JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _July 20, 1813_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
There being sufficient ground to infer that it is the purpose of the
enemy to combine with the blockade of our ports special licenses to
neutral vessels or to British vessels in neutral disguises, whereby
they may draw from our country the precise kind and quantity of
exports essential to their wants, whilst its general commerce remains
obstructed, keeping in view also the insidious discrimination between
the different ports of the United States; and as such a system, if not
counteracted, will have the effect of diminishing very materially the
pressure of the war on the enemy, and encouraging a perseverance in it,
at the same time that it will leave the general commerce of the United
States under all the pressure the enemy can impose, thus subjecting
the whole to British regulation in subserviency to British monopoly,
I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of an
immediate and effectual prohibition of exports limited to a convenient
day in their next session, and removable in the meantime in the event
of a cessation of the blockade of our ports.
JAMES MADISON.
PROCLAMATION.
[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 4, p. 345.]
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the
two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be
observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as
a day of public humiliation and prayer; and
Whereas in times of public calamity such as that of the war brought on
the United States by the injustice of a foreign government it is
especially becoming that the hearts of all should be touched with the
same and the eyes of all be turned to that Almighty Power in whose hand
are the welfare and the destiny of nations:
I do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to all who shall
be piously disposed to unite their hearts and voices in addressing at
one and the same time their vows and adorations to the Great Parent and
Sovereign of the Universe that they assemble on the second Thursday of
September next in their respective religious congregations to render Him
thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed on the people of the
United States; that He has blessed them with a land capable of yielding
all the necessaries and requisites of human life, with ample means for
convenient exchanges with foreign countries; that He has blessed the
labors employed in its cultivation and improvement; that He is now
blessing the exertions to extend and establish the arts and manufactures
which will secure within ourselves supplies too important to remain
dependent on the precarious policy or the peaceable dispositions of
other nations, and particularly that He has blessed the United States
with a political Constitution founded on the will and authority of the
whole people and guaranteeing to each individual security, not only of
his person and his property, but of those sacred rights of conscience so
essential to his present happiness and so dear to his future hopes; that
with those expressions of devout thankfulness be joined supplications to
the same Almighty Power that He would look down with compassion on our
infirmities; that He would pardon our manifold transgressions and
awaken and strengthen in all the wholesome purposes of repentance and
amendment; that in this season of trial and calamity He would preside in
a particular manner over our public councils and inspire all citizens
with a love of their country and with those fraternal affections and
that mutual confidence which have so happy a tendency to make us safe
at home and respected abroad; and that as He was graciously pleased
heretofore to smile on our struggles against the attempts of the
Government of the Empire of which these States then made a part to wrest
from them the rights and privileges to which they were entitled in
common with every other part and to raise them to the station of an
independent and sovereign people, so He would now be pleased in like
manner to bestow His blessing on our arms in resisting the hostile and
persevering efforts of the same power to degrade us on the ocean, the
common inheritance of all, from rights and immunities belonging and
essential to the American people as a coequal member of the great
community of independent nations; and that, inspiring our enemies
with moderation, with justice, and with that spirit of reasonable
accommodation which our country has continued to manifest, we may be
enabled to beat our swords into plowshares and to enjoy in peace every
man the fruits of his honest industry and the rewards of his lawful
enterprise.
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