Embargo Act of 1807

Embargo Act of 1807

Long title	An Act laying an Embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States.
Enacted by	the 10th United States Congress
Effective	December 23, 1807
Citations
Public law	Pub. L. 10–5
Statutes at Large	2 Stat. 451, Chap. 5
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate by Samuel Smith (DR-MD) on December 18, 1807 Passed the Senate on December 18, 1807 (22–6) Passed the House on December 21, 1807 (82–44) with amendment Senate agreed to House amendment on December 22, 1807 (unknown votes) Signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson on December 22, 1807
Major amendments
Repealed by Non-Intercourse Act § 19

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The Embargo Act of 1807 was a general trade embargo on all foreign nations that was enacted by the United States Congress. As a successor or replacement law for the 1806 Non-importation Act and passed as the Napoleonic Wars continued, it represented an escalation of attempts to persuade Britain to stop any impressment of American sailors and to respect American sovereignty and neutrality but also attempted to pressure France and other nations in the pursuit of general diplomatic and economic leverage.

In the first decade of the 19th century, American shipping grew. During the Napoleonic Wars, rival nations Britain and France targeted neutral American shipping as a means of disrupting the trade of the other nation. American merchantmen who were trading with "enemy nations" were seized as contraband of war by European navies. The British Royal Navy had impressed American sailors who had either been British-born or previously served on British ships, even if they now claimed to be American citizens with American papers. Incidents such as the Chesapeake–Leopard affair outraged Americans.

Congress imposed the embargo in direct response to these events. President Thomas Jefferson acted with restraint, weighed public support for retaliation, and recognized that the United States was militarily far weaker than either Britain or France. He recommended that Congress respond with commercial warfare, a policy that appealed to Jefferson both for being experimental and for foreseeably harming his domestic political opponents more than his allies, whatever its effect on the European belligerents. The 10th Congress was controlled by his allies and agreed to the Act, which was signed into law on December 22, 1807.

In terms of diplomacy, the Embargo failed to improve the American diplomatic position, and sharply increased international political tensions. Both widespread evasion of the embargo and loopholes in the legislation reduced its impact on its targets. British commercial shipping, which already dominated global trade, was successfully adapting to Napoleon's Continental System by pursuing new markets, particularly in the restive Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South America. Thus, British merchants were well-positioned to grow at American expense when the embargo sharply reduced American trade activity.

The Act's prohibition on imports stimulated the growth of nascent US domestic industries across the board, particularly the textile industry, and marked the beginning of the manufacturing system in the United States, reducing the nation's dependence upon imported manufactured goods.^[1]

Americans opposed to the Act launched bitter protests, particularly in New England commercial centers. Support for the declining Federalist Party, which intensely opposed Jefferson, temporarily rebounded and drove electoral gains in 1808 (Senate and House). In the waning days of Jefferson's presidency, the Non-Intercourse Act lifted all embargoes on American shipping except for cargos bound for British or French ports. Enacted on March 1, 1809, it exacerbated tensions with Britain and eventually led to the War of 1812.