and carried into Dantzic. On her arrival at that port, she was put under the control of the Consul of France, and all her papers were forcibly taken by the said Consul, and sent to Paris, in order that legal process might be there instituted against her. SENATE. subjected to the payment of costs, in a French court, the payment of these condemns her, because she ought to have been released without them. demnation of the Catharine and cargo was decreed at Paris by the highest prize court on_the 10th September, and was confirmed by the Emperor in person on the 14th, after a full knowledge of the circumstances, and after a favorable decision on the case had been promised by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. Thus, sir, is situated our commerce as it respects France, and such is the evidence of the virtual actual If she has been met with going to, or coming from an English port, whether with a cargo or In unloading the cargo, the most illegal con- without, this is sufficient ground to capture or duct was adopted. Several of the crew were destroy her; if she has been spoken by a vessel impressed for the service of His Imperial Majes-from her own country in the English language, ty, and impediments were thrown in the way of or has entered a port where an English vessel the supercargo, by withholding his passports near should be lying at anchor, which did not even two months, although he had applied for them pay her so much attention as to hail her, she is to the American Chargé d'Affaires, to prevent to be condemned; if no proof is given that she his getting to Paris to defend the vessel and car- took convoy, it is alleged that no proof is furgo. Thus situated, at a very early period the nished that she might not have taken it; if she supercargo made known to Mr. Russell, the is visited by a British ship she is condemned; and American Chargé d'Affairs at Paris, the circum- if she has not been visited, nor molested, she is stances of the capture, who applied to the French condemned, because her not being so disturbed is Minister of Foreign Affairs, and received assu- evidence she was in the interest of the enemy's rances from him, that he had made a favorable commerce! Nor has this been done by an infe report of the case to the Emperor. Notwith-rior court, or by subordinate agents, The constanding this perfect knowledge of the case, and the favorable report of the French Minister, the Council of Prizes, on the 10th day of September last, without hearing any plea or defence on behalf of the owners of the vessel and cargo, proceeded to the condemnation of them both; in which, after reciting that the Catharine had been captured by the French armed ship the Jenne Adolphe, and that she had been libelled on the ground "that part of the cargo came from Span-repeal of her decrees. ish and Portuguese colonies, and that, moreover, Still, sir, if we are going to war with Great it consisted of colonial articles, whose importa- Britain, let it be a real, effectual, vigorous war. tion was prohibited by His Majesty's decrees," Give us a naval force." This is the sensitive that she had been captured by the Danes, and chord you can touch, and which would have acquitted by the Danish courts, and that she had more effect on her than ten armies. Give us arrived at Gottenburg, in which port an English thirty swift-sailing, well-appointed frigates; they cutter was then lying, but which had not hailed are better than seventy-fours; two thirty-six-gun the Catharine; after reciting that another vessel frigates can be built and maintained for the same had hailed her on her passage, the officers of expense as one seventy-four, and for purposes of which had spoken the English language; that annoyance for which we want them, they are the captain, supercargo, and mariners, had all better than two seventy-fours; they are managed concurred in these facts; after reciting moreover easier, ought to sail faster, and can be navigated a complete list of all the papers found on board in shoal water. We do not want seventy-fours; the Catharine, which consisted of every docu- courage being equal, in line-of-battle ships, skill ment required by the law of nations, and the and experience will always insure success. modern usages of France, all certified by the are not ripe for them; but butt-bolt the sides of French Consul, at Boston; the Council of Prizes an American to that of a British frigate, and proceeded to condemn both vessel and cargo, though we should lose sometimes, we would win valued at eighty-five thousand dollars, on the as often as we should lose. The whole history following pretences, if even such they may be of the Revolutionary war, when we met at sea called: that "the said brig had anchored at Got-on equal terms, would bear testimony in favor of tenburg, at which port there was an armed Eng- this opinion. Give us, then, this little fleet well lish packet boat, and that this was an indication appointed; place your Navy Department under or proof-the cargo consisting also mostly of arti- an able and spirited Administration; give tone cles of colonial produce-that the same was into the service. Let a sentiment like the followthe interest of the enemy's commerce; that there was no reason to believe that she entered the Baltic without convoy; and if she were not disturbed by the numerous vessels of the enemy, it was because she was an enemy's ship under an American mask ;" and they then proceeded to condemn both vessel and cargo, and to decree that the capture was good and available. Thus, if an American vessel is cleared in a Danish court as being bona fide neutral property, but We ing