Use "impressment" in a sentence

1. ) American anger over impressment became one of the causes of the War of 1812

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2. Time has been when the impressment of our seamen was cried out against by a large majority of Congress

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3. Howard presented a petition of sundry inhabitants of the State of Kentucky, stating that the King of Great Britain having, by his proclamation of the sixteenth of October, one thousand eight hundred and seven, claimed the allegiance of all persons who may have been born in his dominions, and were not inhabitants of the United States of America at the period of their Revolution, and disregarding the laws of naturalization in other countries, hath authorized the impressment into his service of his pretended subjects, and treated as traitors such as may have taken up arms against him in the service of their adopted country; the petitioners being, at the present time, precluded from the privilege of following commercial pursuits on the high seas in safety, therefore pray that such measures be adopted by Congress as may effectually resist the unjust assumption of power claimed and exercised by a foreign nation; and pledging themselves to support with their lives and fortunes whatever steps may be taken, or acts passed, by the General Government, for the welfare of the Union

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4. Monroe is charged with the suppression of impressment as his primary object; 2d, the definition of blockade; 3d, the reduction of the list of contraband; 4th, the enlargement of our trade with hostile colonies

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5. Monroe's mission—the impressment of seamen—and it would seem, that when our Minister pressed one great subject of complaint, some greater outrage was committed to draw our attention from the former injury

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6. Upon the impressment of seamen, the subject was too delicate; she was fighting for her existence; she would yield nothing

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7. Clouds thicken upon us; our wrongs are still increased; during the sensibility of this nation, and without atonement for the attack upon the Chesapeake, on the 16th October, 1807, a proclamation issues from the British Cabinet respecting seafaring persons, enlarging the principles of former encroachments upon the practice of impressment

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8. This trade is now destroyed by the Orders in Council, and not the embargo—for this very measure has saved our vessels from capture, our merchandise from condemnation, and our seamen from impressment

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9. I will forbear, sir, at this time from commenting on the habitual impressment of American citizens, by Great Britain; the illegal condemnation of American vessels under what they call the rule of 1756; the spurious blockades of British commanders, and the consequent spoliations on our commerce

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10. Does Great Britain now prize the plunder of your merchantmen, the impressment of your seamen, insult to your national flag, as much as she did the sovereignty of the soil? Certainly not; and yet she must, precisely the same, or she will not hold out now as she did then

11. Remember, sir, it is no longer a contest singly about the carrying trade, or the impressment of seamen, or the insult to the national flag, but all united with the rights and attributes of sovereignty, even to the violation of the good old United States

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12. The plain state of the case is this: Anterior to the non-importation act, the British Treaty had expired—there were points of dispute, particularly concerning the impressment of seamen, which could not be adjusted to the satisfaction of our Government

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13. That it contained no express provision against the impressment of seamen

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14. Supposing the affair of the Chesapeake to have been authorized, I never wish to see the British ships of war within our waters, till they recede from the right of impressment

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15. When they abandon the outrageous principles which govern that nation with respect to neutrals; when they abandon the practice of impressment; when they make restitution for spoliations of our trade; we will hold the hand of fellowship to them

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16. It had been admitted that we had a right to choose our enemy, and Great Britain was selected, because she was first in the career of maritime despotism, and had exercised it with unrelenting severity; because she stands alone in the impressment of our citizens, and dooms them to ignominious punishment, or compels them to fight her battles; because the national honor had been vitally wounded, in the attack upon our flag; and because she had heaped outrage upon aggression, and had imbrued her hands in the innocent blood of our citizens

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17. In vain did I look for something therein that would tend to obtain satisfaction for the insult on the Chesapeake; in vain for any thing that would tend to prevent the future impressment of our seamen; in vain for any thing that would induce or coerce the belligerents to repeal their unjust orders and decrees against our lawful commerce

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18. Before we relinquish the conflict, I wish to see Great Britain renounce the piratical system of paper blockade; to liberate our captured seamen on board her ships of war; relinquish the practice of impressment on board our merchant vessels; to repeal her Orders in Council; and cease, in every other respect, to violate our neutral rights; to treat us as an independent people

