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The Middle States and the 
 Embargo of 1808 
 
 By LOUIS MARTIN SEARS 
 
 %eprinted from the South Atlantic Siuarterly, 'Volume XXI 
 fiumber 2, April, 1922 
 
The Middle States and the Embargo of 1808 
 
 Lours Martin Sears 
 
 Purdue University 
 
 Toward the embargo, as toward many other issues, the 
 Middle States assumed a median attitude. The line between 
 approval and opposition was not fast drawn. Lying at the 
 heart of the older Union, the Middle States had sympathies 
 common to both their Northern and their Southern neighbors, 
 as well as interests peculiarly their own. Thus their mer- 
 cantile marine was a link with New England, while their 
 staple crops were a bond with the South. At the same time 
 manufacturers already possessed a foothold which made the 
 Middle States the natural beneficiary of the stimulus which 
 the embargo itself was to bring. 
 
 In respect to a marine and to staple crops, New York was 
 typical of the section. To the extent of her great shipping 
 interest, her sympathies lay naturally with New England. On 
 her long Canadian boundary, moreover, the natural tempta- 
 tions to smuggling were multiplied by British inducements to 
 evade the embargo. In addition, she was loath as any South- 
 ern state to pile up successive crops against a market day 
 which might never come. But these discouragements were 
 compensated by the advantage, first, of rescuing her shipping, 
 and then of harvesting such gains as growing manufactures 
 might offer. A strong party machine exercised a steadying 
 influence, and DeWitt Clinton, Democratic boss of the State 
 of New York, though not a devotee of the Virginia dynasty, 
 was not the man to split his party by an open break with the 
 national leaders. 
 
 Economic distress was, however, immediate. Early in 
 January Moss Kent wrote to his famous brother. Chancellor 
 Kent, from Champion in the western part of the State, that 
 "this part of the country begin to feel the embarrassing ef- 
 fects of the embargo. It has destroyed the market for their 
 produce, particularly pot and pearl ashes which is their prin- 
 cipal dependence. In case of a war with Great Britain I cal- 
 
 Author 
 nm i2 1911 
 
Middle States and Embargo of 1808 153 
 
 culate on emigrating towards the Hudson as my services 
 will not, probably, be wanted in this part of the frontier."^ 
 
 But the same general region of Western New York spon- 
 sored the most contradictory declarations as to the effect of 
 the embargo. A petition from Ontario County dated October 
 10, 1808, and signed by 1,365 names laments that "in no 
 branch of agricultural pursuit do we find our customary 
 profits," and grieves that the bustling industry of a pioneer 
 community was giving place to "a constrained and sullen in- 
 activity" rendered in no way more endurable by numerous 
 evidences of a sudden prosperity across the Canadian line.^ 
 Yet in face of this well considered statement of grievances in 
 Ontario, a correspondent of Jefferson could write from the 
 neighboring county of Niagara that "* * * with respect 
 to the embargo little difference of opinion exists in this quar- 
 ter. With few exceptions, it is considered, both as to its 
 origin and duration the wisest measure, which the administra- 
 tion under past and present circumstances could have re- 
 sorted and adhered to." 
 
 The more optimistic view prevailed at Albany, for the 
 state senate, on the 31st of January, 1809, passed a resolu- 
 tion condemning the "* * * most unremitted and repre- 
 hensible attempts which are making with uncommon indus- 
 try and malignity and by every art of misrepresentation to 
 enfeeble and destroy the exertions of the general government 
 in vindicating our national rights and honor by endeavoring 
 to alienate the affections of the people by opposing the au- 
 thority of the laws and by menacing a dismemberment of 
 the Union." The legislature declared itself "fully satisfied 
 that the conduct of the national government has been cal- 
 culated to secure the resources to preserve the peace to main- 
 tain the honor and to promote the interests of this country."* 
 
 Wherever the balance lies between these conflicting 
 opinions, and it must be admitted that the pessimists had prob- 
 ably the weight of argument, there was at least some com- 
 
 ' James Kent Papers, Library of Congress. Vol. III. Moss Kent to Chancellor 
 Kent, Champion, N. Y., Jan. 10, 1808. 
 
 'Petition of Ontario- County, N. Y., to the U. S. Congress, Oct. 10, 1808. 
 
 * Jefferscnian MSS., Library of Congress. Jan. 26, 1809. 
 
 * Ibid. State of New York Senate, Jan. 31. 1809. 
 