precede every letter of instruction to the captain of a ship of war-"Sir, the honor of the nation is in a degree attached to the flag of your vessel; remember, that it may be sunk without disgrace. but can never be struck without dishonor." Do this; cashier every officer who strikes his flag, and you will soon have a good account of your Navy. This may be said to be a hard tenure of service; but, hard or easy, sir, embark in an actual, vigorous war, and in a few weeks, SENATE. Increase of the Navy. FEBRUARY, 1812. As Great Britain wrongs us I would fight her. Yet I should be worse than a barbarian did I not rejoice that the sepulchres of our forefathers, which are in that country, would remain unsacked, and their coffins rest undisturbed by the unhallowed rapacity of the Goths and Saracens of modern Europe. How then, sir, will it be asked, are we to operate on a Power such as I have described? Let us have these thirty frigates; she cannot block. perhaps days, I would engage completely to officer your whole fleet from New England alone. Give us this little fleet, and in a quarter part of the time you could operate upon her in any other way, we would bring her to terms with younot to your feet. No, Sir. Great Britain is, at present, the most colossal power the world ever witnessed. Her dominion extends from the rising to the setting sun. Survey it for a moment. Commencing with the newly found continent of New Holland, as she proceeds she embraces un-ade them; our coasts are in our favor; the eleder her protection, or in her possession, the Philippine Islands, Java, Sumatra; passes the coast of Malacca; rests for a short time fruitlessly to endeavor to number the countless millions of her subjects in Hindostan ; winds into the sea of Arabia; skirts along the coasts of Coromandel and Ceylon; stops for a moment for refreshment at the Cape of Good Hope; visits her plantations of the Isles of France and Bourbon; sweeps along the whole of the Antilles; doubles Cape Horn to protect her whalemen in the Northern and Southern Pacific oceans; crosses the American continent from Queen Charlotte's Sound to Hudson's Bay; glancing in the passage at her colonies of the Canadas, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick; thence continues to Newfoundland, to look after and foster her fisheries, and then takes her departure for the United Kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, nor rests until she reaches the Orkneys-the ultima thule of the geography of the ancients. Such an overgrown commercial and colonial power as this never be fore existed. True, sir, she has an enormous national debt of 700 millions of pounds sterling, and a diurnal expenditure of a million of dollars, which, while we are whining about a want of resources, would, in six short weeks, wipe off the whole public debt of the United States. Will these millstones sink her? Will they subject her to the power of France? No, sir; burst the bubble to-morrow; destroy the fragile basis on which her public credit stands, the single word confidence; sponge her national debt; revolutionize her Government; cut the throats of all her royal family, and dreadful as would be the process, she would rise with renovated vigor from the fall, and present to her enemy a more imposing, irresistible front than ever. No, sir; Great Britain cannot be subjugated by France; the genius of her institutions, the genuine gamecock, bull-dog spirit of her people, will lift her head above the waves long after the dynasty of Bonaparte-the ill-gotten power of France, collected by perfidy, plunder, and usurpation, like the unreal image of old, composed of clay, and of iron, and of brass, and of silver, and of gold, shall have crumbled into atoms. ments are in our favor; from November to the month of March, in the Northern States I mean, all the navies of all the world could not blockade them in our ports; with our inclement weather and northeast and southeast storms, and hazardous shores, and tempestuous northwest gales, which afford the best chances to go off the coast, enemy ships of war could not keep their stations. Divide these thirty frigates into six squadrons; place them in the northern ports ready for sea; and, at favorable moments, we would pounce upon her West India Islands, and repeat the game of De Grasse and D'Estaing in 1779 and 1780. By the time she was looking for us there, we would be round Cape Horn cutting up her whalemen. When pursued there, we would skim away to the Indian ocean, and look after her China and India fleets, of whom we would give a far different account from that of Linois, the Frenchman. Occasionally we would look after her Quebec fleet, and her Jamaica fleet; sometimes we would do as the French privateers now do, make our appearance in the chops of the Channel, and now and then we might even wind north about, and look into the Baltic. We should sometimes meet with disasters, but we have abundant means to repair them. Well managed, it would require a hundred British frigates to watch the movements of these thirty. These are the means, sir, by which I would bring Great Britain not to our feet, but to her senses. The Government of Great Britain is in some degree a popular one; two branches of her Government-the King and the Commons-are governed by the popular sentiment, and the hos pital of incurables must always follow suit.Touch the popular sentiment effectually, and you control the Commons; the Commons, by withholding the supplies and the civil list, control the King and obtain a change of Ministry and a change of measures. In this way you obtained the peace of 1783. Had it depended on the King