State Documents on Federal Relations/34
34. The General Court of Massachusetts on the Embargo.
February 22, 1814.
Instead of heeding the Remonstrance of Massachusetts of June 15, 1813, the administration not only continued its previous policy towards the New England States, but added a new grievance through the enactment of a new and very stringent embargo law, December 17, 1813, (U. S. Stat. at Large, III, 88–93) which, it was charged, was aimed directly at New England. Upon the assembling of the General Court of Massachusetts at the opening of the year 1814, memorials and remonstrances from 38 towns poured in upon that body, as had been the case at the time of the embargo of 1808–09 (Cf. ante, 26–36), denouncing the war and praying for relief from the unbearable restrictions placed upon commerce (Jour. of the House of Rep. (MS.), May, 1813 to Feb., 1814, 174, 251, 260, 293). These were referred to a Joint Committee for consideration. On February 18 the Committee presented their report. It is sometimes known as "Lloyd's Report," from Wm. Lloyd, the Chairman of the Committee. The Report and Resolutions, extracts from which follow, were adopted by the House on the same day by a vote of 178 yeas to 43 nays (Ibid., 348). It was debated in the Senate and finally passed, February 22, by a vote of 23 yeas to 8 nays (Jour. of the Senate (MS.), May, 1813 to Feb., 1814, 372, 386, 391). In compliance with the last of these resolves Governor Strong submitted these Resolutions, May 30, 1814, to the newly elected General Court, but the embargo and non-importation laws having been repealed the legislature refrained for the time being from calling the proposed convention. For subsequent action, see post, Nos. 36 and 37.
References: The text, printed by order of the Legislature, February 28, 1814, is in Legislative Documents, 1807–14, No. 19, 381–392; also in Niles, VI, 4–8. Governor's Speech and Replies of House and Senate, Resolves of Mass., May 30, 1814; Niles, VI, 250, 251, 273–275; Adams, VIII, 1–15; Barry, Mass., III, 401, 402; Hildreth, VI, 455, 456, 465–476, 484; McMaster, IV, 222–229; V, 411; Von Hoist, I, 253–255.
* * * * * * The people, in their numerous memorials from all quarters of the commonwealth, appear to despair of obtaining redress from that government, which was established "To Promote the General Welfare." They see that the voice of the New England States, whose interests are common, is lost in the national Councils, and that the spirit of accommodation and regard to mutual safety and advantage, which produced the constitution and governed its early administration, have been sacrificed to the bitterness of party, and to the aggrandizement of one section of the union, at the expense of another. ********** Various are the forms in which these sentiments and feelings have been expressed to the legislature; but the tone and spirit, in all, are the same. They all discover an ardent attachment to the Union of these States, as the true source of security and happiness to all, and a reverence for the national constitution, as calculated in its spirit and principles to insure that Union, and establish that happiness: but they are all stamped with the melancholy conviction that the basis of that Union has been destroyed by a practical neglect of its principles; and that the durability of that Constitution has been endangered by a perversion and abuse of its powers. ********** The memorialists have then enumerated the causes which have brought them to this unhappy conviction. They have seen a power grow up in the southern and western sections of the Union, by the admission and multiplication of states, not contemplated by the parties to the constitution, and not warranted by its principles; and they foresee an almost infinite progression in this system of creation, which threatens eventually to reduce the voice of New England, once powerful and effectual in the national councils, to the feeble expression of colonial complaints, unattended to and disregarded.
[Here follows an enumeration of the other acts of the Federal Government inimical to New England, from the laying of the embargo to the prohibition of "their shore fishery and coasting trade" "by an act more unfeeling and odious than the Boston port bill, which aroused the colonies into independence."]
This act is denounced by all the memorialists in the warmest and most energetic language as a gross and palpable violation of the principles of the Constitution; and they express decidedly their opinion, that it cannot be submitted to without a pusillanimous surrender of those rights and liberties, which their ancestors brought to these shores, which they fought and bled to maintain, and which we, their descendents, ought to be ready to defend, at the same expense and hazard, or forfeit the character of freemen.