154 The South Atlantic Quarterly 
 
 pensation in an awakening manufactures. In a season when 
 opponents of Jefferson and his policies could see no ray 
 of cheer, the pew holders of St. George's Chapel, in New 
 York, were sufficiently prosperous to install a $5,000 organ 
 built by the Messrs. Geibs, of their own city, who, it may 
 be added, had "just completed a very elegant and splendid 
 organ which is now erected at Salem in Dr. Barnard's house 
 of worship."'' The clothing industry was encouraged by 
 premiums on the introduction of merino sheep.^ And the 
 raw products thus favored by legislative bounty need not go 
 to Connecticut for manufacture in Col. Humphrey's mills, 
 as there was at Poughkeepsie a plant, less extensive to be 
 sure than the colonel's, which manufactured an article of 
 similar quality running in value to eight dollars a yard.'^ Some 
 activity was manifest in the iron mines of Northern New 
 York, And similar progress was noted in tin manufactures, 
 one entrepreneur in the latter urging his claim to patronage 
 on the basis that "as every citizen, who by his genius and 
 industry, aids in perpetuating the independence of his country, 
 has a claim on the community for their patronage, the sub- 
 scriber presumes that the liberality of his fellow citizens will 
 enable him to persevere in his present undertakings."^ 
 
 While the embargo was modifying the economic life of 
 the people, the politicians were not idle. Jefferson no sooner 
 made known his intention to retire into private life than 
 the question of succession stirred New Yorkers into potential 
 opposition to the Virginia Dynasty. Of this movement Gov- 
 ernor Clinton was the natural leader,^*^ and James Cheetham 
 its chief spokesman. But even Federalists, who would have 
 rejoiced at schism, doubted its likelihood,^ ^ for only the closest 
 unity among New Yorkers would have withstood the Vir- 
 ginia machine, and unity AVas conspicuously lacking. ^As 
 
 ^"The Repertory" (Boston), June 17, 1808. 
 
 • Ontario Repository, quoted by Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Advertiser. 
 
 ' The Diary of Daniel Mulford. Poughkeepsie, Sept. 3, 1808. 
 
 « The Repertory (Boston). Sept. 27, 1808. 
 
 » The Public Advertiser. New York, April 25, 1808. 
 
 ^* Wilson Cary Nichoife Papers. Library of Congress. J. Nicholas to W. C. 
 Nicholas. Albany, Feb., 1808. "I think there is little doubt that the ruling party 
 here [N. Y.] expect something to grow out of inconveniences of the embargo 
 favorable to them . etc. 
 
 " The Balance. Hudson, New York, Jan. 5, 1808. 
 
Middle States and Embargo of 1808 155 
 
 Chancellor Kent reminded his brother in July, 1808: "The 
 news from New York is that the Democrats are all by the 
 ears. Cheetham has been publicly denounced by two ward 
 general meetings and DeWitt Clinton goes down with him."^^ 
 The following philippic against Cheetham bears witness to 
 Republican discord in a manner leaving little to the imagina- 
 tion. "James Cheetham. This is the wretch who has the un- 
 blushing impudence to speak of himself as a man of char- 
 acter, of gentlemanly deportment, &c. This same being, who 
 on the files of his own paper stands recorded as an unprinci- 
 pled calumniator, a registered liar, libeller and assassin of 
 private character." From this rather mild beginning, the 
 attack warms to some heat, reminding the reader of "how 
 lost, even to the honors of the lialter and the gibbet, must the 
 man be, who does not stand, in the estimation of the public, 
 in point of character, at least, upon a level wnth James Cheet- 
 ham. "i^ 
 
 But if there were quarrels among the Republicans, and 
 if the Clintons showed no reluctance to capitalize for their 
 own benefit the unpopularity of Virginia measures, the party 
 nevertheless retained suiificient cohesion to preserve its local 
 ascendancy. The governor of the State undertook personally 
 to refute the charge that the embargo represented a sub- 
 mission to French influence-!^ And the Republicans of the 
 county and city of New York adopted strong resolutions ap- 
 proving the embargo and promising aid in its enforcement.^^ 
 The New York Republicans united in an appeal "to the Re- 
 publicans of the United States" to hold together, and de- 
 clared their unbounded idignation over the tactics of the 
 opposition, serving as they did only to increase the obstinacy 
 of the belligerents and to hinder the success of our own 
 diplomacy. 1** 
 
 " James Kent Papers, Library of Congress, Vol. III. Chancellor Kent to his 
 brother. Albany, July 7, 1808. 
 
 " The Public Advertiser. New York, Augr. 6, 1808. 
 
 " The Palladium. Frankfort, Ky., April 7, 1808. 
 
 ^ Ibid. Oct. 20, 1808. This or a similar demonstration was referred to in 
 Congress as proof of the loyalty of New York. Annals of Congress, xviii, p. 2078. 
 
 " Ibid., i.e.. The Palladium. Oct. 27, 1808. _ Contrast this, however, with the 
 petition of Third Ward Feb. 6, 1809, against interfering with transport of pro- 
 visions and necessary supplies. An7ials of Congress, xix, p. 1779. 
 
