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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Power in its Relations to the War of
+1812, by Alfred Thayer Mahan
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812
+ Volume 1
+
+Author: Alfred Thayer Mahan
+
+Release Date: June 30, 2008 [EBook #25911]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA POWER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by StevenGibbs, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+ | Transcriber's Note: |
+ | |
+ | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has |
+ | been preserved. |
+ | |
+ | Some footnotes have two anchors in the text, the second |
+ | of these has 'a' appended to distinguish it from the |
+ | first, i.e. [1] and [1a]. |
+ | |
+ | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For |
+ | a complete list, please see the end of this document. |
+ | |
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ [Illustration: The Impressment of an American Seaman]
+
+
+
+
+SEA POWER IN ITS RELATIONS
+TO THE WAR OF
+1812
+
+BY
+
+CAPTAIN A.T. MAHAN, D.C.L., LL.D.
+
+United States Navy
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON HISTORY, 1660-1783," "THE
+INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
+AND EMPIRE," "THE INTEREST OF AMERICA
+IN SEA POWER," ETC.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES
+
+VOL. I
+
+
+
+LONDON
+SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY
+LIMITED
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The present work concludes the series of "The Influence of Sea Power
+upon History," as originally framed in the conception of the author.
+In the previous volumes he has had the inspiring consciousness of
+regarding his subject as a positive and commanding element in the
+history of the world. In the War of 1812, also, the effect is real and
+dread enough; but to his own country, to the United States, as a
+matter of national experience, the lesson is rather that of the
+influence of a negative quantity upon national history. The phrase
+scarcely lends itself to use as a title; but it represents the truth
+which the author has endeavored to set forth, though recognizing
+clearly that the victories on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain do
+illustrate, in a distinguished manner, his principal thesis, the
+controlling influence upon events of naval power, even when
+transferred to an inland body of fresh water. The lesson there,
+however, was the same as in the larger fields of war heretofore
+treated. Not by rambling operations, or naval duels, are wars decided,
+but by force massed, and handled in skilful combination. It matters
+not that the particular force be small. The art of war is the same
+throughout; and may be illustrated as really, though less
+conspicuously, by a flotilla as by an armada; by a corporal's guard,
+or the three units of the Horatii, as by a host of a hundred
+thousand.
+
+The interest of the War of 1812, to Americans, has commonly been felt
+to lie in the brilliant evidence of high professional tone and
+efficiency reached by their navy, as shown by the single-ship actions,
+and by the two decisive victories achieved by little squadrons upon
+the lakes. Without in the least overlooking the permanent value of
+such examples and such traditions, to the nation, and to the military
+service which they illustrate, it nevertheless appears to the writer
+that the effect may be even harmful to the people at large, if it be
+permitted to conceal the deeply mortifying condition to which the
+country was reduced by parsimony in preparation, or to obscure the
+lessons thence to be drawn for practical application now. It is
+perhaps useless to quarrel with the tendency of mankind to turn its
+eyes from disagreeable subjects, and to dwell complacently upon those
+which minister to self-content. We mostly read the newspapers in which
+we find our views reflected, and dispense ourselves easily with the
+less pleasing occupation of seeing them roughly disputed; but a writer
+on a subject of national importance may not thus exempt himself from
+the unpleasant features of his task.
+
+The author has thought it also essential to precede his work by a
+somewhat full exposition of the train of causes, which through a long
+series of years led to the war. It may seem at first far-fetched to go
+back to 1651 for the origins of the War of 1812; but without such
+preliminary consideration it is impossible to understand, or to make
+due allowance for, the course of Great Britain. It will be found,
+however, that the treatment of the earlier period is brief, and only
+sufficient for a clear comprehension of the five years of intense
+international strain preceding the final rupture; years the full
+narrative of which is indispensable to appreciating the grounds and
+development of the quarrel,--to realize what they fought each other
+for.
+
+That much of Great Britain's action was unjustifiable, and at times
+even monstrous, regarded in itself alone, must be admitted; but we
+shall ill comprehend the necessity of preparation for war, if we
+neglect to note the pressure of emergency, of deadly peril, upon a
+state, or if we fail to recognize that traditional habits of thought
+constitute with nations, as with individuals, a compulsive moral force
+which an opponent can control only by the display of adequate physical
+power. Such to the British people was the conviction of their right
+and need to compel the service of their native seamen, wherever found
+on the high seas. The conclusion of the writer is, that at a very
+early stage of the French Revolutionary Wars the United States should
+have obeyed Washington's warnings to prepare for war, and to build a
+navy; and that, thus prepared, instead of placing reliance upon a
+system of commercial restrictions, war should have been declared not
+later than 1807, when the news of Jena, and of Great Britain's refusal
+to relinquish her practice of impressing from American ships, became
+known almost coincidently. But this conclusion is perfectly compatible
+with a recognition of the desperate character of the strife that Great
+Britain was waging; that she could not disengage herself from it,
+Napoleon being what he was; and that the methods which she pursued did
+cause the Emperor's downfall, and her own deliverance, although they
+were invasions of just rights, to which the United States should not
+have submitted.
+
+If war is always avoidable, consistently with due resistance to evil,
+then war is always unjustifiable; but if it is possible that two
+nations, or two political entities, like the North and South in the
+American Civil War, find the question between them one which neither
+can yield without sacrificing conscientious conviction, or national
+welfare, or the interests of posterity, of which each generation in
+its day is the trustee, then war is not justifiable only; it is
+imperative. In these days of glorified arbitration it cannot be
+affirmed too distinctly that bodies of men--nations--have convictions
+binding on their consciences, as well as interests which are vital in
+character; and that nations, no more than individuals, may surrender
+conscience to another's keeping. Still less may they rightfully
+pre-engage so to do. Nor is this conclusion invalidated by a triumph
+of the unjust in war. Subjugation to wrong is not acquiescence in
+wrong. A beaten nation is not necessarily a disgraced nation; but the
+nation or man is disgraced who shirks an obligation to defend right.
+
+From 1803 to 1814 Great Britain was at war with Napoleon, without
+intermission; until 1805 single handed, thenceforth till 1812 mostly
+without other allies than the incoherent and disorganized mass of the
+Spanish insurgents. After Austerlitz, as Pitt said, the map of Europe
+became useless to indicate distribution of political power.
+Thenceforth it showed a continent politically consolidated, organized
+and driven by Napoleon's sole energy, with one aim, to crush Great
+Britain; and the Continent of Europe then meant the civilized world,
+politically and militarily. How desperate the strife, the author in a
+previous work has striven fully to explain, and does not intend here
+to repeat. In it Great Britain laid her hand to any weapon she could
+find, to save national life and independence. To justify all her
+measures at the bar of conventional law, narrowly construed, is
+impossible. Had she attempted to square herself to it she would have
+been overwhelmed; as the United States, had it adhered rigidly to its
+Constitution, must have foregone the purchase of the territories
+beyond the Mississippi. The measures which overthrew Napoleon
+grievously injured the United States; by international law grievously
+wronged her also. Should she have acquiesced? If not, war was
+inevitable. Great Britain could not be expected to submit to
+destruction for another's benefit.
+
+The author has been indebted to the Officers of the Public Records
+Office in London, to those of the Canadian Archives, and to the Bureau
+of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, for
+kind and essential assistance in consulting papers. He owes also an
+expression of personal obligation to the Marquis of Londonderry for
+permission to use some of the Castlereagh correspondence, bearing on
+the peace negotiations, which was not included in the extensive
+published Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Castlereagh; and to Mr.
+Charles W. Stewart, the Librarian of the United States Navy
+Department, for inexhaustible patience in searching for, or verifying,
+data and references, needed to make the work complete on the naval
+side.
+
+ A.T. MAHAN.
+
+SEPTEMBER, 1905.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ANTECEDENTS OF THE WAR
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+COLONIAL CONDITIONS
+ Page
+Remote origin of the causes of the War of 1812 1
+
+Two principal causes: impressment and the carrying trade 2
+
+Claim of Great Britain as to impressment 3
+
+Counter-claim of the United States 4
+
+Lack of unanimity among the American people 5
+
+Prevailing British ideas as to sea power and its relations to
+ carrying trade and impressment 9
+
+The Navigation Acts 10
+
+Distinction between "Commerce" and "Navigation" 11
+
+History and development of the Navigation Acts, and of the
+ national opinions relating to them 13
+
+Unanimity of conviction in Great Britain 22
+
+Supposed benefit to the British carrying trade from loss of the
+ American colonies 23
+
+British _entrepot_ legislation 24
+
+Relation of the _entrepot_ idea to the Orders in Council
+ of 1807 27
+
+Colonial monopoly a practice common to all European maritime
+ states 27
+
+Effect of the Independence of the United States upon
+ traditional commercial prepossessions 29
+
+Consequent policy of Great Britain 29
+
+Commercial development of the British transatlantic colonies
+ during the colonial period 31
+
+Interrelation of the continental and West India colonies of
+ Great Britain 35
+
+Bearing of this upon the Navigation Acts 36
+
+Rivalry of American-built ships with British navigation during
+ the colonial period 37
+
+Resultant commercial rivalry after Independence 40
+
+Consequent disagreements, derived from colonial restrictions,
+ and leading to war 41
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FROM INDEPENDENCE TO JAY'S TREATY
+
+Rupture of the colonial relation 42
+
+Transitional character of the period 1774-1794, to the United
+ States 43
+
+Epochal significance of Jay's Treaty 43
+
+The question of British navigation, as affected by the loss of
+ the colonies 45
+
+British commercial expectations from the political weakness of
+ the United States, 1783-1789 46
+
+System advocated by Lord Sheffield 47
+
+Based upon considerations of navigation and naval power 49
+
+Navigation Acts essentially military in purpose 51
+
+Jefferson's views upon this question 52
+
+Imperial value of the British Navigation Act before American
+ Independence 53
+
+Influence of the inter-colonial trade at the same period 55
+
+Essential rivalry between it and British trade in general 55
+
+Common interest of continental America and of Great Britain in
+ the West Indies 56
+
+Pitt's Bill, of March, 1783 58
+
+Controversy provoked by it in Great Britain 60
+
+British jealousy of American navigation 63
+
+Desire to exclude American navigation from British colonial
+ trade 65
+
+Lord Sheffield's pamphlet 65
+
+Reply of the West India planters 66
+
+Lapse of Pitt's bill 67
+
+Navigation Acts applied in full rigor to intercourse between the
+ United States and West Indies 68
+
+This policy continues till Jay's Treaty 69
+
+Not a wrong to the United States, though an injury 70
+
+Naval impotence of the United States 71
+
+Dependence on Portugal against Barbary pirates 72
+
+Profit of Great Britain from this impotence 74
+
+Apparent success of Sheffield's trade policy, 1783-1789 75
+
+Increase of British navigation 75
+
+American counteractive legislation after the adoption of the
+ Constitution 76
+
+Report of the committee of the British Privy Council on this
+ subject, 1790 77
+
+Aggressive spirit of the Navigation Acts 79
+
+Change of conditions through American navigation laws 80
+
+Recommendations of the British committee 81
+
+Effects of the French Revolution 85
+
+Collapse of French colonial system 85
+
+Failure of Sheffield's policy, in supplying the West Indies
+ from Canada 86
+
+Great Britain's war necessities require aid of American shipping 86
+
+Her resolve to deprive France of the same aid 88
+
+Consequent lawless measures towards American ships and commerce 88
+
+Jay's mission.--Impressment not mentioned in his instructions 88
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FROM JAY'S TREATY TO THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL, 1794-1807
+
+Arbitrary war measures of Great Britain, 1793 89
+
+Rule of 1756 90
+
+Peculiar relation of the United States to this Rule 92
+
+Jay's arrival in London 93
+
+Characteristics of his negotiations 94
+
+Great Britain concedes direct trade with West Indies 95
+
+Rejection of this article by the Senate, on account of
+ accompanying conditions 96
+
+Concession nevertheless continued by British order 97
+
+Reasons for this tolerance 97
+
+Conditions of trade from Jay's mission to the Peace of 1801 97
+
+No concession of the principle of the Rule of 1756 98
+
+Renewal of war between Great Britain and France, 1803 99
+
+Prosperity of American commerce 100
+
+Question raised of "direct trade" 100
+
+Decision in British Admiralty Court adverse to United States,
+ 1805 101
+
+United States subjected again to colonial regulation 103
+
+Remonstrance and negotiation of Monroe, American Minister in
+ London 104
+
+Death of Pitt. Change of ministry in Great Britain. Position of
+ Charles James Fox 105
+
+Fox's attempt at compromise 108
+
+The blockade of May 16, 1806 108
+
+Its lawfulness contested by the United States 110
+
+Its importance in history 112
+
+Retaliatory commercial action by the United States 113
+
+Pinkney sent to England as colleague to Monroe 113
+
+Colonial trade, and impressment of seamen from American
+ vessels, the leading subjects mentioned in their
+ instructions 114
+
+Historical summary of the impressment question 114
+
+Opening of negotiations by Monroe and Pinkney 128
+
+Death of Fox 131
+
+Course of the negotiations 131
+
+Provisional treaty, signed December 31, 1806 133