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19. But, sir, the impressment of our native seamen is a stroke at the vitals of liberty itself, and although it does not touch the "natale solum," yet it enslaves the "nativos filios"—the native sons of America; and, in the ratio that liberty is preferable to property, ought to enlist the patriotic feelings of that honorable member, and make his bosom burn with that holy fire that inspired the patriots of the Revolution

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20. Why should I mention the impressment of our seamen; depredation on every branch of our commerce, including the direct export trade, continued for years, and made under laws which professedly undertake to regulate our trade with other nations; negotiation resorted to time after time, till it is become hopeless; the restrictive system persisted in to avoid war, and in the vain expectation of returning justice? The evil still grows, and in each succeeding year swells in extent and pretension beyond the preceding

21. Sir, while I thought there was the most distant probability of obtaining justice by peace measures, I was an advocate for peace; but, sir, when I see not the least prospect of a revocation of her destructive Orders in Council, of the releasement of our impressed countrymen, a relinquishment of the principle of impressment, nor restitution for damages, I am for assuming a war attitude—consequently shall vote for the report of the committee, because I believe the force there contemplated will be an efficient force, and adequate to the purposes intended, to wit, the subjugation of the British North American Provinces

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22. He sympathized with the sufferings of his impressed and incarcerated fellow-citizens; but would a territorial war exempt them from impressment? Would it establish our neutral rights? Certainly not

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23. This was said particularly with respect to the impressment of our seamen

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24. This had been evidently the effect of the continued impressment of our seamen

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25. A single impressment or capture may be well admitted to form a ground of reprisal and war; but we should have been a ruined country long ere now, if, under the existing circumstances of the world, and belligerent Europe, we had yielded to this quickness of sensibility, and had gone to war for a first and single instance of aggression from either of the belligerents

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26. The impressment of our seamen was a just complaint against the British Government; but it commenced under the Administration of General Washington, and no one would say he was less sensible to national honor and independence than ourselves

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27. Sailors in this country cannot be obtained in sufficient numbers without impressment

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28. Suppose that in every land-project you are successful—suppose both the Canadas, Quebec, Halifax, every thing to the North pole, yours by fair conquest—are your rights on the ocean, therefore, secure? Does your flag float afterwards in honor? Are your seamen safe from impressment? Is your course along the highway of nations unobstructed? No one pretends it

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29. was opposed to this system, too, because it could not be supported without having recourse to a force similar to impressment to obtain a number of seamen sufficient to man such a fleet

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30. Among these is the impressment of our seamen, a practice which has been unceasingly maintained by Great Britain in the wars to which she has been a party since our Revolution

31. The control of our commerce by Great Britain, in regulating, at pleasure, and expelling it almost from the ocean; the oppressive manner in which these regulations have been carried into effect, by seizing and confiscating such of our vessels, with their cargoes, as were said to have violated her edicts, often without previous warning of their danger; the impressment of our citizens from on board our own vessels on the high seas, and elsewhere, and holding them in bondage till it suited the convenience of their oppressors to deliver them up; are encroachments of that high and dangerous tendency, which could not fail to produce that pernicious effect; nor would these be the only consequences that would result from it

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32. These terms required that the Orders in Council should be repealed as they affected the United States, without a revival of blockades violating acknowledged rules; and that there should be an immediate discharge of American seamen from British ships, and a stop to impressment from American ships, with an understanding that an exclusion of the seamen of each nation from the ships of the other should be stipulated; and that the armistice should be improved into a definitive and comprehensive adjustment of depending controversies

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33. In the address of that gentleman's political friends, in Congress, to their constituents, subsequent to the declaration of war, it had been deceptively said, that a disposition existed in the British Government to make an arrangement on the subject of impressment

