EMBARGO (Sp.. seizure). A law or execu tive decree directing the detention in port of vessels, whether foreign or national. It may be for the purpose of using them for naval opera tion, or in the event of some projected expedition to insure secrecy, or with a view to temporary non-intercourse with some foreign nation, or by way of reprisal. A hostile embargo by one na tion prohibits the departure from its ports of vessels belonging to another with which it is at variance, for the purpose of securing a favorable settlement of the dispute, and in case of war of having an opportunity to make reprisals. While such a prohibition is held to be an established usage, the practice is generally disapproved. A civil embargo aims at non-intercourse, and is laid pursuant to plans of public policy, or for the protection of the merchant vessels of a neu tral nation against the rules of belligerents. Con sult the authorities referred to under INTERNA TIONAL LAW; POLITICAL ECONOMY.
The first embargo in the history of the United States was laid on 31arch 2fi, 1794. in retalia tion for the British orders in council dated June 8, 1793, and November (1, 1793 (see ORDERS IN CouNcir..), and remained in effect for sixty days. Subsequently during the wars be tween France and Great Britain, successive French decrees and British orders in council drove the United States first to the passage of a non-importation act (April. 1806), and finally to the laying of another and stricter embargo December 22, 1807. This latter measure was in tended completely to prevent Ameriean vessels from engaging in foreign commerce. and natural ly met with much opposition in the New Eng land States, where the commercial element of the country was almost wholly concentrated and where, besides, a large majority of the influential classes was affiliated with the Federalist Party and was thus predisposed to attack the mea sures of the Republicans. then in power. Though there was undoubtedly much smuggling on the part of New England merchants and ship owners, and though such infractions of the law were pretty generally winked at by local Federal officials, most of whom were men of New Eng land birth or affiliations, commerce suffered enormously and the exports of the country fell from 8110,084.207 in 1S07 to $22.4:30,960 in
1808. The opposition, indeed, became so pro nounced that in many quarters nullification was openly proclaimed and stanch Federalists un hesitatingly gave their approval to doctrines closely allied to those embodied in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions (q.v.) of .Madison and Jefferson. By some, indeed, secession was openly threatened. As a measure for bringing Great Britain and France to terms, moreover, the embargo proved utterly futile, neither power being injured to anything like the same extent as the United States, and in • February, 1809, Congress. alarmed at new manifestations of popu lar discontent in New England, passed a reso lution providing for the termination of the em bargo on \larch 4. Non-intercourse measures were then put into force, and were the chief feature of the foreign policy of the Government until the outbreak of the War of 1812. After the beginning of hostilities it soon became evi dent that the British Government would en deavor, by refraining from blockading the New England coast, to procure fresh provisions from the New England States, and Congress again laid an embargo, December 17, 1813, to remain in force until .January 1, 1815. On April 14, 1814, however, this embargo also was repealed. It is now pretty generally believed by historians and economists that the laying of the embargo was in most respects a great •litical and economic mistake, and it is certain that in spite of widespread smuggling, American shipping sustained between 1807 and 1815 almost irre parable damage. Consult: Adams. ifistony of the United Statca front 1801 to 1817, vol. iv. (Ne• York. 1539-9I); //i.story of the People of the 1 rnited States, vol. iii. (New York, 1883 ) ; Randall, Life of Jefferson, vol. iii. (New Vork, 1858) ; Seliooler, History of the Tuff. 1 Stub a, vol. ii. ( New Vuurk. rev. ed., 1899).