1808 Thomas Jefferson - Failed Embargo Acts

Thomas Jefferson signed the Embargo act of 1807 which made illegal all exports form the United States to any foreign nation. The goal was to force Britain and France to respect American neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars. By spring of 1808, New England ports were nearly shut down and the regional economy was heading into a depression. For financial gain, the embargo laws were openly flouted as trade with along the Canadian border continued. So in March of 1808, Congress passed another embargo act forbidding trade by land or inland waterway between the United States, Canada and Florida (Florida was part of Spain at the time). Jefferson even called on the governors of Vermont and New York to call up their militia to suppress the illicit traffic. This led to the "Enforcement Act" of 1808 which allowed ports to seize cargoes with out a warrant and bring to trial any merchant who even contemplating the violation of the embargo. To enforce these acts, Jefferson resorted to regular army and navy forces to assist customs service.

In the end, the embargo was disastrous for the commercial and navigation interests of New England and the middle states. And the South, suffered significantly as it lost a big market for their tobacco, cotton and other products. Moreover, it did not have the intended consequences that Jefferson had hoped for. America did not gain the respect of Great Britain or France as he had hoped. Great Britain built up a new South American market for its exports, and the British ship owners were pleased that American competition had been removed.

In November of 1808, Thomas Jefferson admitted to congress in his annual address that the great Embargo act had failed to achieve it's goals of forcing Britain and France to respect American neutrality and open up trade with her, but he was not yet ready to repeal it.

"This candid and liberal experiment having thus failed, and no other event having occurred on which a suspension of the embargo by the Executive was authorized, it necessarily remains in the extent originally given to it. We have the satisfaction, however, to reflect that in return for the privations imposed by the measure, and which our fellow citizens in general have borne with patriotism, it has had the important effects of saving our mariners and our vast mercantile property, as well as of affording time for prosecuting the defensive and provisional measures called for by the occasion. It has demonstrated to foreign nations the moderation and firmness which govern our councils, and to our citizens the necessity of uniting in support of the laws and the rights of their country, and has thus long frustrated those usurpations and spoliations which, if resisted, involved war; if submitted to, sacrificed a vital principle of our national independence."

Yet, just a few months later in March of 1809, President Thomas Jefferson repealed the Embargo Act just prior to leaving office.

An interesting thing to note is that given the use of the army to help enforce the embargo act, it is surprising that Thomas Jefferson added these words in his address. "For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security."

 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29450
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embargo_Act_of_1807
http://mises.org/library/jeffersons-disastrous-embargo 
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/The_happy_effects_of_that_grand_systom_of_shutting_ports_against_the_English%21%21.jpg