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December 22, 1807, EMBARGO ACT of 1807 BROADSIDE Announcement and Complete Text

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,500.00 USD Estimated At:2,800.00 - 3,400.00 USD
December 22, 1807, EMBARGO ACT of 1807 BROADSIDE Announcement and Complete Text
Federal Period
“Embargo Act” of 1807 American Broadside Announcement With Complete Printed Text & Bold Header... for Baltimore
December 22, 1807-Dated Effective Date, Printed Broadside Announcement titled, “An ACT laying an Embargo on all ships & vessels in the Ports & Harbours of the United States. - WASHIFGTON (sic), Dec. 22, 1807...”. Complete Text of the Embargo Act of 1807, with House and Senate Vote totals as Passed by the 10th United States Congress. This Broadside sent to Baltimore, received immediately the very next day after its Passage, hand-dated on December 23rd, 1807, Framed, Very Fine.
Extremely rare Printed Broadside, fully headed; “American Extra.” - An ACT laying an Embargo on all ships & vessels in the Ports & Harbours of the United States.” With “ERROR” Typo introduction: “WASHIFGTON (sic), Dec. 22, 1807. - Congress, this day, passed the following act. Having received the sanction of the President so late as two P. M. we can only further add that it passed in consequence of a Message from the president; in the Senate. yeas 22 ; nays, 6 : and in the House of Representatives, yeas 82 ; nays, 44.”

The full printed official text of the Embargo Act as signed by President Thomas Jefferson follows below the headlines of bold text and begins: “BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That an embargo be and hereby is laid on all ships and vessels in the ports and places within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States...”

At President Thomas Jefferson’s request the two houses of Congress considered and passed the “Embargo Act” quickly on December 22nd, 1807. This extremely rare printed Broadside measures about 6.5” x 8.5” (by sight), impressively framed in period deep inset wooden style with gold surround under glass to fully 12” x 14” (not examined out of frame). This rare Broadside announcement with full printed text of the Embargo Act of 1807 was a general trade embargo on all foreign nations. It came about in the climate of the Napoleonic Wars and the escalation of attempts to convince the British to cease their Impressment of American sailors.

All U.S. Ports were closed to export shipping in either U.S. or foreign vessels, and restrictions were placed on imports from Great Britain. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British would seize as contraband of war and impress into service any American merchant sailors who were captured and deemed to be trading with "Enemy Nations." Going unresolved, this conflict was one of the central causes of the future War of 1812 with Great Briton.

Remarkably, a deep brown ink Ink inscription at the top right edge reads, “Baltimore” and at its lower right blank outer margin is noted, "recd 23d Dec 1807". Trivial ink notations in the upper right blank margin, minor humidity tone at bottom left corner affects no text, the laid period paper Broadside is set on a tan linen and seen through special UV Plexiglas, being handsomely framed and ready for display. (Not viewed out of its frame.) An extremely rare format, with its rushed Error Typo Introductory word: “WASHIFGTON” and the first we have offered and have located no other.

Embargo Act of 1807: During the Napoleonic Wars both England and France attempted to limit their opponent's trade with neutral countries (such as the United States) by preying upon their shipping. U.S. President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison, in order to protect U.S. rights to trade, and to avoid being drawn into the European conflict, embargoed trade with all nations in December 1807. It was hoped that limiting foreign trade would force England and France to change their policies, but the strategy did not work as neither European country changed its policy, and the United States itself suffered a sharp economic decline. The Embargo Act was repealed in 1809 and replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act, which limited trade only with England and France. This policy, too, was ended in 1810, with various provisions that ultimately led to the War of 1812 with England.
Embargo Act, (1807), U.S. President Thomas Jefferson’s nonviolent resistance to British and French molestation of U.S. merchant ships carrying, or suspected of carrying, war materials and other cargoes to European belligerents during the Napoleonic Wars.

By 1807 the struggle between England and France had degenerated into a war of economic retribution, as each side attempted to starve the other into submission. Adm. Horatio Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 had given Britain mastery of the seas, but Napoleon still controlled much of continental Europe. Lacking a fleet that could directly threaten Britain, Napoleon implemented the Continental System, a pair of decrees (November 21, 1806, and December 17, 1807) that prohibited British trade with the Continent and threatened seizure of any neutral vessels found trading with England. The British responded by issuing orders in council (November 11, 18, and 25 and December 18, 1807) that imposed a blockade on Napoleonic Europe. In the midst of that economic vise was the neutral United States. With no significant navy, Napoleon was forced to confine his efforts to U.S. vessels in French ports. Thus, the attention of the United States was directed primarily at British actions on the high seas that violated international law.

Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison determined to enforce a recognition of American rights by commercial retaliation, a concept rooted in American foreign policy since the Nonimportation Agreements that preceded the American Revolution. A nonimportation act adopted by Congress in 1806 excluded from the U.S. a limited variety of British manufactured goods, but the operation of the act was delayed for a year pending negotiations for a settlement. In June 1807 Anglo-American relations deteriorated further when the British frigate Leopard fired upon the U.S. warship Chesapeake and forced it to submit to a search for British deserters. Impressment, a practice previously confined to American merchant vessels, was thus extended to a public armed vessel of the United States. Amid a general clamour for war, Jefferson opted for an economic response.

At Jefferson’s request the two houses of Congress considered and passed the Embargo Act quickly in December 1807. All U.S. ports were closed to export shipping in either U.S. or foreign vessels, and restrictions were placed on imports from Great Britain. The act was a hardship on U.S. farmers as well as on New England and New York mercantile and maritime interests, especially after being buttressed by harsh enforcement measures adopted in 1808. Its effects in Europe were not what Jefferson had hoped.

French and British dealers in U.S. cotton, for example, were able to raise prices at will while the stock already on hand lasted; the embargo would have had to endure until these inventories were exhausted. Napoleon is said to have justified seizure of U.S. merchant ships on the grounds that he was assisting Jefferson in enforcing the act. The Federalist leader Timothy Pickering even alleged that Napoleon himself had inspired the embargo.

Confronted by bitter and articulate opposition, Jefferson on March 1, 1809 (two days before the end of his second term), signed the Non-Intercourse Act, permitting U.S. trade with countries other than France and Great Britain. U.S. trade restrictions were rolled back entirely by Macon’s Bill No. 2 (1810), which authorized the president, upon normalization of commercial relations with either England or France, to reinstate nonintercourse against the other. Seizing the opportunity, Napoleon announced that his decrees were repealed, insofar as they affected the United States.

After waiting several months for a similar response from England, Madison—who had succeeded Jefferson as president—prohibited trade with Great Britain in February 1811. That action helped set the stage for the War of 1812.