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taken from the Chesapeake were tried at Halifax, and the deserter from the sloop was hung; the others were reprieved, on condition of entering the British service.

The news of this unprovoked assault having reached the president, he issued a proclamation, on the 2d of July, "in which," says Mr. Tucker, "after reciting the outrage, he interdicts all armed vessels bearing commissions from Great Britain from the harbors and waters of the United States, and forbids all supplies to them and all intercourse with them on pain of the law; and all officers, civil and military, were called upon to aid in executing these orders. There was an exception in favor of vessels in distress, or conveying dispatches. The indignation excited by this invasion of national rights, which was heightened, no doubt, by the feeble resistance made by the Chesapeake, pervaded every part of the community; and in city, town, and country, there were meetings expressing their keen resentment; tendering their support to the government, in all measures of retribution; and in the mean time, discontinuing every sort of intercourse with British ships of war. On this question all parties cordially co-operated without distinction; and the country, as Mr. Jefferson properly observed, had never been in such a state since the battle of Lexington."*

Commodore Barron was tried by a court-martial, and suspended for five years, without pay or emoluments. Captains Gordon and Hall were pri

Tucker's "Life of Jefferson," vol. ii., pp. 236-7.

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vately reprimanded; and the gunner of the Chesapeake was cashiered. On the other hand, the British government lost no time in disavowing the act of their over-zealous officials. Berkeley was recalled from the North American station; the captain of the Leopard was never afterwards employed; two of the negroes, taken as deserters from the Melampus, and claimed as citizens of the United States, were given up; the other (who was a South American by birth) had died. Little effect, however, was produced by these attempts at conciliation, and had the government been in other hands than those of Mr. Jefferson, a declaration of war not improbably would immediately have ensued.*

The critical position of the foreign relations of our country induced the president to summon Congress at an earlier period than usual. Accordingly, the members assembled on the 1807. 25th of October, and the message was sent in on the following day. After adverting to circumstances seriously threatening the peace of the country, which occasioned that early summons of the legislature, he spoke of the injuries and depredations which had led to the extraordinary mission to London. He next noticed, briefly, the treaty which had been signed; representing it as signed by his commissioners, under a sort of protest, that they were acting against the instructions of their government, and his consequent rejection of the treaty. He next adverts

*For a more full account of the attack on the Chesapeake, with the circumstances, etc., see Cooper's "Naval History,” vol. ii., pp. 12–22.

CH. V.]

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

to the attempt made to renew negotiations, by his orders, and that whilst he was hoping for some good result, the frigate Chesapeake was attacked, as we have seen, by order of the British admiral. He further mentioned the measures he had taken; and said that those aggressions of the British were continued by their ships remaining in the American waters, by habitual violations of their jurisdiction, and by putting to death one of the four men taken from the Chesapeake. He informed them that England had interdicted all trade by neutrals between ports not in amity with her, by which, as she was at war with nearly every nation on the Atlantic and Mediterranean, our vessels were compelled either to sacrifice their cargoes at the first port, or return home without a market. Of the relations with Spain, the president spoke as if that kingdom were not a mere appanage of France, but was acting independently in having issued a decree similar to the Berlin decree of November 21st, 1806. Overlooking entirely the unsettled relations with France, and the depredations committed by her, he added, "with the other nations of Europe our harmony has been uninterrupted, and commerce and friendly intercourse have been maintained on their usual footing." So he recommended gunboats, and militia for manning them; and spoke of what had been done for replenishing the magazines with military stores.

