The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
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PROCLAMATION. |
 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it is provided by the eleventh section of the act
of Congress entitled "An act to interdict the commercial
intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and
France and their dependencies, and for other purposes," that
"in case either France or Great Britain shall so revoke or
modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the neutral
commerce of the United States" the President is authorized
to declare the same by proclamation, after which the trade
suspended by the said act and by an act laying an embargo
on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the
United States and the several acts supplementary thereto may
be renewed with the nation so doing; and
Whereas the Honorable David Montague Erskine, His
Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary, has, by the order and in the name of his
Sovereign, declared to this Government that the British
orders in council of January and November, 1807, will have
been withdrawn as respects the United States on the 10th
day of June next:[5]
Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United
States, do hereby proclaim that the orders in council aforesaid
will have been withdrawn on the said 10th day of June next,
after which day the trade of the United States with Great
Britain, as suspended by the act of Congress above mentioned
and an act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the
ports and harbors of the United States and the several acts
supplementary thereto, may be renewed.
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States
[SEAL] at Washington, the 19th day of April, A.D. 1809,
and of the Independence of the United States the
thirty-third.
Erskine wrote the Secretary of State, Robert Smith, as follows:
I have the Honour of informing you, that His Majesty, having
been persuaded that the honourable Reparation which he had caused
to be tendered for the unauthorized attack upon the American Frigate
Chesapeake, would be accepted by the Government of the United
States, in the same Spirit of conciliation, with which it was proposed,
has instructed me, to express His Satisfaction, should such a happy
Termination of that affair take Place—not only as having removed
a painful cause of Difference, but as affording a fair Prospect of a
complete and cordial understanding, being reestablished between the
two Countries.
The favourable Change in the Relations of His Majesty with the
United States, which has been produced by the Act, (usually termed
the Non-Intercourse Act,) passed in the last Session of Congress,
was also anticipated by His Majesty, and has encouraged a further
Hope, that a Reconsideration of the existing Differences may lead
to their satisfactory adjustment.
On these Grounds and Expectations, I am instructed to communicate
to the American Government, His Majesty's Determination of sending
to the United States, an Envoy extraordinary invested with full
Powers to conclude a treaty on all the Points of the Relations between
the two Countries.
In the mean Time, with a View to contribute to the attainment
of so desirable an object, His Majesty would be willing to withdraw
His orders in Council of January and November, 1807, so far as respects
the United States, in the Persuasion, that the President would
issue a Proclamation for the Renewal of the Intercourse with Great
Britain, and that whatever Differences of Opinion should arise in
the Interpretation of the Terms of such an agreement, will be removed
in the proposed negotiation.
I have the Honour to be, &c.
The next day he wrote again:
In consequence of the Acceptance by the President, as stated in
your Letter, dated the 18th Instant, of the Proposals, made by me
on the Part of His Majesty, in my Letter of the same Day, for the
Renewal of the Intercourse between the respective Countries, I am
authorized to declare, that His Majesty's orders in Council of January
and November, 1807, will have been withdrawn as respects the United
States on the 10th Day of June next.
I have the honor, &c.—D. of S. MSS. Notes.
| The writings of James Madison, | |