156 The South Atlantic Quarterly 
 
 Such solidarity as the Democracy was able to maintain 
 was in face of much discontent among the people, especially 
 the frontiersmen. And there were numerous violations of 
 the embargo and much sympathy for offenders along the 
 Canadian boundary. But discontent wl^s not cotifined to 
 these informal outlets, however disconcerting. Anti-embargo 
 New Yorkers possessed in Barent Gardenier an intrepid 
 spokesman, a veritable fire-eater. There was in the man a 
 certain nobility of character, well displayed in a duel which 
 his rabid utterances provoked. But in an age when duelling 
 was rampant, this final test of his convictions was less re- 
 markable than his very curious defense of Josiah Quincy for 
 refusing to do what he himself had done. He shamed the 
 southern leaders for baiting Quincy into a duel which Qiiincy's 
 own moral code and that of Massachusetts forbade. In the 
 courage to defend another for not fighting, Gardenier showed 
 a finer spirit than in his own fearlessness on the field of 
 honor. His own qualities, as well as the morbid political at- 
 mosphere of the times, are displayed in a speech which 
 ascribed our entire foreign policy to French influence, an 
 extreme example of the kind of suspicion which poisoned 
 the early political controversies of America. "It does appear 
 to me, sir, that we are led on, step by step, but by an unseen 
 hand. We are urged forward by a sort of spell, to the ruin 
 of our country." When Gardenier named Napoleon's as the 
 unseen hand a tumult arose, but the speaker was allowed to 
 proceed,^^ though not to escape the consequences of his zeal. 
 He was challenged by George W. Campbell, of Tennessee, 
 severely wounded, and for several weeks was an invalid. 
 But he returned to his seat in Congress with ideas unchanged, 
 their expression, however, a bit less wild. He talked there- 
 after loss of foreign influence and more of domestic injuries, 
 defending in particular the northern New Yorkers for their 
 traffic with Canada. 
 
 The chief eflfect of Gardenier's outburst had been to 
 eliminate him from the reckoning. His place was to some 
 
 "Annals of Congress, xvii., rp- 1652-1656. 
 ^* Ibid., xviii, pp. 1705-1706. 
 
Middle States and Embargo of 1808 157 
 
 extent taken by Josiah Masters, a man of similar views but 
 less impetuous expression, who wished the embargo wholly 
 removed before the adjournment of Congress in April. His 
 remedy for maritime troubles was to arm the merchant vessels 
 and let them give a good account of themselves. A show of 
 force on our part would bring France and Great Britain both 
 to their senses. ^^ 
 
 This policy was not adopted, and when the New York 
 delegates returned from the summer recess, they renewed 
 their attacks with an hostility which seems excessive, in view 
 of other evidences of sentiment in their state. Gardenier, 
 once more in harness, declared that the embargo and non- 
 importation acts were tantamount to war.2<> But when it 
 came to a vote on "Resolved, That the United States can not, 
 2vithout a sacrifice of their rights, honor, and independence, 
 submit to the late edicts of Great Britain and France,^^ he 
 and William Hoge, of Pennsylvania, were the only negatives 
 against 136 affirmatives. Perhaps the two were more sincere 
 than the 136, for many of these warriors of the council cham- 
 ber were soon to be voting for a submission which no disguise 
 concealed. 
 
 When the administration asked Congress to put teeth in 
 the embargo which would render evasion more difficult and 
 dangerous, Josiah Masters commandeered a vengeance "which 
 will hurl you down into that detestable and abominable place 
 where the worm never dies and the fire is not quenched."^^ 
 He credited the executive with good intentions at best, but 
 not with wisdom, called the embargo and non-intercourse 
 paper threats, and even insinuated, but with a caution inspired 
 b}' Gardenier's recent experience, that America was a tool of 
 France. -•'^ His caution was perhaps needless, for opposition to 
 the embargo in December, 1808, and January, 1809, was less 
 dangerous than once it had been. The heresy of one year was 
 become the orthodoxy of the next, and Gardenier himself 
 
 ^0 Ibid., xviii. p. 2110. 
 » Ibid., xix, p. 826 
 21 Ibid., xix, p. 853. 
 ^ Ibid., xix, p. 938. 
 "Ibid., xix, pp. 991-993. 
 
158 The South Atlantic Quarterly 
 
 was less of an outlaw. His was at best, however, a negative 
 xnd destructive genius. For constructive statesmanship he 
 seems to have shared the general aversion among Federalists 
 at this period, but he liked to ferret out weak points in the 
 government's position. When sentiment fi:ially veered toward 
 a repeal of the embargo and the substitution for it of non- 
 intercourse with Great Britain and France only, Gardenier 
 ridiculed a policy which rendered shipping precarious and 
 then released the ships.--* On this point he carried with him 
 but two delegates from New York. The remaining thirteen 
 voted with the majority in Congress for a submission which 
 should preserve at least the semblance of dignity. 
 
