AN ANONYMOUS DIATRIBE AGAINST DANIEL WEBSTER, REGARDING THE EMBARGO ACT OF 1807

(EMBARGO ACT OF 1807). The Embargo Act of 1807 limited foreign trade with the United States. It was intended to stop France and England from repeatedly interfering with American maritime activity, pressing American sailors into British military service, and trying to embroil the United States in the Napoleonic Wars. The act was controversial and unsuccessful.

Manuscript. 1pg. N.d. [1808] N.p. A handwritten manuscript ridiculing Daniel Webster for his words against the Embargo Act of 1807 at the very beginning of his political career: “On the author of the federal pamphlet entitled ‘considerations on the Embargo laws’ He is one to whom Heaven has denied the gift of brains, and has suffered the Devil to fill the empty spaces in his skull with a share of glaring imprudence called wit, and will pass for such among those who have none, and for the worst of folly among the rest of Mankind. REPUBLICANS”. President Thomas Jefferson, who had encouraged Congress to pass the Embargo Act, was a Democrat-Republican, while Webster was a Federalist. This anonymous diatribe is in fine condition.