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The trade in English merchandise is forbidden; all mer-

chandise belonging to England, or coming from its manu-

factories and colonies, is declared lawful prize.

One half of the proceeds of the confiscation of the mer-

chandise and property, declared good prize by the preced-

ing articles, shall be applied to indemnify the merchants

for the losses which they have suffered by the capture of

merchant vessels by English cruisers.

VII

No vessel coming directly from England, or from the

English colonies, or having been there since the publica-

tion of the present decree, shall be received into any port.

VIII

Every vessel contravening the above clause, by means of a

false declaration, shall be seized, and the vessel and cargo

confiscated, as if they were English property.

Our tribunal of prizes at Paris is charged with the defini-

tive adjudication of all the controversies, which by the

French army, relative to the execution of the present

decree. Our tribunal of prizes at Milan shall be charged

with the definitive adjudication of the said controversies,

which may arise within the extent of our kingdom of Italy.

The present decree shall be communicated by our minis-

ter of exterior relations, to the kings of Spain, of Naples, of

Holland, and of Etruria, and to our allies, whose subjects,

like ours, are the victims of the injustice and the barbarism

of the English maritime laws. Our finances, our police, and

our post masters general, are charged each, in what con-

cerns him, with the execution of the present decree.

Source:

Henry Steele Commager, ed. Documents of American History.

New York: F.S. Crofts & Co., 1934.

________________________

_______________________

British Order in Council, 1807

Whereas the French Government has issued certain

orders, which, in violation of the usages of war, purport to

prohibit the commerce of all neutral nations with His

Majesty’s dominions, and also to prevent such nations from

trading with any other country in any articles, the growth,

produce, or manufacture of His Majesty’s dominions; and

whereas the said Government has also taken upon itself to

declare all His Majesty’s dominions to be in a state of block-

ade, at the time when the fleets of France and her allies are

themselves confined within their own ports by the superior

valor and discipline of the British navy; and whereas such

attempts, on the part of the enemy, would give to His

Majesty an unquestionable right of retaliation, and would

warrant His Majesty in enforcing the same prohibition of

all commerce with France, which that power vainly hopes

to effect against the commerce of His Majesty’s subjects, a

prohibition which the superiority of His Majesty’s naval

forces might enable him to support by actually investing the

ports and coasts of the enemy with numerous squadrons

and cruisers, so as to make the entrance or approach

thereto manifestly dangerous; and whereas His Majesty,

though unwilling to follow the example of his enemies by

proceeding to an extremity so distressing to all nations not

engaged in the war, and carrying on their accustomed

trade, yet feels himself bound, by due regard to the just

defense of the rights and interests of his people not to suf-

fer such measures to be taken by the enemy, without taking

some steps on his part to restrain this violence, and to retort

upon them the evils of their own injustice; His Majesty is

thereupon pleased, by and with the advice of his privy

council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, that no vessel

shall be permitted to trade from one port to another, both

which ports shall belong to or be in the possession of

France or her allies, or shall be so far under their control as

that British vessels may not trade freely thereat; and the

commanders of His Majesty’s ships of war and privateers

shall be, and are hereby, instructed to warn every neutral

vessel coming from any such port, and destined to another

such port, to discontinue her voyage, and not to proceed to

any such port; and any vessel, after being so warned, or any

vessel coming from any such port, after a reasonable time

shall have been afforded for receiving information of this

His Majesty’s order, which shall be found proceeding to

another such port, shall be captured and brought in, and

together with her cargo shall be condemned as lawful prize;

and His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, the Lords

Commissioners of the Admiralty, and the Judges of the

High Court of Admiralty, and the Courts of Vice-admiralty,

are to take the necessary measures herein as to them shall

respectively appertain.

Source:

Henry Steele Commager, ed. Documents of American History.

New York: F.S. Crofts & Co., 1934.

________________________

_______________________

Milan Decree, 1807

Napoleon, emperor of the French, king of Italy, and pro-

tector of the Rhenish confederation.

Observing the measures adopted by the British gov-

ernment, on the 11th November last, by which vessels

522 ERA 4: Expansion and Reform

belonging to neutral, friendly, or even powers the allies of

England, are made liable, not only to be searched by

English cruisers, but to be compulsorily detailed in Eng-

land, and to have a tax laid on them of so much per cent on

the cargo, to be regulated by the British legislature.

Observing that by these acts the British government

denationalizes ships of every nation in Europe, that it is not

competent for any government to detract from its own

independence and rights, all the sovereigns of Europe hav-

ing in trust the sovereignties and independence of the flag;

that if by an unpardonable weakness, and which in the eyes

of posterity would be an indelible stain, if such a tyranny

was allowed to be established into principles, and conse-

crated by useage, the English would avail themselves of it

to assert it as a right, as they have availed themselves of the

tolerance of government to establish the infamous princi-

ple, that the flag of a nation does not cover goods, and to

have their right of blockade an arbitrary extension, and

which infringes on the sovereignty of every state; we have

decreed and do decree as follows:

. I

Every ship, to whatever nation it may belong, that shall

have submitted to be searched by an English ship, or to a

voyage to England, or shall have paid any tax whatsoever to

the English government, is thereby and for that alone,

declared to be denationalized, to have forfeited the pro-

tection of its king, and to have become English property.

. II

Whether the ships thus denationalized by the arbitrary

measures of the English government, enter into our ports,

or those of our allies, or whether they fall into the hands of

our ships of war, or of our privateers, they are declared to

be good and lawful prize.