The paragraph respecting Burr and his trial is worth quoting: "I informed Congress," he says, "at their 1807. last session, of the enterprises against the public peace, which were

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believed to be in preparation by Aaron Burr and his associates, of the measures taken to defeat them, and to bring the offenders to justice. Their enterprises were happily defeated by the patriotic exertions of the militia, wherever called into action, by the fidelity of the army, and energy of the commanderin-chief in promptly arranging the difficulties presenting themselves on the Sabine, repairing to meet those arising on the Mississippi, and dissipating, before their explosion, plots engendering there. I shall think it my duty to lay before you the proceedings, and the evidence publicly exhibited on the arraignment of the principal offenders before the circuit court of Virginia. You will be enabled to judge whether the defect was in the testimony, in the law, or in the administration of the law; and wherever it shall be found, the legislature alone can apply or orig inate the remedy. The framers of our Constitution certainly supposed they had guarded, as well their government against destruction by treason, as their citizens against oppression, under pretence of it; and if these ends are not attained, it is of importance to inquire by what means more effectual they may be secured."

The message closed with stating, that the revenue during the preceding year, had amounted to nearly $16,000,000, which, with the money previously in the treasury, had been sufficient to discharge more than $4,000,000 of the debt, besides defraying the current expenses of the government. A part of the balance, it was suggested, might well be applied to the purposes of

national defence, especially in the then doubtful position of our foreign relations.

The House, by means of a committee who reported on the 17th of November, responded temperately to much of the president's exhortations; and deemed the further protection of the ports and harbors most needful. They also denounced the stay of the British squadron in the American waters, after Jefferson's proclamation, as a 1807. flagrant violation of their jurisdiction. Their feeling was, however, rapidly warming; for news came of the seizure of the Danish fleet by Great Britain, which made a much deeper impression upon them than the increased rapacity of the French, in enforcing the menaces of the "Berlin Decree." How greatly both the "continental system" of Napoleon, and the British "order in council" interfered with and restricted American commerce, has already been intimated; and notwithstanding the president's declaration of there being twenty thousand seamen afloat, it must be manifest, that in such a state of insecurity, the most valuable branches of foreign trade would be quite cut off.

On the 18th of December, a confidential message was sent to both Houses, showing "the great and increasing dangers" to the shipping, seamen, and merchandise of the United States at sea, in consequence of the hotter rage of the war, and recommending, in consequence of the great importance of keeping in safety, these essential resources, "an inhibition of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States."

With this message was transmitted a proclamation of the king of England, dated October 16th, 1807, which required all British seamen in foreign service to return home, and the official interpretation of the emperor of France, on the 18th of September, 1807, respecting the Berlin decree; wherein it was declared, that all neutral vessels were to be captured when proceeding to and from England. Beside what was furnished by these documents, Mr. Tucker states, that the president had a stronger motive for recommending the laying an embargo, for he "had received information through an authen tic private channel, that the British ministry had issued an order against neutral commerce, in retaliation of the Berlin decree; which information was confirmed by a ministerial English newspaper received at the same time.”

1806.

The subject was immediately entered upon by the House, and the president's wishes were speedily gratified. A bill laying an embargo was passed on the 22d of December, at eleven o'clock at night, by a vote of eighty-two to forty-four. A similar bill had been hurried through the Senate in a single day, by a vote of twenty-two to six; and all American vessels were thenceforward prohibited from sailing for foreign ports, all foreign vessels from taking out cargoes, and all coasting vessels were required to give bonds to land their cargoes in the United States.

The embargo was violently denounced by the federalists and such of the democratic party as were dissatisfied with the course pursued by Mr. Jefferson; and there was by no

CH. V.]

THE EMBARGO POLICY.

means a general disposition to acquiesce in a measure which bore so heavily as this upon the prosperity of the country. It was asserted, and with great show of reason, by the federalists, that the embargo would not and could not produce the desired result of compelling the belligerents to rescind their orders in council and their decrees; for, however important the trade with the United States might be considered to England and France, it was not to be presumed that either of those nations was to be forced in this way to change its determination. The resources of England and France were too great and too varied to be very seriously affected by a suspension of even the whole of American commerce. They had both resolved, that America should not be permitted to remain neutral, and they meant, if possible, to drive her to side with one or the other of the contending powers. Indeed, as Mr. Cooper says, rather dryly, "with a foreign trade that employed 700,000 tons of American shipping alone, Congress passed a law declaring an unlimited embargo, for all the purposes of foreign commerce, on every port in the Union; anticipating a large portion of the injuries that might be expected from an open enemy, by inflicting them itself !"*

