[190] many, who, by a long course of persevering industry, supposed they had reached the desired point of independence, find their property so fallen in value, that it must be wholly sacrificed for the payment of their debts. Their endeavors to extricate themselves avail them nothing; and they can only weep over the ruin that overwhelms them and reduces their families to beggary. Our distress is rendered the more severe and intolerable by a conviction that the neighboring British Provinces, by the very measures that embarrass us, are acquiring a consequence which their natural advantages could never lave given them.We apprehend that the benefits expected by your Excellency and Congress from the Embargo have been but partially experienced. It is a notorious fact that great numbers of our native seamen, disheartened by their situation, have resorted to the British Provinces to obtain the means of subsistence, and entered voluntarily into the service of that very nation from which the hand of government has been extended to protect them. Our hope and expectation now rests in the laws authorizing your excellency, in the event of important changes in the measures of the belligerent powers affecting neutral commerce, during the recess of Congress, to suspend, in whole or in part, the acts laying an embargo. the existing Revolution in Spain is a change indeed important to the world, and cannot fail to awaken the sympathy of every friend of mankind. the trade of Spain and Portugal and their colonies is now open and offers a golden harvest to the first nation who shall show themselves wise enough to gather it. We therefore request your Excellency to suspend the operation of the embargo laws, so far at least as they relate to Spain and Portugal and their dependencies; or, should your Excellency doubt that you have such power, that you will call Congress together for that purpose.
This address, says the record, was adopted “almost unanimously” ; and the selectmen were directed to forward it to the President. Very soon a reply was received,—apparently an autograph of the President,—which is still preserved in the office of the city clerk:—
To the inhabitants of the town of Cambridge, in legal town-meeting assembled. Your representation and request were received on the 8th inst., and have been considered with the attention due to every expression of the sentiments and feelings of so respectable a body of my fellow-citizens.1 No person has