. III

The British islands are declared to be in a state of block-

ade, both by land and sea. Every ship, of whatever nation,

or whatsoever the nature of its cargo may be, that sails

from the ports of England, or those of the English

colonies, and of the countries occupied by English troops,

and proceeding to England or to the English colonies, or

to countries occupied by English troops, is good and law-

ful prize, as contrary to the present decree, and may be

captured by our ships of war, or our privateers, and

adjudged to the captor.

. IV

These measures, which are resorted to only in just retalia-

tion of the barbarous system adopted by England, which

assimilates its legislation to that of Algiers, shall cease to

have any effect with respect to all nations who shall have

the firmness to compel the English government to respect

their flag. They shall continue to be rigorously in force as

long as that government does not return to the principle of

the law of nations, which regulates the relations of civilized

states in a state of war. The provisions of the present

decree shall be abrogated and null, in fact, as soon as the

English abide again by the principles of the law of nations,

which are also the principles of justice and of honour.

All our ministers are charged with the execution of the

present decree, which shall be inserted in the bulletin of

the laws.

Napoleon.

Source:

Henry Steele Commager, ed. Documents of American History.

New York: F.S. Crofts & Co., 1934, pp. 201–202.

Non-Intercourse Act of 1809

Federal legislation signed by President Thomas Jefferson on

March 1, 1809, and effective on March 15, repealing the U.S.

Embargo Act of 1807. The Embargo Act, passed by Congress

on December 22, 1807, prohibited all international trade to

and from U.S. ports. It, in turn, supplanted the Non-Importa-

tion Act of April 18, 1806, which prohibited the importation of

certain British goods. The purpose of this act was to force

Great Britain, then at war with France, to cease its practices of

seizing neutral American commercial vessels engaged in trade

with the French and of impressing (forcing into royal service)

American sailors under the claim that they were deserters from

the British navy or were British subjects. The 1807 Embargo

Act was designed to deny raw materials to both Great Britain

and France and to persuade them to cease practices that were

damaging American commerce. Rather than achieving its

goal, the act dramatically lowered American exports, denied

merchants and producers their income from raw materials,

cost sailors their jobs, and forced the closure of American

ports. This unpopular and unsuccessful legislation was

repealed on March 1, 1809. The U.S. Non-Intercourse Act

replaced it. The Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 restored trade

with all foreign countries except Great Britain and France,

which were still at war with each other. The act authorized the

president to allow trade to resume between the United States

and Britain and France when those two nations stopped seiz-

ing American commercial ships, impressing American sailors,

and otherwise violating U.S. neutrality rights. When this act

failed to end French and British interference with U.S. ship-

ping, it was replaced in 1810 by the Macon Act, also known

as Macon’s Bill #2 after its sponsor, Senator Nathaniel Macon.

The Macon Act reopened trade with both nations but provided

that if either France or Britain recognized American neutrality

Territorial Expansion, Political and Economic Developments, and International Relations 523

and ceased violations of American shipping, the United States

would cease trading with the other nation. Trade was restored

with France, and nonintercourse was reimposed on Great

Britain in 1811, a prelude to the War of 1812.

________________________

_______________________

An Act

To interdict the commercial intercourse between the

United States and Great Britain and France, and their

dependencies; and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-

tives of the United States of America in Congress assem-

bled, That from and after the passing of this act, the

entrance of the harbors and waters of the United States

and of the territories thereof, be, and the same is hereby

interdicted to all public ships and vessels belonging to

Great Britain or France, excepting vessels only which may

be forced in by distress, or which are charged with

despatches or business from the government to which they

belong, and also packets having no cargo nor merchandise

on board. And if any public ship or vessel as aforesaid, not

being included in the exception above mentioned, shall

enter any harbor or waters within the jurisdiction of the

United States, or of the territories thereof, it shall be law-

ful for the President of the United States, or such other

person as he shall have empowered for that purpose, to

employ such part of the land and naval forces, or of the

militia of the United States, or the territories thereof, as he

shall deem necessary, to compel such ship or vessel to

depart.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall not be

lawful for any citizen or citizens of the United States or the

territories thereof, nor for any person or persons residing

or being in the same, to have any intercourse with, or to

afford any aid or supplies to any public ship or vessel as

aforesaid, which shall, contrary to the provisions of this act,

have entered any harbor or waters within the jurisdiction

of the United States or the territories thereof; and if any

person shall, contrary to the provisions of this act, have any

intercourse with such ship or vessel, or shall afford any aid

to such ship or vessel, either in repairing the said vessel or

in furnishing her, her officers or crew with supplies of any

kind or in any manner whatever, or if any pilot or other

person shall assist in navigating or piloting such ship or

vessel, unless it be for the purpose of carrying her beyond

the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, every per-

son so offending, shall forfeit and pay a sum not less than

one hundred dollars, nor exceeding ten thousand dollars;

and shall also be imprisoned for a term not less than one

month, nor more than one year.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That from and after

the twentieth day of May next, the entrance of the harbors

and waters of the United States and the territories thereof

be, and the same is hereby interdicted to all ships or ves-

sels sailing under the flag of Great Britain or France, or

owned in whole or in part by any citizen or subject of

either; vessels hired, chartered or employed by the gov-

ernment of either country, for the sole purpose of carrying

letters or despatches, and also vessels forced in by distress

or by the dangers of the sea, only excepted. And if any ship

or vessel sailing under the flag of Great Britain or France,

or owned in whole or in part by any citizen or subject of

either, and not excepted as aforesaid, shall after the said

twentieth day of May next, arrive either with or without a

cargo, within the limits of the United States or of the ter-

ritories thereof, such ship, or vessel, together with the

cargo, if any, which may be found on board, shall be for-

feited, and may be seized and condemned in any court of

the United States or the territories thereof, having compe-

tent jurisdiction, and all and every act and acts heretofore

passed, which shall be within the purview of this act, shall

be, and the same are hereby repealed.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That from and after