With such a display of grievances, sufferings, and apprehensions before them, couched in terms of affecting eloquence, and breathing a spirit of firmness and resolution to procure by some means competent relief, your Committee cannot but be forcibly impressed. They believe in the existence of those grievances, and in the cause to which they have been ascribed. They believe that this war, so fertile in calamities, and so threatening in its consequences, has been waged with the worst possible views and carried on in the worst possible manner; forming a union of wickedness and weakness, which defies for a parallel the annals of the world. We believe, also, that its worst effects are yet to come; that loan upon loan, tax upon tax, and exaction upon exaction, must be imposed, until the comforts of the present, and the hopes of the rising generation are destroyed. An impoverished people will be an enslaved People. An army of sixty thousand men, become veteran by the time the war is ended, may be the instrument, as in former times, of destroying even the forms of Liberty; and will be as easy to establish a President for life, by their arms, as it has been for four years by intrigue. We tremble for the liberties of our Country! We think it the duty of the present generation, to stand between the next and despotism.
The Committee are of opinion that the late act laying an Embargo is unconstitutional, and void in divers of its provisions; not upon the narrow ground that the constitution has expressly prohibited such acts, but upon the more broad and liberal ground that the People never gave a power to Congress to enact them.
A direct prohibition would have weakened the argument against them, because it would have indicated an apprehension, that such power might be usurped.
A power to regulate Commerce is abused, when employed to destroy it; and a manifest and voluntary abuse of power sanctions the right of resistance, as much as a direct and palpable usurpation. The sovereignty reserved to the States, was reserved to protect the Citizens from acts of violence by the United States, as well as for purposes of domestic regulation. We spurn the idea that the free, sovereign and independent State of Massachusetts is reduced to a mere municipal corporation, without power to protect its people, and to defend them from oppression, from whatever quarter it comes. Whenever the national compact is violated, and the citizens of this state are oppressed by cruel and unauthorized laws, this legislature is bound to interpose[1] its power, and wrest from the oppressor his victim.
This is the spirit of our Union, and thus has it been explained by the very man, who now sets at defiance all the principles of his early political life.
The question, then, is not a question of power or right with this legislature, but of time and expediency. The committee have deemed it to be their duty to stifle their feelings of indignation at the strides of despotism, which are visible under the guise of liberty, and the forms of Law, that they may dispassionately consider the various modes of relief, which have been suggested by some, or all of the memorialists, and report to the legislature the result of their deliberations. Three courses have been suggested by the memorialists.
1. That the legislature should remonstrate to Congress against the general course of its measures, and particularly against the embargo act.
2. That laws should be passed, tending directly to secure the Citizens of this Commonwealth in their persons, and property, and rights, and providing punishments for all such as should violate them.
3. That delegates should immediately be appointed by the Legislature to meet Delegates from such other States as shall elect any, for the purpose of devising proper measures to procure the united efforts of the commercial States, to obtain such amendments or explanations of the Constitution, as will secure them from future evils.
With respect to the first, the committee cannot recommend it.
It has been again, and again, resorted to, and with no other effect than to increase the evils complained of; and to subject to unjust reproaches and insinuations, a body, which ought never to be a suppliant to any power on earth.
With respect to the second, as far as it relates to acts of violence in the seizure of persons and property on land, without the formalities required by the constitution of this State, we believe that the provisions of our state and national constitutions, as well as the great principles of the common law are so plain, that no act of this Legislature can afford any additional security. And as to the prohibition of our fisheries and coasting trade, the Committee cannot, at this distressing juncture, recommend a remedy to be relied on so inadequate as would be afforded by the enaction of penal laws.
On the subject of a convention, the committee observe, that they entertain no doubt of the right of the Legislature to invite other states to a convention, and to join it themselves, for the great purposes of consulting for the general good, and of procuring amendments to the constitution, whenever they find that the practical construction given to it by the rulers, for the time being, is contrary to its true spirit and injurious to their immediate constituents. We know of no surer or better way to prevent that hostility to the Union, the result of oppression, which will eventually terminate in its downfall, than for the Wise and Good, of those States, which deem themselves oppressed, to assemble with delegated authority, and to propose, urge, and even insist upon such explicit declarations of power, or restriction, as will prevent the most hardy from any future attempts to oppress, under the color of the constitution. This was the mode proposed by Mr. Madison in answer to objections made, as to the tendency of the general Government, to usurp upon that of the States. And though he at a former period led the Legislature of Virginia into an opposition, without any justifiable cause; yet it may be supposed that he and all others who understand the principles of our concurrent Sovereignty, will acknowledge the fitness and propriety of their asserting rights, which no people can ever relinquish.
