Excerpt from Three Speeches of Mr. Holmes, in the Senate of Massachusetts, 1814 Ihave said, and I repeat it, that the priority of the French Decrees could be no excuse for these Orders, if such had been the fact. What, sir, retaliate upon an innocent neutral the aggressions which your enemy has committed upon that neutral The priori ty of aggression makes no difference: Each nation must account with us, for the injury it has done us I have wondered the govern' ment of the United States, have ever condescended to discuss the question of'the priority of these edicts though it is beyond question, that the blockade of the 16th of May, 1806, was far more injurious to American commerce, than the Berlin Decree of the 215t Nov. Following. This extraordinary blockade, obstructed the commerce of nearly one thousand miles of sea coast, including many impor tant commercial cities, and the mouths of several large and naviga ble rivers. But the advocates of Britain say that she had a right to do all this. She had force enough to invest this whole extent. Therefore, it waslegally blockaded, whether the force was appliedor not. So I suppose, gentlemen would contend that some other coast, equally extensive, was actually blockaded, because it might be: and in this way, Britain might blockade every port in the world at the same time. But the strongest advocates for retaliation, have not pretended that it could bejustified until after notice of the first aggression, and neglect or refusal to repel it. Upon what principle, then was the Order of Council of 8th January, 1807, imposed This was but forty-seven days after the Berlin Decree, and before we could have had notice of it and yet Great Britain had a right, say they, to retaliate on us for an act which we could not prevent, and of which we did not know It is in vain to pre tend, that this Order was not a retaliation of the Berlin Decree, be cause left rigorous in terms. It was contrary to the known law of nations, and Britain had the power to enforce it; but France had no power to enforce her Decree, and it could be considered but an empty threat. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.