the twentieth day of May next, it shall not be lawful to

import into the United States or the territories thereof, any

goods, wares or merchandise whatever, from any port or

place situated in Great Britain or Ireland, or in any of the

colonies or dependencies of Great Britain, nor from any

port or place situated in France, or in any of her colonies

or dependencies, nor from any port or place in the actual

possession of either Great Britain or France. Nor shall it

be lawful to import into the United States, or the territo-

ries thereof, from any foreign port or place whatever, any

goods, wares or merchandise whatever, being of the

growth, produce or manufacture of France, or of any of

her colonies or dependencies, or being of the growth, pro-

duce or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, or of any

of the colonies or dependencies of Great Britain, or being

of the growth, produce or manufacture of any place or

country in the actual possession of either France or Great

Britain: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be

construed to affect the cargoes of ships or vessels wholly

owned by a citizen or citizens of the United States, which

had cleared for any port beyond the Cape of Good Hope,

prior to the twenty-second day of December, one thousand

eight hundred and seven, or which had departed for such

port by permission of the President, under the acts sup-

plementary to the act laying an embargo on all ships and

vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That whenever any

article or articles, the importation of which is prohibited by

this act, shall, after the twentieth of May, be imported into

the United States, or the territories thereof, contrary to the

true intent and meaning of this act, or shall, after the said

twentieth of May, be put on board of any ship or vessel,

boat, raft or carriage, with intention of importing the same

524 ERA 4: Expansion and Reform

into the United States, or the territories thereof, all such

articles, as well as all other articles on board the same ship

or vessel, boat, raft or carriage, belonging to the owner of

such prohibited articles, shall be forfeited; and the owner

thereof shall moreover forfeit and pay treble the value of

such articles.

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That if any article or

articles, the importation of which is prohibited by this act,

shall, after the twentieth of May, be put on board of any

ship or vessel, boat, raft or carriage, with intention to

import the same into the United States, or the territories

thereof, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act,

and with the knowledge of the owner or master of such

ship or vessel, boat, raft or carriage, such ship or vessel,

boat, raft or carriage shall be forfeited, and the owner and

master thereof shall moreover each forfeit and pay treble

the value of such articles.

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That if any article or

articles, the importation of which is prohibited by this act,

and which shall nevertheless be on board of any ship or

vessel, boat, raft or carriage, arriving after the said twenti-

eth of May next, in the United States, or the territories

thereof, shall be omitted in the manifest, report or entry of

the master, or the person having the charge or command

of such ship or vessel, boat, raft or carriage, or shall be

omitted in the entry of the goods owned by the owner or

consigned to the consignee of such articles, or shall be

imported, or landed, or attempted to be imported or

landed without a permit, the same penalties, fines, and for-

feitures, shall be incurred, and may be recovered, as in the

case of similar omission or omissions, landing, importation,

or attempt to land or import in relation to articles liable to

duties on their importation into the United States.

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That every collector,

naval officer, surveyor, or other officer of the customs, shall

have the like power and authority to seize goods, wares and

merchandise imported contrary to the intent and meaning

of this act, to keep the same in custody until it shall have

been ascertained whether the same have been forfeited or

not, and to enter any ship or vessel, dwelling-house, store,

building or other place, for the purpose of searching for

and seizing any such goods, wares and merchandise which

he or they now have by law in relation to goods, wares and

merchandise subject to duty; and if any person or persons

shall conceal or buy any goods, wares or merchandise,

knowing them to be liable to seizure by this act, such per-

son or persons shall, on conviction thereof, forfeit and pay

a sum double the amount or value of the goods, wares and

merchandise so concealed or purchased.

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That the following

additions shall be made to the oath or affirmation taken by

the masters or persons having the charge or command of

any ship or vessel arriving at any port of the United States,

or the territories thereof, after the twentieth of May, viz: “I

further swear (or affirm) that there are not, to the best of

my knowledge and belief, on board, (insert the denomina-

tion and name of the vessel) any goods, wares or merchan-

dise, the importation of which into the United States, or

the territories thereof, is prohibited by law: and I do fur-

ther swear (or affirm) that if I shall hereafter discover or

know of any such goods, wares or merchandise, on board

the said vessel, or which shall have been imported in the

same, I will immediately, and without delay, make due

report thereof to the collector of the port of this district.”

Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That the following

addition be made, after the twentieth of May, to be oath or

affirmation taken by importers, consignees, or agents, at

the time of entering goods imported into the United

States, or the territories thereof, viz. “I also swear, (or

affirm) that there are not, to the best of my knowledge and

belief, amongst the said goods, wares and merchandise,

imported or consigned as aforesaid, any goods, wares or

merchandise, the importation of which into the United

States, or the territories thereof, is prohibited by law; and

I do further swear (or affirm) that if I shall hereafter dis-

cover or know of any such goods, wares or merchandise,

amongst the said goods, wares and merchandise, imported

or consigned as aforesaid, I will immediately and without

delay report the same to the collector of this district.”

Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That the President

of the United States be, and he hereby is authorized, in

case either France or Great Britain shall so revoke or mod-

ify her edicts, as that they shall cease to violate the neutral

commerce of the United States, to declare the same by

proclamation; after which the trade of the United States,

suspended by this act, and by the act laying an embargo on

all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United

States, and the several acts supplementary thereto, may be

renewed with the nation so doing: Provided, that all penal-

ties and forfeitures which shall have been previously

incurred, by virtue of this or of any other act, the operation

of which shall so cease and determine, shall be recovered

and distributed, in like manner as if the same had contin-

ued in full force and virtue: and vessels bound thereafter

to any foreign port or place, with which commercial inter-

course shall by virtue of this section be again permitted,

shall give bond to the United States, with approved secu-

rity, in double the value of the vessel and cargo, that they

shall not proceed to any foreign port, nor trade with any

country other than those with which commercial inter-

course shall have been or may be permitted by this act.

Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That so much of the

act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports

and harbors of the United States, and of the several acts

supplementary thereto, as forbids the departure of vessels

owned by citizens of the United States, and the exportation

Territorial Expansion, Political and Economic Developments, and International Relations 525

of domestic and foreign merchandise to any foreign port or

place, be, and the same as hereby repealed, after the fif-

teenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and

nine, except so far as they relate to Great Britain or

France, or their colonies or dependencies, or places in the

actual possession of either: Provided, that all penalties and

forfeitures which shall have been previously incurred by

virtue of so much of the said acts as is repealed by this act,

or which have been or may hereafter be incurred by virtue

of the said acts, on account of any infraction of so much of

the said acts as is not repealed by this act, shall be recov-

ered and distributed in like manner as if the said acts had

continued in full force and virtue.

Sec. 13. And be it further enacted, That during the

continuance of so much of the act laying an embargo on all

ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United

States, and of the several acts supplementary thereto, as is

not repealed by this act, no ship or vessel bound to a for-

eign port, with which commercial intercourse shall, by

virtue of this act, be again permitted, shall be allowed to

depart for such port, unless the owner or owners, con-

signee or factor of such ship or vessel shall, with the mas-

ter, have given bond with one or more sureties to the

United States, in a sum double the value of the vessel and

cargo, if the vessel is wholly owned by a citizen or citizens

of the United States; and in a sum four times the value, if

the vessel is owned in part or in whole by any foreigner or

foreigners, that the vessel shall not leave the port without

a clearance, nor shall, when leaving the port, proceed to

any port or place in Great Britain or France, or in the

colonies or dependencies of either, or in the actual posses-

sion of either, nor be directly or indirectly engaged during

the voyage in any trade with such port, nor shall put any

article on board of any other vessel; nor unless every other

requisite and provision of the second section of the act,

intituled “An act to enforce and make more effectual an

act, intituled An act laying an embargo on all ships and ves-

sels in the ports and harbors of the United States, and the

several acts supplementary thereto,” shall have been com-

plied with. And the party or parties to the above men-

tioned bond shall, within a reasonable time after the date

of the same, to be expressed in the said bond, produce to

the collector of the district, from which the vessel shall

have been cleared, a certificate of the landing of the same,

in the same manner as is provided by law for the landing

of goods exported with the privilege of drawback; on fail-

ure whereof, the bond shall be put in suit; and in every

such suit judgment shall be given against the defendant or

defendants, unless proof shall be produced of such reland-

ing, or of loss at sea.

Sec. 14. And be it further enacted, That so much of the

act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports

and harbors of the United States, and of the several acts

supplementary thereto, as compels vessels owned by citi-

zens of the United States, bound to another port of the

said States, or vessels licensed for the coasting trade, or

boats, either not masted or not decked, to give bond, and

to load under the inspection of a revenue officer, or ren-

ders them liable to detention, merely on account of the

nature of their cargo, (such provisions excepted as relate to

collection districts adjacent to the territories, colonies or

provinces of a foreign nation, or to vessels belonging or

bound to such districts) be, and the same is hereby

repealed, from and after the fifteenth day of March, one

thousand eight hundred and nine: Provided however, that

all penalties and forfeitures which shall have been previ-

ously incurred by any of the said acts, or which may here-

after be incurred by virtue of the said acts, on account of

any infraction of so much of the said acts, as is not repealed

by this act, shall be recovered and distributed in like man-

ner as if the same had continued in full force and virtue.

Sec. 15. And be it further enacted, That during the

continuance of so much of the act laying an embargo on all

ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United

States, and of the several acts supplementary thereto, as is

not repealed by this act, no vessel owned by citizens of the

United States, bound to another port of the said States or

licensed for the coasting trade, shall be allowed to depart

from any port of the United States, or shall receive a clear-

ance, nor shall it be lawful to put on board any such vessel

any specie or goods, wares, or merchandise, unless a per-

mit shall have been previously obtained from the proper

collector, or from a revenue officer, authorized by the col-

lector to grant such permits; nor unless the owner, con-

signee, agent, or factor shall, with the master, give bond

with one or more sureties, to the United States, in a sum

double the value of the vessel and cargo, that the vessel

shall not proceed to any foreign port or place, and that the

cargo shall be relanded in some port of the United States:

Provided, that it shall be lawful and sufficient in the case

of any such vessel, whose employment has been uniformly

confined to rivers, bays and sounds within the jurisdiction

of the United States, to give bond in an amount equal to

one hundred and fifty dollars, for each ton of said vessel,

with condition that such vessel shall not, during the time

limited in the condition of the bond, proceed to any for-

eign port or place, or put any article on board of any other

vessel, or be employed in any foreign trade.

Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That if any ship of

vessel shall, during the continuance of so much of the act

laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and

harbors of the United States, and of the several acts sup-

plementary thereto, as is not repealed by this act, depart

from any port of the United States without a clearance or

permit, or having given bond in the manner provided by

law, such ship or vessel, together with her cargo, shall be

526 ERA 4: Expansion and Reform

wholly forfeited; and the owner or owners, agent, freighter

or factors, master or commander of such ship or vessel

shall, moreover, severally forfeit and pay a sum equal to the

value of the ship or vessel, and of the cargo put on board

the same.

