Jefferson’s intent was to keep the embargo in effect until either the French repealed their decrees, or the British repealed their orders. Congress passed a ‘Force Act’ in 1809 bolstering the embargo. It allowed federal agents to confiscate goods suspected of being shipped to foreign ports, without a warrant.
Following the embargo in 1807, tonnage shipped to American ports declined a staggering fifty percent. Exports declined even more at seventy-five percent.
New England and its merchants bore the brunt of the embargo. New Englanders looked to their state governments for redress. New England’s state legislatures were controlled by Federalists. They used the reasoning behind the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions as a response to defy the embargo.
Federalist Party leaders objected to the idea of outright secession. Federalist editors, the clergy and radicals clamored for action. The party’s leaders had to find a middle course, or give up their control. They favored “state interposition.” They argued the United States was comprised of a collection of independent entities—the states. They granted the Federal government limited powers.
Moderate Federalists considered the Constitution as a contract between the states. States, as sovereign republics, held the power of government. The federal government’s power came from states that had ratified the Constitution, not the people. [1] These states had ratified the contract known as the Constitution. They had the power to determine if a federal law violated the Constitution. A state could interpose authority between the federal government and the people. That meant a state could ignore a federal law.[2]
In February, 1809, a convention was proposed for New England’s states to nullify the embargo. As New England suffered through its fourteenth month of embargo, even the Democratic-Republicans in New England revolted. Howls of protest came from many town meetings in New England. Secession was discussed publicly.
In response, Congress hastily passed a bill repealing the embargo. Jefferson signed it three days before the end of his term.[3]
[1]James M. Banner, Jr. To the Hartford Convention: The Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts 1789-1815 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970)121, 120.
[2] Banner, To the Hartford Convention, 120.
[3] Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager, The Growth of the American Republic, Volume 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962) 396.