+
+Rejected by United States Government 133
+
+Monroe and Pinkney directed to reopen negotiations 133
+
+Change of ministry in Great Britain. Canning becomes Foreign
+ Secretary 134
+
+The British Government refuses further negotiation 135
+
+Monroe leaves England, Pinkney remaining as minister 135
+
+"Free Trade and Sailors' Rights" 135
+
+Consistency of Jefferson's Administration on the subject of
+ impressment 137
+
+It neglects to prepare for war 138
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+FROM THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL TO WAR
+
+Reservation of the British Government in signing the treaty of
+ December 31, 1806 141
+
+The Berlin Decree 142
+
+Ambiguity of its wording 143
+
+The question of "private property," so called, embarked in
+ commercial venture at sea. Discussion 144
+
+Wide political scope of the Berlin Decree 148
+
+Twofold importance of the United States in international policy 149
+
+Consequent aims of France and Great Britain 149
+
+British Order in Council of January 7, 1807 150
+
+Attitude of the United States Government 152
+
+Military purpose of the Berlin Decree and the Continental System 153
+
+The "Chesapeake" affair 155
+
+Conference concerning it between Canning and Monroe 156
+
+Action of President Jefferson 160
+
+Use made of it by Canning 161
+
+Correspondence concerning the "Chesapeake" affair 161
+
+Rose appointed envoy to Washington to negotiate a settlement 165
+
+Failure of his mission 167
+
+Persistent British refusal to punish the offending officer 169
+
+Significance of the "Chesapeake" affair in the relations of the
+ two nations 168
+
+Its analogy to impressment 170
+
+Enforcement of the Berlin Decree by Napoleon 172
+
+Its essential character 174
+
+The Decree and the Continental System are supported by the
+ course of the American Government 175
+
+Pinkney's conviction of Great Britain's peril 177
+
+The British Orders in Council, November, 1807 177
+
+Their effect upon the United States 178
+
+Just resentment in America 178
+
+Action of the Administration and Congress 181
+
+The Embargo Act of December, 1807 182
+
+Explanations concerning it to Great Britain 183
+
+Its intentions, real and alleged 185
+
+Its failure, as an alternative to war 186
+
+Jefferson's aversion to the carrying trade 187
+
+Growing ill-feeling between the United States and Great Britain 190
+
+Relief to Great Britain from the effects of the Continental
+ System, by the Spanish revolt against Napoleon 191
+
+Depression of United States industries under the Embargo 192
+
+Difficulty of enforcement 194
+
+Evasions and smuggling 195
+
+The Embargo beneficial to Canada and Nova Scotia 198
+
+Effects in Great Britain 199
+
+Relief to British navigation through the Embargo 200
+
+Effect of the Embargo upon American revenue 202
+
+Numbers of American vessels remain abroad, submitting to the
+ Orders in Council, and accepting British licenses and British
+ convoy 203
+
+Napoleon's Bayonne Decree against them; April 17, 1808 203
+
+Illustrations of the working of Napoleon's Decrees and of the
+ Orders in Council 204
+
+Vigorous enforcement of the Embargo in 1808 206
+
+Popular irritation and opposition 207
+
+Act for its further enforcement, January 9, 1809 208
+
+Evidences of overt resistance to it 209
+
+Act for partial repeal, introduced February 8 210
+
+Conflicting opinions as to the Embargo, in and out of Congress 211
+
+The Non-Intercourse Act, March 1, 1809 214
+
+Its effect upon commercial restrictions 215
+
+Canning's advances, in consequence of Non-Intercourse Act 215
+
+Instructions sent to Erskine, British Minister at Washington 216
+
+Erskine's misleading communication of them, April 18, 1809 218
+
+Consequent renewal of trade with Great Britain 219
+
+Erskine disavowed. Non-Intercourse resumed, August 9, 1809 219
+
+Orders in Council of November, 1807, revoked; and substitute
+ issued, April 26, 1809 220
+
+Consequent partial revival of American commerce 220
+
+Francis J. Jackson appointed as Erskine's successor 221
+
+His correspondence with the American Secretary of State 222
+
+Further communication with him refused 225
+
+Criticism of the American side of this correspondence 226
+
+Wellesley succeeds Canning as British Foreign Secretary 229
+
+Jackson's dismissal communicated to Wellesley by Pinkney 229
+
+Wellesley delays action 230
+
+British view of the diplomatic situation 231
+
+Failure of the Non-Intercourse Act 232
+
+Difficulty of finding a substitute 233
+
+Act of May 1, 1810.--Its provisions 234
+
+Napoleon's Rambouillet Decree, March 23, 1810 235
+
+Act of May 1, 1810, communicated to France and Great Britain 236
+
+Napoleon's action. Champagny's letter, August 5, 1810 237
+
+Madison accepts it as revoking the French Decrees 238
+
+The arguments for and against this interpretation 239
+
+Great Britain refuses to accept it 242
+
+Statement of her position in the matter 243
+
+Wellesley's procrastinations 245
+
+Pinkney states to him the American view, at length, December
+ 10, 1810 245
+
+Wellesley's reply 246
+
+Inconsistent action of the French Government 247
+
+Non-Intercourse with Great Britain revived by statute, March
+ 2, 1811 249
+
+The American Minister withdraws from London, February 28, 1811 251
+
+Non-Intercourse with Great Britain remains in vigor to, and
+ during, the war 252
+
+Augustus J. Foster appointed British Minister to the United
+ States, February, 1811 252
+
+His instructions 253
+
+His correspondence with the Secretary of State 254
+
+Settlement of the "Chesapeake" affair 255
+
+The collision between the "President" and the "Little Belt" 256
+
+Special session of Congress summoned 259
+
+The President's Message to Congress, November 5, 1811 259
+
+Increase of the army voted 259
+
+Debate on the navy 260
+
+Congress refuses to increase the navy, January 27, 1812 263
+
+Embargo of ninety days preparatory to war, April 4 263
+
+The evasions of this measure 264
+
+Increasing evidence of the duplicity of Napoleon's action 266
+
+Report of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, March 10, 1812 269
+
+Consequent British declaration 270
+
+Use of these papers by Barlow, American Minister to France 271
+
+The spurious French Decree of April 28, 1811, communicated to
+ Barlow 272
+
+Communicated to the British Government 273
+
+Considerations influencing the British Government 274
+
+The Orders in Council revoked 276
+
+Madison sends a war message to Congress, June 1, 1812 279
+
+Declaration of war, June 18, 1812 279
+
+Conditions of the army, navy, and treasury 279
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE THEATRE OF OPERATIONS
+
+Limitations on American action through deficient sea power 283
+
+Warfare against commerce considered 284
+
+Its financial and political effects 285
+
+Its military bearing 285
+
+Distinction between military and commercial blockade 286
+
+Commercial blockade identical in essence with commerce-destroying
+ by cruisers 287
+
+Recognition of this by Napoleon 287
+
+Commerce destruction by blockade the weapon of the stronger
+ navy; by cruisers, of the weaker 288
+
+Inefficiency of the American Government shown in the want of
+ naval preparation 289
+
+Conditions in the army even worse 290
+
+Jefferson's sanguine expectations 291
+
+Propriety of the invasion of Canada discussed 292
+
+The United States, weak on the seaboard, relatively strong
+ towards Canada 295
+
+Function of the seaboard in the war; defensive 296
+
+Offensive opportunity essential to any scheme of defence 298
+
+Application of this principle; in general, and to 1812 298
+
+Conditions on the Canada frontier, favoring the offensive by
+ the United States 300
+
+Importance of the Great Lakes to military operations 301
+
+Over-confidence of Americans 303
+
+Corresponding apprehension of British officers 304
+
+Decisive points on the line between the countries 305
+
+Importance of the Indians as an element in the situation 306
+
+Proper offensive policy of the United States 307
+
+Natural advantages favoring the United States 309
+
+The land frontier the proper scene of American offensive action 310
+
+Seaboard conditions, for offence and defence 311
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+EARLY CRUISES AND ENGAGEMENTS. HULL'S OPERATIONS AND SURRENDER
+
+Composition of Commodore Rodgers' squadron at outbreak of war 314
+
+Indecisions of the Navy Department 315
+
+Question between small squadrons and single cruisers for
+ commerce-destroying 315
+
+Opinions of prominent officers 316
+
+British convoy system for protecting trade 319
+
+The Navy Department formulates a plan of operations 320
+
+Discussion of its merits 321
+
+Rodgers sails without receiving Department's plan 322
+
+Encounter with the "Belvidera" 323
+
+The cruise unproductive, offensively 324
+
+But not therefore unsuccessful, defensively 325
+
+Its effect upon the movements of British vessels 326
+
+The sailing of the "Constitution" 328
+
+Chased by a British squadron 329
+
+Cruise of the "Constitution" under Hull 329
+
+Engagement with the "Guerriere" 330
+
+Hull and Rodgers meet in Boston 335
+
+Misfortune on land 336
+
+Wretched condition of the American army 336
+
+Appointment of Henry Dearborn and William Hull as generals. Hull
+ to command in the Northwest 337
+
+Isaac Brock, the British general commanding in Upper Canada 337
+
+His well-considered scheme of operation 338
+
+Incompetency of the American War Department 339
+
+Hull takes command at Dayton 340
+
+Advances to Detroit 341
+
+Crosses to Canada 341
+
+Brock causes seizure of Michilimackinac 341
+
+Hull's delays in Canada, before Malden 343
+
+The danger of his position 343
+
+The British attack his communications 345
+
+Hull recrosses to Detroit 345
+
+Brock's difficulties 346
+
+Moves against Hull, and reaches Malden 346
+
+Crosses to Detroit, and advances 346
+
+Hull surrenders 347
+
+Criticism of his conduct 348
+
+Extenuating circumstances 349
+
+Ultimate responsibility lies upon the Governments which had been
+ in power for ten years 350
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+OPERATIONS ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER AFTER HULL'S SURRENDER.
+EUROPEAN EVENTS BEARING ON THE WAR
+
+Brock returns to Niagara from Detroit 351
+
+Prevost, Governor-General of Canada, arranges with Dearborn a
+ suspension of hostilities 352
+
+Suspension disapproved by the American Government. Hostilities
+ resumed 353
+
+Brock's advantage by control of the water 353
+
+Two of his vessels on Lake Erie taken from him by Lieutenant
+ Elliott, U.S. Navy 354
+
+Brock's estimate of this loss 356
+
+American attack upon Queenston 357
+
+Repulsed, but Brock killed 357
+
+Abortive American attack on the Upper Niagara 358
+
+Inactivity of Dearborn on the northern New York frontier 359
+
+Military inefficiency throughout the United States 360
+
+Improvement only in the naval situation on the lakes 361
+
+Captain Chauncey appointed to command on Lakes Erie and Ontario 361
+
+His activity and efficiency 362
+
+Disadvantages of his naval base, Sackett's Harbor 363
+
+Chauncey's early operations, November, 1812 364
+
+Fleet lays up for the winter 366
+
+Effect of his first operations 366
+
+General Harrison succeeds to Hull's command 367
+
+Colonel Procter commands the British forces opposed 367
+
+His instructions from Prevost and Brock 367
+
+Harrison's plan of operations 368
+
+The American disaster at Frenchtown 370
+
+Effect upon Harrison's plans 371
+
+The army remains on the defensive, awaiting naval control of
+ Lake Erie 371
+
+Chauncey visits Lake Erie 374
+
+Disadvantages of Black Rock as a naval station 374
+
+Chauncey selects Presqu'Isle (Erie) instead 375
+
+Orders vessels built there 375
+
+Advantages and drawbacks of Erie as a naval base 375
+
+Commander Perry ordered to the lakes 376
+
+Assigned by Chauncey to command on Lake Erie 376
+
+Naval conditions on Lakes Erie and Ontario, at close of 1812 377
+
+Contemporary European conditions 378
+
+Napoleon's expedition against Russia 379
+
+Commercial embarrassments of Great Britain 379
+
+Necessity of American supplies to the British armies in Spain 381
+
+Preoccupation of the British Navy with conditions in Europe and
+ the East 382
+
+Consequent embarrassment from the American war 383
+
+Need of the American market 384
+
+Danger to British West India trade from an American war 384
+
+Burden thrown upon the British Admiralty 385
+
+British anxiety to avoid war 385
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+OCEAN WARFARE AGAINST COMMERCE--PRIVATEERING--BRITISH
+LICENSES--NAVAL ACTIONS: "WASP" AND "FROLIC," "UNITED STATES"
+AND "MACEDONIAN"
+
+Consolidation of British transatlantic naval commands 387
+
+Sir John Borlase Warren commander-in-chief 387
+
+British merchant ships forbidden to sail without convoy 388
+
+Continued hope for restoration of peace 389
+
+Warren instructed to make propositions 390
+
+Reply of the American Government 391
+
+Cessation of impressment demanded. Negotiation fails 391
+
+Warren's appreciation of the dangers to British commerce 392
+
+Extemporized character of the early American privateering 394
+
+Its activities therefore mainly within Warren's station 394
+
+Cruise of the privateer "Rossie," Captain Barney 395
+
+Privateering not a merely speculative undertaking 396
+
+Conditions necessary to its success 397
+
+Illustrated by the privateer "America" 398
+
+Comparative immunity of American shipping and commerce at the
+ beginning of hostilities 399
+
+Causes for this 400
+
+Controversial correspondence between Warren and the Admiralty 401
+
+Policy of the Admiralty. Its effects 404
+
+American ships of war and privateers gradually compelled to
+ cruise in distant seas 406
+
+American commerce excluded from the ocean 406
+
+Sailing of the squadrons of Rodgers and Decatur 407
+
+Their separation 408
+
+Cruise of Rodgers' squadron 409
+
+British licenses to American merchant vessels 410
+
+Action between the "Wasp" and "Frolic" 412
+
+Cruise of the "Argus," of Decatur's division 415
+
+Action between the "United States" and "Macedonian" 416
+
+The "United States" returns with her prize 422
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+VOLUME ONE.
+
+THE IMPRESSMENT OF AN AMERICAN SEAMAN _Frontispiece_
+ From a drawing by Stanley M. Arthurs.
+
+GOUVERNEUR MORRIS Page 6
+ From the painting by Marchant, after Sully, in Independence
+ Hall, Philadelphia.
+
+JOHN JAY Page 88
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in Bedford (Jay) House,
+ Katonah, N.Y.
+
+JAMES MONROE Page 104
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in the possession of
+ Hon. T. Jefferson Coolidge.
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON Page 120
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in Bowdoin College,
+ Brunswick, Me.
+
+JAMES MADISON Page 223
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in Bowdoin College,
+ Brunswick, Me.
+
+THE CHASE OF THE _Belvidera_ Page 322
+ From a drawing by Carlton T. Chapman.
+
+THE FORECASTLE OF THE _Constitution_ DURING THE CHASE Page 328
+ From a drawing by Henry Reuterdahl.
+
+CAPTAIN ISAAC HULL Page 330
+ From the engraving by D. Edwin, after the painting by
+ Gilbert Stuart.
+
+THE BURNING OF THE _Guerriere_ Page 334
+ From a drawing by Henry Reuterdahl.
+
+CAPTAIN STEPHEN DECATUR Page 420
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in Independence Hall,
+ Philadelphia.
+
+
+
+
+MAPS AND BATTLE PLANS.
+
+
+VOLUME ONE.