Sec. 17. And be it further enacted, That the act to pro-

hibit the importation of certain goods, wares and mer-

chandise, passed the eighteenth of April, one thousand

eight hundred and six, and the act supplementary thereto,

be, and the same are hereby repealed, from and after the

said twentieth day of May next: Provided, that all penalties

and forfeitures which shall have been previously incurred

by virtue of the said acts shall be recovered and distributed

in like manner as if the said acts had continued in full force

and virtue.

Sec. 18. And be it further enacted, That all penalties

and forfeitures arising under or incurred by virtue of this

act, may be sued for, prosecuted and recovered, with costs

of suit, by action of debt, in the name of the United States

of America, or by indictment or information, in any court

having competent jurisdiction to try same; and shall be dis-

tributed and accounted for in the manner prescribed by

the act, intituled “An act to regulate the collection of

duties on imports and tonnage,” passed the second day of

March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine; and

such penalties and forfeitures may be examined, mitigated

or remitted, in like manner, and under the like conditions,

regulations and restrictions, as are prescribed, authorized

and directed by the act, intituled “An act to provide for

mitigating or remitting the forfeitures, penalties and dis-

abilities, accruing in certain cases therein mentioned,”

passed the third day of March, one thousand seven hun-

dred and ninety-seven, and made perpetual by an act

passed the eleventh day of February, one thousand eight

hundred.

Sec. 19. And be it further enacted, That this act shall

continue and be in force until the end of the next session

of Congress, and no longer; and that the act laying an

embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors

of the United States, and the several acts supplementary

thereto, shall be, and the same are hereby repealed from

and after the end of the next session of Congress.

Source:

Statutes at Large of the United States of America, 1789–1873. 17

vols. Washington, D.C. 1850–73. Vol. 9, pp. 528–533.

War Message of 1812

Message delivered by President James Madison to Congress on

June 1, 1812, urging Congress to declare war on Great Britain

following the failure of other attempts to end British interfer-

ence with American shipping. Madison cited as grounds for

war the British impressment of American sailors, the violation

of American territorial waters and neutral shipping rights, and

the blockade of U.S. ports. The House of Representatives

approved a declaration of war on June 4; the Senate passed the

measure on June 18, and Madison signed it the same day, thus

beginning the War of 1812.

________________________

_______________________

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United

States:

I communicate to Congress certain documents, being

a continuation of those heretofore laid before them on the

subject of our affairs with Great Britain.

Without going back beyond the renewal in 1803 of the

war in which Great Britain is engaged, and omitting unre-

paired wrongs of inferior magnitude, the conduct of her

Government presents a series of acts hostile to the United

States as an independent and neutral nation.

British cruisers have been in the continued practice of

violating the American flag on the great highway of

nations, and of seizing and carrying off persons sailing

under it, not in the exercise of a belligerent right founded

on the law of nations against an enemy, but of a municipal

prerogative over British subjects. British jurisdiction is

thus extended to neutral vessels in a situation where no

laws can operate but the law of nations and the laws of the

country to which the vessels belong, and a self-redress is

assumed which, if British subjects were wrongfully

detained and alone concerned, is that substitution of force

for a resort to the responsible sovereign which falls within

the definition of war. Could the seizure of British subjects

in such cases be regarded as within the exercise of a bel-

ligerent right, the acknowledged laws of war, which forbid

an article of captured property to be adjudged without a

regular investigation before a competent tribunal, would

imperiously demand the fairest-trial where the sacred

rights of persons were at issue. In place of such a trial these

rights are subjected to the will of every petty commander.

The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British

subjects alone that, under the pretext of searching for

these, thousands of American citizens, under the safeguard

of public law and of their national flag, have been torn

from their country and from everything dear to them; have

been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation and

exposed, under the severities of their discipline, to be

exiled to the most distant and deadly climes, to risk their

lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the melan-

choly instruments of taking away those of their own

brethren.

Against this crying enormity, which Great Britain

would be so prompt to avenge if committed against herself,

the United States have in vain exhausted remonstrances

Territorial Expansion, Political and Economic Developments, and International Relations 527

and expostulations, and that no proof might be wanting of

their conciliatory dispositions, and no pretext left for a con-

tinuance of the practice, the British Government was for-

mally assured of the readiness of the United States to enter

into arrangements such as could not be rejected if the

recovery of British subjects were the real and the sole

object. The communication passed without effect.

British cruisers have been in the practice also of vio-

lating the rights and the peace of our coasts. They hover

over and harass our entering and departing commerce. To

the most insulting pretensions they have added the most

lawless proceedings in our very harbors, and have wan-

tonly spilt American blood within the sanctuary of our ter-

ritorial jurisdiction. The principles and rules enforced by

that nation, when a neutral nation, against armed vessels of

belligerents hovering near her coasts and disturbing her

commerce are well known. When called on, nevertheless,

by the United States to punish the greater offenses com-

mitted by her own vessels, her Government has bestowed

on their commanders additional marks of honor and confi-

dence.

Under pretended blockades, without the presence of

an adequate force and sometimes without the practicabil-

ity of applying one, our commerce has been plundered in

every sea, the great staples of our country have been cut

off from their legitimate markets, and a destructive blow

aimed at our agricultural and maritime interests. In aggra-

vation of these predatory measures they have been consid-

ered as in force from the dates of their notification, a

retrospective effect being thus added, as has been done in

other important cases, to the unlawfulness of the course

pursued. And to render the outrage the more signal these

mock blockades have been reiterated and enforced in the

face of official communications from the British Govern-

ment declaring as the true definition of a legal blockade

“that particular ports must be actually invested and previ-

ous warning given to vessels bound to them not to enter.”

