of your vessels from any port in possession of the blacks, is exempted from all duties upon his prize. Here, indeed, it would seem, as if General Ferrand, in the vauntings of his omnipotency, had suspended for a time the laws of nature and of nations, the sacred obligations of treaties, and even the principles of right and justice, in order to settle this great question, uninfluenced by any of their embarrassing regulations. He has threatened your citizens with the ban of the Empire; he has condemned your commerce before it leaves your ports; and, as if the acknowledged prince of pirates, has proclaimed a reward to all such of them as will plunder you. Among the many very ex-read: "It shall be lawful for the citizens of either traordinary parts of this most extraordinary document, that is not the least so in which reference is made to the treaty between France and the United States; a garbled quotation is given of the 26th article, and then a case is made to suit it. We are told that "vessels armed, under the Amer-erty, from the countries, ports, and places of those

ican flag, daily convoy and sail in concert with ' vessels of the negroes, bearing a flag unknown among the civilized Powers, and consequently 'pirates." This, I confess, is a circumstance I had never heard of before, and to my mind almost incredible, that the citizens of the United States should be so blind to their interest as to become the mere protectors and encouragers of others, in carrying on a commerce that they could carry on themselves to so much greater advantage, especially when the risk to them is precisely the same; and that those negroes should hazard their vessels. their liberties, and their lives, in transacting a business that neutrals are every hour willing, ready, and waiting to transact for them. But even admitting the fact; admitting, for argument sake, that certain negroes of the West Indies may

leyrand, in their recent communications on this subject to our Government: and it would be passing strange indeed, if Mr. Talleyrand, of all other men in the world, should pass over unnoticed an occurrence of this kind, if true, when for the want of causes of complaint, he had to make a dinner, and the toasts of some private company in the city of New York, the subject of one of them. An affair with which Mr. Talleyrand knows well that this Government, or any other free Government, could have nothing more to do than they had with a complaint that was made by Mr. Adet against our Almanac makers, for placing in their Almanacs the name of the British Minister before his. But gentlemen will find, by attending to the 26th article of the treaty, that it has little or no connexion with the present question; scarcely more relation to it than any text in the Apocrypha, but was introduced merely for the punishment of those who should receive, protect, harbor, conceal, or assist, any pirates within the ports, havens, or towns," of either of the countries, respectively. It is not, sir, the 26th, but the 12th article of the treaty, that bears upon our present subject, part of which I must beg leave now to

country to sail with their ships and merchandise (contraband goods always excepted) from any port whatever to any port of the enemy of the other, and to sail and trade with their ships and merchandise, with perfect security and lib

who are enemies of both, or of either party, without any opposition or disturbance whatsoever, and to pass not only directly from the places and ports of the enemy, aforementioned, to neutral ports and places, but also from one place belonging to an enemy, whether they be under the juris'diction of the same Power, or under several, unless such ports or places shall be actually blockaded, besieged, or invested." Here, sir, is given to us explicitly the right, as a neutral nation, of trading with all the enemies of France, and it certainly will not be denied that the people of St. Domingo are such; and not only of trading directly from this country to theirs, but from any one of their ports to any other. If this be not the plain meaning of the article I have read, there is no meaning in words; a treaty is a mere carte

blanche, into which every speculative politician may foist his crude opinions. Our right then to this commerce does not depend merely upon the laws of nations, but upon the solemn obligations of this instrument, that no sophistry can evade nor obscure with the shadow of a doubt.

I hold, therefore, this trade to be lawful; that we have a right to carry it on ; and if, in doing so, we are annoyed and robbed by pirates, we have another right, that of arming in order to keep such people off. What do we arm for, sir? Is it to fight the French, to insult the flag, to distress the commerce, or to disturb the quiet and repose of any nation? No, sir; our conduct in this respect is sanctioned by the first law of nature. It is upon the same principle that a private citizen would prepare himself against the apprehended attacks of a highway robber or a midnight assassin. It is to defend our property and our lives against the rapacity and violence of a horde of pirates, who are notoriously armed every hour to assault them, and whose conduct no nation will avow, punish, or atone for.

