Faults of the Federalists (continued)
5. The Embargo and the “Force Act” were Constitutional
Jefferson’s intent was to keep his embargo in effect until either the French repealed their decrees, or the British repealed their Orders in Council. In 1809 Congress passed a “Force Act” bolstering the Embargo. Without a warrant, federal agents confiscated goods suspected of being shipped to foreign ports.
New England and its merchants bore the brunt of the Jefferson’s embargo. In 1807, the tonnage shipped by Massachusetts vessels alone was almost forty percent America’s total. After the Embargo was passed, Massachusetts shippers lost a staggering $15 million in revenue. In 1806, that was the total income of the Federal government.[1] New Englanders looked to their state governments for redress. Carey compared the “Force Act” with precedents signed by Washington and Adams. In side-by-side columns Carey noted the act allowed the president to enact an embargo whenever public safety was at risk. The president could also order officers to enforce an embargo.[2]
Throughout Massachusetts and Maine, citizens met for town meetings. They passed resolutions against Jefferson’s embargo asking their state governments for help. Carey published extracts from several town meetings for readers to judge for themselves. He wrote that the Embargo and “Force Act” were constitutional.
Should the House Fund Legislation It Opposes? How the House Responded to Funding the Jay Treaty
The Federalists prevailed. Congressman Fisher Ames of Massachusetts enticed western Democratic-Republicans in the House to vote for Jay’s Treaty. He linked Jay’s Treaty to Pinckney’s Treaty with issues important to westerners. Pinckney’s Treaty promised them access to the Gulf of Mexico through the Mississippi. It allowed merchants to warehouse their goods in New Orleans.
Congressman Ames had been ill during much of the debate. With some effort, he rose to give a stirring oration to the House. He urged representatives to vote for ratification of Jay’s Treaty, bringing many of those present to tears.
Playing on westerners’ fears about Native American attacks on the frontier Ames said:
“In the daytime your path through the woods is ambushed; the darkness of midnight will glitter with the blaze of your dwellings…the blood of your sons shall fatten your corn-field!…the war-whoop shall wake the sleep of the cradle!…I can fancy that I listen to the yells of savage vengeance and the shrieks of torture…even as slender and almost broken as my hold on life is, I may outlive the Government and Constitution of my country.” [3]
The Senate had failed to act on Pinckney’s Treaty. Ames suggested if the House passed the Jay Treaty, the Senate would ratify Pinckney’s Treaty. His ploy worked. The House appropriated the funds for Jay’s Treaty, in a vote of 51-48 on April 30, 1796.[4]
If the House refused to fund Obamacare, how might the Senate entice some Republican representatives to vote for the funding siphoning off votes from the Republican majority?
[1] Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) 655.
[2] Mathew Carey, The Olive Branch or Faults on Both Sides, Federal and Democratic (Philadelphia: M. Carey November 8, 1814) 111.
[3] Fisher Ames quoted in Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) 448.
[4]Edward C. Carter II, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey, Nationalist, 1760-1814,“ PhD Dissertation, Bryn Mawr College, 1962, 233.
