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CONGRESS. SENATE. NOVEMBER 23. Mr. Crawford's Speech on the Em bargo. Mr. Crawford laid that one of the obje&s of the gentleman from Con necticut was, no doubr, to obtain information of the effects of the embargo fyftem from every part of the U. States. This information was very drfirable at the prefent time, to afiift the councils of the nation in forming an opinion of the courle proper to be purfued in re lation to. A government founded, like ours, on the principle of the will of the nation, which fubfifted but by it, fhould be attentive as far as poilible to the feelings and wifh esofthe people over whom they prefided. He did not fay that the Representatives of a free people ought to yield explicit obedience to any portion of the people who may believe them to a£t erronc oufly i but their will when fairly expreffed, ought to have great weight on a government like ours. The Senate had received feveral deferiptions of the effects produced by the embargo in the eaftern fec tion of the union. As the repre fentative of another extreme of this nation, Mr. C. faid he conceived it his duty to give a fair, faithful and candid reprefentation of the fenti ments of the people whom he had the honor to reprefent. It was al ways the duty of a reprefentative to examine whether the t ffedts expedt cd from any given meafure had or had not been produced. If this were a general duty, how much more imperioufly was it their duty at this time. Every one admitted that confiderable fufferings have been undergone, and much more was now to be borne. Gentlemen have confidered this fubjedt generally in a two fold view, (laid M. C.) as to ite effedh on ourfclvrs, and as to its foreign na tions. I think this a proper and corredt dfvifion of the fubjedt, be caufe we are certainly more ioterefl ed in the effedts of this mealurc on ourft Ives than on other nations. I lhall therefore thus purfue the fub jedt. It is in vain to deny that this is not a profperous time in the Uni ted States; that cur fituation is neither promifing or flattering. Ic is impoflible to fay that we have fuffered no privations in the year iBo3, or that there is a general fpt rit of content throughout the United States; but lam very far from be lieving there is a general fpirit of difeoment. Whenever the meafures of the government immediately af fedt the intertft of any confiderable portion of its citizens, difeontents will arife, however great the bene fits which are expedted from fuch meafure. One difeontented man excites more attention than a thou sand contented men, and hence the number of difeontented are al ways over-rated. In the country which I reprefent no meafure is more ap plauded or more cheerfully fubmit ted to than the embargo. It has been viewed there as rhe only al ternative to avoid war. Ic is a meafure which is enforced in that country at everv facr fi:e. At the fame time that I make this declara tion I am ju hfied .n aflerting that there is no fedtion of the union, whofe intereils are more immedi ately afF did by the meafure than the louthern dates—chan the ftate ©f Georg a. Wc have bce*vtold by an honor able gentleman who has dec!aimed with great force and eloquence a gainft this meafure, that great part of the produce of the eaftern coun try has found its way into market; that new ways have been cut open, and produce has found its way out. Not fo with us; we raife no pro vifions except a fmall quantity of rice, for exportation. The pro dudtion of our land lies on our hands. We have fuffered and now fufFer j yet have not complained. The fears of the Southern dates particularly have been addreffed by the gentleman from Conntdlicur, by a declaration that Great Britain whofe fleets cover the ocean, will certainly And a fource from which to procure fupplics of thofe raw ma terials which flic has heretofore been in the habit of receiving from us ; and that having thus found another market, when we have found the evil of our ways, flic will turn a deaf car to us. By way of exem plification, the gentleman cited a familiar example of a man buying butter from his neighbors It did not appear to me that this butter dory received a very happy eluci dation. In the country in which he lives there are fo many buyers and fo many fellers of butter, that no difficulty refuits from a change cf purchafers or cuflomers. Not fo with our raw materials. Admitting that Britain can find other markets with eafe, there is, dill a great dif tindhor. between this and the gentle man’s butter cafe. When a man fells butter he receives money or fupplies in payment for it. His wants and wiflirs and thofe of his purchafirs are lb reciprocal that no and fficulty can ever arife. Bur Great Britain mud always purchafe raw materials of thofe who purchafe her manufactures. Ic is not to oblige us that fhe takes our raw materials, but it is becaufe vre rake her manu factures in exchange. So long as this date of things continues} lo long they will continue to refort to cur market. There is no clanger then of our loofing our market. I have confidered the gentleman’s argu ment on this point as applied to the feelings of the fouthern country. —•- No one article exported from the United Sta'es equals cotton in a mount. If then we are willing to run the rifk, I trud no other part of the United States will hefitate on this fubjedt. Another reafon afforded by the gentleman from Connecticut, and a fubdantial one if true, is, that this meafure cannot be executed. If this be the cafe it is certainly in vain to perfevere in it, for the r.on cxecution cf any public law mud have a bad tendency on the morals of the people. But the facility with which rhe gentleman reprefents thefe laws to have been evaded, proves that the morals of the eva ders could not have been very found when the meafure was adopted } for a man trained to virtue will not, whatever facility exids, on that ac count, dep into the paths of error and vice. Although I believe myfelf that this meafure has not been properly executed, nor in that way in which the fituation of our country might realontbly have induced us to ex peCl, yet it has been fo far executed as to produce fome good effeCt. So far as the orders and decrees re main in full force, fo far it has fail ed of the effeCt hoped from it: but it has produced a confiderable eff-Ct as I lhall attempt to Ihew hereafter. In commenting on this part of the gentleman’s obfervations, ft be comes proper to notice not an in finuatior} but a pofitivc declaration that the fecret intention of laying the embargo was to deftroy com merce } and was in a date of hef tility to the avowed intention.