* The supposition has also been thrown out that the embargo was intended to operate adversely to Great Britain, by the exasperation it must needs create, in that very section of the Union which was most amicably disposed towards England, for she was represented as the originator of the imperious necessity for putting a stop to their lucrative trade; rather than

by any immediate effect it could have upon her commerce. Subsequent events seem to have imparted a degree of probability to this supposition.

VOL. III.-13

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It was also asserted by the opponents of the measure, that this policy was, in truth, in accordance with the real wishes and expectations of Napoleon. He had predicted, in October, the laying this embargo, and his course was a good deal influenced by his considering America as virtually leagued with him in the contest against England. His minister Champagny, in January, 1808, writes: "War exists, in fact, between England and the United States; and his majesty considers it as declared from the day in which England published her decrees. In that persuasion, his majesty, ready to consider the United States as associated with the cause of all the powers, who have to defend themselves against England, has not taken any definitive measures towards the American vessels which may have been brought into our ports. He has ordered that they should remain sequestered, until a decision may be had thereon, according to the dispositions which shall have been expressed by the the government of the United States." This letter was communicated to Congress by the president, in the latter part of March, 1808. Some months later, Mr. Jefferson, in a confidential letter to Mr. Armstrong at Paris, wrote: "Bonaparte does not wish us to go to war with England; knowing that we have not ships sufficient to carry on such a war. And to submit to pay England the tribute on our commerce, which she demanded by her orders in council, would be to aid her in the war against France, and would give the emperor just ground to declare war on us."

England, in this deadly struggle with

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ship of war, or which should touch at a British port, or should pay any impost whatever to the British government, should be denationalized, and subject to seizure and condemnation. "The two great belligerent powers thus mutually rivalled each other in the work of destroying the commerce of the only remaining neutral state their indiscriminate violence had left out of the circle of hostility. In vain were the justice and policy of the British orders in council of November arraigned in parliament by Lord Erskine and other members of the late ministry, who had themselves furnished the precedent and the pattern of that measure in the orders issued in the preceding January, on the same pretext of retaliating the Berlin decree. In vain was the wanton attack on Copenhagen assailed by them as subversive of the sacred principles of morality, of public law, and of the soundest maxims of national policy. All other considerations were merged

* "By these acts of England and France, professing in the apparent necessity of resisting

to be acts of retaliation, and not at all in a spirit of hostility to the United States, the neutral commerce of America was entirely destroyed. Not a vessel could sail to Europe or to England, to the vast colonial re

gions of North and South America, and the East and West Indies, without being subject to capture and condemnation. The trade of the whole world, in fact,

was interdicted and could not be carried on without

the risk of forfeiture. Both belligerents, however, had distinctly intimated, that if the United States would side with them, every advantage should be given to their commerce. But this is what they did not intend

to do. They did not mean to surrender all the advan

tages they had hitherto enjoyed from their neutral po

sition if it could be avoided. To side with England

was war with France; with France, was war with England. Mr. Jefferson was not prepared for either

alternative. What was to be done? Commerce, left

thus exposed, must be ground into powder between

the upper and nether millstone, and be scattered as chaff before the winds of heaven."-Garland's "Life of John Randolph," vol i., p. 265.

the portentous power of the French emperor, who, after the victory of Friedland, and the peace of Tilsit, wielded the entire resources of the European continent, and directed them to the avowed purpose of subverting the British empire."*

It was at the close of the year 1807, that the British government dispatched Mr. Rose as a special minister to the United States, to adjust the difficulty which had arisen out of the assault on the frigate Chesapeake. On arriv ing at Washington, he addressed Mr.

* Wheaton's "Life of William Pinkney,” p. 17.

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