FEBRUARY, 1806.

confidence of apostolic inspiration-to us who doubted, he refused even an opportunity of acquiring knowledge through any other channel; voted against the propositions of my friend and colleague, which went to ask of the Executive the actual state of this commerce, and to ascertain its real value. To do strict justice to the gentleman's argument, it is simply this, that whenever any foreign Power may please to demand of us the surrender of a right, however just and honest it may be; however it may comport with the dignity of the Government to preserve it; if, in a pecuniary point of view; if upon a cool peddling calculation of risk, profit, and loss, it cannot be deemed of high value, we are at once to give it up. This argument, I will confess, is worthy of the bill. So striking, and of such a kind is their affinity, that they seem peculiarly calculated to expose each other, and to excite in every mind valuing the honor, the dignity, and the character of the nation, like sentiments of disgust. The case cited by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. MACLAY) of the Indians, I think in 1755, under the avowed authority, direction, and support of the French Government, ravaging our

tion before us. Has this Government ever furnished arms and ammunition, or done any other act in order to assist and encourage the people of St. Domingo in attacking the countries of their neighbors? I cannot conceive what subject that might have been before Congress during our present session, the gentleman must have had in his mind, to which he supposed this case could apply; certainly not the present; it is infinitely more distant in point of analogy than of date. Í have been exerting my imagination to discern any object or bearing it can have, that I might endeavor to meet it, but the total impossibility of the one, will save me the trouble of the other.

We have been exultingly told by Mr. Talley rand, and it has been echoed from this Chamber by the gentleman from New York, (Mr. MIT-frontiers, surely can have no relation to the quesCHILL,) that even the British consider St. Domingo a colony of France, and upon this principle condemn our vessels for trading there. I grant that such a pretext, among many others, has been resorted to in order to destroy our commerce; I grant that such an infringement of our neutral rights has been committed, and the reasons that have induced it must be obvious to the most superficial observer. The British, with a monopoly of this commerce themselves, and those same Englishmen who now condemn our vessels for trading to St. Domingo, upon the ground of its being a French colony, heretofore, when it suited their purposes, so far acknowledged the independence of those very people as to enter into a Commercial Treaty with them, and are now not only in the constant practice of trading there themselves, but of granting licenses to others to do so. I hope, however, the day has not come when our commerce is to be under the control of the Lords of the Admiralty, or our national rights dependent upon the judicial opinions of Sir William Scott; and the learned gentleman from New York must indeed have been pressed with the barrenness of his case when he had to resort to such an argument, derived from such a source. The gentleman from New Jersey, (Mr. KITCHEL,) I must in candor say, has, in support of the present measure, assumed premises totally new and different. His reasons, like most of those we have been accustomed lately to hear, were in the true style of modern legislation, enveloped in all the mysteries of secrecy. He tells us that we had better give up this commerce, because it is not valuable. Where the gentleman obtained this piece of information is utterly beyond the comprehension of my understanding: none such, certainly, has ever been laid before us; nor did he condescend to give us a clue to its source; but as if sufficient to urge it upon our faith with all the

A few words now, Mr. President, as to the impolicy of adopting the present measure. I fear and believe it will have a tendency to increase one of the great evils at present so much complained of by our merchants; the number of pirates and freebooters in the West Indian seas. It will have the further effect of throwing into the hands of other nations, especially the British, a valuable commerce, at present conducted by our own citizens. But there is another far more serious consequence, which, in all human probability, may result from it, and to which I beg leave to call the attention of the gentlemen from our Southern country. With the people of St. Domingo we are now at peace; the advantages of our commerce to them, and their immediate dependence upon us for the necessaries of life, form the strongest security we could possibly ask, or have, that no act of hostility will be attempted on their part toward us while we continue to treat them as heretofore; but only restrict or embarrass your commerce with them; only pass a measure like the present, and you wound them in the tenderest part; they will see you, without provocation, aiming a blow at their very vitals; and will consider you as having abandoned your neutral

FEBRUARY, 1806.

Trade with St. Domingo.

SENATE.

ground, and sided with their enemies. What will
be the consequence? Does any gentleman sup-
pose that nearly a million of people will patiently
starve when the seas around them are covered
with our defenceless merchantmen, laden with
provisions? No, sir, impossible. In addition then
to the renegadoes that at present prey upon you
there, you immediately bring upon your trade a
whole nation of pirates. Those people are now
content to stay at home to till their own fields, to
fight their own battles, and to depend upon us for
supplies. I do not wish to see their views extend
further. I do not wish to see them navigating
the ocean, or tasting the sweets of maritime plun-
der. Such things are much easier learned than
forgotten; much more readily resorted to than
given up; and I consider the general commerce
and prosperity of the United States, but more es-
pecially the delicate situation of our Southern
country, viewing its particular description of pop-
ulation, and convenience to them, as imposing
upon us the strongest obligations to offer them no
inducements to resort to either. Whatever inter-ing, Plumer, Stone, Tracy, and White.
course takes place between us, I wish to be in
their own ports, and will never do an act that
shall have a tendency to bring to our shores such
visitors, either as friends or as enemies; and I be-
lieve this is the true course to avoid the calamity
which some gentlemen seem so much to appre-
hend, and which I should deprecate as sincerely

