Embargo Act of 1807
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The Embargo Act of 1807 was an American law prohibiting all export of cargo from American ports. It was designed to force Britain to rescind its restrictions on American trade, but failed, and was repealed in early 1809. Specifically, the act prohibited American goods from being shipped to foreign ports and all foreign vessels from taking cargo at American ports. Cargo for the coastal trade had to be bonded at double value. Foreign imports were not banned, but they mostly ceased because ships would have to return empty. It represented President Thomas Jefferson's response to the United Kingdom's Orders in Council (1807) and France's Continental System, which were severely hurting America's merchant marines. Although it was designed to force the British and French to change their commercial systems, neither country did, and the Act was repealed in 1809. Moreover, the Act failed to prevent the War of 1812. Historians in 2006 ranked it #7 of the 10 worst mistakes ever made by an American President.<ref>Associated Press story, via www.ctv.ca (February 18, 2006)</ref>
From the 1790s to 1807, American shippers enjoyed their status as the primary neutral carrier between France and England while both countries were engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, profiting as both Nations purchased American goods and ships. Before it passed about $120 million in American ships and cargo were on the high seas on any one day. Jefferson thought that Britain needed the business so badly it would buckle on the impressment issue, where British warships stopped American commercial ships and seized sailors it said were British subjects. The vast British Royal Navy required a large workforce to keep a stranglehold on the oceans; a need which could not be provided for by volunteer enlistment. British warships stopped American merchant ships; inspected the papers of every crewmember, and carried off those they decided were British subjects. Over 6,000 sailors with American naturalization papers were also taken because Britain did not honor "naturalised citizenship" papers issued by American courts to men born in Britain. Image:Ograbme.jpg Congress passed the Embargo Act on December 22, 1807, by votes of 22-6 in the Senate and 82-44 in the House. The South and West were in favor, and the Northeast opposed; the goal was to attack England economically for their impressment policy, and also to ensure America's neutrality in the war. Unfortunately, surprisingly good crops in 1808 left England far less dependent on America than usual and the parts of the British Empire hit hardest by the Embargo were too poor to convince the government it was worthwhile to repeal the Orders in Council. Although the Act did succeed in lessening impressment, it was merely because it caused so many American sailors to become unemployed that they joined Britain's merchant marine and navy willingly, to avoid starving. New England, a traditional Federalist stronghold, was in an uproar over the Act and turned to smuggling, particularly across the Canadian border. Congress repealed the Act three days before Jefferson left office, replacing it with the Non-Intercourse Act on March 1, 1809, which lifted all embargoes except for those on England and France. This Act was just as ineffective as the Embargo Act itself and was replaced again the following year with Macon's Bill Number 2, lifting the remaining embargoes.
The entire series of events was sometimes ridiculed as the Dambargo, Mob-Rage, Go-bar-'em or O-grab-me (embargo spelled backwards). The Snapping turtle, sometimes known as the Ograbme, was therefore the subject of a political cartoon ridiculing the Act.
Despite its unpopular nature, the Embargo Act did have some benefits, especially as it drove capital and labor into New England textile and other manufacturing industries, lessening America's reliance on the English.
References
<references/>
- Levy, Leonard W.; Jefferson and Civil Liberties: The Darker Side. (1963)
- Louis Martin Sears; Jefferson and the Embargo (1927)
- Spivak, Burton; Jefferson's English Crisis: Commerce, Embargo, and the Republican Revolution. (1979)