POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 45 



or city really suffered for food in conse- 

 quence of this act, but for many months 

 it was in the power of one man to say 

 whether the inhabitants of certain cities 

 should eat white bread or black, or in- 

 deed, whether they should eat any bread 

 at all. 1 



The " Salem Gazette " of Sept. 27, 1808, in 

 an article entitled "Permits, "says, "whether 

 Federal or Democrat, we do not know why 

 one man should be permitted to trade with 

 Passamaquoddy in flour and another re- 

 strained, or why either should be restrained. 

 We should like to know by what provision of 

 the Constitution the President can do these 

 things." The President, however, by this 



1 Memorial from the third ward of the City of New 

 York, Feb. 6, 1809. "The city of New York receives its 

 supplies of provisions and necessities from boats and 

 small craft. Under the Act the collector may refuse, and 

 the President may direct him to refuse, to give the permits 

 necessary for their vessels to move. We suppose New 

 York to be the only city in the world, where under a formal 

 law, the people may be starved at the will of one man." 

 American State Papers, vol. xiv, p. 745. 