 Less important than New York in every way. New Jersey 
 took a less conspicuous position relative to the embargo. But 
 the two states had one very striking resemblance in the fact 
 that while both remained true to their essential Republicanism, 
 and both upheld the state and national tickets of their pa>"ty, 
 each found its most eloquent spokesman in the party of the 
 opposition. New Jersey's decision in the presidential election 
 was correctly forecast early in the summer when a good Demo- 
 crat of Trenton asserted that "our political prospect is, in 
 this State as favorable as at any past period. The Republi- 
 cans to a man, and many federalists, approve the embargo, 
 and the correspondent measures. On the subject of the presi- 
 dential election, there is no division of sentiment in the Re- 
 publican party; all are decidedly for Madison. "^^ But a letter 
 in October announcing the victory admits that the contest was 
 not easy. "I have just time to inform you, for the gratifica- 
 tion of the Whigs of New York, and the dismay of the Tories, 
 that REPUBLICANISM has completely triumphed in New 
 Jersey, and that in both branches of the legislature, there v.ill be 
 a democratic majority. The Tories made a dreadful struggle, 
 and we had to combat all the federal lazvyers, British pen- 
 sioners and agents ; but thank God, the Whigs were as ready 
 to oppose them now as in the American revolution." Of 
 
 ^* Ibid., xix, pp. 1262-1263. Jan. 31, 1809. 
 
 » The Universal Gazette. Washington, D. C, July 14, 1808. Extract of a letter 
 dated Trenton, N. J. 
 
Middle States and Embargo of 1808 159 
 
 fifty-three members in the legislature, the Whigs secured a 
 majority of seven. -^ 
 
 Much of the local color in a campaign which led to this 
 result is imbedded in some rather spirited doggerel which 
 originally graced the pages of the Trenton True American. 
 
 THE EMBARGO 
 
 There's knaves and fools, and dupes and tools, 
 
 Debas'd enough to argue, 
 That every ill the people feel, 
 
 Is OM^ing to The Embargo. 
 
 Does some loose tongue, like a clapper hung, 
 
 Delight in constant dinging. 
 The Embargo well supplies the bell 
 
 Against which to be ringing. 
 
 Do party men incline to pen 
 
 A false and foolish farr'go, 
 No other themes so fruitful seem 
 
 As "Jefferson's d d Embargo." 
 
 To pelf and power would villians soar, 
 
 Mid uproar and confusion; 
 With hearts well pleas'd, the Embargo seiz'd 
 
 To work the dire delusion. 
 
 Should Hessian fly our wheat destroy. 
 
 Or granaries crawl with weevil, 
 The Embargo's curst in language worst. 
 
 As source of all the evil. 
 
 Does wind or wave or watery grave 
 
 Consign ship crew and cargo, 
 'Tis chance but some in visage grum, 
 
 Ascribe it to the Embargo." 
 
 Does cold or heat, or drought or wet. 
 
 Work hay or harvest's ruin, 
 'Tis made appear as noon-day clear, 
 
 'Tis all the Embargo's doing. 
 
 » The Public Advertiser. New York, Oct. 18, 1808. To the Editors, Newark, 
 Oct. 18. 1808. 
 
160 The South Atlantic Quarterly 
 
 Or should our crops exceed our hopes, 
 Right round about they dare go, 
 
 And in a trice, the lessen'd price 
 Is charged upon the Embargo. 
 
 Should boat or ship lose tide or trip 
 
 By gale, or ice, or freshet, 
 The Embargo 'tis, puts all amiss, 
 
 And merrily they curse it. 
 
 Do vermin bold on trees lay hold. 
 
 And make their limbs quite bare go, 
 
 'Tis ten to one the mischief done 
 Is saddled on the Embargo. 
 
 Has drunken swab or idle drab. 
 Become forlorn and needy, 
 
 Both he and she will find a plea, 
 "Embargo," always ready. 
 
 Is buck or blade bankrupt in trade, 
 
 By sloth or vice or folly. 
 He's not to blame — the fault and shame 
 
 Rests on the Embargo wholly. 
 
 Does some vile knave, his cash to save, 
 Pay all his debts with paper ; 
 
 "The Embargo laws" are made the cause, 
 And loud he'd rant and vapor. 
 
 But though such knaves and fools and slaves 
 Paint it a frightful scare-crow, 
 
 The good and wise their arts despise. 
 And cling to the Embargo. 
 
 They know it keeps from pirate's grips. 
 Our vessels, crews and cargoes ; 
 
 Which were they lost, would much more cost 
 Than half a score Embargoes. 
 
 They know that this most punishes 
 The nations that oppress us ; 
 
 While it involves our injur'd selves 
 In least and few'st distresses. 
 
Middle States and Embargo of 1808 161 
 
 They know that that would cost us more 
 
 Monthly than this does yearly ; 
 While every blow some blood must flow 
 
 From kin or friends lov'd dearly. 
 
 Then let who will, to work our ill, 
 
 Against it lie and argue ; 
 Columbia's sons, in loudest tones 
 
 Will laud THE WISE EMBARGO. 
 