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34. They have nothing to do with the question of impressment, of maritime war, of the invasion of Canada, of Indian warfare; but, sir, they are principles which, from length of time, I am sorry to say, have grown so obsolete, like some of the older statutes of those countries of more ancient date than ourselves, that, though I am not ashamed of them, I am almost ashamed to mention them—they are those professed by the Republican party in the year 1798, which I had the honor of attempting, at least, to support in those days—the principles, as reduced to record, of the present Chief Magistrate of our country in those days

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35. The gentleman has again referred to the difficulty of manning your ships, and deems impressment indispensable

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36. Let us therefore be cautious in admitting that though Great Britain has been most successful, that she owes it to the hard, to the iron hand of impressment

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37. Nor, sir, has the British tar injured us, although he is the instrument of plunder and impressment

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38. The sole avowed cause, therefore, remaining, and for which the war is now carried on, is the practice of impressment from on board our merchant vessels

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39. Permit me, sir, to remark, that notwithstanding the importance, the difficulty, and delicacy which have been justly attributed to this subject, and the unwillingness at all times manifested on the part of the British Government to abandon or derogate from the abstract right of impressing her own seamen from on board neutral merchant vessels, it is very far from being certain that she has not been willing to enter into such arrangement with this Government, as would place the question of impressment on a basis both safe and honorable to this nation

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40. Monroe and Pinkney with the British Commissioners, which preceded the treaty concluded by those gentlemen in the year 1806, but which was unfortunately rejected by the then President, it is evident that the interest of impressment was, in the opinion of those gentlemen, placed on a footing well calculated to secure our own seamen from the abuse against which we had complained, and against which it was our duty to protect them

41. Madison, dated February 28, 1808, declare "that he always believed, and did still believe, that the ground on which the interest of impressment was placed by the paper of the British Commissioners of the 8th of November, 1806, and the explanations which accompanied it, was both honorable and advantageous to the United States

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42. Thus, sir, had the treaty of 1806 been ratified and a good understanding been produced between the two countries, Congress were warned, even in that event, that it was their duty to lend their aid in rendering effectual and perpetual any arrangement which might be made on this subject of impressment

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43. I allude particularly to the equivalent proposed as an inducement for the discontinuance of the practice of impressment

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44. The impressment of seamen, during the last session of Congress, was considered of minor importance and as a proper subject of negotiation between the two nations, and was so considered in the days of General Washington, in those of Mr

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45. The President, in his Message at the commencement of this session, declared the fact, and the war now rests solely on the subject of impressment

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46. I do not believe that the prosecuting of this war will have a tendency to bring about an amicable and satisfactory adjustment on this subject, and at the end of the war, if it ever ceases, this question of impressment must be settled by treaty

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47. It arrived in America and was rejected by the authority of a single individual; apparently because of the insufficiency of the arrangement about impressment

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48. No consideration of the false allegation on which the war in fact was founded; no consideration of the critical and extremely consequential nature to both nations of the subject of impressment; no considerations of humanity, interposed their influence

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49. To have negotiated without entering into an arrangement in relation to the important interest of impressment, would unquestionably have been a relinquishment of the right which we claimed, to be exempted from its exercise

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50. But to show that impressment was the principal cause, he would resort to the best evidence of which the case was susceptible

51. This is the impressment of our seamen, a practice which has been unceasingly maintained by Great Britain in the wars to which she has been a party since our Revolution

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52. These reports, by the adoption of the measures they recommended, were sanctioned by the Congress of the United States, and may be considered as furnishing strong, if not full and complete evidence, that the Legislative department of the Government considered the impressment of our seamen as the principal cause which impelled them to have recourse to the last resort of injured nations

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53. ) If, then, as it appears clearly to have been, from the documents before alluded to, that impressment was the principal cause of the war, that it was an injury which no independent nation could submit to without surrendering a portion of its sovereignty, would it not be admitted, even on the ground which had been taken, that, to have terminated the war by acceding to the propositions alluded to, would have been degrading to the nation, and have manifested the incompetency of the Executive to have conducted with firmness the helm of State which had been submitted to his guidance and direction? And no doubt could be entertained had such an event taken place, but we should have heard denunciations against the Administration proceeding from the very quarter whence they now flow

