Macon's Bill No. 2 (US, 1810)

Macon's Bill No. 2, the Act of 1 May 1810, 2 Stat. 605, was an expired United States trade statute. It replaced the Non-Intercourse Act (US, 1809) and reopened commerce with Britain and France while offering conditional non-importation against whichever power did not remove its restrictions. It was an attempted bargaining mechanism within Economic statecraft, not a general wartime embargo.

Mechanism and sequence

The Act restored ordinary commercial intercourse but authorised renewed restrictions if either belligerent revoked or modified measures violating neutral commerce and the other did not follow. President James Madison accepted French assurances and proclaimed renewed non-importation against Britain. The statute, the proclamation and the diplomatic claim that France had withdrawn its decrees were separate steps.

The policy followed Jefferson's Embargo Act (1807-1809) and responded to British Orders in Council and Napoleon's Continental System (1806-1814). The later Rambouillet Decree (1810) demonstrates why the French position was disputed. Sequence alone does not prove that the offer compelled France, caused the War of 1812 or improved neutral rights. Scholarship treats the law as a weak and manipulable inducement whose effects were entangled with maritime coercion and domestic politics.

Customs enforcement and merchant routing also shaped the practical burden. Re-export and origin questions could move trade without satisfying the policy's diplomatic condition.

The Act expired with its historical programme. Its significance lies in the conditional design: market access was offered to both powers, then withdrawal was directed against the non-compliant party. That is different from claiming that either power satisfied the condition as a matter of objective fact.

Sources

• Macon's Bill No. 2, 2 Stat. 605, 1 May 1810.
• Library of Congress, Statutes at Large, volume 2, accessed 30 July 2026.
• US Office of the Historian, War of 1812, accessed 30 July 2026.
• Founders Online, Madison proclamation, 2 November 1810.