+
+Theatre of Land and Coast Warfare Page 283
+
+The Atlantic Ocean, showing the positions of the Ocean Actions
+ of the War of 1812 and the Movements of the Squadrons in
+ July and August, 1812 Page 326
+
+Plan of the Engagement between the _Constitution_ and
+ _Guerriere_ Page 332
+
+Map of Lake Frontier to illustrate Campaigns of 1812-1814 Page 370
+
+The Cruises of the Three American Squadrons in the Autumn
+ of 1812 Page 408
+
+Plan of the Engagement between the _United States_ and
+ _Macedonian_ Page 418
+
+
+
+
+Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812
+
+ANTECEDENTS OF THE WAR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+COLONIAL CONDITIONS
+
+
+The head waters of the stream of events which led to the War of 1812,
+between the United States and Great Britain, must be sought far back
+in the history of Europe, in the principles governing commercial,
+colonial, and naval policy, accepted almost universally prior to the
+French Revolution. It is true that, before that tremendous epoch was
+reached, a far-reaching contribution to the approaching change in
+men's ideas on most matters touching mercantile intercourse, and the
+true relations of man to man, of nation to nation, had been made by
+the publication, in 1776, of Adam Smith's "Inquiry into the Nature and
+Causes of the Wealth of Nations;" but, as is the case with most marked
+advances in the realm of thought, the light thus kindled, though
+finding reflection here and there among a few broader intellects, was
+unable to penetrate at once the dense surface of prejudice and
+conservatism with which the received maxims of generations had
+incrusted the general mind. Against such obstruction even the most
+popular of statesmen--as the younger Pitt soon after this
+became--cannot prevail at once; and, before time permitted the
+British people at large to reach that wider comprehension of issues,
+whereby alone radical change is made possible, there set in an era of
+reaction consequent upon the French Revolution, the excesses of which
+involved in one universal discredit all the more liberal ideas that
+were leavening the leaders of mankind.
+
+The two principal immediate causes of the War of 1812 were the
+impressment of seamen from American merchant ships, upon the high
+seas, to serve in the British Navy, and the interference with the
+carrying trade of the United States by the naval power of Great
+Britain. For a long time this interference was confined by the British
+Ministry to methods which they thought themselves able to defend--as
+they did the practice of impressment--upon the ground of rights,
+prescriptive and established, natural or belligerent; although the
+American Government contended that in several specific measures no
+such right existed,--that the action was illegal as well as
+oppressive. As the war with Napoleon increased in intensity, however,
+the exigencies of the struggle induced the British cabinet to
+formulate and enforce against neutrals a restriction of trade which it
+confessed to be without sanction in law, and justified only upon the
+plea of necessary retaliation, imposed by the unwarrantable course of
+the French Emperor. These later proceedings, known historically as the
+Orders in Council,[1] by their enormity dwarfed all previous causes of
+complaint, and with the question of impressment constituted the vital
+and irreconcilable body of dissent which dragged the two states into
+armed collision. Undoubtedly, other matters of difficulty arose from
+time to time, and were productive of dispute; but either they were of
+comparatively trivial importance, easily settled by ordinary
+diplomatic methods, or there was not at bottom any vital difference as
+to principle, but only as to the method of adjustment. For instance,
+in the flagrant and unpardonable outrage of taking men by force from
+the United States frigate "Chesapeake," the British Government,
+although permitted by the American to spin out discussion over a
+period of four years, did not pretend to sustain the act itself; the
+act, that is, of searching a neutral ship of war. Whatever the motive
+of the Ministry in postponing redress, their pretexts turned upon
+points of detail, accessory to the main transaction, or upon the
+subsequent course of the United States Government, which showed
+conscious weakness by taking hasty, pettish half-measures; instead of
+abstaining from immediate action, and instructing its minister to
+present an ultimatum, if satisfaction were shirked.
+
+In the two causes of the war which have been specified, the difference
+was fundamental. Whichever was right, the question at stake was in
+each case one of principle, and of necessity. Great Britain never
+claimed to impress American seamen; but she did assert that her
+native-born subjects could never change their allegiance, that she had
+an inalienable right to their service, and to seize them wherever
+found, except within foreign territory. From an admitted premise, that
+the open sea is common to all nations, she deduced a common
+jurisdiction, in virtue of which she arrested her vagrant seamen. This
+argument of right was reinforced by a paramount necessity. In a life
+and death struggle with an implacable enemy, Great Britain with
+difficulty could keep her fleet manned at all; even with indifferent
+material. The deterioration in quality of her ships' companies was
+notorious; and it was notorious also that numerous British seamen
+sought employment in American merchant ships, hoping there to find
+refuge from the protracted confinement of a now dreary maritime war.
+Resort to impressment was not merely the act of a high-handed
+Government, but the demand of both parties in the state, coerced by
+the sentiment of the people, whose will is ultimately irresistible. No
+ministry could hope to retain power if it surrendered the claim to
+take seamen found under a neutral flag. This fact was thoroughly
+established in a long discussion with United States plenipotentiaries,
+five years before the war broke out.
+
+On the other hand, the United States maintained that on the sea common
+the only jurisdiction over a ship was that of its own nation. She
+could not admit that American vessels there should be searched, for
+other purposes than those conceded to the belligerent by international
+law; that is, in order to determine the nature of the voyage, to
+ascertain whether, by destination, by cargo, or by persons carried,
+the obligations of neutrality were being infringed. If there was
+reasonable cause for suspicion, the vessel, by accepted law and
+precedent, might be sent to a port of the belligerent, where the
+question was adjudicated by legal process; but the actual captor could
+not decide it on the spot. On the contrary, he was bound, to the
+utmost possible, to preserve from molestation everything on board the
+seized vessel; in order that, if cleared, the owner might undergo no
+damage beyond the detention. So deliberate a course was not suited to
+the summary methods of impressment, nor to the urgent needs of the
+British Navy. The boarding officer, who had no authority to take away
+a bale of goods, decided then and there whether a man was subject to
+impressment, and carried him off at once, if he so willed.
+
+It is to the credit of the American Government under Jefferson, that,
+though weak in its methods of seeking redress, it went straight back
+of the individual sufferer, and rested its case unswervingly on the
+broad principle.[2] That impressment, thus practised, swept in
+American seamen, was an incident only, although it grievously
+aggravated the injury. Whatever the native allegiance of individuals
+on board any vessel on the open ocean, their rights were not to be
+regulated by the municipal law of the belligerent, but by that of the
+nation to which the ship belonged, of whose territory she was
+constructively a part, and whose flag therefore was dishonored, if
+acquiescence were yielded to an infringement of personal liberty,
+except as conceded by obligations of treaty, or by the general law of
+nations. Within British waters, the United States suffered no wrong by
+the impressment of British subjects--the enforcement of local
+municipal law--on board American vessels; and although it was
+suggested that such visits should not be made, and that an arriving
+crew should be considered to have the nationality of their ship, this
+concession, if granted, would have been a friendly limitation by Great
+Britain of her own municipal jurisdiction. It therefore could not be
+urged upon the British Government by a nation which took its stand
+resolutely upon the supremacy of its own municipal rights, on board
+its merchant shipping on the high seas.
+
+It is to be noted, furthermore, that the voice of the people in the
+United States, the pressure of influence upon the Government, was not
+as unanimous as that exerted upon the British Ministry. The feeling of
+the country was divided; and, while none denied the grievous wrong
+done when an American was impressed, a class, strong at least in
+intellectual power, limited its demands to precautions against such
+mistakes and to redress when they occurred. The British claim to
+search, with the object of impressing British subjects, was considered
+by these men to be valid. Thus Gouverneur Morris, who on a
+semi-official visit to London in 1790 had had occasion to remonstrate
+upon the impressment of Americans in British ports, and who, as a
+pamphleteer, had taken strong ground against the measures of the
+British Government injurious to American commerce, wrote as follows in
+1808 about the practice of seizing British subjects in American ships:
+"That we, the people of America, should engage in ruinous warfare to
+support a rash opinion, that foreign sailors in our merchant ships are
+to be protected against the power of their sovereign, is downright
+madness." "Why not," he wrote again in 1813, while the war was raging,
+"waiving flippant debate, lay down the broad principle of national
+right, on which Great Britain takes her native seamen from our
+merchant ships? Let those who deny the right pay, suffer, and fight,
+to compel an abandonment of the claim. Men of sound mind will see, and
+men of sound principle will acknowledge, its existence." In his
+opinion, there was but one consistent course to be pursued by those
+who favored the war with Great Britain, which was to insist that she
+should, without compensation, surrender her claim. "If that ground be
+taken," he wrote, "the war [on our part] will be confessedly, as it is
+now impliedly, unjust."[3] Morris was a man honorably distinguished in
+our troubled national history--a member of the Congress of the
+Revolution and of the Constitutional Convention, a trained lawyer, a
+practised financier, and an experienced diplomatist; one who
+throughout his public life stood high in the estimation of Washington,
+with whom he was in constant official and personal correspondence. It
+is to be added that those to whom he wrote were evidently in sympathy
+with his opinions.
+
+ [Illustration: GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
+ From the painting by Marchant, after Sully, in Independence
+ Hall, Philadelphia.]
+
+So again Representative Gaston, of North Carolina, a member of the
+same political party as Morris, speaking from his seat in the House in
+February, 1814,[4] maintained the British doctrine of inalienable
+allegiance. "Naturalization granted in another country has no effect
+whatever to destroy the original primary allegiance." Even
+Administration speakers did not deny this, but they maintained that
+the native allegiance could be enforced only within its territorial
+limits, not on the high seas. While perfectly firm and explicit as to
+the defence of American seamen,--even to the point of war, if
+needful,--Gaston spoke of the British practice as a right. "If you
+cannot by substitute obtain an abandonment of the right, or practice,
+to search our vessels, regulate it so as to prevent its abuse; waiving
+for the present, not relinquishing, your objections to it." He
+expressed sympathy, too, for the desperate straits in which Great
+Britain found herself. "At a time when her floating bulwarks were her
+whole safeguard against slavery, she could not view without alarm and
+resentment the warriors who should have manned those bulwarks pursuing
+a more gainful occupation in American vessels. Our merchant ships were
+crowded with British seamen, most of them deserters from their ships
+of war, and all furnished with fraudulent protections to prove them
+Americans. To us they were not necessary." On the contrary, "they ate
+the bread and bid down the wages of native seamen, whom it was our
+first duty to foster and encourage." This competition with native
+seamen was one of the pleas likewise of the New England opposition,
+too much of which was obstinately and reprehensibly factious. "Many
+thousands of British seamen," said Governor Strong of Massachusetts,
+in addressing the Legislature, May 28, 1813, "deserted that service
+for a more safe and lucrative employment in ours." Had they not, "the
+high price for that species of labor would soon have induced a
+sufficient number of Americans to become seamen. It appears,
+therefore, that British seamen have been patronized at the expense of
+our own; and should Great Britain now consent to relinquish the _right
+of taking her own subjects_, it would be no advantage to our native
+seamen; it would only tend to reduce their wages by increasing the
+numbers of that class of men."[5] Gaston further said, that North
+Carolina, though not a commercial state, had many native seamen; but,
+"at the moment war was declared, though inquiry was made, I could not
+hear of a single native seaman detained by British impressment."
+
+It is desirable, especially in these days, when everything is to be
+arbitrated, that men should recognize both sides of this question, and
+realize how impossible it was for either party to acquiesce in any
+other authority than their own deciding between them. "As I never had
+a doubt," said Morris, "so I thought it a duty to express my
+conviction that British ministers would not, _dared not_, submit to
+mediation a question of essential right."[6] "The way to peace is open
+and clear," he said the following year. "Let the right of search and
+impressment be acknowledged as maxims of public law."[7]
+
+These expressions, uttered in the freedom of private correspondence,
+show a profound comprehension of the constraint under which the
+British Government and people both lay. It was impossible, at such a
+moment of extreme national peril, to depart from political convictions
+engendered by the uniform success of a policy followed consistently
+for a hundred and fifty years. For Great Britain, the time had long
+since passed into a dim distance, when the national appreciation of
+the sea to her welfare was that of mere defence, as voiced by
+Shakespeare:
+
+ England, hedged in with the main,
+ That water-walled bulwark, still secure
+ And confident from foreign purposes.[8]
+
+ This little world,
+ This precious stone set in the silver sea,
+ Which serves it in the office of a wall,
+ Or as a moat defensive to a house
+ Against the envy of less happier lands.[9]
+
+By the middle of the seventeenth century, the perception of Great
+Britain's essential need to predominate upon the sea had dawned upon
+men's minds, and thence had passed from a vague national consciousness
+to a clearly defined national line of action, adopted first through a
+recognition of existing conditions of inferiority, but after these had
+ceased pursued without any change of spirit, and with no important
+changes of detail. This policy was formulated in a series of measures,
+comprehensively known as the Navigation Acts, the first of which was
+passed in 1651, during Cromwell's Protectorate. In 1660, immediately
+after the Restoration, it was reaffirmed in most essential features,
+and thenceforward continued to and beyond the times of which we are
+writing. In form a policy of sweeping protection, for the development
+of a particular British industry,--the carrying trade,--it was soon
+recognized that, in substance, its success had laid the foundations of
+a naval strength equally indispensable to the country. Upon this
+ground it was approved even by Adam Smith, although in direct
+opposition to the general spirit of his then novel doctrine. While
+exposing its fallacies as a commercial measure, he said it exemplified
+one of two cases in which protective legislation was to be justified.
+"The defence of Great Britain, for example, depends very much upon the
+number of its sailors and shipping. The Act of Navigation therefore
+very properly endeavors to give the sailors and shipping of Great
+Britain the monopoly of the trade of their own country.... It is not
+impossible that some of the regulations of this famous Act may have
+proceeded from national animosity. They are as wise, however, as
+though they had all been dictated by the most deliberate wisdom....
+The Act is not favorable to foreign commerce, nor to the opulence
+which can arise from that; but defence is of much more importance than
+opulence. The Act of Navigation is perhaps the wisest of all the
+commercial regulations of England."[10] It became a dominant
+prepossession of British statesmen, even among Smith's converts, in
+the conduct of foreign relations, that the military power of the state
+lay in the vast resources of native seamen, employed in its merchant
+ships. Even the wealth returned to the country, by the monopoly of the
+imperial markets, and by the nearly exclusive possession of the
+carrying trade, which was insured to British commerce by the elaborate
+regulations of the Act, was thought of less moment. "Every commercial
+consideration has been repeatedly urged," wrote John Adams, the first
+United States Minister to Great Britain, "but to no effect; seamen,
+the Navy, and power to strike an awful blow to an enemy at the first
+outbreak of war, are the ideas which prevail."[11] This object, and
+this process, are familiar to us in these later days under the term
+"mobilization;" the military value of which, if rapidly effected, is
+well understood.