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54. For, it cannot be concealed that unless, in the present contest, Great Britain can be compelled to relinquish her claim to the right of impressment, unless it be made the sine qua non by the American Government, to any arrangement of the existing differences between the two nations, our claim to exemption from the practice must be forever given up, and Great Britain will feel herself at liberty to continue to exercise it with ten-fold rigor and severity

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55. Upon some of the subjects in controversy, for instance, that of impressment, negotiation had been tried unsuccessfully for twenty years, as I will show before I sit down, from the public records of the country; on others it had been tried for a shorter period

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56. At the last session of Congress, when every hope of obtaining justice in any other way was lost, the United States declared war, not to procure a repeal of the Orders in Council only, but to obtain redress for the unjust spoliations which had been committed on the property of American citizens, and to cause Great Britain to cease the practice of impressment

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57. If you now say that you will not prosecute the war, the enemy must view it as a decision pronounced by this Government, that war shall not be waged by the American nation for the impressment of her citizens, or for depredations committed on commerce

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58. I will show them what his opinions were on the subject of impressment

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59. So early as the year 1792, the British nation commenced the practice of impressment, as now exercised by it

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60. Pinkney, the American Minister at London, in which the practice of impressment is strongly reprobated; and let it be remembered, that although this letter was written by the Secretary, it contained the sentiments of the President of the United States

61. On the 6th of November, 1792, the Secretary of State wrote to the American Minister at London a letter, in which, when speaking on the subject of impressment, the following language is used: "It is unnecessary to develop to you the inconveniences of this conduct, and the impossibility of letting it go on

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62. Liston's note of the 4th of February, together with his project of a treaty for the reciprocal delivery of deserters; which appears to the Secretary utterly inadmissible, unless it would put an end to impressment; which Mr

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63. Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, when giving his opinion to the President, says—"That the project of a treaty proposed by His Britannic Majesty for the reciprocal delivery of deserters from the land and naval service, does not sufficiently provide against the impressment of American seamen, and is therefore deemed inadmissible

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64. "The impressment of our seamen is an injury of very serious magnitude, which deeply affects the feelings and the honor of the nation

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65. Marshall observes, "the United States require positively that their seamen who are not British subjects, whether born in America or elsewhere, shall be exempt from impressment

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66. It appears that this exemption from impressment is no new claim set up by men now in power

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67. I ask him whether he considers the impressment of American seamen "a violation of an essential right of this country?" [Mr

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68. Grundy, from the gentleman's own declaration he is bound to support us in the war, if the principle of impressment is not relinquished by Great Britain

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69. The committee cannot have forgotten the early disavowal of this wanton aggression on the honor of our flag by the British Government, and the tender of satisfaction which was made, but failed because our Minister was instructed to couple with this complaint the subject of impressment; nor can they have forgotten how indignant the Ministry and nation were when the President assumed the right of judging what would best comport with the honor of their King

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70. The Orders in Council having thus been revoked, the continuance of the war seems to rest upon the impressment of our seamen alone

71. I have no hesitation then, in saying, that I have always considered the impressment of American seamen as much the most serious aggression

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72. And who is prepared to say that American seamen shall be surrendered the victims to the British principle of impressment? And, sir, what is this principle? She contends that she has a right to the services of her own subjects: that, in the exercise of this right, she may lawfully impress them, even although she finds them in our vessels, upon the high seas, without her jurisdiction

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73. It is in vain to set up the plea of necessity, and to allege that she cannot exist without the impressment of her seamen

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74. It is said that Great Britain has been always willing to make a satisfactory arrangement of the subject of impressment; and that Mr

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75. King; for, being much esteemed here, and always well received by the persons in power, he seems to have misconstrued their readiness to listen to his representations, and their warm professions of a disposition to remove the complaints of America in relation to impressment, into a supposed conviction on their part of the propriety of adopting the plan which he had proposed

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76. King had assailed him on the subject of impressment, confesses his own perplexity, and total incompetency to discover any practical project for the safe discontinuance of that practice, and asks for counsel and advice

