Note 40 — Chapter I
Reading edition
See Act of December 22, 1807 (Annals, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 2814-15); of January 9, 1808 (ib. 2815-17); of March 12, 1808 (ib. 2839-42); and of April 25, 1808 (ib. 2870-74); Treasury Circulars of May 6 and May 11, 1808 (Embargo Laws, 19-20, 21-22); and Jefferson's letter "to the Governours of Orleans, Georgia, South Carolina, Massachusetts and New Hampshire," May 6, 1808 (ib. 20-21).
Joseph Hopkinson sarcastically wrote: "Bless the Embargo—thrice bless the Presidents distribution Proclamation, by which his minions are to judge of the appetites of his subjects, how much food they may reasonably consume, and who shall supply them ... whether under the Proclamation and Embargo System, a child may be lawfully born without a clearing out at the Custom House." (Hopkinson to Pickering, May 25, 1808, Pickering MSS. Mass. Hist. Soc.)