+
+In this light, and in the light of the preceding experience of a
+hundred and fifty years, we must regard the course of the British
+Ministry through that period, extremely critical to both nations,
+which began when our War of Independence ended, and issued in the War
+of 1812. We in this day are continually told to look back to our
+fathers of the Revolutionary period, to follow their precepts, to
+confine ourselves to the lines of their policy. Let us then either
+justify the British ministries of Pitt and his successors, in their
+obstinate adherence to the traditions they had received, or let us
+admit that even ancestral piety may be carried too far, and that
+venerable maxims must be brought to the test of existing conditions.
+
+The general movement of maritime intercourse between countries is
+commonly considered under two principal heads: Commerce and
+Navigation. The first applies to the interchange of commodities,
+however effected; the second, to their transportation from port to
+port. A nation may have a large commerce, of export and import,
+carried in foreign vessels, and possess little shipping of its own.
+This is at present the condition of the United States; and once, in
+far gone days, it was in great measure that of England. In such case
+there is a defect of navigation, consequent upon which there will be a
+deficiency of native seamen; of seamen attached to the country and its
+interests, by ties of birth or habit. For maritime war such a state
+will have but small resources of adaptable naval force; a condition
+dangerous in proportion to its dependence upon control of the sea.
+Therefore the attention of British statesmen, during the period in
+which the Navigation Act flourished, fastened more and more upon the
+necessity of maintaining the navigation of the kingdom, as
+distinguished from its commerce. Subsidiary to the movement of
+commerce, there is a third factor, relatively stationary, the
+consideration of which is probably less familiar now than it was to
+the contemporaries of the Navigation Act, to whom it was known under
+the name _entrepot_. This term was applied to those commercial
+centres--in this connection maritime centres--where goods accumulate
+on their way to market; where they are handled, stored, or
+transshipped. All these processes involve expenditure, which inures to
+the profit of the port, and of the nation; the effect being the exact
+equivalent of the local gains of a railroad centre of the present day.
+It was a dominant object with statesmen of the earlier period to draw
+such accumulations of traffic to their own ports, or nations; to force
+trade, by ingenious legislation, or even by direct coercion, to bring
+its materials to their own shores, and there to yield to them the
+advantages of the _entrepot_. Thus the preamble to one of the series
+of Navigation Acts states, as a direct object, the "making this
+Kingdom a staple[12] [emporium], not only of the commodities of our
+plantations, but also of the commodities of other countries, and
+places, for the supply of the plantations."[13] An instructive example
+of such indirect effort was the institution of free ports; ports
+which, by exemption from heavy customary tolls, or by the admission of
+foreign ships or goods, not permitted entrance to other national
+harbors, invited the merchant to collect in them, from surrounding
+regions, the constituents of his cargoes. On the other hand, the
+Colonial System, which began to assume importance at the time of the
+Navigation Act, afforded abundant opportunity for the compulsion of
+trade. Colonies being part of the mother country, and yet transoceanic
+with reference to her, maritime commerce between them and foreign
+communities could by direct legislation be obliged first to seek the
+parent state, which thus was made the distributing centre for both
+their exports and imports.
+
+For nearly three centuries before the decisive measures taken by the
+Parliament of the Commonwealth, the development and increase of
+English shipping, by regulation of English trade, had been recognized
+as a desirable object by many English rulers. The impulse had taken
+shape in various enactments, giving to English vessels privileges,
+exclusive or qualified, in the import or export carriage of the
+kingdom; and it will readily be understood that the matter appeared of
+even more pressing importance, when the Navy depended upon the
+merchant service for ships, as well as for men; when the war fleets of
+the nation were composed of impressed ships, as well as manned by
+impressed sailors. These various laws had been tentative in character.
+Both firmness of purpose and continuity of effort were lacking to
+them; due doubtless to the comparative weakness of the nation in the
+scale of European states up to the seventeenth century. During the
+reigns of the first two Stuarts, this weakness was emphasized by
+internal dissensions; but the appreciation of the necessity for some
+radical remedy to the decay of English naval power remained and
+increased. To this conviction the ship-money of Charles the First
+bears its testimony; but it was left to Cromwell and his associates to
+formulate the legislation, upon which, for two centuries to come, the
+kingdom was thought to depend, alike for the growth of its merchant
+shipping and for the maintenance of the navy. All that preceded has
+interest chiefly as showing the origin and growth of an enduring
+national conviction, with which the United States came into collision
+immediately after achieving independence.
+
+The ninth of October, 1651, is the date of the passing of the Act, the
+general terms of which set for two hundred years the standard for
+British legislation concerning the shipping industry. The title of the
+measure, "Goods from foreign ports, by whom to be imported," indicated
+at once that the object in view was the carrying trade; navigation,
+rather than commerce. Commerce was to be manipulated and forced into
+English bottoms as an indispensable agency for reaching British
+consumers. At this time less than half a century had elapsed since the
+first English colonists had settled in Massachusetts and Virginia. The
+British plantation system was still in its beginnings, alike in
+America, Asia, and Africa. When the then recent Civil War ended, in
+the overthrow of the royal power, it had been "observed with concern
+that the merchants of England had for several years usually freighted
+Dutch ships for fetching home their merchandise, because the freights
+were lower than in English ships. Dutch ships, therefore, were used
+for importing our own American products, while English ships lay
+rotting in harbor."[14] "Notwithstanding the regulations made for
+confining that branch of navigation to the mother country, it is said
+that in the West India Islands there used, at this time, out of forty
+ships to be thirty-eight ships Dutch bottoms."[15] English mariners
+also, for want of employment, went into the Dutch service. In this way
+seamen for the navy disappeared, just as, at a later day, they did
+into the merchant shipping of the United States.
+
+The one great maritime rival of England, Holland, had thus engrossed,
+not only the carrying trade of Europe at large, most of which, from
+port to port, was done by her seamen, but that of England as well.
+Even of the English coasting trade much was done by Dutch ships. Under
+this competition, the English merchant marine was dwindling, and had
+become so inadequate that, when the exclusion of foreigners was
+enforced by the Act, the cry at once arose in the land that the
+English shipping was not sufficient for the work thus thrust upon it.
+"Although our own people have not shipping enough to import from all
+parts what they want, they are needlessly debarred from receiving new
+supplies of merchandise from other nations, who alone can, and until
+now did, import it."[16] The effect of this decadence of shipping upon
+the resources of men for the navy is apparent.
+
+The existence of strained relations between England and Holland
+facilitated the adoption of the first Navigation Act, which, as things
+were, struck the Dutch only; they being the one great carrying
+community in Europe. Although both the letter and the purpose of the
+new law included in its prohibitions all foreign countries, the
+commercial interests of other states were too slight, and their
+commercial spirit too dull, to take note of the future effect upon
+themselves; whether absolutely, or in relation to the maritime power
+of Great Britain, the cornerstone of which was then laid. This first
+Act directed that no merchandise from Asia, Africa, or America,
+including therein English "plantations," as the colonies were then
+styled,[17] should be imported into England in other than
+English-built ships, belonging to English subjects, and of which "the
+master and mariners are also, for the most part of them, of the people
+of this commonwealth." This at once reserved a large part of the
+external trade to English ships; and also, by the regulation of the
+latter, constituted them a nursery for English seamen. To the general
+tenor of this clause, confining importation wholly to English vessels,
+an exception was made for Europe only; importations from any part of
+which was permitted to "such foreign ships and vessels as do truly and
+properly belong to the people of that country or place of which the
+said goods are the growth, production, or manufacture."[18] Foreign
+merchantmen might therefore import into England the products of their
+own country; but both they and English vessels must ship such cargoes
+in the country of origin, not at any intermediate port. The purpose of
+these provisos, especially of the second, was to deprive Holland of
+the profit of the middleman, or the _entrepot_, which she had enjoyed
+hitherto by importing to herself from various regions, warehousing the
+goods, and then re-exporting. The expense of these processes, pocketed
+by Dutch handlers, and the exaction of any dues levied by the Dutch
+Treasury, reappeared in increased cost to foreign consumers. This
+appreciation of the value of the _entrepot_ underlay much of the
+subsequent colonial regulation of England, and actuated the famous
+Orders in Council of 1807, which were a principal factor in causing
+the War of 1812. A second effect of these restrictions, which in later
+times was deemed even more important than the pecuniary gain, was to
+compel English ships to go long voyages, to the home countries of the
+cargoes they sought, instead of getting them near by in Dutch depots.
+This gave a corresponding development to the carrying trade--the
+navigation--of the Commonwealth; securing greater employment for ships
+and seamen, increasing both their numbers and experience, and
+contributing thereby to the resources of the navy in men. "A
+considerable carrying trade would be lost to us, and would remain with
+the merchants of Holland, of Hamburg, and other maritime towns, if our
+merchants were permitted to furnish themselves by short voyages to
+those neighboring ports, and were not compelled to take upon
+themselves the burden of bringing these articles from the countries
+where they were produced."[19]
+
+The Act of 1660, officially known as that of 12 Charles II., modified
+the provisos governing the European trade. The exclusion of goods of
+European origin from all transportation to England, save in ships of
+their own nation, was to some extent removed. This surrender was
+censured by some, explicitly, because it again enabled the Dutch to
+collect foreign articles and send them to England, thereby "permitting
+competition with this country in the longer part of the voyage;" to
+the injury, therefore, of British navigation. The remission, though
+real, was less than appeared; for the prohibitions of the Commonwealth
+were still applied to a large number of specified articles, the
+produce chiefly of Russia and Turkey, which could be imported only in
+their national ships, or those of England. As those countries had
+substantially no long voyage shipping, trade with them was to all
+practical purposes confined to English vessels.[20] The concession to
+foreign vessels, such as it was, was further qualified by heavier
+duties, called aliens' duties, upon their cargoes; and by the
+requirement that three-fourths of their crew, entering English ports,
+should be of the same nationality as the ship. The object of this
+regulation was to prevent the foreign state from increasing its
+tonnage, by employing seamen other than its own. This went beyond mere
+protection of English vessels, and was a direct attack, though by
+English municipal law, upon the growth of foreign shipping.
+
+This purpose indeed was authoritatively announced from the bench,
+construing the Act in the decision of a specific case. "Parliament had
+wisely foreseen that, if they restrained the importation or
+exportation of European goods, unless in our own ships, and manned
+with our own seamen, other states would do the same; and this, in its
+consequences, would amount to a prohibition of all such goods, which
+would be extremely detrimental to trade, and in the end defeat the
+very design of the Act. It was seen, however, that many countries in
+Europe, as France, Spain, and Italy, could more easily buy ships than
+build them; that, on the other hand, countries like Russia, and others
+in the North, had timber and materials enough for building ships, but
+wanted sailors. It was from a consideration of this inaptness in most
+countries to accomplish a complete navigation, that the Parliament
+prohibited the importation of most European goods, unless in ships
+owned and navigated by English, or in ships of the _build of_ and
+manned by sailors of that country of which the goods were the growth.
+The consequence would be that foreigners could not make use of ships
+they bought, though English subjects might. This would force them to
+have recourse to our shipping, and the general intent of the Act, to
+secure the carrying trade to the English, would be answered as far as
+it possibly could." It was therefore ruled that the tenor of the Act
+forbade foreigners to import to England in ships not of their own
+building; and, adds the reporter, "This exposition of the Act of
+Navigation is certainly the true one."[21] Having thus narrowed
+foreign competition to the utmost extent possible to municipal
+statutes, Parliament made the carrying industry even more exclusively
+than before a preserve for native seamen. The Commonwealth's
+requirement, that "the most" of the crew should be English, was
+changed to a definite prescription that the master and three-fourths
+of the mariners should be so.
+
+Under such enactments, with frequent modification of detail, but no
+essential change of method, British shipping and seamen continued to
+be "protected" against foreign competition down to and beyond the War
+of 1812. In this long interval there is no change of conception, nor
+any relaxation of national conviction. The whole history affords a
+remarkable instance of persistent policy, pursued consecutively for
+five or six generations. No better evidence could be given of its hold
+upon the minds of the people, or of the serious nature of the obstacle
+encountered by any other state that came into collision with it; as
+the United States during the Napoleonic period did, in matters of
+trade and carriage, but especially in the closely related question of
+Impressment.
+
+Whether the Navigation Act, during its period of vigor, was successful
+in developing the British mercantile marine and supporting the British
+Navy has been variously argued. The subsequent growth of British
+navigation is admitted; but whether this was the consequence of the
+measure itself has been disputed. It appears to the writer that those
+who doubt its effect in this respect allow their convictions of the
+strength of economical forces to blind them to the power of
+unremitting legislative action. To divert national activities from
+natural channels into artificial may be inexpedient and wasteful; and
+it may be reasonable to claim that ends so achieved are not really
+successes, but failures. Nevertheless, although natural causes, till
+then latent, may have conspired to further the development which the
+Navigation Act was intended to promote, and although, since its
+abolition, the same causes may have sufficed to sustain the imposing
+national carrying trade built up during its continuance, it is
+difficult to doubt the great direct influence of the Act itself;
+having in view the extent of the results, as well as the corroborative
+success of modern states in building up and maintaining other
+distinctly artificial industries, sometimes to the injury of the
+natural industries of other peoples, which the Navigation Act also in
+its day was meant to effect.
+
+The condition of British navigation in 1651 has been stated. The
+experience of the remaining years of the Protectorate appears to have
+confirmed national opinion as to the general policy of the Act, and to
+have suggested the modifications of the Restoration. To trace the full
+sequence of development, in legislation or in shipping, is not here
+permissible; the present need being simply to give an account, and an
+explanation, of the strength of a national prepossession, which in its
+manifestation was a chief cause of the events that are the theme of
+this book. A few scattered details, taken casually, seem strikingly to
+sustain the claims of the advocates of the system, bearing always in
+mind the depression of the British shipping industry before the
+passage of the law. In 1728 there arrived in London from all parts
+beyond sea 2052 ships, of which only 213 were under foreign flags;
+less than one in nine. In Liverpool, in 1765, of 1533 entered and
+cleared, but 135 were foreign; in Bristol, the same year, of 701 but
+91 foreign. Of the entire import of that year only 28 per cent, in
+money value, came from Europe; the carriage of the remaining 72 per
+cent was confined to British ships. It may, of course, be maintained
+that this restriction of shipping operated to the disadvantage of the
+commerce of the kingdom; that there was direct pecuniary loss. This
+would not be denied, for the object of the Act was less national gain
+than the upbuilding of shipping as a resource for the navy.