 — "Jersey Blue."^'' 
 
 The jaded muse may well have winced at verses such as 
 these. But when sung, as recommended, to "Yankee Doodle," 
 "Moggy Lawder," or the "Vicar of Bray," they no doubt 
 aided the chorus to fight the good fight and keep the faith. 
 The more solid opinion of New Jersey found its expression 
 in the debates of Congress. In James Sloan the State was 
 represented by a man of wit; in Henry Southard, by a man 
 of sense. Sloan's first sally upon the embargo question was 
 in reply to Key, of Maryland. Key had been pouring forth at 
 endless length a most lugubrious picture of the sad fate of his 
 constituents. Sloan reduced it to an epigram. "I discovered 
 only this solid argument in all he said : that the constituents 
 of some gentlemen have power to evade the law, while his 
 have not."-^ 
 
 Sloan took a higher flight when he attempted an allegory 
 along the lines of Josiah Otiincey's famous parable of the 
 young man and the birds of paradise. Sloan's dramatis per- 
 sonae were an orchard and some pruners. Congress being 
 the latter; the country, the former. "* * * suppose I 
 employ a man a number of days to regulate my orchard, do 
 I authorize him to cut it down? Certainly not. There is a 
 power given to commissioners of this city to regulate the 
 markets; have they, therefore, a right to prohibit them? I 
 contend not ; they are appointed to keep them in order and 
 improve them."-" Similarly, Congress was created to regulate 
 
 *' The Independent Chronicle. Boston, Oct. 27, 1808. Quoting from The 
 Trenton True American. 
 
 ^Annals of Congress, xviii, p. 2126. 
 » Ibid., xix, pp. 572-573. 
 
162 The South Atlantic Quarterly 
 
 and cherish, not to destroy. Yet the embargo was proving the 
 great destroyer. And though Sloan voted for it twice, he 
 could not stomach its third and revised version.^'* 
 
 Once converted to the opposition, Sloan advanced right 
 into the enemy lines and tackled the general himself. Jeffer- 
 son in his long career had written much which he doubtless 
 believed at the time, but which could hardly be expected to 
 fit all occasions. And Sloan dragged forth the "Notes on 
 Virginia," written in the eighteenth century, to show that 
 Jefferson ought to be acting on its principles in the nine- 
 teenth.^^ The method was clever, but hardly fair. 
 
 With much less pretense of rhetoric, but more of op- 
 timism and constructive thinking. Southard called attention 
 to the good which the embargo had already accomplished, to 
 the infant industries it had established, now "rapidly progress- 
 ing to perfection," and to the probability that it would have 
 accomplished its whole purpose in six months if the Ameri- 
 can people had given it loyal support. But this they had with- 
 held, and in Southard's judgment it would not pay to prolong 
 the experiment. He even preferred March to June as the date 
 for its repeal. •''- It was men like Southard, friends of the 
 embargo, not its enemies, who finally sealed its doom. 
 
 Among the Middle States, Delaware was the most hostile 
 to the embargo. There was, of course, within the state a 
 democratic faction, and "a very numerous and respectable 
 Meeting of the Democratic-Republican Citizens of New Castle 
 County" drew up as late as September 3. 1808, resolutions 
 highly laudatory of the embargo. -"^^ fhe faithful at Wilming- 
 ton even went so far, in February, 1809, as to assure Thomas 
 Jefferson that "had such honorable generous principles [as 
 theirs] universally predominated the shackles imposed upon 
 our commerce would before this, we believe, have been re- 
 moved, and peace and prosperity would again have resumed 
 their sway over our country. "^^ 
 
 »Ibid., xix, p. 573. 
 
 ^ Ibid.. x:x, p. 928. Dec. 27, 1808. 
 
 ™ Ibid., xix, pp. 1307-1308. 
 
 ^' Broadsides. Library of Congress, vol. 8. 
 
 " Jeflersonian MSS. Library of Congress. Wilmington, Delaware, Feb. 2, 1809. 
 
Middle States and Embargo of 1808 163 
 
 Testimony such as this is offset, however, by an em- 
 phatic denmiciation of the embargo signed by 456 citizens of 
 Smyrna and its vicinity, prepared after the law^ had been in 
 effect over a year, as well as by the more significant fact that 
 the entire delegation from Delaware consistently opposed the 
 embargo in Congress. ^^ Senator White opposed the original 
 act of embargo."" His colleague, Bayard, joined him in op- 
 posing the various amendments designed to render it effec- 
 tive. 2''' And in the House, Van Dyke, the sole delegate from 
 Delaware, was too hostile to any sort of restriction even to 
 vote for the act which repealed the embargo. Delaware was 
 a commercial center and a stronghold of Federalism. She 
 could not anticipate the boom in manufactures which was to 
 compensate her neighbor of Pennsylvania for present suffer- 
 ings, but she did realize that the embargo was a God-send 
 to Federalism, which had been perishing for a real issue with 
 the Republicans. Delaware was the little man with the one 
 idea. Pennsylvania was too rich and varied to be so con- 
 fined. 
 