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77. The Orders in Council are suspended, not revoked; no compensation for spoliations; Indian hostilities, which were before secretly instigated, now openly encouraged; and the practice of impressment unremittingly persevered in and insisted upon

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78. In return, the enemy is offered a prohibition of the employment of his seamen in our service, thus removing entirely all pretext for the practice of impressment

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79. Administration, still anxious to terminate the war, suppresses the indignation which such a proposal ought to have created, and in its answer concludes by informing Admiral Warren, "that if there be no objection to an accommodation of the difference relating to impressment, in the mode proposed, other than the suspension of the British claim to impressment during the armistice, there can be none to proceeding, without the armistice, to an immediate discussion and arrangement of an article on that subject

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80. It in substance declares, that though the General Assembly view with indignation the violations of our commerce, the impressment of our seamen, and other wrongs committed by foreign nations, yet detached as the United States are from European concerns, they should deprecate a war waged for any other object except self-defence, in cases of actual invasion

81. But it is said that, as the Orders in Council are repealed, the question of impressment is the only one in controversy between the United States and Great Britain; and, on the subject, the honorable gentleman from North Carolina, (Mr

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82. In making this examination, I shall pass in review, in as brief a manner as possible, the three great subjects of complaint against Great Britain; her orders of blockade, her Orders in Council, and her practice of impressment

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83. —The injury done to our seamen under the British practice of impressment, was also made a cause of the war, and to the eye, at least, it is the only one which now remains

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84. And yet such is the state of the commerce of the world, that it can scarcely happen in a mercantile voyage, in this or the other hemisphere, that the vessel will not at some time be in a British port, and the crew on British ground; our right of flag will not then save our adopted citizens from impressment

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85. Is this claim a novel one? That the claim is novel, is certainly intimated by the Committee of Foreign Relations, when they say that the impressment of which we complain, is "a practice which has been unceasingly maintained by Great Britain in the wars to which she has been a party since our Revolution

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86. Chairman, the first proof relative to the committee, is the impressment document of January last, known to the American people as the 6,057 document

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87. In a report respecting the impressment of seamen in 1797, made by the Secretary of State to this House, on the 27th of February, 1798, we have the names of upwards of twenty American citizens, taken out of American vessels, on the high seas, by French privateers

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88. I am aware that I shall be referred to the impressment document of last session

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89. Lyman, our Consul and agent for seamen, for protections against future, or for his aid in getting released from present impressment

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90. Sir, there is not a man who, in practice or by inquiry, has made himself acquainted with the manner in which this business is transacted, but knows that many foreigners who never saw this country, or sailed under its flag, have attempted, by application to our agents abroad, to shield themselves against British impressment

91. If the practice of impressment had been as outrageous as has been represented, it must have fallen with great force on the Eastern States, as it is there the mass of our seamen are found

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92. I have now, sir, finished the remarks which I intended to make on the British claim and practice of impressment

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93. The points made in the debate seem to be: impressment; the right to expatriate; the right to naturalize; and French influence; neither of which have any connection with the bill, which is to raise troops for one year

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94. The same gentleman told us, that impressment by the British Government was no new thing

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95. This is certainly true as far as regards her own subjects, and from her own vessels; but the systematic impressment of foreigners from foreign ships, is a new thing; and that, too, when the men and the ships both belong to the same nation

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96. And why draw that into the debate on the impressment of American citizens from American vessels? No law or precedent can be produced for this abominable and wicked practice

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97. It was never attempted to be justified, notwithstanding impressment is no new thing with her

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98. For what purpose were protections given to American seamen? Surely to protect them against impressment, and to show that we had no desire to protect others; and what more ought to have been done, he did not tell us

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99. We have been told by my colleague, that it is not the right, but the abuse of impressment of which we complain

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100. As to the first, we need not trouble ourselves about it; and the second, the United States have not acknowledged; and we are now contending against impressment; and permit me here to observe, that the republicans have always considered the impressment of citizens a more serious injury than the spoliation of property