+Nevertheless, at this same period, in 1764, of 810 ships entering the
+great North German commercial centre, Hamburg, 267--over
+one-third--were British; the Dutch but 146, the Hamburgers themselves
+157. A curious and suggestive comparison is afforded by the same port
+in 1769. From the extensive, populous, and fruitful country of France,
+the _entrepot_ of the richest West Indian colony, Santo Domingo, there
+entered Hamburg 203 ships, of which not one was French; whereas from
+Great Britain there came a slightly larger total, 216, of which 178
+were British.
+
+Such figures seem to substantiate the general contemporary opinion of
+the efficacy of the Navigation Act, and to support the particular
+claim of a British writer of the day, that the naval weakness of
+Holland and France was due to the lack of similar measures. "The Dutch
+have indeed pursued a different policy, but they have thereby fallen
+to a state of weakness, which is now the object of pity, or of
+contempt. It was owing to the want of sailors, and not to the fault of
+their officers, that the ten ships of the line, which during their
+late impudent quarrel with Britain had been stipulated to join the
+French fleet, never sailed."[22] "The French Navy, which at all times
+depended chiefly upon the West India trade for a supply of seamen,
+must have been laid up, if the war (of American Independence) had
+continued another year."[23] Whatever the accuracy of these
+statements,[24]--and they are those of a well-informed man,--they
+represented a general conviction, not in Great Britain only but in
+Europe, of the results of the Navigation legislation. A French writer
+speaks of it as the source of England's greatness,[25] and sums up his
+admiration in words which recognize the respective shares of natural
+advantages and sagacious supervision in the grand outcome. "Called to
+commerce by her situation, it became the spirit of her government and
+the lever of her ambition. In other monarchies, it is private
+individuals who carry on commerce; but in that happy constitution it
+is the state, or the nation in its entirety."
+
+In Great Britain itself there was substantial unanimity. This colored
+all its after policy towards its lately rebellious and now independent
+children, who as carriers had revived the once dreaded rivalry of the
+Dutch. To quote one writer, intimately acquainted with the whole
+theory and practice of the Navigation Acts, they "tend to the
+establishment of a monopoly; but our ancestors ... considered the
+defence of this island from foreign invasion as the first law in the
+national policy. Judging that the dominion of the land could not be
+preserved without possessing that of the sea, they made every effort
+to procure to the nation a maritime power of its own. They wished that
+the merchants should own as many ships, and employ as many mariners as
+possible. To induce, and sometimes to force, them to this application
+of their capital, restrictions and prohibitions were devised. The
+interests of commerce were often sacrificed to this object." Yet he
+claims that in the end commerce also profited, for "the increase in
+the number of ships became a spur to seek out employment for them." In
+1792, British registered shipping amounted to 1,365,000 tons,
+employing 80,000 seamen. Of these, by common practice, two-thirds--say
+50,000--were available for war, during which it was the rule to relax
+the Act so far as to require only one-fourth of the crew to be
+British. "That the increase in our shipping is to be ascribed to our
+navigation system appears in the application of it to the trade of the
+United States. When those countries were part of our plantations, a
+great portion of our produce was transported to Great Britain and our
+West India Islands in American bottoms; they had a share in the
+freight of sugars from those islands to Great Britain; they built
+annually more than one hundred ships, which were employed in the
+carrying trade of Great Britain; but since the Independence of those
+states, since their ships have been excluded from our plantations, and
+that trade is wholly confined to British ships, we have gained that
+share of our carrying trade from which they are now excluded."[26] In
+corroboration of the same tendency, it was also noted during the war
+with the colonies, that "the shipyards of Britain in every port were
+full of employment, so that new yards were set up in places never
+before so used."[27] That is, the war, stopping the intrusion of
+American colonists into the British carrying trade, just as the
+Navigation Act prohibited that of foreign nations, created a demand
+for British ships to fill the vacancy; a result perfectly in keeping
+with the whole object of the navigation system. But when hostilities
+with France began again in 1793, and lasted with slight intermission
+for twenty years, the drain of the navy for seamen so limited the
+development of the British navigation as to afford an opening for
+competition, of which American maritime aptitude took an advantage,
+threatening British supremacy and arousing corresponding jealousy.
+
+Besides the increase of national shipping, the idea of _entrepot_
+received recognition in both the earlier and later developments of the
+system. Numerous specified articles, produced in English colonies,
+could be carried nowhere but to England, Ireland, or another colony,
+where they must be landed before going farther. Because regularly
+listed, such articles were technically styled "enumerated;"
+"enumerated commodities being such as must first be landed in England
+before being taken to foreign parts."[28] From this privilege Ireland
+was soon after excepted; enumerated goods for that country having
+first to be landed in England.[29] Among such enumerated articles,
+tobacco and rice held prominent places and illustrate the system. Of
+the former, in the first half of the eighteenth century, it was
+estimated that on an average seventy-two million pounds were sent
+yearly to England, of which fifty-four million were re-exported; an
+export duty of sixpence per pound being then levied, besides the cost
+of handling. Rice, made an enumerated article in 1705, exemplifies
+aptly the ideas which influenced the multifold manipulation of the
+nation's commerce in those days. The restriction was removed in 1731,
+so far as to permit this product to be sent direct from South Carolina
+and Georgia to any part of Europe south of Cape Finisterre; but only
+in British ships navigated according to the Act. In this there is a
+partial remission of the _entrepot_ exaction, while the nursing of the
+carrying trade is carefully guarded. The latter was throughout the
+superior interest, inseparably connected in men's minds with the
+support of the navy. At a later date, West India sugar received the
+same indulgence as rice; it being found that the French were gaining
+the general European market, by permitting French vessels to carry the
+products of their islands direct to foreign continental ports. Rice
+and sugar for northern Europe, however, still had to be landed in
+England before proceeding.
+
+The colonial trade in general was made entirely subservient to the
+support and development of English shipping, and to the enrichment of
+England, as the half-way storehouse. Into England foreign goods could
+be imported in some measure by foreign vessels, though under marked
+restrictions and disabilities; but into the colonies it was early
+forbidden to import any goods, whatever their origin, except in
+English-built ships, commanded and manned in accordance with the Act.
+Further, even in such ships they must be imported from England itself,
+not direct; not from the country of origin. The motive for this
+statute of 1663[30] is avowed in the preamble: to be with a view of
+maintaining a greater correspondence and kindness between them and the
+mother country, keeping the former in a firmer dependence upon the
+latter, and to make this kingdom the staple both of the commodities of
+the plantations, and of other countries in order to supply them.
+Further, it was alleged that it was the usage of nations to keep their
+plantation trade to themselves.[31] In compensation for this
+subjection of their trade to the policy of the mother country, the
+supplying of the latter with West India products was reserved to the
+colonists.
+
+Thus, goods for the colonies, as well as those from the colonies, from
+or to a foreign country,--from or to France, for example,--must first
+be landed in England before proceeding to the ultimate destination.
+Yet even this cherished provision, enforced against the foreigner, was
+made to subserve the carrying trade--the leading object; for, upon
+re-exportation to the colonies, there was allowed a drawback of duties
+paid upon admission to England, and permanent upon residents there.
+The effect of this was to make the articles cheaper in the colonies
+than in England itself, and so to induce increased consumption. It was
+therefore to the profit of the carrier; and the more acceptable,
+because the shipping required to bring home colonial goods was much in
+excess of that required for outward cargoes, to the consequent
+lowering of outward freights. "A regard to the profits of freights,"
+writes a contemporary familiar with the subject, "as much as the
+augmentation of seamen, dictated this policy."[32] From the
+conditions, it did not directly increase the number of seamen; but by
+helping the shipping merchant it supported the carrying industry as a
+whole.
+
+Upon the legislative union of Scotland with England, in 1707, this
+_entrepot_ privilege, with all other reserved advantages of English
+trade and commerce, was extended to the northern kingdom, and was a
+prominent consideration in inducing the Scotch people to accept a
+political change otherwise distasteful, because a seeming sacrifice of
+independence. Before this time they had had their own navigation
+system, modelled on the English; the Acts of the two parliaments
+embodying certain relations of reciprocity. Thenceforward, the
+Navigation Act is to be styled more properly a British, than an
+English, measure; but its benefits, now common to all Great Britain,
+were denied still to Ireland.
+
+It will be realized that the habit of receiving exclusive favors at
+the expense of a particular set of people--the colonist and the
+foreigner--readily passed in a few generations into an unquestioning
+conviction of the propriety, and of the necessity, of such measures.
+It should be easy now for those living under a high protective tariff
+to understand that, having built up upon protection a principal
+national industry,--the carrying trade,--involving in its
+ramifications the prosperity of a large proportion of the
+wealth-producers of the country, English statesmen would fear to touch
+the fabric in any important part; and that their dread would be
+intensified by the conviction, universally held, that to remove any of
+these artificial supports would be to imperil at the same time the
+Royal Navy, the sudden expansion of which, from a peace to a war
+footing, depended upon impressment from the protected merchant ships.
+It will be seen also that with such precedents of _entrepot_, for the
+nourishing of British commerce, it was natural to turn to the same
+methods,--although in a form monstrously exaggerated,--when Napoleon
+by his decrees sought to starve British commerce to death. In
+conception and purpose, the Orders in Council of 1807 were simply a
+development of the _entrepot_ system. Their motto, "No trade save
+through England,"--the watchword of the ministry of Canning,
+Castlereagh, and Perceval, 1807-12,--was merely the revival towards
+the United States, as an independent nation, of the methods observed
+towards her when an assemblage of colonies, forty years before; the
+object in both cases being the welfare of Great Britain, involved in
+the monopoly of an important external commerce, the material of which,
+being stored first in her ports, paid duty to her at the expense of
+continental consumers.
+
+Nor was there in the thought of the age, external to Great Britain,
+any corrective of the impressions which dominated her commercial
+policy. "Commercial monopoly," wrote Montesquieu, "is the leading
+principle of colonial intercourse;" and an accomplished West Indian,
+quoting this phrase about 1790, says: "The principles by which the
+nations of Europe were influenced were precisely the same: (1) to
+secure to themselves respectively the most important productions of
+their colonies, and (2) to retain to themselves exclusively the
+advantage of supplying the colonies with European goods and
+manufactures."[33] "I see," wrote John Adams from France, in 1784,
+"that the French merchants regard their colonies as English merchants
+considered us twenty years ago." The rigor of the French colonial
+trade system had been relaxed during the War of American Independence,
+as was frequently done by all states during hostilities; but when
+Louis XVI., in 1784, sought to continue this, though in an extremely
+qualified concession, allowing American vessels of under sixty tons a
+limited trade between the West Indies and their own country, the
+merchants of Marseilles, Bordeaux, Rochelle, Nantes, St. Malo, all
+sent in excited remonstrances, which found support in the provincial
+parliaments of Bordeaux and Brittany.[34]
+
+A further indication of the economical convictions of the French
+people, and of the impression made upon Europe generally by the
+success of the British Navigation Act, is to be seen in the fact that
+in 1794, under the Republic, the National Convention issued a decree
+identical in spirit, and almost identical in terms, with the English
+Act of 1651. In the latter year, said the report of the Committee to
+the Convention, "one-half the navigation of England was carried on by
+foreigners. She has imperceptibly retaken her rights. Towards the year
+1700 foreigners possessed no more than the fifth part of this
+navigation; in 1725 only a little more than the ninth; in 1750 a
+little more than a twelfth; and in 1791 they possessed only the
+fourteenth part of it."[35] It is perhaps unnecessary to add that the
+colonial system of Spain was as rigid as that of Great Britain, though
+far less capably administered. So universal was the opinion of the
+day as to the relation of colonies to navigation, that a contemporary
+American, familiar with the general controversy, wrote: "Though
+speculative politicians have entertained doubts in regard to favorable
+effects from colonial possessions, taking into view the expenses of
+their improvement, defence, and government, no question has been made
+but that the monopoly of their trade greatly increases the commerce of
+the nations to which they are appurtenant."[36] Very soon after the
+adoption of the Constitution, the Congress of the United States, for
+the development of the carrying trade, enacted provisions analogous to
+the Navigation Act, so far as applicable to a nation having no
+colonies, but with large shipping and coasting interests to be
+favored.
+
+To such accepted views, and to such traditional practice, the
+independence of the thirteen British colonies upon the American
+continent came not only as a new political fact, but as a portentous
+breach in the established order of things. As such, it was regarded
+with uneasy jealousy by both France and Spain; but to Great Britain it
+was doubly ominous. Not only had she lost a reserved market, singly
+the most valuable she possessed, but she had released, however
+unwillingly, a formidable and recognized rival for the carrying trade,
+the palladium of her naval strength. The market she was not without
+hopes of regaining, by a compulsion which, though less direct, would
+be in effect as real as that enforced by colonial regulation; but the
+capacity of the Americans as carriers rested upon natural conditions
+not so easy to overcome. The difficulty of the problem was increased
+by the fact that the governments of the world generally were awaking
+to the disproportionate advantages Great Britain had been reaping from
+them for more than a century, during which they had listlessly
+acquiesced in her aggressive absorption of the carriage of the seas.
+America could count upon their sympathies, and possible co-operation,
+in her rivalry with the British carrier. "It is manifest," wrote Coxe
+in 1794, "that a prodigious and almost universal revolution in the
+views of nations has taken place with regard to the carrying trade."
+When John Adams spoke of the United States retaliating upon Great
+Britain, by enacting a similar measure of its own, the minister of
+Portugal, then a country of greater weight than now, replied: "Not a
+nation in Europe would suffer a Navigation Act to be made by any other
+at this day. That of England was made in times of ignorance, when few
+nations cultivated commerce, and no country but she understood or
+cared anything about it, but now all courts are attentive to it;"[37]
+so much so, indeed, that it has been said this was the age of
+commercial treaties. It was the age also of commercial regulation,
+often mistaken and injurious, which found its ideals largely in the
+Navigation Act of Great Britain, and in the resultant extraordinary
+processes of minute and comprehensive interference, with every species
+of commerce, and every article of export or import; for, while the
+general principles of the Navigation Act were few and simple enough,
+in application they entailed a watchful and constant balancing of
+advantages by the Board of Trade, and a consequent manipulation of the
+course of commerce,--a perfectly idealized and sublimated protection.
