It is true he was disavowed,
but the disavowal was accompanied by no objections to the law as a
threat. Should the objection be to the nature of the remedy proposed,
and that the recommendation of reprisals is the offensive part, it would
be easy to show that it stands on the same ground with any other remedy;
that it is not hostile in its nature; that it has been resorted to by
France to procure redress from other powers, and by them against her,
without producing war. But such an argument is not necessary. This is
not the case of a national measure, either of menace or action; it is a
recommendation only of one branch of Government to another, and France
has itself shown that a proposal of this nature could not be noticed as
an offense. In the year 1808 the Senate of the United States annexed to
the bill of nonintercourse a section which not only advised but actually
authorized the President to issue letters of marque and reprisal against
both France and England, if the one did not repeal the Berlin and Milan
decrees and the other did not revoke the orders in council. This clause
was not acceded to by the Representatives, but it was complete as the
act of the Senate; yet neither France nor England complained of it as
an indignity.
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