and the Lords, you would not have had a peace until this time. We can touch the popular sentiment. With the fleet I have mentioned we could harass greatly the commerce of Great Britain; we could From this belief I acknowledge I derive a sen- bring her people to their senses; we could make timent of gratulation. In New England our them ask their Government for what object they blood is unmixed; we are the direct descendants continued thus to violate our rights? whether it of Englishmen; we are natives of the soil. In was for the interest of Great Britain to throw us the Legislature of the respectable and once pow-into the lap of her enemy? Whether it was for erful State of Massachusetts now in session, composed of near seven hundred members, to my knowledge not a single foreigner holds a seat. her interest to embitter us toward her still more? Whether it was for her interest to sever the principal lien of connexion between her and us, by add twelve per cent. per annum, to Making SENATE. 5,832,000 - 89,820,000 Thus giving an efficient maritime force of 30 frigates in complete order for ten years, with a surplus left sufficient to replace every ship of this fleet, should every one of the thirty in that time be lost or destroyed by the enemy. Give us, then a navy. The Senate have pro obliging us to become a manufacturing people? And on this bead we could make an exhibit that would astonish both friends and foes. Whether it was for her interest to force us to become prematurely a great maritime nation, destined, one day or other, to dispute with her the sceptre of the ocean? In short, I would make the people ask the Government cui bono in this war. And the moment this is effected on both sides the water, the war is terminated, the business is finished, and you have only to agree on fair and equal terms of peace. Look at the expense and the effect of the mea-ceeded thus far with a unanimity and harmony sures you have adopted. You are to have a highly honorable to them as men and as statesstanding army of 35,000 men, 50,000 volunteers, men. This measure will be considered as the and 100,000 of the militia. These you cannot test of our sincerity. For one, if it be not accedget into actual service without the militia, at less ed to, however reluctant it may be to my feelexpense than forty-five millions of dollars annu- ings, to divide at a moment like this, without an ally-the ways and means proposed being less is effectual defence being given us, I shall not conno evidence to the contrary-no experienced mil-seat to burden my constituents with itary man can estimate it at less. What are you Annual loans to a large amount; to do with it? You overrun Canada without Additional twenty-five per cent. retention on material difficulty, Quebec excepted; that Gib- drawbacks, thereby destroying the colonial raltar of the American continent can only be trade, and crippling the Treasury instead of taken by regular siege and investment; you must replenishing it; stárve it out, but it will be provisioned for three years at least, and, before you get there, it will be fully garrisoned by experienced troops. Thus, then, to get Quebec you have got to summer and winter a siege in the face of an able and veteran garrison for three years, and in a climate where, during its long winters, the thermometer sometimes stands at thirty degrees below zero, and the sentinels freeze at their posts. Suppose it then falls, what do you then get? The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. GILES) has already told you: your enemy takes possession of New Orleans, New York, Newport, or some other prominent and important point-you then let one hand wash the other-make the exchange, and leave off just where you began, with a debt of $130,000,000 and the country subjected to all the evils of war. New and heavy tonnage duties on our own ves- on licenses; on auction sales, frequently the last refuge of the distressed; on refined sugars; on carriages, chaises, and wagons, for the carriage of persons; on spirits Nor shall 1, under such circumstances, by my vote, consent to impose on them stamp and direct taxes, cum multis aliis, that must follow-expenses that ought not to be gone into, except for the purpose of vigorously prosecuting a war in such a manner as to procure a speedy and favorable peace, the only rational object of war. Peace is most unquestionably the polar star of the policy and the interest of the United States; essential sacrifice; it is no disgrace for an infant it should be obtained at every cost short of an the war with all the energy, and the force, and not to contend with a giant; if we cannot carry on power of the nation, let us record our wrongs, make the best of the existing state of things, and, when we have the ability, punish our aggressors to the last letter of the alphabet. Possibly this is the real policy of the United States; but, if we are to go to war, give us a navy; if you do not, and our commerce is abandoned, our navigation to be swept from the face of the ocean, our houses battered about our ears, and we are denied those means of defence which the God of nature has given us, and to which we are habituated, then, indeed, the Northern section of this Union will be little better situated than the colony of Jamaica; and, forms apart, there will be some cause to suspect that it has little more real voice or weight in the Councils of the Government than it has in the Parliament of Great Britain. Give no cause, sir, for suspicions of this sort SENATE. Increase of the Navy. MARCH, 1812. Tennessee, Condit, Crawford, Franklin, Gregg, Howell, Robinson, Tait, Turner, and