+The days of its glory, however, were passing fast. Great Britain was
+now in the position of one who has been first to exploit a great
+invention, upon which he has an exclusive patent. Others were now
+entering the field, and she must prepare for competition, in which she
+most of all feared those of her own blood, the children of her loins;
+for the signs of the menacing conditions following the War of
+Independence had been apparent some time before the revolt of the
+colonies gained for them liberty of action, heretofore checked in
+favor of the mother country. In these conditions, and in the national
+sentiment concerning them, are to be found the origin of a course of
+action which led to the War of 1812.
+
+Under the Navigation Act, and throughout the colonial period, the
+transatlantic colonies of Great Britain had grown steadily; developing
+a commercial individuality of their own, depending in each upon local
+conditions. The variety of these, with the consequent variety of
+occupations and products, and the distance separating all from the
+mother country, had contributed to develop among them a certain degree
+of mutual dependence, and consequent exchange; the outcome of which
+was a commercial system interior to the group as a whole, and distinct
+from the relations to Great Britain borne by them individually and
+collectively. There was a large and important intercolonial
+commerce,[38] consistent with the letter of the Navigation Act, as
+well as a trade with Great Britain; and although each of these exerted
+an influence upon the other, it was indirect and circuitous. The two
+were largely separate in fact, as well as in idea; and the interchange
+between the various colonies was more than double that with the mother
+country. It drew in British as well as American seamen, and was
+considered thus to entail the disadvantage that, unless America were
+the scene of war, the crews there were out of reach of impressment;
+that measure being too crude and unsystematic to reach effectively so
+distant a source of supply. Curiously enough, also, by an act passed
+in the reign of Queen Anne, seamen born in the American colonies were
+exempted from impressment.[39] "During the late Civil War (of American
+Independence) it has been found difficult sufficiently to man our
+fleet, from the seamen insisting that, since they had been born in
+America, they could not be pressed to serve in the British navy."[40]
+In these conditions, and especially in the difficulty of
+distinguishing the place of birth by the language spoken, is seen the
+foreshadowing of the troubles attending the practice of Impressment,
+after the United States had become a separate nation.
+
+The British American colonies were divided by geographical conditions
+into two primary groups: those of the West India Islands, and those of
+the Continent. The common use of the latter term, in the thought and
+speech of the day, is indicated by the comprehensive adjective
+"Continental," familiarly applied to the Congress, troops, currency,
+and other attributes of sovereignty, assumed by the revolted colonies
+after their declaration of independence. Each group had special
+commercial characteristics--in itself, and relatively to Great
+Britain. The islands, whatever their minor differences of detail, or
+their mutual jealousies, or even their remoteness from one
+another,--Jamaica being a thousand miles from her eastern
+sisters,--were essentially a homogeneous body. Similarity of latitude
+and climate induced similarity of social and economical conditions;
+notably in the dependence on slave labor, upon which the industrial
+fabric rested. Their products, among which sugar and coffee were the
+most important, were such as Europe did not yield; it was therefore to
+their advantage to expend labor upon these wholly, and to depend upon
+external sources for supplies of all kinds, including food. Their
+exports, being directed by the Navigation Act almost entirely upon
+Great Britain, were, in connection with Virginia tobacco, the most
+lucrative of the "enumerated" articles which rendered tribute to the
+_entrepot_ monopoly of the mother country. It was in this respect
+particularly, as furnishing imports to be handled and re-exported,
+that the islands were valuable to the home merchants. To the welfare
+of the body politic they contributed by their support of the carrying
+trade; for the cargoes, being bulky, required much tonnage, and the
+entire traffic was confined to British ships, manned three-fourths by
+British seamen. As a market also the islands were of consequence; all
+their supplies coming, by law, either from or through Great Britain,
+or from the continental colonies. Intercourse with foreign states was
+prohibited, and that with foreign colonies allowed only under rare and
+disabling conditions. But although the West Indies thus maintained a
+large part of the mother country's export trade, the smallness of
+their population, and the simple necessities of the slaves, who formed
+the great majority of the inhabitants, rendered them as British
+customers much inferior to the continental colonies; and this
+disparity was continually increasing, for the continent was growing
+rapidly in numbers, wealth, and requirements. In the five years
+1744-48, the exports from Great Britain to the two quarters were
+nearly equal; but a decade later the continent took double the amount
+that the islands demanded. The figures quoted for the period 1754-58
+are: to the West Indies, L3,765,000; to North America, L7,410,000.[41]
+In the five years ending 1774 the West Indies received L6,748,095; the
+thirteen continental colonies, L13,660,180.[42]
+
+Imports from the continent also supported the carrying trade of Great
+Britain, but not to an extent proportionate to those from the islands;
+for many of the continental colonies were themselves large carriers.
+The imports to them, being manufactured articles, less bulky than the
+exports of the islands, also required less tonnage. The most marked
+single difference between the West India communities and those of the
+continent was that the latter, being distributed on a nearly north and
+south line, with consequent great divergences of climate and products,
+were essentially not homogeneous. What one had, another had not. Such
+differences involve of course divergence of interests, with consequent
+contentions and jealousies, the influence of which was felt most
+painfully prior to the better Union of 1789, and never can wholly
+cease to act; but, on the other hand, it tends also to promote
+exchange of offices, where need and facility of transport combine to
+make such exchange beneficial to both. That the intercourse between
+the continental colonies required a tonnage equal to that employed
+between them and the West Indies,--testified by the return of 1770
+before quoted,[43]--shows the existence of conditions destined
+inevitably to draw them together. The recognition of such mutual
+dependence, when once attained, furthers the practice of mutual
+concession for the purpose of combined action. Consequently, in the
+protracted struggle between the centripetal and centrifugal forces in
+North America, the former prevailed, though not till after long and
+painful wavering.
+
+While thus differing greatly among themselves in the nature of their
+productions, and in their consequent wants, the continental colonists
+as a whole had one common characteristic. Recent occupants of a new,
+unimproved, and generally fertile country, they turned necessarily to
+the cultivation of the soil as the most remunerative form of activity,
+while for manufactured articles they depended mainly upon external
+supplies, the furnishing of which Great Britain reserved to herself.
+For these reasons they afforded the great market which they were to
+her, and which by dint of habit and of interest they long continued to
+be. But, while thus generally agricultural by force of circumstances,
+the particular outward destinations of their surplus products varied.
+Those of the southern colonies, from Maryland to Georgia, were classed
+as "enumerated," and, with the exception of the rice of South Carolina
+and Georgia, partially indulged as before mentioned, must be directed
+upon Great Britain. Tobacco, cotton, indigo, pitch, tar, turpentine,
+and spars of all kinds for ships, were specifically named, and
+constituted much the larger part of the exports of those colonies.
+These were carried also chiefly by British vessels, and not by
+colonial. The case was otherwise in the middle colonies, Pennsylvania,
+New York, New Jersey, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island of the
+eastern group. They were exporters of provisions,--of grain, flour,
+and meat, the latter both as live stock and salted; of horses also. As
+the policy of the day protected the British farmer, these articles
+were not required to be sent to Great Britain; on the contrary, grain
+was not allowed admission except in times of scarcity, determined by
+the price of wheat in the London market. The West Indies, therefore,
+were the market of the middle colonies; the shortness of the voyage,
+and the comparatively good weather, after a little southing had been
+gained, giving a decisive advantage over European dealers in the
+transportation of live animals. Flour also, because it kept badly in
+the tropics, required constant carriage of new supplies from sources
+near at hand. Along with provisions the continental vessels took
+materials for building and cooperage, both essential to the industry
+of the islands,--to the housing of the inhabitants, and to the
+transport of their sugar, rum, and molasses. In short, so great was
+the dependence of the islands upon this trade, that a well-informed
+planter of the time quotes with approval the remark of "a very
+competent judge," that, "if the continent had been wholly in foreign
+hands, and England wholly precluded from intercourse with it, it is
+very doubtful whether we should now have possessed a single acre in
+the West Indies."[44]
+
+Now this traffic, while open to all British shipping, was very largely
+in the hands of the colonists, who built ships decidedly cheaper than
+could be done in England, and could distribute their tonnage in
+vessels too small to brave the Atlantic safely, but, from their
+numbers and size, fitted to scatter to the numerous small ports of
+distribution, which the badness of internal communications rendered
+advantageous for purposes of supply. A committee of the Privy Council
+of Great Britain, constituted soon after the independence of the
+United States to investigate the conditions of West India trade,
+reported that immediately before the revolt the carriage between the
+islands and the continent had occupied 1610 voyages, in vessels
+aggregating 115,634 tons, navigated by 9718 men. These transported
+what was then considered "the vast" American cargo, of L500,000
+outward and L400,000 inward. But the ominous feature from the point of
+view of the Navigation Act was that this was carried almost wholly in
+American bottoms.[45] In short, not to speak of an extensive practice
+of smuggling, facilitated by a coast line too long and indented to be
+effectually watched,--mention of which abounds in contemporary
+annals,[46]--a very valuable part of the British carrying trade was in
+the hands of the middle colonists, whose activity, however, did not
+stop even there; for, not only did they deal with foreign West
+Indies,[47] but the cheapness of their vessels, owing to the abundance
+of the materials, permitted them to be used also to advantage in a
+direct trade with southern Europe, their native products being for the
+most part "not enumerated." As early as 1731, Pennsylvania employed
+eight thousand tons of shipping, while the New England colonies at the
+same time owned forty thousand tons, distributed in six hundred
+vessels, manned by six thousand seamen.
+
+The New Englanders, like their countrymen farther south, were mostly
+farmers; but the more rugged soil and severer climate gave them little
+or no surplus for export. For gain by traffic, for material for
+exchange, they therefore turned to the sea, and became the great
+carriers of America, as well as its great fishers. An English
+authority, writing of the years immediately preceding the War of
+Independence, states that most of the seamen sailing out of the
+southern ports were British; from the middle colonies, half British
+and half American; but in the New England shipping he admits
+three-fourths were natives.[48] This tendency of British seamen to
+take employment in colonial ships is worthy of note, as foreshadowing
+the impressment difficulties of a later day. These, like most of the
+disagreements which led to the War of 1812, had their origin in
+ante-revolutionary conditions. For example, Commodore Palliser, an
+officer of mark, commanding the Newfoundland station in 1767, reported
+to the Admiralty the "cruel custom," long practised by commanders of
+fishing ships, of leaving many men on the desert coast of
+Newfoundland, when the season was over, whereby "these men were
+obliged to sell themselves to the colonists, or piratically run off
+with vessels, which they carry to the continent of America. By these
+practices the Newfoundland fishery, supposed to be one of the most
+valuable nurseries for seamen,[49] has long been an annual drain."[50]
+In the two years, 1764-65, he estimates that 2,500 seamen thus went to
+the colonies; in the next two years, 400. The difference was probably
+due to the former period being immediately after a war, the effects of
+which it reflected.
+
+The general conditions of 1731 remained thirty years later, simply
+having become magnified as the colonies grew in wealth and population.
+In 1770 twenty-two thousand tons of shipping were annually built by
+the continental colonists. They even built ships for Great Britain;
+and this indulgence, for so it was considered, was viewed jealously by
+a class of well-informed men, intelligent, but fully imbued with the
+ideas of the Navigation Act, convinced that the carrying trade was the
+corner-stone of the British Navy, and realizing that where ships were
+cheaply built they could be cheaply sailed, even if they paid higher
+wages. It is true, and should be sedulously remembered, especially now
+in the United States, that the strength of a merchant shipping lies in
+its men even more than in its ships; and therefore that the policy of
+a country which wishes a merchant marine should be to allow its ships
+to be purchased where they most cheaply can, in order that the owner
+may be able to spend more on his crew, and the nation consequently to
+keep more seamen under its flag. But in 1770 the relative conditions
+placed Great Britain under serious disadvantages towards America in
+the matter of ship-building; for the heavy drafts upon her native oak
+had caused the price to rise materially, and even the forests of
+continental Europe felt the strain, while the colonies had scarcely
+begun to touch their resources. In 1775, more than one-third of the
+foreign trade of Great Britain was carried in American-built ships;
+the respective tonnage being, British-built, 605,545; American,
+373,618.[51]
+
+British merchants and ship-owners knew also that the colonial carriers
+were not ardent adherents of the Navigation Act, but conducted their
+operations in conformity with it only when compelled.[52] They traded
+with the foreigner as readily as with the British subject; and, what
+was quite unpardonable in the ideas of that time, after selling a
+cargo in a West Indian port, instead of reloading there, they would
+take the hard cash of the island to a French neighbor, buying of him
+molasses to be made into rum at home. In this commercial shrewdness
+the danger was not so much in the local loss, or in the single
+transaction, for in the commercial supremacy of England the money was
+pretty sure to find its way back to the old country. The sting was
+that the sharp commercial instinct, roving from port to port, with a
+keen scent for freight and for bargains, maintained a close rivalry
+for the carrying trade, which was doubly severe from the natural
+advantages of the shipping and the natural aptitudes of the
+ship-owners. Already the economical attention of the New Englanders to
+the details of their shipping business had been noted, and had earned
+for them the name of the Dutchmen of North America; an epithet than
+which there was then none more ominous to British ears, and especially
+where with the carrying trade was associated the twin idea of a
+nursery of seamen for the British Navy.
+
+A fair appreciation of the facts and relations, summarized in the
+preceding pages from an infinitude of details, is necessary to a
+correct view of the origin and course of the misunderstandings and
+disagreements which finally led to the War of 1812. In 1783, the
+restoration of peace and the acknowledgment of the independence of the
+former colonies removed from commerce the restrictions incident to
+hostilities, and replaced in full action, essentially unchanged, the
+natural conditions which had guided the course of trade in colonial
+days. The old country, retaining all the prepossessions associated
+with the now venerable and venerated Navigation Act, saw herself
+confronted with the revival of a commercial system, a commercial
+independence, of which she had before been jealous, and which could no
+longer be controlled by political dependence. It was to be feared that
+supplying the British West Indies would increase American shipping,
+and that British seamen would more and more escape into it, with
+consequent loss to British navigation, both in tonnage and men, and
+discouragement to British maritime industries. Hence, by the ideas of
+the time, was to be apprehended weakness for war, unless some
+effective check could be devised.