not been able to stop, nor have even the British
yet assumed to theinselves this maritime right;
but the gentleman from Pennsylvania, in his
great good faith and abundant charity, will now
anticipate their wishes, and do it for them. This,
indeed, surpasses even Christian meekness; it is
not only, when smitten upon one cheek, turning
the other also, but chastening ourselves, with more
than monkish severity, in the most vulnerable
part.

On motion, by one of the majority, to reconsider the fourth section, which restricts the operation of the law to one year, it passed in the negative. On motion, to agree to the final passage of the bill, it was determined in the affirmative-yeas 21, nays 8, as follows:

as any man.

YEAS-Messrs. Anderson, Baldwin, Bradley, Condit, Fenner, Gaillard, Gilman, Howland, Kitchel, Logan, Maclay, Mitchill, Moore, Smith of Maryland, Smith of New York, Smith of Ohio, Smith of Tennessee, Sumter, Turner, Worthington, and Wright.

NAYS-Messrs. Adams, Bayard, Hillhouse, Picker

So it was Resolved, That this bill pass, that it be engrossed, and that the title thereof be "An act to suspend the commercial intercourse between the United States and certain parts of the island of St. Domingo."

FRIDAY, February 21.

The bill, entitled "An act to incorporate the Trustees of the Presbyterian Congregation of Georgetown," was read the second time and referred to Messrs. TRACY, MITCHILL, and SMITH of Maryland, to consider and report thereon.

The Senate took into consideration the motion made yesterday, "that a committee be appointed to wait on the President of the United States, and present to him the two resolutions passed on the 13th and 14th instant," and agreed thereto; and Messrs. SMITH of Maryland and MITCHILL were appointed the committee.

I rejoice that the President has expressed, in his late Message, a disposition to take into the protection of the Government the commerce of the United States, though little has yet been done, or attempted. This project of the gentleman from Pennsylvania I hope forms no part of the new system, and he would have acted wisely before he submitted it to have examined, better its consequences, and to have looked for a moment at the present condition of our commerce. What is it? Plundered upon every coast and in every sea, your flag, instead of being a protection against insult, The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the seems to have become an invitation to injury. Whole, the bill for the protection and indemnifiThe British, the French, and the Spaniards, in cation of American seamen ; and the bill having the ratio of their force, treat us with like indig- been reported to the House without amendment, nities; this is the only point in which they can on motion, that the further consideration thereof agree. The former have adopted, and openly be postponed until the first Monday in December avow a system of measures that, if not counter-next, it passed in the negative-yeas 10, nays 19, acted, must go to deprive us of the most import ant of our neutral rights; while the two latter are anxiously rivalling each other in the most lawless and piratical depredations upon our defenceless trade; even the commissioned vessels of our Government have not been suffered to pass the high seas without insult and violence. The British and the French, whenever it suits their views, blockade our very ports; the British take their position off New York, so as to be convenient to the courts of Halifax; and our friends, the French, to whom the gentleman from Pennsylvania has told us we should be so particularly civil, take occasionally into their holy keeping, the commerce of Charleston and New Orleans, so as to be at a convenient distance from the British. Our trade with St. Domingo, indeed, the French have

as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Bradley, Condit, Gilman, Kitchel, Mitchill, Moore, Smith of New York, Smith of Ohio, Smith of Vermont, and Turner.

NAYS-Messrs. Adair, Adams, Baldwin, Bayard, Fenner, Gaillard, Hillhouse, Howland, Logan, Maclay, Pickering, Plumer, Smith of Maryland, Stone, Sumter, Thruston, Tracy, Worthington, and Wright.

Ordered, That this bill be referred to Messrs. SMITH of Maryland, WRIGHT, MACLAY, BAYARD, and TRACY, to consider and report thereon.

The following motion was submitted for consideration:

That a committee be appointed to consider and report what further measures are necessary to be adopted by Congress for the protection of American seamen, and have leave to report by bill or otherwise."