But althongh the Committee are convinced of the right, and think the Legislature ought to vindicate it, of acting in concert with other States, in order to produce a powerful, and if possible an irresistable claim for such alterations, as will tend to preserve the Union, and restore violated privileges, yet they have considered that there are reasons which render it inexpedient at the present moment to exercise this power. Some of these reasons your Committee would suggest, that the memorialists may know that their pressing appeals are not postponed from any insensibility to them on the part of the Legislature. The Committee would here express their hope that the people of this Commonwealth, injured and oppressed as they have been, will as far as possible restrain their feelings of indignation, and patiently wait for the effectual interposition of the State Government for their relief; and the Committee doubt not that the real friends of peace will continue conscientiously to refrain from affording any voluntary aid or encouragement of this most disastrous war.
The Committee entertain no doubt that the sentiments and feelings expressed in the numerous memorials and remonstrances, which have been committed to them, are the genuine voice of a vast majority of the Citizens of this Commonwealth. But the Representatives who are soon to be returned for the next General Court, will come from the People, still more fully possessed of their views and wishes as to the all-important subject of obtaining, by further compact engrafted into the present constitution, a permanent security against future abuse of power; and of seeking effectual redress for the grievances and oppressions now endured. They will also assemble, better acquainted with the wishes and disposition of other States, suffering alike with this, to act in co-operation for these essential objects. In addition to this, some among our constituents indulge a hope of success from the negociation recently entered into for the professed purpose of restoring peace to our distracted and divided country. ******** The return of peace would undoubtedly relieve the people from many of the burthens which they now suffer; but it is not to be forgotten, how the war was produced, how it has been conducted, how long its baleful consequences will continue, and how easily such evils may be again brought upon us, unless an effectual security be provided. Without war, experience has shown us, our commerce may be destroyed. Indeed there is now little hope that it will ever be restored, unless the people of Massachusetts and the other commercial States shall exert their united efforts in bringing back the constitution to its first principles.
Under these impressions the Committee beg leave to conclude by recommending the adoption of the following Resolutions. All which is respectfully submitted.
Resolved, That "the act laying an embargo on all Ships and vessels in the Ports and harbors of the United States," passed by the Congress of the United States on the 16th day of December, 1813, contains provisions not warranted by the Constitution of the United States, and violating the rights of the People of this Commonwealth.
Resolved, That the Inhabitants of the State of Massachusetts, have enjoyed, from its earliest settlement, the right of navigating from Port to Port within its limits and of fishing on its coasts; that the free exercise and enjoyment of these Rights are essential to the comfort and subsistence of a numerous class of its citizens; that the power of prohibiting to its Citizens the exercise of these rights was never delegated to the general government, and that all Laws passed by that Government, intended to have such an effect, are therefore unconstitutional and void.
Resolved, That the people of this commonwealth, "have a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches and seizures of their Persons, Houses, Papers, and all their Possessions;" that all Laws rendering liable to seizure the property of a Citizen at the discretion of an Individual, without warrant from a Magistrate, issued on a complaint, supported on oath or affirmation, under the pretence that such property is "apparently on its way towards the territory of a foreign nation or the vicinity thereof," are arbitrary in their nature, tyrannical in their exercise, and subversive of the first principles of civil liberty.
Resolved, That the People of this Commonwealth, "have a right to be protected in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, according to standing Laws;" and that all attempts to prohibit them in the enjoyment of this right by agents acting under Executive Instructions only, and armed with military force, are destructive of their freedom and altogether repugnant to the Constitution.
Resolved, That as the well grounded complaints of the People constitute a continued claim upon the Government, until their grievances are redressed, the several memorials and remonstrances referred to the Committee aforesaid be delivered to His Excellency the Governor, with a request that he or his successor in office would cause the same to be laid before the next General Court at an early day in their first Session.
- ↑ A transcript from the Virginia Resolutions of 1798. Already by Act of Feb. 7, 1814, Massachusetts had prohibited the use of State jails for United States prisoners committed other than by judicial authority. Hildreth, VI, 469.
- ↑ I am indebted to Miss L. House, Fellow in American History, University of Pennsylvania, for verifying the above text.