+
+What would have been the issue of these anxieties, and of the measures
+to which they gave rise, had not the French Revolution intervened to
+aggravate the distresses of Great Britain, and to constrain her to
+violent methods, is bootless to discuss. It remains true that, both
+before and during the conflict with the French Republic and Empire,
+the general character of her actions, to which the United States took
+exception, was determined by the conditions and ideas that have been
+stated, and can be understood only through reference to them. No
+sooner had peace been signed, in 1783, than disagreements sprang up
+again from the old roots of colonial systems and ideals. To these
+essentially was due the detailed sequence of events which, influenced
+by such traditions of opinion and policy as have been indicated,
+brought on the War of 1812, which has not inaptly been styled the
+second War of Independence. Madison, who was contemporary with the
+entire controversy, and officially connected with it from 1801 to the
+end of the war, first as Secretary of State, and later as President,
+justly summed up his experience of the whole in these words: "To have
+shrunk from resistance, under such circumstances, would have
+acknowledged that, on the element which forms three-fourths of the
+globe which we inhabit, and where all independent nations have equal
+and common rights, the American People were not an independent people,
+but colonists and vassals. With such an alternative war was
+chosen."[53] The second war was closely related to the first in fact,
+though separated by a generation in time.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Order in Council was a general term applied to all orders touching
+affairs, internal as well as external, issued by the King in Council.
+The particular orders here in question, by their extraordinary
+character and wide application, came to have a kind of sole title to
+the expression in the diplomatic correspondence between the two
+countries.
+
+[2] Instructions of Madison, Secretary of State, to Monroe, Minister
+to Great Britain, January 5, 1804. Article I. American State Papers,
+vol. iii. p. 82.
+
+[3] Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. ii. pp. 508, 546.
+
+[4] Annals of Congress. Thirteenth Congress, vol. ii. pp. 1563;
+1555-1558.
+
+[5] Niles' Register, vol. iv. p. 234. Author's italics.
+
+[6] Diary and Letters, vol. ii. p. 553.
+
+[7] Ibid., p. 560. Those unfamiliar with the subject should be
+cautioned that the expression "right of search" is confined here, not
+quite accurately, to searching for British subjects liable to
+impressment. This right the United States denied. The "right of
+search" to determine the nationality of the vessel, and the character
+of the voyage, was admitted to belligerents then, as it is now, by all
+neutrals.
+
+[8] King John, Act II. Scene 1.
+
+[9] King Richard II., Act II. Scene 1.
+
+[10] Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
+Edited by J.E. Thorold Rogers. Oxford, 1880, pp. 35-38. In a
+subsequent passage (p. 178), Smith seems disposed somewhat to qualify
+the positive assertion here quoted, on the ground that the Navigation
+Act had not had time to exert much effect, at the period when some of
+the most decisive successes over the Dutch were won. It is to be
+observed, however, that a vigorous military government, such as
+Cromwell's was, can assert itself in the fleet as well as in the army,
+creating an effective organization out of scanty materials, especially
+when at war with a commercial state of weak military constitution,
+like Holland. It was the story of Rome and Carthage repeated. Louis
+XIV. for a while accomplished the same. But under the laxity of a
+liberal popular government, which England increasingly enjoyed after
+the Restoration, naval power could be based securely only upon a
+strong, available, and permanent maritime element in the civil body
+politic; that is, on a mercantile marine.
+
+As regards the working of the Navigation Act to this end, whatever may
+be argued as to the economical expediency of protecting a particular
+industry, there is no possible doubt that such an industry can be
+built up, to huge proportions, by sagacious protection consistently
+enforced. The whole history of protection demonstrates this, and the
+Navigation Act did in its day. It created the British carrying trade,
+and in it provided for the Royal Navy an abundant and accessible
+reserve of raw material, capable of being rapidly manufactured into
+naval seamen in an hour of emergency.
+
+[11] Works of John Adams, vol. viii. pp. 389-390.
+
+[12] This primary meaning of the word "staple" seems to have
+disappeared from common use, in which it is now applied to the
+commercial articles, the concentration of which at a particular port
+made that port a "staple."
+
+[13] Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 448.
+
+[14] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 443.
+
+[15] Reeves, History of the Law of Navigation, Dublin, 1792, p. 37.
+
+[16] Macpherson, vol. ii. p. 444.
+
+[17] Reeves, writing in 1792, says that there seemed then no
+distinction of meaning between "plantation" and "colony." Plantation
+was the earlier term; "'colony' did not come much into use till the
+reign of Charles II., and it seems to have denoted the political
+relation." (p. 109.) By derivation both words express the idea of
+cultivating new ground, or establishing a new settlement; but
+"plantation" seems to associate itself more with the industrial
+beginnings, and "colony" with the formal regulative purpose of the
+parent state.
+
+[18] The Navigation Acts of 1651, 1660, 1662, and 1663, as well as
+other subsequent measures of the same character, can be found,
+conveniently for American readers, in MacDonald's Select Charters
+Illustrative of American History. Macmillan, New York. 1899.
+
+[19] Reeves, History of the Law of Navigation, p. 162.
+
+[20] For instance, in 1769, eighteen hundred and forty vessels passed
+the Sound in the British trade. Of these only thirty-five were
+Russian. Considerably more than half of the trade of St. Petersburg
+with Europe at large was done in British ships. Macpherson, vol. iii.
+p. 493.
+
+[21] Opinion of Chief Baron Parker, quoted by Reeves, pp. 187-189.
+
+[22] Chalmers, Opinions on Interesting Subjects of Public Law and
+Commercial Policy Arising from American Independence, p. 32.
+
+[23] Ibid., p. 55.
+
+[24] A French naval historian supports them, speaking of the year
+1781: "The considerable armaments made since 1778 had exhausted the
+resources of personnel. To remedy the difficulty the complements were
+filled up with coast-guard militia, with marine troops until then
+employed only to form the guards of the ships, and finally with what
+were called 'novices volontaires,' who were landsmen recruited by
+bounties. It may be imagined what crews were formed with such
+elements."--Troude, Batailles Navales, vol. ii. p. 202.
+
+[25] Raynal, Histoire Philosophique des deux Indes, vol. vii. p. 287
+(Edition 1820). Raynal's reputation is that of a plagiarist, but his
+best work is attributed to far greater names of his time. He died in
+1796.
+
+[26] Reeves, pp. 430-434.
+
+[27] Macpherson, vol. iv. p. 10.
+
+[28] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 485-486.
+
+[29] Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 450.
+
+[30] Officially, Statute of 15 Charles II.
+
+[31] Reeves, p. 50.
+
+[32] Chalmers, Opinions on Interesting Subjects, p. 28.
+
+[33] Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 443-444 (3d Edition).
+
+[34] Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 228.
+
+[35] Compare with Sheffield, Observations on the Commerce of the
+American States (Edition February, 1784), p. 137, note; from which,
+indeed, these figures seem to have been taken, or from some common
+source.
+
+[36] Coxe's View of the United States of America, Philadelphia, 1794,
+p. 330.
+
+[37] Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 341. Adams says again,
+himself: "It is more and more manifest every day that there is, and
+will continue, a general scramble for navigation. Carrying trade,
+ship-building, fisheries, are the cry of every nation."--Vol. viii. p.
+342.
+
+[38] From an official statement, made public in 1784, it appears that
+in the year 1770 the total trade, inward and outward, of the colonies
+on the American Continent, amounted to 750,546 tons. Of this 32 per
+cent was coastwise, to other members of the group; 30 with the West
+Indies; 27 with Great Britain and Ireland; and 11 with Southern
+Europe. Bermuda and the Bahamas, inconsiderable as to trade, were
+returned among continental colonies by the Custom House.--Sheffield,
+Commerce of the American States, Table VII.
+
+[39] Chalmers, Opinions, p. 73.
+
+[40] Ibid., p. 18.
+
+[41] Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 317.
+
+[42] Report of Committee of Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, pp. 21-23.
+
+[43] Ante, p. 31 (note).
+
+[44] Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 486.
+
+[45] Chalmers, Opinions, p. 133.
+
+[46] See, for instance, the Colden Papers, Proceedings N.Y. Historical
+Society, 1877. There is in these much curious economical information
+of other kinds.
+
+[47] A comparison of the figures just quoted, as to the British West
+Indies, with Sheffield's Table VII., indicates that the trade of the
+Continent with the foreign islands about equalled that with the
+British. The trade with the French West Indies, "open or clandestine,
+was considerable, and wholly in American vessels."--Macpherson, vol.
+iii. p. 584.
+
+[48] Sheffield, Commerce of the American States, p. 108.
+
+[49] That is, for the navy.
+
+[50] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. iii. p. 472.
+
+[51] Macpherson, vol. iv. p. 11. The great West India cargo of 1772,
+an especial preserve of the Navigation Act, was carried to England in
+679 ships, of which one-third were built in America.
+
+[52] "The contraband trade carried on by plantation ships in defiance
+of the Act of Navigation was a subject of repeated complaint." "The
+laws of Navigation were nowhere disobeyed and contemned so openly as
+in New England. The people of Massachusetts Bay were from the first
+disposed to act as if independent of the mother country."--Reeves, pp.
+54, 58. The particular quotations apply to the early days of the
+measure, 1662-3; but the complaint continued to the end. In 1764-5,
+"one of the great grievances in the American trade was, that great
+quantities of foreign molasses and syrups were clandestinely run on
+shore in the British Colonies."--p. 79.
+
+[53] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 82.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FROM INDEPENDENCE TO JAY'S TREATY, 1794
+
+
+The colonial connection between Great Britain and the thirteen
+communities which became the original States of the American Union was
+brought to a formal conclusion in 1776, by their Declaration of
+Independence. Substantially, however, it had already terminated in
+1774. This year was marked by the passage of the Boston Port Bill,
+with its accessory measures, by the British Parliament, and likewise
+by the renewal, in the several colonies, of the retaliatory
+non-importation agreements of 1765. The fundamental theory of the
+eighteenth century concerning the relations between a mother country
+and her colonies, that of reciprocal exclusive benefit, had thus in
+practice yielded to one of mutual injury; to coercion and deprivation
+on the one side, and to passive resistance on the other. On September
+5 the representatives of twelve colonies assembled in Philadelphia;
+Georgia alone sending no delegates, but pledging herself in
+anticipation to accept the decisions taken by the others. One of the
+first acts of this Congress of the Continental Colonies was to indorse
+the resolutions by which Massachusetts had placed herself in an
+attitude of contingent rebellion against the Crown, and to pledge
+their support to her in case of a resort to arms. These several steps
+were decisive and irrevocable, except by an unqualified abandonment,
+by one party or the other, of the principles which underlay and
+dictated them. The die was cast. To use words attributed to George the
+Third, "the colonies must now either submit or triumph."
+
+The period which here began, viewed in the aggregate of the national
+life of the United States, was one of wavering transition and
+uncertain issue in matters political and commercial. Its ending, in
+these two particulars, is marked by two conspicuous events: the
+adoption of the Constitution and the Commercial Treaty with Great
+Britain. The formation of the Federal Government, 1788-90, gave to the
+Union a political stability it had hitherto lacked, removing elements
+of weakness and dissensions, and of consequent impotence in foreign
+relations; the manifestation of which since the acknowledgment of
+independence had justified alike the hopes of enemies and the
+forebodings of friends. Settled conditions being thus established at
+home, with institutions competent to regulate a national commerce,
+internal and external, as well as to bring the people as a whole into
+fixed relations with foreign communities, there was laid the
+foundations of a swelling prosperity to which the several parts of the
+country jointly contributed. The effects of these changes were soon
+shown in a growing readiness on the part of other nations to enter
+into formal compacts with us. Of this, the treaty negotiated by John
+Jay with Great Britain, in 1794, is the most noteworthy instance;
+partly because it terminated one long series of bickerings with our
+most dangerous neighbor, chiefly because the commercial power of the
+state with which it was contracted had reached a greater eminence, and
+exercised wider international effect, than any the modern world had
+then seen.
+
+Whatever the merits of the treaty otherwise, therefore, the
+willingness of Great Britain to enter into it at all gave it an
+epochal significance. Since independence, commercial intercourse
+between the two peoples had rested on the strong compelling force of
+natural conditions and reciprocal convenience, the true foundation,
+doubtless, of all useful relations; but its regulation had been by
+municipal ordinance of either state, changeable at will, not by
+mutual agreement binding on both for a prescribed period. Since the
+separation, this condition had seemed preferable to Great Britain,
+which, as late as 1790, had evaded overtures towards a commercial
+arrangement.[54] Her consenting now to modify her position was an
+implicit admission that in trade, as in political existence, the
+former mother country recognized at last the independence of her
+offspring. The latter, however, was again to learn that independence,
+to be actual, must rest on something stronger than words, and surer
+than the acquiescence of others. This was to be the lesson of the
+years between 1794 and 1815, administered to us not only by the
+preponderant navy of Great Britain, but by the petty piratical fleets
+of the Barbary powers.
+
+From the Boston Port Bill to Jay's Treaty was therefore a period of
+transition from entire colonial dependence, under complete regulation
+of all commercial intercourse by the mother country, to that of
+national commercial power, self-regulative and efficient, through the
+adoption of the Constitution. Upon this followed international
+influence, the growing importance of which Great Britain finally
+recognized by formal concessions, hitherto refused or evaded. During
+these years the policy of her government was undergoing a process of
+adjustment, conditioned on the one hand by the still vigorous
+traditional prejudices associated with the administration of
+dependencies, and on the other by the radical change in political
+relations between her remaining colonies in America and the new states
+which had broken from the colonial bond. This change was the more
+embarrassing, because the natural connection of specific mutual
+usefulness remained, although the tie of a common allegiance had been
+loosed. The old order was yielding to the new, but the process was
+signalized by the usual slowness of men to accept events in their
+full significance. Hitherto, all the western hemisphere had been
+under a colonial system of complete monopoly by mother countries, and
+had been generally excluded from direct communication with Europe,
+except the respective parent states. In the comprehensive provisions
+of the British Navigation Act, America was associated with Asia and
+Africa. Now had arisen there an independent state, in political
+standing identical with those of Europe, yet having towards colonial
+America geographical and commercial relations very different from
+theirs. Consequently there was novelty and difficulty in the question,
+What intercourse with the remaining British dominions, and especially
+with the American colonies, should be permitted to the new nation?