 Even as the Middle States were the pivot for the entire 
 seaboard, so their own key-stone was the state of Penn- 
 sylvania. As the Middle States decided, so went the Union. 
 Theirs was the balance of power between North and South. 
 The balance within the balance belonged to Pennsylvania, 
 and at the heart of Pennsylvania lay the decisive influence of 
 Philadelphia. The conflict of sentiment in Philadelphia offers, 
 therefore, an important clew to the sources of national action 
 throughout the period of the embargo. 
 
 It is unfortunate, therefore, that at this point, full justice 
 cannot be done to the part played by Pennsylvania in the em- 
 bargo. But the reader who is interested will find a some- 
 what detailed discussion of this subject, more particularly 
 as it concerned Philadelphia, in a separate study by the pres- 
 ent writer, only the conclusions of which may here be sum- 
 marized.^^ 
 
 ^5 Ibid. Petition from Smyrna, Delaware. 
 
 ^ Annals of Congress, xviii, p. 51. For hostile speeches by him, see also Ibid. 
 xi.x, pp. SS and 59. 
 ^ Ibid, xviii, p. 63. 
 /*» "Philadelphia and the Embargo of 1808," in The Quarterly Journal of Econ- 
 
164 The South Atlantic Quarterly 
 
 In so far as Philadelphia was rich and commercial, a 
 proper nursery for Federalists, her merchants were neces- 
 sarily hostile to the embargo. But their petitions against its 
 enforcement proving unavailing, they shared in the general 
 stagnation of trade; and save as they were individually able 
 to recoup their fortunes by ventures outside their usual field, 
 they and all the seamen whom they employed felt the pinch of 
 the times. 
 
 But as commerce declined, manufactures rose, for in the 
 very nature of things a measure so ruinous to the one was 
 stimulating to the other. And nowhere was this stimulus 
 more promptly felt than in Philadelphia. Testimony from 
 the most respectable sources confirms the almost universal air 
 of prosperity which pervaded the city, a final proof of its 
 authenticity being the steadfast loyalty of both city and state 
 to the Republican party and the leadership of Thomas Jeffer- 
 son. 
 
 The administration foimd, in fact, a needed support at 
 the hands of Pennsylvanians in Congress, who during many 
 months sustained the embargo by substantial majorities, and 
 did not yield to non-intercourse as a substitute until it was 
 apparent that the cause of the embargo w^as hopeless. Thus 
 economic prosperity encouraged political constancy, and 
 served to hold in the Democratic household of faith a state 
 whose defection would have been peculiarly embarrassing 
 at a time when Federalism was regaining so much lost ground 
 in New England. 
 
 Conditions in Maryland bore some striking resemblances 
 to those in Pennsylvania, though in the aggregate they were 
 probably less favorable. As in Pennsylvania, the impetus 
 given to manufactures was marked. At the very outset, a 
 committee headed by William Patterson, of Baltimore, in- 
 vited all persons who possessed any knowledge of cotton 
 or woolen manufactures to aid in turning this to practical 
 account."'^-' A considerable demand arose for shares in a 
 company projected for the purpose.^^ The zeal for manu- 
 
 ** Republican Watch Tower. New York, Jan. 8, 180S. From Baltimore, Jan. 2. 
 <• The Independent Chronicle. Boston, Feb. 25, 1808. 
 
Middle States and Embargo of 1808 165 
 
 factures extended to shoes.^^ Wool carding also came into its 
 own.'*^ And the foundations were laid for extensive enter- 
 prise. 
 
 How the commercial community of Maryland responded 
 to the embargo is illustrated by two letters of William Pat- 
 terson, written a little more than six months apart to Wilson 
 Cary Nicholas, a Virginia delegate in Congress. In May he 
 declared that "* * * every thinking man in the com- 
 munity be him [sic] Republican or Federalist sees and knows 
 the propriety and necessity of the embargo, yet all will not give 
 it their support and many will try to mislead the ignorant 
 in order to give ground to the Federal party, it is very de- 
 sirable that it should be continued until the powers at war 
 shall feel the necessity of changing their conduct towards 
 us, but I have my doubts and fears that the people of this 
 country have not svifficient virtue and perseverance to wait 
 this event — all the vessels belonging to my House have com- 
 pleted their voyages and are now in port to the number of 
 twelve in all. most of the vessels in the East India trade have 
 returned so that there is now very little American property 
 at sea."43 
 
 It thus appears that by May, of 1808, Patterson and the 
 great merchants of his class had already experienced whatever 
 benefits the embargo had to offer. What followed was chiefly 
 its burdens. And these drew from Patterson in December 
 the complaint that "it is every day becoming more and more 
 unpopular and if continued will bring about a revolution in 
 the government and perhaps a Civil War, at any rate it must 
 throvv' the government into the hands of the Federalists."^^ 
 For an influential Democrat writing to one of his own party 
 in Congress, Patterson makes the rather astonishing admission 
 that "circumstanced as we are it is vain to talk of national 
 honor for that has been sacrificed in too many instances 
 
 ■" The Baltimore Evening Post, May 7, 1808. 
 