Varnum. NAYS-Messrs. Bayard, Campbell, of Ohio, Cutts, Gaillard, German, Giles, Goodrich, Hunter, Lambert, Leib, Lloyd, Reed, Smith of Maryland, and Worth take off your restrictions-unmuzzle us-let us "Our march, too, shall be upon the mountain wave, FRIDAY, February 28. The bill for the relief of the representatives of Samuel Lapsley, deceased, was read the second time. On motion, by Mr. GILES, Messrs. BRADLEY and GREGG were added to the committee to whom was referred the bill for the relief of Charles Minifie. Mr. POPE, from the committee to whom was referred the bill, entitled "An act for the relief of the officers and soldiers who served in the late campaign on the Wabash," reported it amended. The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the bill. entitled "An act for the benefit of Christopher Miller;" and the words nine hundred and sixty having been struck out of the bill, the President reported it to the House accordingly. On the question, Shall this bill be read a third time? it was determined in the negative. On motion, by Mr. LLOYD, the motion was further amended, so as to read as follows: Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to lay before this House a statement, so far as the same may be practicable, exhibiting the number of ships and vessels, and the amount of tonnage, and the several kinds and amount of merchandise, being of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United States, or territories thereof, and of colonial produce, exported from thence to any port or place in France, subsequent to the period at which the repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees was to have taken place; stating distinctly the duties payable in the ports of France on each article, before and since that period. On the question to agree to the motion, as amended, it was determined in the affirmativeyeas 17, nays 12, as follows: * YEAS-Messrs. Bayard, Bradley, Brent, Campbell of Ohio, Crawford, Cutts, German, Giles, Goodrich, Gregg, Hunter, Lambert, Leib, Lloyd, Pope, Reed, and Smith of Maryland. NAYS-Messrs. Anderson, Campbell of Tennessee, Condit, Franklin, Gaillard, Howell, Robinson, Smith of New York, Tait, Turner, Varnum, and Worthington. Mr. GILES, from the committee to whom was Mr. LLOYD, from the committee to whom was referred the petition of Larkin Smith, collector referred the petition of Mary Nicholson, reported of the district of Norfolk and Portsmouth, in Vir-" that, in their opinion, it is inexpedient to make ginia, reported a bill for the relief of the collectors provision for individual cases of the description of the ports of Baltimore and of Norfolk and Ports-of that of the petitioner;" and the report was mouth; and the bill was read, and passed to the agreed to. second reading. Mr. LLOYD, from the committee to whom was referred the bill, entitled "An act authorizing a loan for a sum not exceeding eleven millions of dollars," reported it amended. Mr. WORTHINGTON, from the committee to whom was referred the bill, entitled "An act giving further time for registering claims to land in the western district of the Territory of Orleans," reported it without amendment. On motion, by Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, the further consideration of the bill, entitled An act concerning the Naval Establishment," was postponed to, and made the order of the day for, Monday next. MONDAY, March 2, On motion, by Mr. TAIT, the further consideration of the bill was postponed to, and made the order of the day for, to-morrow. Mr. BRENT presented the petition of Robert Young and others, inhabitants of the town of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, praying a charter for a bank, under the title of the "Mechanics' Bank of Alexandria," for reasons therein stated; and the petition was read, and referred to a select committee, to consider and report thereon by bill or otherwise; and Messrs. BRENT, CAMPBELL, of Tennessee, and TAYLOR, were appointed the committee. Mr. LLOYD presented the memorial of John Parker, of Boston, merchant, in behalf of himself and the owners of the brigantine called the Catharine, and her cargo; stating that the said brigantine, whilst proceeding on her lawful voyage to The bill for the relief of the collectors of the St. Petersburg, was, on the 3d of May, 1811, capports of Baltimore and of Norfolk and Ports-tured by a French privateer, and carried into mouth, was read the second time. Dantzic and condemned, and praying indemnification, for reasons stated at large in the memorial; which was read, and ordered to be printed for the use of the Senate. The Senate resumed the consideration of the motion made by Mr. REED, on the 21st January, as amended. On motion, by Mr. ANDERSON, that it be referred to a select committee, further to consider and report thereon, it was determined in the negative -yeas 12, nays 14, as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Anderson, Bradley, Campbell, of INCREASE OF THE NAVY. The Senate resumed the consideration of the bill, entitled "An act concerning the Naval Establishment." MARCH, 1812. Increase of the Navy. SENATE. Mr. CRAWFORD regretted that his ill health and members of Congress during the Winter of 1809, want of strength would not permit him thoroughly which in his opinion influenced the conduct of to investigate all of the important subjects which that body upon several important questions. Mr. have been incidentally introduced in the course C. said he had not attended any of those meetof this discussion. The proposition to buildings, and had never felt himself under any oblitwenty frigates has no intimate connexion with gation to conform to