— This certainly is a heavy charge. In a government like this, we fhould adt openly, honedly and candidly ; the people ought to know their fic uacion and the views of thofe who conduct their affairs. Ic is the word of polit'eal diffionedy to a dopt a meafure, and effer that rea fon for ic which is not the true and fubdantial one. The true and fubdantial reafon for the embargo, the gentleman fays he believes was to dedroy commerce, and on its ruins to raife up domeftic manu factures. This idea, I think though not exprtfily combated by the ob fervations of the gentleman from Delaware, (Mr. White) was fub dantially refuted by him. That gentleman, with great elegance and fomething of fa realm, applied to the houle to know how the rreafury would be filled in the next year ; and obferved that the prefent “in cumbent of the Presidential palace” would not dare to refort to a diredt tax, becaufe a former adminifira tion had done fo anJ felt the effects ofit, infinuating that the prefent administration did not poffcfs cour age enough to attempt it. Nowy I afk, if they dare not refort to a di rect tax, excife laws and damp aas, where will they obtain money ? In what way will the public coffers be filled ? The gentleman mud ac knowledge that all our prefent rev enue is derived from commerce and mud continue to be fo, except re fore be had to a direCt tax, and the gentleman fays, we have not cour age enough for that. The gentle man from Connecticut mud fuppofe, if the gentleman from De laware be correct, that the adminidration fecks its own deltrudtion. We muft have revenue, and yet are told that we wiffi to dedroy the on ly way in which it can be had, ex cept by a direCt tax, a refort to which it is after ted would drive us from the public fervice. But we are told with a grave face that a difpofition is manifetted to make this meafure permanent. The dates who call chemfclvcs com mercial dates, when compared with the fouthern dates, may emphati cally be called manufacturing dates. The fouthern dates are not manu facturing dates, while the great commercial dates are abfolutely the manufacturing dates. If this em bargo fydem were intended to be permanent, thefe commercial dates would be bent fitted by the ex change, to the injury of the South ern dates. I-c is impoffible for us to find a market for our produce but by foreign commerce j and whenever a change of the kind allu ded to is made, that change will operate to the injury of the fouth ern dates more than to the injury of the commercial dates, fo called. But another fecret motive with which the government is charged to have been actuated, is, that this meafure was intended and is calcu lated to promote the interefis of France. To be fine none of rhe gentlemen have exprefflv faid that we are under French influence, but a reforc is had to the Expofe of the French minifler, and a deduction thence made that the embargo was laid at the wilh of Bonaparte. The gentleman from Connecticut told us of this expofe for this purpefe and the gentleman frem Maffachu fetts appeared to notice it with the fame view. Now we are told that there is no danger cf war, except it be becaufe we’have underfiood (feat Bonaparte has faid that there fty.ll be no neutrals } and tha f , if we re peal the embarg >, wc may expfCt that he will make war on us. A id this is rhe only fiurce from whence the gentleman could fee any danger of war. If this declaration agamft neutrality which is attributed to the Gillie emperor be true, and ic may be fo, his Gallic majrfty could noc purfue a more diredt courfe to ef fect his Own wilhes than to declare that our embargo had been adopted under his - influence. And uokfs the Britifh min liter had more po litical fagacity than the gentleman who ( fibred the evidence of the ex pofe in proof of the charge, ic would produce the very end which thole, gentlemen wifhed to avoid— with Great Britain ; for Ihe would commence the attack could flie be lieve this country under the influ ence of France. I would juft as much believe in the (incerity of that: expofe, as Mr. Canning’s fincericv, when he fays that his myjefty would gladly make any facriHce to reftoie to the commerce of the United States its wonted activity. No man in the ration is fiily enough to he gu:!ed by thefe declarations; but from the me made of them, we fhould be led to think other wife, were it not for the exerc fe of our - whole (lock of chadiy. Now l cannot be!.eve that any man in this nit on do-s believe in the finerrity of Mr. Canning’s expreflio is, or that Bonaparte believes that the embargo was laid to promote his intt refi. I cannot believe that there is any man in this nation who does candidly and Icrioufly entertain fuch an opinion; When >ve advance to the feccnd propcfition, we are told in the molt pcfidve terms by the gentlemen from Delaware and Connedticir, that this meafure has produced no efikdt on foreign nations. The gentleman from Maffachufetts bare ly admits that at flrfi it had excited fome fmail degree of alarm in Great Britain for a ftiort time. 1 cannot believe that gentlemen wifi> to be underlined literally when they tell us this. Ic can be nothing more than a figure of rhetoric. It can not really be meant that the embar go has f redu ed no effdt The g ntlcman from Maflaohufetts gets over it by faying that inurredtior.s among her roanuradturers, were fa in.bar to him }■ he had always heard of them. Bur, fir, Ido not recol lect to Have hcaidof Uny infurrec tion of the kind to which I allude, having taken place. They have at times heretofore been difordeily indeed, but in the late cafe it was a peaceable affcmblage of labourers* not intending to overthrow the go/ vernmentor to refifi the laws, but to fhew the abfolute ftate of fiarvs tion with which they were threaten ed. There has been nothing of this kind within my recollection be fore. We have leard of mobs and riotous tumults } but in the prefent cafe no movement was made by thefe unfortunate people to difturb the government. With a degree of facility which excited my aftsn ifhment, the gentleman teils us that if one hundred principal manufactu rers ihouki be reduced to bank ruptcy,-and 50,000 mechanics fhruld be turned or employ, this would out ftrergthrn the army and navy cf the BriulTi nation; that, when you < affedt Great Britain molt ferioufl;-', you do her a benefit. Purfu'.ng this argument a little further, i’ap pofe 500, oco fhould be uacmpk y * cd, the arm of the nation would be fo much the more firtngthened, J