 ■*^ Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daih Advertiser, Aug. 24, 1808. Inserted 
 Aug. 12, 1808. 
 
 *2 W. C. Nicholas Papers, Library of Congress. Wm. Patterson to W. C. Nich- 
 olas, May 11, 1808. 
 
 ** Ibid., same to same. Dec. 1, 1808. 
 
166 The South Atlantic Quarterly 
 
 already and it is now too late to regain it. Unanimity and 
 the safety of the country are now the great objects to be con- 
 sidered."^^' 
 
 Severe as this indictment appears, it is nevertheless the 
 judgment of a friend. The real virus of mercantile opinion 
 found vent in personal fiings at Jefferson,""^ while extreme 
 Federalists in Baltimore went even so far as to rejoice at 
 threatening secession in New England. The following "com- 
 munication" to a Baltimore newspaper indicates at least an 
 attempt to feel out the position of Maryland Federalists with 
 reference to such a contingency. 
 
 "The political intelligence from the great Atlantic States, 
 if it do not warrant an entire confidence that the golden princi- 
 ples of FEDERALISM have revived in full vigor and health, 
 at least instructs us that the fatal Embargo law threatens fear- 
 ful ruin to the tottering cause of democracy. The good and 
 powerful portion of the people are prepared constitutionally 
 to rise up in their strength against the destructive policy of 
 our rulers. Let democracy, and her treacherous hand-maid, 
 French Influence stand aghast, brooding over their own 
 iniquities. The guilty may escape retributive vengeance for 
 a while, but Justice will overtake them yet. Though majestic 
 in her mien, and bold in her approach, she will steal anon 
 upon her trembling victim, and point with peculiar emphasis 
 at the faithless friends of their country."-*' 
 
 But the most formidable expression of revolt was the 
 declaration of the Baltimore Federal Republican concerning 
 "Mr. Giles's Bill," in which the doctrines of the Virginia res- 
 olution were invoked to show that by exercising powers never 
 delegated by the states, the federal government had dis- 
 solved the civil compact. The Giles Bill was a force bill, ac- 
 cording to the Republican, and the government would do 
 well to remember that "a law which is to be enforced at the 
 
 *'' W. C. Nicholas Papers, Library of Congress. Wni. Patterson to W. C. 
 Nicholas, Dec. 1, 1808. 
 
 ■•" The North American and Mercantile Daily Advertiser. Baltimore, June 6, 
 1808. Quoting Jackson's Marine Register for June 3rd in a comment upon the 
 failure of a single ship that day to enter or leave New York, Philadelpliia or Bal- 
 timore. "We shall be consoled, however, for all this temporal privation, by lec- 
 tures on the "Revolt of Nations From the Empire of Morality" by a PHILOS- 
 OPHER, who has not violated more than one-half of the Decalogue." 
 
 << Ibid., May 16, 1808. 
 
Middle States and Embargo of 1808 167 
 
 point of the bayonet will bring on a struggle which may ter- 
 minate in the overthrow of the government. Our rulers are 
 answerable for the issue."^^ 
 
 Maryland representatives in Congress were more sensitive 
 to the commercial disadvantages of the embargo than to its 
 manufacturing advantages. This was the more natural among 
 men who, living outside of their state, could not witness in 
 person the awakening in cotton, woolen, and other manu- 
 factures ; while commercially they were well aware that 
 Maryland was in a situation to bear the full brunt of the 
 embargo. For unrestricted commerce her location was advan- 
 tageous. But when the embargo sealed her front door, she 
 had no back door for escape. Northern New England and 
 New York had a Canadian outlet. Transalleghany and the 
 Far South touched the Mississippi and Florida, with their 
 lucrative possibilities for smuggling. It was quite otherwise 
 with Maryland. And her isolation moved her to self pity.^^ 
 Perhaps, though, a hundred per cent administration would 
 have left no loop-hole for the 100,000 barrels of flour, which 
 John Randolph declared with gusto were smuggled out of 
 Baltimore.^^ 
 
 The argument for uniformity would have gained in dignity 
 if clothed in an appeal for uniform self-sacrifice and pa- 
 triotism. But Key reduced it to an absurdity by basing his 
 opposition to the embargo on the inability of his constituents 
 to evade it.^^ 
 
 Like Josiah Quincy, Key was an advocate of laissez-faire. 
 He would allow the merchants to manage their own business, 
 trusting them to impose a voluntary embargo whenever risks 
 outran profits. And if the merchants themselves were not 
 clever enough to determine this, the insurance companies 
 would do it for them. "I would, therefore, confide to them 
 the commerce of our country in the exportation of our pro- 
 
 *" The Connecticut Courant. Jan. 18, 1809. Quoting from the Baltimore Fed- 
 eral Republican. 
 
