Embargo

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The most comprehensive and controversial economic sanction ever adopted by the United States was the Embargo. Also known as the Long Embargo, this measure was in force from December 22, 1807, to March 1, 1809. Essentially a non-exportation law, the Embargo prohibited American ships and goods from leaving port. It was designed to force Great Britain and France to show greater respect for American rights during the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) by depriving them of American trade. Its purpose was also to protect American ships and seamen by keeping them in port. The Embargo failed as a coercive measure, and whatever protection American ships and seamen derived from their forced inactivity was more than offset by the adverse impact that the measure had on American trade and prosperity.

The Embargo was the most ambitious of a series of economic sanctions, collectively known as the restrictive system, adopted prior to the War of 1812. The American colonies had employed non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption in the 1760s and 1770s to force the British to modify their tax and trade policies. Although these measures probably did not play a decisive role in securing a change in policy, American leaders like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison interpreted history otherwise. Convinced that the U.S. held the key to the prosperity of Great Britain and France as well as their West Indian colonies, Republican leaders were determined to protect American rights in the Napoleonic Wars by using the nation's trade as an instrument of foreign policy.

The Embargo was preceded by a partial non-importation law against Great Britain that was enacted in 1806 but was suspended repeatedly until early December 1807. Shortly thereafter, President Jefferson recommended an embargo, and the Republican-controlled Congress complied. This law was followed by four increasingly draconian enforcement acts designed to close loopholes and suppress smuggling.

The Embargo had a disastrous effect on the U.S. economy. Ships were idled in port, and neither merchants nor farmers could get their produce or goods to foreign markets. Domestic exports, which had soared from less than $20 million in 1790 to almost $49 million in 1807, plummeted to $9 million in 1808. Because the nation's economy was so closely tied to the sea, virtually everyone in the U.S. felt the chilling effects of the Embargo. Government revenue, which was derived almost entirely from

taxes on shipping and trade, suffered as well. After increasing from $2 million in 1790 to $17 million in 1808, government income fell to less than $8 million in 1809.

The Embargo also raised serious constitutional issues. There was extensive smuggling, not only on the Atlantic seaboard but also across the Canadian border, where smugglers often clashed with government officials. Although it is unlikely that the suppression of this trade would have rendered the Embargo any more successful, Republicans leaders were willing to push the limits of the Constitution to give the measure every chance.

The administration asked Congress for increasingly broad powers. When Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin told Jefferson that the Embargo could be enforced only if government officials were given powers that were "arbitrary" and "equally dangerous and odious" (Gallatin, July 29, 1808) the president was undeterred. "Congress," Jefferson replied, "must legalize all means which may be necessary to obtain its end " (Jefferson, August 11, 1808). The climax came in 1809 with the fourth and final enforcement act, which gave customs officials sweeping powers and authorized the use of the army and navy to suppress smuggling.

The last enforcement act probably violated the Fourth Amendment guarantee governing search and seizure. In addition, President Jefferson repeatedly exceeded his constitutional authority. He routinely used the army and navy to enforce the law; he claimed that areas where defiance was widespread were in a state of insurrection; he insisted that some smugglers be tried for treason to set an example; and he ordered government officials to ignore a court order that he disagreed with. Enforcing the Embargo showed Jefferson at his worst, determined to go to almost any lengths to bend reality to uphold a flawed ideal that was probably unattainable.

The Embargo also fueled a revival of the Federalist party, which had been in decline ever since the election of 1800 and seemed headed for extinction. Buoyed by rising discontent over the Embargo, the Federalists made significant election gains, especially in New England, where the destruction of shipping and trade caused widespread suffering and extensive economic losses.

In spite of the huge price paid by Americans, the Embargo did not have a significant impact on England or France. Although American commodities became more dear abroad, the effects everywhere were less devastating than U.S. leaders had anticipated. The European belligerents found alternative sources for food and raw materials as well as new markets for their exports. Instead of making concessions to secure an end to the Embargo, Britain welcomed the withdrawal of a commercial rival from the high seas and France used the measure as a pretext for confiscating additional American maritime property.

In March of 1809, after fifteen months of national suffering and on the eve of Jefferson's retirement from office, the Embargo was repealed. Although the Embargo was an obvious failure, most Republicans retained their faith in the restrictive system. The Embargo was succeeded by a non-intercourse act in 1809 and a non-importation act in 1811, but these measures proved no more effective.

Even though the Embargo and its successors were defended as a peaceful alternative to war, Republicans steadily expanded the restrictive system during the War of 1812. The climax came in late 1813, when a second embargo was adopted, one that included all the enforcement machinery of the Long Embargo. This measure was repealed in 1814, when news arrived that Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig had opened all of northern Europe to British trade. At last thoroughly discredited, economic sanctions were not revived as an instrument of foreign policy until the twentieth century, and never again would the nation adopt any restriction that was as comprehensive as the Embargo.

Hartford Convention; Jefferson, Thomas; Madison, James; Monroe, James; Pirates and the Barbary War; Quasi-War and the Rise of Party Politics.

Adams, Henry. History of the United States of America during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison, (1889–1891), abridged and edited (one volume) by Ernest Samuels. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967.

Gallatin, Albert. "Letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 29, 1808." Jefferson Papers. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. Microfilm.

Heaton, Herbert. "Non-Importation, 1806–1812." Journal of Economic History 1 (1941): 178–98.

Jefferson, Thomas. "Letter to Albert Gallatin, August 11, 1808." Jefferson Papers. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. Microfilm.

Jennings, Walter W. The American Embargo, 1807–1809. Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1921.

Levy, Leonard W. Jefferson and Civil Liberties: The Darker Side. 2d edition. New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co., 1973.

Sears, Louis Martin. Jefferson and the Embargo. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1927.

Spivak, Burton. Jefferson's English Crisis: Commerce, Embargo, and the Republican Revolution. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1979.

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