Political Quotes

On the record
These enormities appearing to be unreached by any control of their sovereigns, I found it necessary to equip a force to cruise within our own seas, to arrest all vessels of these descriptions found hovering on our coasts within the limits of the Gulf Stream and to bring the offenders in for trial as pirates.
Said by
Thomas Jefferson
Democratic Republican · Virginia

Editor's note · Context

Jefferson discusses the necessity of equipping a naval force to protect American waters from illegal vessels.

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Jan 5, 1809

The works undertaken at New York are calculated to annoy and endanger any naval force which shall enter the harbor.

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Nov 7, 1808

We have the satisfaction, however, to reflect that in return for the privations imposed by the measure, and which our fellow citizens in general have borne with patriotism, it has had the important effects of saving our mariners and our…

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