The Program in Early American Economy and Society
and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies
invite you to a jointly sponsored seminar
Gautham Rao
History Department, Rutgers-Newark and New Jersey Institute of Technology
“The Production of Authority: Regulating the Market
in the Age of Jefferson”
Friday, February 20, 2009
from 3 to 5 p.m., with reception following to 6 p.m.
at the Library Company of Philadelphia,
1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia
This paper explores the failure of Thomas Jefferson’s Embargo policy of 1807-1809. It contends that the policy failed not simply because of rampant smuggling, but because the officeholders designated to enforce the Embargo worked to bring about its demise. Customs officials had carved out formal and informal discretionary authority since the founding of the republic, and used this authority to benefit local merchant communities. From 1808 to 1809, customs officials’ use of this mode of legal instrumentalism effectively turned the Embargo against itself. The Jefferson administration gradually sought to circumscribe the officials’ discretionary powers with new public laws and executive orders. However, in Gilchrist v. Collector of Charleston customs officials and the federal judiciary all but shattered the Jefferson administration’s vision of executive authority.
Everyone coming to the seminar should read this paper in advance. You can access a copy at: http://www.librarycompany.org/economics/eseminars.htm
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