Essential Facts
Background
- Britain and France were at war with each other during the Napoleonic Wars.
- They were using blockades and trade embargoes to disrupt each other’s trade with foreign nations, such as the United States.
- Britain used Orders in Council, while Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Emperor, used the Continental System.
- The U.S. used economic sanctions to try to protect its trading rights, including Macon’s Bill No. 2.
- Napoleon issued the Rambouillet Decree on March 23, 1810, ordering the seizure of all American ships in French ports.
America Responds to European Trade Restrictions
- The U.S. responded to European sanctions with Macon’s Bill No. 2, which was passed by Congress on May 1, 1810.
- It reopened trade with Britain and France despite ongoing trade restrictions and harassment of American ships.
- It banned British and French warships from American waters.
President James Madison was given the authority to suspend trade with either Britain or France if the other revoked its trade restrictions. The options were:
- If Britain dropped the Orders in Council, the U.S. would resume trade with Britain and enforce non-importation against France.
- If France dropped the Berlin Decree and the Milan Decree, the U.S. would resume trade with France and enforce non-importation against Britain.
Additional Details
- Napoleon indicated he would drop restrictions in the Cadore Letter, which was dated August 5, 1810, and given to America’s French Minister, John Armstrong Jr.
Significance
Macon’s Bill No. 2 is important to American History because it increased tensions between the United States, Great Britain, and France, contributing to the outbreak of the War of 1812.
Macon’s Bill No. 2 Overview and History
Macon’s Bill No. 2 was passed by Congress in 1810. It was another bill in a series that sought to force Great Britain and France to recognize neutral countries’ rights on the high seas during wartime.
- President Thomas Jefferson tried using economic sanctions against Britain and France.
- The Non-Importation Act of 1806 restricted the importation of certain British goods into the U.S.
- The Embargo Act of 1807 followed, banning all international trade with U.S. ports.
- The measures failed and caused significant economic harm to U.S. merchants and the economy.
- Jefferson overestimated the value of the U.S. trade with European powers.
- The Embargo Act of 1807 was replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809, which kept the ban on trade with Great Britain and France but opened trade with other nations.
- American merchants turned to smuggling and traded with British and French ships.
Macon’s Bill No. 2 and Trade with Britain and France
- Macon’s Bill No. 2 was passed to end the failed economic pressure on Britain and France.
- It was named after Nathaniel Macon, who, ironically, opposed the bill.
- The Bill reopened trade with both Britain and France despite ongoing interference.
- It stated that if one nation stopped interfering, the U.S. would trade exclusively with that nation.
- France suggested it would lift trade restrictions against the United States in the Cadore Letter.
- The U.S. stopped trading with Britain after this.
- This decision contributed to the start of the War of 1812.
Macon’s Bill No.2 — Primary Document Text
An Act concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this act, no British or French armed vessel shall be permitted to enter the harbors or waters under the jurisdiction of the United States; but every British and French armed vessel is hereby interdicted, except when they shall be forced in by distress, by the dangers of the sea, or when charged with despatches or business from their government, or coming as a public packet for the conveyance of letters; in which cases, as well as in all others, when they shall be permitted to enter, the commanding officer shall immediately report his vessel to the collector of the district, stating the object or causes of his entering the harbors or waters of the United States; and shall take such position therein as shall be assigned him by such collector, and shall conform himself, his vessel and crew, to such regulations respecting health, repairs, supplies, stay, intercourse and departure, as shall be signified to him by the said collector, under the authority and directions of the President of the United States, and, not conforming thereto, shall be required to depart from the United States.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all pacific intercourse with any interdicted foreign armed vessels, the officers or crew thereof, is hereby forbidden, and if any person shall afford any aid to such armed vessel either in repairing her, or in furnishing her, her officers or crew with supplies of any kind or in any manner whatsoever, or if any pilot shall assist in navigating the said armed vessel, contrary to this prohibition, unless for the purpose of carrying her beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, the person or persons so offending, shall be liable to be bound to their good behaviour, and shall moreover forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars, to be recovered upon indictment or information, in any court of competent jurisdiction; one moiety thereof to the treasury of the United States, and the other moiety to the person who shall give information and prosecute the same to effect: Provided, that if the prosecution shall be by a public officer the whole forfeiture shall accrue to the treasury of the United States.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That all the penalties and forfeitures which may have been incurred under the act, entituled “An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other purposes,” and also all the penalties and forfeitures which may have been incurred under the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, or under any of the several acts supplementary thereto, or to enforce the same, or under the acts to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other purposes, shall be recovered and distributed, and may be remitted in the manner provided by the said acts respectively, and in like manner as if the said acts had continued in full force and effect.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That in case either Great Britain or France shall, before the third day of March next, so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, which fact the President of the United States shall declare by proclamation, and if the other nation shall not within three months thereafter so revoke or modify her edicts in like manner, then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and eighteenth sections of the act, entituled “An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other purposes,” shall, from and after the expiration of three months from the date of the proclamation aforesaid, be revived and have full force and effect, so far as relates to the dominions, colonies and dependencies, and to the articles the growth, produce or manufacture of the dominions, colonies and dependencies of the nation thus refusing or neglecting to revoke or modify her edicts in the manner aforesaid. And the restrictions imposed by this act shall, from the date of such proclamation, cease and be discontinued in relation to the nation revoking or modifying her decrees in the manner aforesaid.
APPROVED, May 1, 1810.
Macon’s Bill No. 2 APUSH
The Macon’s Bill No. 2 is part of the following units, topics, and chapters in the AP US History curriculum:
Unit 4: 1800–1848
- Topic 4.4 — America on the World Stage
American Pageant Notes
- Chapter 11 — Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian Republic (1800–1812)
- Chapter 12 — The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism (1812–1824)
American History Central
- Foreign Affairs in the New Nation
- War of 1812 — Causes of the War, Maritime Disputes
