2526. EMBARGO, Authority to suspend.—
The decrees and orders of the belligerent
nations having amounted nearly to declarations
that they would take our vessels
wherever found, Congress thought it best, in
the first instance, to break off all intercourse
with them. They * * * passed an act authorizing
me to suspend the Embargo whenever
the belligerents should revoke their decrees
or orders as to us. The Embargo must
continue, therefore, till they meet again in November,
unless the measures of the belligerents
should change. When they meet again, if these
decrees and orders still continue, the question
which they will have to decide will be, whether
a continuance of the Embargo or war will be
preferable.—
To William Lyman. Washington ed. v, 279.
(W.
April. 1808)
