President Thomas Jefferson, Message to Congress on the Embargo, December 17, 1807, Annals of Congress, Senate, 10th Congress, 1st session, 49–50, A Century of Lawmaking, Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llac&fileName=017/llac017.db&recNum=22;
“Proclamation on the Embargo, 19 April 1808,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-7861.
Message to Congress on the Embargo, December 18, 1807
The following message was received from the president of the United States:
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
The communications now made, showing the great and increasing dangers with which our vessels, our seamen and merchandise are threatened, on the high seas and elsewhere, from the belligerent powers of Europe, and it being of the greatest importance to keep in safety these essential resources, I deem it my duty to recommend the subject [embargo] to the consideration of Congress, who will doubtless perceive all the advantage which may be expected from an inhibition of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States.
Their wisdom will also see the necessity of making every preparation for whatever events may grow out of the present crisis….
Proclamation on the Embargo, April 19, 1808
Whereas information has been received that sundry persons are combined or combining & confederating together on Lake Champlain & the country thereto adjacent for the purposes of forming insurrections against the authority of the laws of the U.S. for opposing the same & obstructing their execution, and that such combinations are too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by the laws of the U.S.
Now therefore to the end that the authority of the laws may be maintained, & that those concerned directly or indirectly in any insurrection or combination against the same may be duly warned, I have issued this my proclamation, hereby commanding such insurgents and all concerned in such combinations, instantly & without delay to disperse & retire peaceably to their respective abodes: and I do hereby further require & command all officers having authority civil or military, and all other persons civil or military who shall be found within the vicinage [vicinity] of such insurrections or combinations, to be aiding and assisting by all the means in their power by force of arms or otherwise to quell & subdue such insurrections or combinations, to seize upon all those therein concerned who shall not instantly and without delay disperse & retire to their respective abodes, and to deliver them over to the civil authority of the place to be proceeded against according to law….
