STATE PAPERS. 



669 



envoy deputed for the professed ob- 

 ject of making to our government 

 a full, satisfactory, and public repa- 

 ration, on the simple condition of a 

 previous revocation of this procla- 

 mation ; your committee are con- 

 strained to declare their opinion, 

 that such a revocation, under such 

 circumstances, would not have in- 

 volved any dishonourable conces- 

 sion, or an abandonment of any just 

 right of pretensions, but would have 

 been a fair, reasonable, and magna- 

 nimous pledge of the sincerity of 

 the wishes of the American govern- 

 ment to restore the accustomed re- 

 lations of peace and amity between 

 the two countries. This course must 

 have compelled the British envoy 

 to have offered that ample and ho- 

 nourable reparation, which would 

 have been deemed by our nation 

 and by the world, an adequate 

 atonement for the outrage; or have 

 justified, in the event of its refusal, 

 not only the renewal of the procla- 

 mation, but the adoption of mea- 

 sures of the most rigorous and hos- 

 tile description. 



But even on the precise presump- 

 tion that the course adopted by the 

 government, in refusing to revoke 

 the proclamation as a preliminary 

 to the adjustment of that contro- 

 versy, be sanctioned by the usages 

 of nations, and the justice of our 

 claims, your committee are still of 

 opinion, that a punctilious adher- 

 ence to diplomatic forms and prece- 

 dents should not be maintained at 

 the risk of war, b}' a nation whose 

 genius and policy are pacific ; and 

 which, while justly jealous of its na- 

 tional honour and independence, 

 looks principally to the substantial 

 securit}' of those blessings, and re- 

 gards as insif'nificant those petty 

 contentit)ns which originating in 



courtly pride and vanity, frequently 

 terminate in bloody wars ; and they, 

 therefore, think that this proclama- 

 tion ought not, in the present situa- 

 tion of Europe and this country, to 

 remain as the only, or even as the 

 principal barrier to the restoration 

 of our amicable relations with the 

 British nation. 



Your committee therefore ask 

 leave to report the following reso- 

 lutions : 



Resolved, that the senators of 

 this commonwealth in congress, be 

 instructed, and the representatives 

 thereof requested, to use their stre- 

 nuous exertions to procure an im- 

 mediate repeal of the various laws 

 imposing an embargo on the ships 

 and vessels of the United States, as 

 the only equal and effectual means 

 of affording permanent relief to 

 the citizens of this commonwealth 

 from the aggravated evils which 

 they now experience. 



Resolved, that although thislegis- 

 lature would cheerfully support the 

 general government'in the prosecu- 

 tion of a just and necessary war, 

 yet they cannot perceive the neces- 

 sity intimated in the message of the 

 president to congress, of continuing 

 the embargo, or resorting to war. 

 That it isnot the policy of the United 

 States to engage in a controversy 

 with any nation, upon points of di- 

 plomatic usage, or equivocal right, 

 provided substantial reparation for 

 injuries can be obtained; and that 

 the revocation of the proclamation 

 interdicting the British ships of war 

 from our waters ought not, in the 

 opinion of this legislature, to be 

 deemed an inadmissible prelimi- 

 nary, which should obstruct the 

 adjustment of the controversy be- 

 tween the United States &nd Great 



Britain. 



Lnpenal 