their determination. It was several of those subjects, which might with great impossible for him to discover any assignable repropriety have been kept entirely out of view;lation between the history of those inofficial but, as they have been introduced, he would not meetings, and the proposition to build twenty decline their discussion. Such had been the state frigates. Nor had he been able to discover, that of his health, from the time that this proposition the history of the embargo, and the agency of parhad been submitted to the consideration of the ticular individuals in procuring its repeal, had Senate, that he had not until this morning deter- any tendency to elucidate that proposition. Upon mined to participate in the discussion. The ob- this subject he would only say, that the gentleman servation of the honorable gentleman from Ken- must be mistaken, in the inference which he had tucky had made it unnecessary to reply to many drawn, from the vote of the House of Represenof the statements and remarks of the honorable tatives on the 5th day of January, 1809, by which gentlemen from Massachusetts and Virginia (Mr. Mr. CHITTENDEN's resolution for repealing the LLOYD and Mr. GILES.) The latter gentleman embargo was ordered to lie on the table. This complains of a change which he says has taken vote is offered by that gentleman as unquestionplace, in the character of the discussions of this able evidence, that a majority of that body had, House, which is highly detrimental to the freedom as early as that day, determined to repeal the of debate. He complains that the motives instead embargo. If the honorable gentleman from Virof the arguments of the speaker have become the ginia will take the trouble of examining the whole subject of investigation. If this complaint is of the Journal of the House of Representatives of founded in fact, it is greatly to be lamented; but that day, a part of which it appears he has examit may be proper to inquire whether it is not the ined, he will find that the inference which he necessary result of another change in the char- has drawn from that vote is contradicted by a acter of our discussions introduced by those who solemn decision of that House. In page two hunmake the complaint. If, instead of presenting for dred and twenty-seven he will find an amendment the consideration of the Senate a train of reason-offered to the act for enforcing the embargo, in ing calculated to elucidate the proposition under the words following: consideration, the speaker should substitute the "SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That this act, history of his political life, opinions, and motives, and the act entitled an act, laying an embargo on all he ought not to complain, if his proffered substi-ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the Unitute should be accepted and discussed by his ted States, and all laws supplementary thereto, be, and opponents. they are hereby repealed, from and after the fourth day of March next." The same gentleman has taken a review of past measures, which are very remotely, if in The question was decided by yeas and naysany degree, connected with the proposition before yeas 35, nays 81. The House of Representatives, the Senate. Such a review as will enable us to instead of furnishing evidence of their determiavoid the errors into which we may have fallen, nation to repeal the embargo as early as the fifth from precipitancy or from the want of sufficient in- day of January as the gentleman has supposed, formation of the subjects upon which we have gave the most unequivocal evidence of their debeen compelled to legislate, may be highly useful. termination neither to repeal it then, or two But if this review should be conducted simply months afterwards. Mr. C. said he was neither with the design of proving that the reviewer has qualified or disposed to decide between the genalways been right, and those opposed to him al-tleman from Virginia and the gentleman from ways wrong, it is impossible to discover any ben-Tennessee, touching the agency of the former in efit which can result from it. It may indeed be highly gratifying to the speaker, but it cannot excite any pleasurable sensation in the bosoms of those who are charged with being uniformly wrong. A procedure of this kind is calculated to irritate and to produce the effect of which that honorable gentleman has so seriously complained. It is natural for every man to believe that his opinions are right, and that those who differ with him are wrong. The difference between the gentleman from Virginia and other men consists not in thought but in words. Every man believes that he is right, but every man does not upon all occasions undertake to prove that he has always been right. The same gentleman has given us the history of proceedings at several inofficial meetings of the producing the repeal of the embargo. That gentleman had ascribed its repeal to the late President of the United States-because he had declined taking into the public service fifteen hundred seamen. By the estimate for the present year it appears that six thousand nine hundred and sixty-two seamen will man the whole of our public vessels, including twenty-two gunboats. The seafaring men in the United States may be estimated from sixty to one hundred thousand, and yet by employing fifteen hundred, which, together with those then in service, might amount to five thousand, the gentleman from Virginia would have insured the execution of the embargo, by creating a scarcity of sailors to navigate the vessels destined for its violation. But the public vessels called into service by the |