Not content with these occasional expedients for lay-

ing waste our neutral trade, the cabinet of Britain resorted

at length to the sweeping system of blockades, under the

name of orders in council, which has been molded and

managed as might best suit its political views, its commer-

cial jealousies, or the avidity of British cruisers.

To our remonstrances against the complicated and

transcendent injustice of this innovation the first reply was

that the orders were reluctantly adopted by Great Britain

as a necessary retaliation on decrees of her enemy pro-

claiming a general blockade of the British Isles at a time

when the naval force of that enemy dared not issue from

his own ports. She was reminded without effect that her

own prior blockades, unsupported by an adequate naval

force actually applied and continued, were a bar to this

plea; that executed edicts against millions of our property

could not be retaliation on edicts confessedly impossible to

be executed; that retaliation, to be just, should fall on the

party setting the guilty example, not on an innocent party

which was not even chargeable with an acquiescence in it.

When deprived of this flimsy veil for a prohibition of

our trade with her enemy by the repeal of his prohibition

of our trade with Great Britain, her cabinet, instead of a

corresponding repeal or a practical discontinuance of its

orders, formally avowed a determination to persist in them

against the United States until the markets of her enemy

should be laid open to British products, thus asserting an

obligation on a neutral power to require one belligerent to

encourage by its internal regulations the trade of another

belligerent, contradicting her own practice toward all

nations, in peace as well as in war, and betraying the insin-

cerity of those professions which inculcated a belief that,

having resorted to her orders with regret, she was anxious

to find an occasion for putting an end to them.

Abandoning still more all respect for the neutral rights

of the United States and for its own consistency, the British

Government now demands as prerequisites to a repeal of

its orders as they relate to the United States that a formal-

ity should be observed in the repeal, of the French decrees

nowise necessary to their termination nor exemplified by

British usage, and that the French repeal besides including

that portion of the decrees which operates within a terri-

torial jurisdiction, as well as that which operates on the

high seas, against the commerce of the United States

should not be a single and special repeal in relation to the

United States, but should be extended to whatever other

neutral nations unconnected with them may be affected by

those decrees. And as an additional insult, they are called

on for a formal disavowal of conditions and pretensions

advanced by the French Government for which the

United States are so far from having made themselves

responsible that, in official explanations which have been

published to the world, and in a correspondence of the

American minister at London with the British minister for

foreign affairs such a responsibility was explicitly and

emphatically disclaimed.

It has become, indeed, sufficiently certain that the

commerce of the United States is to be sacrificed, not as

interfering with the belligerent rights of Great Britain; not

as supplying the wants of her enemies, which she herself

supplies; but as interfering with the monopoly which she

covets for her own commerce and navigation. She carries

on a war against the lawful commerce of a friend that she

may the better carry on a commerce with an enemy—a

commerce polluted by the forgeries and perjuries which

are for the most part the only passports by which it can

succeed.

Anxious to make every experiment short of the last

resort of injured nations, the United States have withheld

528 ERA 4: Expansion and Reform

from Great Britain, under successive modifications, the

benefits of a free intercourse with their market, the loss of

which could not but outweigh the profits accruing from

her restrictions of our commerce with other nations. And

to entitle these experiments to the more favorable consid-

eration they were so framed as to enable her to place her

adversary under the exclusive operation of them. To these

appeals her Government has been equally inflexible, as if

willing to make sacrifices of every sort rather than yield to

the claims of justice or renounce the errors of a false pride.

Nay, so far were the attempts carried to overcome the

attachment of the British cabinet to its unjust edicts that it

received every encouragement within the competency of

the executive branch of our Government to expect that a

repeal of them would be followed by a war between the

United States and France, unless the French edicts should

also be repealed. Even this communication, although

silencing forever the plea of a disposition in the United

States to acquiesce in those edicts originally the sole plea

for them, received no attention.

If no other proof existed of a predetermination of the

British Government against a repeal of its orders, it might

be found in the correspondence of the minister plenipo-

tentiary of the United States at London and the British

secretary for foreign affairs in 1810, on the question

whether the blockade of May, 1806, was considered as in

force or as not in force. It had been ascertained that the

French Government, which urged this blockade as the

ground of its Berlin decree, was willing in the event of its

removal, to repeal that decree, which, being followed by

alternate repeals of the other offensive edicts, might abol-

ish the whole system on both sides. This inviting opportu-

nity for accomplishing an object so important to the

United States, and professed so often to be the desire of

both the belligerents, was made known to the British Gov-

ernment. As that Government admits that an actual appli-

cation of an adequate force is necessary to the existence of

a legal blockade, and it was notorious that if such a force

had ever been applied its long discontinuance had

annulled the blockade in question, there could be no suf-

ficient objection on the part of Great Britain to a formal

revocation of it, and no imaginable objection to a declara-

tion of the fact that the blockade did not exist. The decla-

ration would have been consistent with her avowed

principles of blockade, and would have enabled the United

States to demand from France the pledged repeal of her

decrees, either with success, in which case the way would

have been opened for a general repeal of the belligerent

edicts, or without success, in which case the United States

would have been justified in turning their measures exclu-

sively against France. The British Government would,

however, neither rescind the blockade nor declare its

nonexistence, nor permit its non-existence to be inferred

and affirmed by the American plenipotentiary. On the con-

trary, by representing the blockade to be comprehended in

the orders in council, the United States were compelled so

to regard it in their subsequent proceedings.

