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Subject Area: Political Theory

GALLATIN TO THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 1 - 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 THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER.1

If the British government sincerely wishes peace with America, it will not bring forward any new territorial or commercial pretension, and will confine itself to the discussion of the questions which gave rise to the war. That respecting impressment of seamen on board American vessels is the only one which presents any difficulty. The abstract right of America to employ British seamen, or of Great Britain to claim her own subjects, needs not, however, be discussed. Although she has weakened it by permitting them to migrate, and by naturalizing herself the seamen of other nations, the United States would agree not hereafter to employ, even on board their merchant vessels, any seaman subject of Great Britain. But America cannot assent to an arrangement acknowledging the right of England to do herself justice by force, by seizing on the high seas even her own seamen, on board of American vessels. Any arrangement founded on that basis and on a promise to repress abuses would ultimately leave the American vessels at the mercy of England, without giving to America any advantage she has not a right to enjoy without any condition on her part, since England, not claiming the right to seize American seamen, is already bound to prevent its being done by her officers.

With respect to the principle, England is allowed, when she is at war, to visit neutral vessels for the purpose of seizing merchandise either belonging to her enemy, or considered as contraband destined for her enemy, and soldiers or other combatants in the service of her enemy. But she never had before claimed the right of visiting or seizing, under the pretence of retaking what belonged to herself. If the right was conceded to her of seizing, on board vessels of other nations, the seamen she claims as belonging to her, she would equally have that of seizing merchandise claimed by her subjects as belonging to them, and there would no longer be any acknowledged line of demarcation which should prevent her from exercising an unlimited jurisdiction over the vessels of all other nations.

The great interest which the United States have that impressment should cease, and also to create a navy purely national, gives a certain pledge of their faithfully excluding British seamen from their service, if they can thereby obtain that Great Britain shall cease impressing seamen on board their vessels. England only suspending the exercise of her pretensions without renouncing them, would be bound only so long as America faithfully fulfilled her engagement. It is, however, to be feared that, at this moment of irritation, the British government will not agree to this arrangement, against which there is another not publicly avowed motive of opposition. England, not losing her commerce when she is at war, always wants fifty thousand more seamen in war than when at peace. Far, therefore, from wishing that the United States should altogether exclude her seamen from their service, she wishes, on the contrary, that America would (as she might do it with ease) employ twenty thousand of them in time of peace, in order to claim them when at war, and thus to make the American navy subserve in a most efficient manner to the aggrandizement of her own maritime power.

Should the proposal of the United States be rejected, the only apparent means to make peace is a postponement of the discussion of that subject to a more favorable time. Maritime questions seem to fall with the war; and it is above all desirable that the whole civilized world may breathe and, without any exception, enjoy universal peace. But if the United States should derive no positive advantage from the war, they will at least terminate it without sacrifice and without dishonor. They would not assent to a peace requiring from them a cession of territory, restricting their commerce or rights to fisheries, or compelling them to recognize the pretensions of Great Britain on the subject of impressment or of the other disputed maritime questions.

Although the powerful armament, particularly of land forces, sent by England to America on the eve of opening the negotiations for peace may create a suspicion that she will not make it but on inadmissible terms, it is yet hoped that the United States may be indebted for that blessing to the liberator and pacifier of Europe; but should even the efforts of his Imperial Majesty to obtain that object prove fruitless, America will ever preserve a feeling recollection of this and of the several other proofs which his Majesty has given her of his friendly regard.

[1 ]“Translation of an official note (in French) presented on the 19th June, 1814, to the Emperor of Russia by Albert Gallatin.” Note by Mr. Gallatin.