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Subject Area: Political Theory

GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON. - Albert Gallatin, The Writings of Albert Gallatin, vol. 1 [1879]

Edition used:

The Writings of Albert Gallatin, ed. Henry Adams (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1879). 3 vols.

Part of: The Writings of Albert Gallatin, 3 vols.

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GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.

Washington, May 23, 1808.

Dear Sir,—

The enclosed letter from Mr. Woolsey contains our last accounts from Lake Champlain; and that from Mr. Astor the amount of supplies expected in Canada from Champlain and St. Lawrence. I fear that the want of energy and resignation of Sacket will facilitate the evasions in the last district. On Champlain I believe that everything that could be done has been done.

The mail travels so slowly from Passamaquoddy that my last official accounts reach only to the 28th of last month, when the opposition appeared still stronger; the revenue boats having been fired at in the night and open violations continuing to take place. It must have been still more difficult in any degree to carry the law into effect subsequent to that date, as by return vessels it appears that between 2d and 7th May there were entered 19,000 barrels flour, 4000 do. pork, 4000 do. naval stores, &c. The people are paid by the British or disaffected, and no assistance to be expected until the arrival of the Wasp, which sailed from New York on 7th inst. Be that as it may, all the evil which can accrue, both there and on the Champlain, is now at an end, and all we have to watch is our common coasting trade.

There is one species of evasions against which there can be no guard but in the watchfulness of our collectors and officers. I mean loading secretly and departing without clearance; and I think that we have little to fear from any other quarter. The great violations which have heretofore taken place have been either on the frontier districts, or in the sailing of vessels before the penalties were enforced. Of this I have a clear proof in the return of vessels arrived at Havana from the United States till the 11th ultimo, and deposited by our consul in the Department of State. I have analyzed it; and taking two periods of forty-two days each, the first from 17th January to 28th February, and the other from 1st March to 11th April, I find that forty-three vessels arrived from the United States during the first period, and only four during the last, one of which was in ballast, and only one had flour; an evident proof that the embargo operates, and that since the penalties were enacted and the second supplementary Act was passed the evasions (those on the British lines excepted) have been less than we had apprehended.

From that view of the subject I have been induced to believe that the system of licenses by the governors was unnecessary; and permit me to add that it will, I think, be less efficient than our own regulations. For we transfer thereby a limited discretion, which was vested in collectors responsible to ourselves and subject to our continual control, to men not under our control, afraid of clamor and of popularity, and transfer it without any limitation. The best mode certainly would have been, if recourse must be had to the governors, merely to call on them for information. Knowing Governors Sullivan and Charles Pinckney as we do, we can have no confidence in the last, and must rest assured that the other will refuse no certificates. They begin already to arrive, and for large quantities. Disliking the mode, and extremely desirous that some less liable to abuse and to charge of favoritism might be substituted, at least that it might not be extended to the other governors, I have carefully examined the subject, and think that I have formed a way which will, without apparent retractation, afford necessary supplies in such a manner as to render abuses almost impossible, and, at all events, do away the necessity of writing to other governors. You will find it in the annexed circular, which I wrote last Friday. Indeed, it became utterly impossible to decide on the multiplied applications and references instead of adopting some general rule; the clamor against, and unpopularity of the absolute restrictions were increasing; and you may indeed rely upon it as a fact that the consumption of articles from other States and, in some instances, dependence on such importations was infinitely beyond what you had imagined. I will mention a single instance. The greater part of the South Carolina sea-coast and the whole of Georgia have, since the increased cultivation of cotton, abandoned that of corn, and depend entirely on importations from North Carolina and Virginia. By confining, as I have done, the value of the provisions transported to one-eighth part of the amount of the bond, there can be no temptation to carry away the article. Indeed, there is not, I believe, one instance of a regular trading vessel between two ports having violated the embargo, under the usual bonds. But this new limitation added to the penalties which may be recovered by the law, independent of the bond, places us on a much safer footing, and at the same time much less exceptionable, than the permission from the governors, under which whole cargoes of provisions will be perpetually transported, and that, perhaps, done by persons who have violated the embargo without the knowledge of the governors.

Excuse, I pray, the incorrectness and hurry of this letter. I have had more to write than at any former period, and, although wanting some relaxation, it is as yet impossible for me to be absent even for a week.1

With sincere respect and attachment, your obedient servant.

[1 ]See the reply to this letter in Jefferson’s Works, v. 296, dated May 27, 1808.