There was a period when a favorable change in the

policy of the British cabinet was justly considered as estab-

lished. The minister plenipotentiary of His Britannic

Majesty here proposed an adjustment of the differences

more immediately endangering the harmony of the two

countries. The proposition was accepted with the promp-

titude and cordiality corresponding with the invariable

professions of this Government. A foundation appeared to

be laid for a sincere and lasting reconciliation. The

prospect, however, quickly vanished. The whole proceed-

ing was disavowed by the British Government without any

explanations which could at that time repress the belief

that the disavowal proceeded from a spirit of hostility to

the commercial rights and prosperity of the United States;

and it has since come into proof that at the very moment

when the public minister was holding the language of

friendship and inspiring confidence in the sincerity of the

negotiation with which he was charged a secret agent of his

Government was employed in intrigues having for their

object a subversion of our Government and a dismember-

ment of our happy union.

In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the

United States our attention is necessarily drawn to the

warfare just renewed by the savages on one of our exten-

sive frontiers—a warfare which is known to spare neither

age nor sex and to be distinguished by features peculiarly

shocking to humanity. It is difficult to account for the activ-

ity and combinations which have for some time been

developing themselves among tribes in constant inter-

course with British traders and garrisons without connect-

ing their hostility with that influence and without

recollecting the authenticated examples of such interposi-

tions heretofore furnished by the officers and agents of

that Government.

Such is the spectacle of injuries and indignities which

have been heaped on our country, and such the crisis

which its unexampled forbearance and conciliatory efforts

have not been able to avert. It might at least have been

expected that an enlightened nation, if less urged by moral

obligations or invited by friendly dispositions on the part of

the United States, would have found its true interest alone

a sufficient motive to respect their rights and their tran-

quillity on the high seas; that an enlarged policy would

have favored that free and general circulation of com-

merce in which the British nation is at all times interested,

and which in times of war is the best alleviation of its

calamities to herself as well as to other belligerents;

and more especially that the British cabinet would not, for

the sake of a precarious and surreptitious intercourse with

Territorial Expansion, Political and Economic Developments, and International Relations 529

hostile markets, have persevered in a course of measures

which necessarily put at hazard the invaluable market of a

great and growing country, disposed to cultivate the

mutual advantages of an active commerce.

Other counsels have prevailed. Our moderation and

conciliation have had no other effect than to encourage

perseverance and to enlarge pretensions. We behold our

seafaring citizens still the daily victims of lawless violence,

committed on the great common and highway of nations,

even within sight of the country which owes them protec-

tion. We behold our vessels, freighted with the products of

our soil and industry, or returning with the honest pro-

ceeds of them, wrested from their lawful destinations, con-

fiscated by prize courts no longer the organs of public law

but the instruments of arbitrary edicts, and their unfortu-

nate crews dispersed and lost, or forced or inveigled in

British ports into British fleets, whilst arguments are

employed in support of these aggressions which have no

foundation but in a principle equally supporting a claim to

regulate our external commerce in all cases whatsoever.

We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain, a state

of war against the United States, and on the side of the

United States a state of peace toward Great Britain.

Whether the United States shall continue passive

under these progressive usurpations and these accumulat-

ing wrongs, or, opposing force to force in defense of their

national rights, shall commit a just cause into the hands of

the Almighty Disposer of Events, avoiding all connections

which might entangle it in the contest or views of other

powers, and preserving a constant readiness to concur in

an honorable re-establishment of peace and friendship, is

a solemn question which the Constitution wisely confides

to the legislative department of the Government. In rec-

ommending it to their early deliberations I am happy in

the assurance that the decision will be worthy the enlight-

ened and patriotic councils of a virtuous, a free, and a pow-

erful nation.

Having presented this view of the relations of the

United States with Great Britain and of the solemn alter-

native growing out of them. I proceed to remark that the

communications last made to Congress on the subject of

our relations with France will have shewn that since the

revocation of her decrees, as they violated the neutral

rights of the United States, her Government has autho-

rized illegal captures by its privateers and public ships, and

that other outrages have been practised on our vessels and

our citizens. It will have been seen also that no indemnity

had been provided or satisfactorily pledged for the exten-

sive spoliations committed under the violent and retro-

spective orders of the French Government against the

property of our citizens seized within the jurisdiction of

France. I abstain at this time from recommending to the

consideration of Congress definitive measures with respect

to that nation, in the expectation that the result of unclosed

discussions between our minister plenipotentiary at Paris

and the French Government will speedily enable Congress

to decide with greater advantage on the course due to the

rights, the interests, and the honor of our country.

Proclamation

Whereas the Congress of the United States, by virtue of

the constituted authority vested in them, have declared by

their act bearing date the 18th day of the present month

that war exists between the United Kingdom of Great

Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof and the

United States of America and their Territories:

Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the

United States of America, do hereby proclaim the same to

all whom it may concern; and I do specially enjoin on all

persons holding offices, civil or military, under the author-

ity of the United States that they be vigilant and zealous in

discharging the duties respectively incident thereto; and I

do moreover exhort all the good people of the United

States, as they love their country, as they value the precious

heritage derived from the virtue and valor of their fathers,

as they feel the wrongs which have forced on them the last

resort of injured nations, and as they consult the best

means under the blessing of Divine Providence of abridg-

ing its calamities, that they exert themselves in preserving

order, in promoting concord, in maintaining the authority

and efficacy of the laws, and in supporting and invigorating

all the measures which may be adopted by the constituted

authorities for obtaining a speedy, a just, and an honorable

peace.

