To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: Selected Writings of Gouverneur Morris

31 • The British Treaty (1807/1808)

423 The British Treaty (n.p., n.d. [probably Philadelphia, 1807]). American Antiquarian Society Early American Imprints, series II (Shaw-Shoemaker), no. 12217. From the copy in the pamphlet collection, L. A. Beeghly Library, Juniata College which, however , attributes the pamphlet to Rufus King. (This copy is the only one I have learned of that attributes the pamphlet to King.) The title page of the British edition of 1808 reads: “The British Treaty, by Governeur [sic] Morris, Esq. of New York, Ambassador to the French Republic During the Reign of Robespierre. With an appendix of state papers; which are now first published. And, by William Cobbett, esq., a refutation of the present political sentiments of himself. London: Printed for John Joseph Stockdale, 41, Pall-Mall, 1808.” I thank the Boston Athenaeum for the opportunity to examine its copy of this edition. 31 • The British Treaty (1807/1808) As the Answer to War in Disguise shows, American arguments for the rights of neutral shipping under international law fell increasingly on deaf ears as the British tried to inflict economic damage on France. In fall 1806, Napoleon retaliated with the Berlin Decree, forbidding all commerce with Britain, whether in French, allied, or neutral ships. Caught between the interests of American trade and their sympathies for France, the Jeffersonians tried to use trade first as a bargaining tool with both sides, and then as a weapon, beginning with the Non-Importation Act of 1806. The treaty under discussion here was negotiated in late 1806 by James Monroe and William Pinckney, and signed December 31, 1806. It was intended to replace the Jay Treaty of 1795; but Monroe also had specific instructions from Jefferson to resolve the issue of impressment of American sailors by the British navy. The British, however, refused to yield on impressment . When he received the treaty in March 1807, Jefferson refused to submit it to the Senate for ratification. The authorship of the pamphlet is uncertain. The first edition was published in 1807, probably in Philadelphia. Many bibliographies attribute it to Charles Brockden Brown, although Brown scholars have questioned 424 chaPtEr 31 1. David Lee Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1952), 261: “the British Treaty . . . was almost certainly not Brown’s.” Clark adds that a copy of the pamphlet probably owned by Oliver Wolcott lists Morris as the author. I would like to thank Philip Barnard of the Charles Brockden Brown Electronic Archive and Scholarly Edition for his help with this issue. the attribution.1 The British edition of 1808, however, lists Morris as the author, and although the evidence is ambiguous, there is good reason to believe it is his. In general, the views expressed in the pamphlet are consistent with those Morris expressed both publicly and privately regarding the policies of the Jefferson administration. We know from other sources that Morris did not think highly of James Madison, and that while he got on well with Jefferson personally, he regarded him more highly as a scholar than as a statesman. Thus the comments on their characters, which claim to be based on personal knowledge, are consistent with both Morris’s opinions and his opportunities for firsthand observation. Other internal evidence of his authorship includes using “Maddison” and “Munro” for Madison and Monroe, both of which are habitual with Morris. The pamphlet also quotes from the letter Morris drafted for the Constitutional Convention, transmitting the finished document to Congress , and the account of the debate in the convention over whether to permit export taxes reflects the position he took at the time of the convention . Against these pieces of evidence, the passage dissecting Madison’s and Jefferson’s morals is unusually personal for Morris. He normally does not come so close to discussing the private morality of public figures. Thus while it is likely the pamphlet is by Morris, there remains room for doubt. The British Treaty 425 •• TO THOSE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO HAVE THE SENSE TO PERCEIVE AND THE SPIRIT TO PURSUE THE TRUE INTERESTS OF THEIR COUNTRY, THIS PAMPHLET IS DEDICATED PrEFacE. The matter of the following sheets was long since prepared, but the publication was suspended from unwillingness to interfere in the measures of government; and from the apprehension that such interference, instead of doing good, might produce evil. A majority of our countrymen seems determined to approve whatever our rulers do; and even...