 *•'' A rivals of Congress, xviii : p. 1706. Philip B. Key: "Our laws should be 
 uniform ; at present large portions of our country have an outlet for commerce 
 and the embargo law operates as a bounty to that part of the community at the 
 expense of the remainder." 
 
 ^ Ibid., xviii. p. 2239. 
 
 «J6td., xviii, p. 2119. 
 
168 The South Atlantic Quarterly 
 
 duce, unshackled by an embargo law."^^ Hq anticipated events 
 by a year when, in despair of justice from either France or 
 England, he recommended commerce only with the rest of 
 the world.^'* But with a curious inconsistency, though he de- 
 clared war to be preferable to embargo, he refused his vote 
 to the act enabling Jefferson during the summer recess of 
 Congress to suspend the operation of the embargo, subject to 
 certain contingencies. "I cannot consent," said Key, "that 
 the destinies of my country, that its laws shall be suspended 
 on the will of any individual, however preeminent in virtue, 
 dignified in station, or covered with the mantle of public 
 opinion. The more his merit, the greater the danger."^^ 
 
 When Congress reconvened, Maryland spoke wath more 
 than one voice. S. Smith took the cheerful view that Liver- 
 pool would soon be clamoring for saner counsels in Britain. 
 On our side, he declared that border smuggling was less ex- 
 tensive than it was rumored to be. Altogether, he bade the 
 Senate be of good heart.^^ Key, however, continued in the 
 voice of lamentation. Picturing the entire Union in a com- 
 petition of suffering, he demanded the prize for Maryland. 
 In this he represented commercial sentiment, for in Maryland, 
 unlike Pennsylvania, commerce cast the deciding vote as 
 against manufactures, which, however promising, were still 
 immature. And that vote, whether expressed in the cor- 
 respondence of William Patterson or the furious diatribes of 
 the Federalist press, became increasingly hostile to the em- 
 bargo. 
 
 In reaching this point of view, Maryland was in harmony 
 with her sisters. With distinct individual differences as to 
 the incidence of the embargo, the states of the Middle Group 
 shared in varying degree the stimulus to manufactures and the 
 demoralization of commerce imposed by the times. But 
 collectively the burden of their experience impelled them to 
 vote out the embargo, and to vote in its emasculated substi- 
 tute of non-intercourse with Great Britain and France. In 
 vain did friends of the embargo point to its deadly effect upon 
 
 "Ibid., xviii, p. 2122. 
 
 " Ibid., xviii, p. 2123. 
 
 ^ Ibid., xviii, pp. 2124-212S. 
 
 "'Ibid., xix, pp. 147, ISO. 159. 
 
Middle States and Embargo of 1808 169 
 
 Great Britain. ^"^ In vain were smugglers and traitors held up 
 to the execration of tlieir fellow citizens/'^ Public opinion, 
 which had sustained the embargo in its initial stages, ana 
 upheld it with tolerable firmness through nine months of in- 
 creasing pressure, even to the enforcing act of January, 1809, 
 finally succumbed. As the embargo grew more intolerable and 
 its success appeared less certain, the pendulum swung from 
 rigid government control to extreme individual freedom. And 
 the readiest means was sought for restoring our commerce 
 without too blatant a confession of defeat. 
 
 This drift in opinion the Middle States shared with their 
 neighbors, and in the vote of February 27, 1809, which finally 
 overthrew the embargo and replaced it by a non-intercourse 
 act, the Middle States cast the following ballot : New York, 
 13 to 3 and 1 not voting ; New Jersey, 5 to ; Delaware, to 1 ; 
 Pennsylvania, 10 to 6 with 2 not voting; Maryland, 7 to 1. 
 Ohio cast her single vote in the negative. ^^ 
 
 The Middle States thus spoke decisively. Theirs was the 
 balance of power. And without their sufFrance, the embargo 
 could not endure. One may regret, but not condemn their 
 decision. The embargo was a sublime experiment carried out 
 under impossible conditions. A stronger nationalism was 
 needed if the country were to give the unanimous support es- 
 sential to success. In Congress itself, a diflferent type of 
 statesmanship was required than what passed current in 1809. 
 The practical politician governed then as now and made sad 
 work of it. Yet in so far as the nation did uphold it, the 
 embargo pointed toward a brighter world where wars should 
 be no' more. Viewed as a commercial device for rescuing 
 shipping and humbling a foe, the embargo was sordid enough. 
 Viewed as a substitute for war, it assumes the dignity of 6ne 
 of the most enlightened plans and consistent efforts ever di- 
 rected toward world peace. But amid the losses and discom- 
 forts of the time, it was not easy to see or to keep the vision, 
 and if the Middle States, like their sisters, failed at last to do 
 so, they deserve more credit for what they did than censure 
 for what thev failed to do. 
 
 " The Palladium. Frankfort, Ky., Oct. 27, 1808. 
 
 "Ibid., Aug. 18, 1808. Quoting The National Intelligencer. 
 
 ''^ Antials of Congress, xix, p. 1541. 
 
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