Source:

Gaillard Hunt, ed. The Writings of James Madison. Vol. 8. New

York: Putnam’s Sons, 1900–1910, pp. 192–200.

Treaty of Fort Jackson, 1814

Treaty signed on August 9, 1814, ending the Creek War of

1813–14 and ceding to the U.S. government 23 million acres

in Mississippi Territory, two-thirds of the lands belonging to the

Creek tribe. The war, initiated by the Upper Creek of “Red

Sticks,” was fought largely in Tennessee. It was brought to a

close after a decisive victory led by Major General Andrew

Jackson, who became president in 1829, and the Tennessee

militia at Horseshoe Bend. The treaty, signed by only some of

the Creek, forced the tribe to give up lands rich in cotton in

southern Georgia and central and southern Alabama. It

marked the end of Native American resistance in this area and

opened it to white settlement after the War of 1812.

________________________

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530 ERA 4: Expansion and Reform

Articles of Agreement and Capitulation

Made and concluded this ninth day of August, one thou-

sand eight hundred and fourteen, between major general

Andrew Jackson, on behalf of the President of the United

States of America, and the chiefs, deputies, and warriors of

the Creek Nation.

Whereas an unprovoked, inhuman, and sanguinary

war, waged by the hostile Creeks against the United States,

hath been repelled, prosecuted and determined, success-

fully, on the part of the said States, in conformity with prin-

ciples of national justice and honorable warfare—And

whereas consideration is due to the rectitude of proceed-

ing dictated by instructions relating to the re-establish-

ment of peace: Be it remembered, that prior to the

conquest of that part of the Creek nation hostile to the

United States, numberless aggressions had been commit-

ted against the peace, the property, and the lives of citizens

of the United States, and those of the Creek nation in

amity with her, at the mouth of Duck river, Fort Mimms,

and elsewhere, contrary to national faith, and the regard

due to an article of the treaty concluded at New-York, in

the year seventeen hundred ninety, between the two

nations: That the United States, previously to the perpe-

tration of such outrages, did, in order to ensure future

amity and concord between the Creek nation and the said

states, in conformity with the stipulations of former

treaties, fulfil, with punctuality and good faith, her engage-

ments to the said nation: that more than two-thirds of the

whole number of chiefs and warriors of the Creek nation,

disregarding the genuine spirit of existing treaties, suffered

themselves to be instigated to violations of their national

honor, and the respect due to a part of their own nation

faithful to the United States and the principles of human-

ity, by impostures [impostors,] denominating themselves

Prophets, and by the duplicity and misrepresentation of

foreign emissaries, whose governments are at war, open or

understood, with the United States. Wherefore,

1st—The United States demand an equivalent for all

expenses incurred in prosecuting the war to its termina-

tion, by a cession of all the territory belonging to the

Creek nation within the territories of the United States,

lying west, south, and south-eastwardly, of a line to be run

and described by persons duly authorized and appointed

by the President of the United States—Beginning at a

point on the eastern bank of the Coosa river, where the

south boundary line of the Cherokee nation crosses the

same; running from thence down the said Coosa river

with its eastern bank according to its various meanders to

a point one mile above the mouth of Cedar creek, at Fort

Williams, thence east two miles, thence south two miles,

thence west to the eastern bank of the said Coosa river,

thence down the eastern bank thereof according to its

various meanders to a point opposite the upper end of the

great falls, (called by the natives Woetumka,) thence east

from a true meridian line to a point due north of the

mouth of Ofucshee, thence south by a like meridian line

to the mouth of Ofucshee on the south side of the Tal-

lapoosa river, thence up the same, according to its various

meanders, to a point where a direct course will cross the

same at the distance of ten miles from the mouth thereof,

thence a direct line to the mouth of Summochico creek,

which empties into the Chatahouchie river on the east

side thereof below the Eufaulau town, thence east from a

true meridian line to a point which shall intersect the line

now dividing the lands claimed by the said Creek nation

from those claimed and owned by the state of Georgia:

Provided, nevertheless, that where any possession of any

chief or warrior of the Creek nation, who shall have been

friendly to the United States during the war, and taken

an active part therein, shall be within the territory ceded

by these articles to the United States, every such person

shall be entitled to a reservation of land within the said

territory of one mile square, to include his improvements

as near the centre thereof as may be, which shall inure

to the said chief or warrior, and his descendants, so long

as he or they shall continue to occupy the same, who shall

be protected by and subject to the laws of the United

States; but upon the voluntary abandonment thereof, by

such possessor or his descendants, the right of occupancy

or possession of said lands shall devolve to the United

States, and be identified with the right of property ceded

hereby.

2nd—The United States will guarantee to the Creek

nation, the integrity of all their territory eastwardly and

northwardly of the said line to be run and described as

mentioned in the first article.

3d—The United States demand, that the Creek nation

abandon all communication, and cease to hold any inter-

course with any British or Spanish post, garrison, or town;

and that they shall not admit among them, any agent or

trader, who shall not derive authority to hold commercial,

or other intercourse with them, by license from the Presi-

dent or authorised agent of the United States.

4th—The United States demand an acknowledgment

of the right to establish military posts and trading houses,

and to open roads within the territory, guaranteed to the

Creek nation of the second article, and a right to the free

navigation of all its waters.

5th—The United States demand, that a surrender be

immediately made, of all the persons and property, taken

from the citizens of the United States, the friendly part of

the Creek nation, the Cherokee, Chickesaw, and Choctaw

nations, to the respective owners; and the United States

will cause to be immediately restored to the formerly hos-

tile Creeks, all the property taken from them since their

submission, either by the United States, or by any Indian

Territorial Expansion, Political and Economic Developments, and International Relations 531