AN ORATION. PRONOUNCED AT PLYMPTON. FEBRUARY 23, 1809. ON THE PRESENT ALARMING SITUATION TO WHICH THE UNITED STATES ARE REDUCED

Dedham: Printed by H. Mann, February 1811.. 12pp. Printed self-wrappers, stitched as issued. Paper neatly splitting halfway up spine, a few light stains to titlepage. A few spots of light foxing, light tanning. Very good. Untrimmed. A pointed address given in 1809, inveighing against the economic distress inflicted by Jefferson's blanket Embargo Act of 1807 against all foreign exports. Deane asks: "Will you sleep in peace, while the shackles are manufactoring, and power preparing to slip them on? - Will you gratify a lawless band of plunderers - an invidious race of European Despots? No; Then unbar your ports - Stand your ground defend your principles, (truncated) and give universal freedom to commerce."

The passage of the Embargo Act grew out of the ongoing conflict between Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars, which had profound effects on American politics and foreign policy. In 1806, Congress passed a non-importation act, primarily to punish the British for their impressment policies, but it was relatively toothless and the British considered it nothing more than a bluff. Tensions were heightened even further in late June 1807 by the Chesapeake Affair. This was followed in late December 1807 by the Embargo Act, which placed an embargo on all American commerce with the outside world - American ships were forbidden to sail to foreign ports, and foreign vessels were not allowed to take on cargo in the United States. The Embargo was met with favor initially, but it quickly became highly controversial and even despised, especially in coastal regions where overseas trade contributed so much to the economy. The Massachusetts Legislature recalled Senator John Quincy Adams because he voted in favor of the Embargo, and Massachusetts Governor James Sullivan regularly signed bills allowing certain goods to be shipped into Massachusetts ports, in violation of the law. Enforcement of the Embargo, in fact, relied on the compliance of state governments, which could not be absolutely replied upon. Southern tobacco and cotton farmers also protested the measure.

Shortly after Deane's address on February 23, Congress repealed the embargo on March 1, 1809, and replaced it with the Non- Intercourse Act, which allowed trade with nations not in the Anglo-French orbit, and provided that if either Britain or France suspended their commercial restrictions, the president could end non-importation with that country.

This pamphlet is rare in the trade - this is the only copy that we find at auction and the first copy we have handled. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 22670. SABIN 19053. (Inventory #: WRCAM57590)