+Notwithstanding the breach lately made, it continued a controlling aim
+with the British people, and of the government as determined by
+popular pressure, to restore the supremacy of British trade, by the
+subjection of America, independent as well as colonial, to the welfare
+of British commerce. Notably this was to be so as regards the one
+dominant interest called Navigation, under which term was comprised
+everything relating to shipping,--ship-building, seafaring men, and
+the carrying trade. Independence had deprived Great Britain of the
+right she formerly had to manipulate the course of the export and
+import trade of the now United States. It remained to try whether
+there did not exist, nevertheless, the ability effectually to control
+it to the advantage of British navigation, as above defined. "Our
+remaining colonies on the Continent, and the West India Islands," it
+was argued, "with the favorable state of English manufactures, may
+still give us almost exclusively the trade of America;" provided these
+circumstances were suitably utilized, and their advantages rigorously
+enforced, where power to do so still remained, as it did in the West
+Indies.
+
+Although by far the stronger and more flourishing part of her
+colonial dominions had been wrested from Great Britain, there yet
+remained to her upon the continent, in Canada and the adjacent
+provinces, a domain great in area, and in the West India Islands
+another of great productiveness. Whatever wisdom had been learned as
+regards the political treatment of colonies, the views as to the
+nature of their economical utility to the mother country, and their
+consequent commercial regulation, had undergone no enlargement, but
+rather had been intensified in narrowness and rigor by the loss of so
+valuable a part of the whole. No counteractive effect to this
+prepossession was to be found in contemporary opinion in Europe. The
+French Revolution itself, subversive as it was of received views in
+many respects, was at the first characterized rather by an
+exaggeration of the traditional exclusive policy of the eighteenth
+century relating to colonies, shipping, and commerce. In America, the
+unsettled commercial and financial conditions which succeeded the
+peace, the divergence of interests between the several new states, the
+feebleness of the confederate government, its incompetency to deal
+assuredly with external questions, and lack of all power to regulate
+commerce, inspired a conviction in Great Britain that the continent
+could not offer strong, continued resistance to commercial aggression,
+carried on under the peaceful form of municipal regulation. It was
+generally thought that the new states could never unite, but instead
+would drift farther apart.
+
+The belief was perfectly reasonable; a gift of prophecy only could
+have foretold the happy result, of which many of the most prominent
+Americans for some time despaired. "It will not be an easy matter,"
+wrote Lord Sheffield,[55] "to bring the American States to act as a
+nation; they are not to be feared as such by us. It must be a long
+time before they can engage, or will concur, in any material
+expense.... We might as reasonably dread the effects of combinations
+among the German as among the American states, and deprecate the
+resolves of the Diet, as those of Congress." "No treaty can be made
+that will be binding on the whole of them." "A decided cast has been
+given to public opinion here," wrote John Adams from London, in
+November, 1785, "by two presumptions. One is, that the American states
+are not, and cannot, be united."[56] Two years later Washington wrote:
+"The situation of the General Government, if it can be called a
+government, is shaken to its foundation, and liable to be overturned
+at every blast. In a word, it is at an end.... The primary cause of
+all our disorders lies in the different state governments, and in the
+tenacity of that power which underlies the whole of their systems.
+Independent sovereignty is so ardently contended for." "At present,
+under our existing form of confederation, it would be idle to think of
+making commercial regulations on our part. One state passes a
+prohibitory law respecting one article; another state opens wide the
+avenue for its admission. One assembly makes a system, another
+assembly unmakes it."[57]
+
+Under such conditions it was natural that a majority of Englishmen
+should see power and profit for Great Britain in availing herself of
+the weakness of her late colonists, to enforce upon them a commercial
+dependence as useful as the political dependence which had passed
+away. Were this realized, she would enjoy the emoluments of the land
+without the expense of its protection. This gospel was preached at
+once to willing ears, and found acceptance; not by the strength of its
+arguments, for these, though plausible, were clearly inferior in
+weight to the facts copiously adduced by those familiar with
+conditions, but through the prejudices which the then generation had
+received from the three or four preceding it. The policy being
+adopted, the instrument at hand for enforcing it was the relation of
+colonies to mother countries, as then universally maintained by the
+governments of the day. The United States, like other independent
+nations, was to be excluded wholly from carrying trade with the
+British colonies, and as far as possible from sending them supplies.
+It was urged that Canada, and the adjacent British dominions,
+encouraged by this reservation of the West India market for their
+produce, would prove adequate to furnishing the provisions and lumber
+previously derived from the old continental colonies. The prosperity
+once enjoyed by the latter would be transferred, and there would be
+reconstituted the system of commercial intercourse, interior to the
+empire, which previously had commanded general admiration. The new
+states, acting commercially as separated communities, could oppose no
+successful rivalry to this combination, and would revert to isolated
+commercial dependence; tributary to the financial supremacy of Great
+Britain, as they recently had been to her political power. In debt to
+her for money, and drawing from her manufactures, returns for both
+would compel their exports to her ports chiefly, whence distribution
+would be, as of old, in the hands of British middlemen and navigators.
+Just escaped from the fetters of the carrying trade and _entrepot_
+regulations, the twin monopolies in which consisted the value of a
+colonial empire, it was proposed to reduce them again under bondage by
+means for which the West India Islands furnished the leverage; for
+"the trade carried on by Great Britain with the countries now become
+the United States was, and still is, so connected with the trade
+carried on to the remaining British colonies in America, and the
+British islands in the West Indies, that it is impossible to form a
+true judgment of the past and present of the first, without taking a
+comprehensive view of all, as they are connected with, and influence,
+each other."[58]
+
+Before the peace of 1783, the writings of Adam Smith had gravely
+shaken belief in the mercantile system of extraordinary trade
+regulation and protection as conducive to national prosperity. Though
+undermined, however, it had not been overthrown; and even to doubters
+there remained the exception, which Smith himself admitted, of the
+necessity to protect navigation as a nursery for the navy, and
+consequently as a fundamental means of national defence. Existence
+takes precedence of prosperity; the life is more than the meat.
+Commercial regulation, though unfitted to increase wealth, could be
+justified as a means to promote ship-building; to retain ship-builders
+in the country; to husband the raw materials of their work; to force
+the transport of merchandise in British-built ships and by British
+seamen; and thus to induce capital to invest, and men to embark their
+lives, in maritime trade, to the multiplication of ships and seamen,
+the chief dependence of the nation in war. "Keeping ships for
+freight," said Sheffield, "is not the most profitable branch of trade.
+It is necessary, for the sake of our marine, to force or encourage it
+by exclusive advantages." "Comparatively with the number of our people
+and the extent of our country, we are doomed almost always to wage
+unequal war; and as a means of raising seamen it cannot be too often
+repeated that it is not possible to be too jealous on the head of
+navigation." He proceeds then at once to draw the distinction between
+the protection of navigation and that of commerce generally. "This
+jealousy should not be confounded with that towards neighboring
+countries as to trade and manufactures; nor is the latter jealousy in
+many instances reasonable or well founded. Competition is useful,
+forcing our manufacturers to act fairly, and to work reasonably."
+Sheffield was the most conspicuous, and probably the most influential,
+of the controversialists on this side of the question at this period;
+the interest of the public is shown by his pamphlet passing through
+six editions in a twelvemonth. He was, however, far from singular in
+this view. Chalmers, a writer of much research, said likewise: "In
+these considerations of nautical force and public safety we discover
+the fundamental principle of Acts of Navigation, which, though
+established in opposition to domestic and foreign clamors, have
+produced so great an augmentation of our native shipping and sailors,
+and which therefore should not be sacrificed to any projects of
+private gain,"--that is, of commercial advantage. "There are
+intelligent persons who suggest that the imposing of alien duties on
+alien ships, rather than on alien merchandise, would augment our naval
+strength."[59]
+
+Colonies therefore were esteemed desirable to this end chiefly. To use
+the expression of a French officer,[60] they were the fruitful nursery
+of seamen. French writers of that day considered their West India
+islands the chief nautical support of the state. But in order to
+secure this, it was necessary to exercise complete control of their
+trade inward and outward; of the supplies they needed as well as of
+the products they raised, and especially to confine the carriage of
+both to national shipping. "The only use and advantage of the
+(remaining) American colonies[61] or West India islands to Great
+Britain," says Sheffield, "are the monopoly of their consumption and
+the carriage of their produce. It is the advantage to our navigation
+which in any degree countervails the enormous expense of protecting
+our islands. Rather than give up their carrying trade it would be
+better to give up themselves." The _entrepot_ system herein found
+additional justification, for not only did it foster navigation by the
+homeward voyage, confined to British ships, and extort toll in
+transit, but the re-exportation made a double voyage which was more
+than doubly fruitful in seamen; for from the nearness of the British
+Islands to the European continent, which held the great body of
+consumers, this second carriage could be done, and actually was done,
+by numerous small vessels, able to bear a short voyage but not to
+brave an Atlantic passage. Economically, trade by many small vessels
+is more expensive than by a few large, because for a given aggregate
+tonnage it requires many more men; but this economical loss was
+thought to be more than compensated by the political gain in
+multiplying seamen. It was estimated in 1795 that there was a
+difference of from thirty-five to forty men in carrying the same
+quantity of goods in one large or ten small vessels. This illustrates
+aptly the theory of the Navigation Act, which sought wealth indeed,
+but, as then understood, subordinated that consideration distinctly to
+the superior need of increasing the resources of the country in ships
+and seamen. Moreover, the men engaged in these short voyages were more
+immediately at hand for impressment in war, owing to the narrow range
+of their expeditions and their frequent returns to home ports.
+
+In 1783, therefore, the Navigation Act had become in general
+acceptance a measure not merely commercial, but military. It was
+defended chiefly as essential to the naval power of Great Britain,
+which rested upon the sure foundation of maritime resources thus laid.
+Nor need this view excite derision to-day, for it compelled then the
+adhesion of an American who of all in his time was most adverse to the
+general commercial policy of Great Britain. In a report on the subject
+made to Congress in 1793, by Jefferson, as Secretary of State, he
+said: "Our navigation involves still higher considerations than our
+commerce. As a branch of industry it is valuable, but as a resource of
+defence essential. It will admit neither neglect nor forbearance. The
+position and circumstances of the United States leave them nothing to
+fear on their land-board; ... but on their seaboard they are open to
+injury, and they have there too a commerce (coasting) which must be
+protected. This can only be done by possessing a respectable body of
+citizen-seamen, and of artists and establishments in readiness for
+ship-building."[62] The limitations of Jefferson's views appear here
+clearly, in the implicit relegation of defence, not to a regular and
+trained navy, but to the occasional unskilled efforts of a distinctly
+civil force; but no stronger recognition of the necessities of Great
+Britain could be desired, for her nearness to the great military
+states of the world deprived her land-board of the security which the
+remoteness of the United States assured. With such stress laid upon
+the vital importance of merchant seamen to national safety, it is but
+a step in thought to perceive how inevitable was the jealousy and
+indignation felt in Great Britain, when she found her fleets, both
+commercial and naval, starving for want of seamen, who had sought
+refuge from war in the American merchant service, and over whom the
+American Government, actually weak and but yesterday vassal, sought to
+extend its protection from impressment.
+
+Up to the War of American Independence, the singular geographical
+situation of Great Britain, inducing her to maritime enterprise and
+exempting her from territorial warfare, with the financial and
+commercial pre-eminence she had then maintained for three-fourths of a
+century, gave her peculiar advantages for enforcing a policy which
+until that time had thriven conspicuously, if somewhat illusively, in
+its commercial results, and had substantially attained its especial
+object of maritime preponderance. Other peoples had to submit to the
+compulsion exerted by her overweening superiority. The obligation upon
+foreign shipping to be three-fourths manned by their own citizens, for
+instance, rested only upon a British law, and applied only in a
+British port; but the accumulations of British capital, with the
+consequent facility for mercantile operations and ability to extend
+credits, the development of British manufactures, the extent of the
+British carrying trade, the enforced storage of colonial products in
+British territory, with the correlative obligation that foreign goods
+for her numerous and increasing colonists must first be brought to her
+shores and thence transshipped,--all these circumstances made the
+British islands a centre for export and import, towards which foreign
+shipping was unavoidably drawn and so brought under the operation of
+the law. The nation had so far out-distanced competition that her
+supremacy was unassailable, and remained unimpaired for a century
+longer. To it had contributed powerfully the economical distribution
+of her empire, greatly diversified in particulars, yet symmetrical in
+the capacity of one part to supply what the other lacked. There was in
+the whole a certain self-sufficingness, resembling that claimed in
+this age for the United States, with its compact territory but wide
+extremes of boundary, climates, and activities.
+
+This condition, while it lasted, in large degree justified the
+Navigation Act, which may be summarily characterized as a great
+protective measure, applied to the peculiar conditions of a particular
+maritime empire, insuring reciprocal and exclusive benefit to the
+several parts. It was uncompromisingly logical in its action, not
+hesitating at rigid prohibition of outside competition. Protection, in
+its best moral sense, may be defined as the regulation of all the
+business of the nation, considered as an interrelated whole, by the
+Government, for the best interests of the entire community, likewise
+regarded as a whole. This the Navigation Act did for over a century
+after its enactment; and it may be plausibly argued that, as a war
+resort at least, it afterwards measurably strengthened the hands of
+Great Britain during the wars of the French Revolution. No men
+suffered more than did the West India planters from its unrelieved
+enforcement after 1783; yet in their vehement remonstrance they said:
+"The policy of the Act is justly popular. Its regulations, until the
+loss of America, under the various relaxations which Parliament has
+applied to particular events and exigencies as they arose, have guided
+the course of trade without oppressing it; for the markets which those
+regulations left open to the consumption of the produce of the
+colonies were sufficient to take off the whole, and no foreign country
+could have supplied the essential part of their wants materially
+cheaper than the colonies of the mother country could supply one
+another."
+
+Thus things were, or were thought to be, up to the time when the
+revolt of the continental colonies made a breach in the wall of
+reciprocal benefit by which the whole had been believed to be
+enclosed. The products of the colonies sustained the commercial
+prosperity of the mother country, ministering to her export trade, and
+supplying a reserve of consumers for her monopoly of manufactures,
+which they were forbidden to establish for themselves, or to receive
+from foreigners. She on her part excluded from the markets of the
+empire foreign articles which her colonies produced, constituting for
+them a monopoly of the imperial home market, as well in Great Britain
+as in the sister colonies. The carriage of the whole was confined to
+British navigation, the maintenance of which by this means raised the
+British Navy to the mastery of the seas, enabling it to afford to the
+entire system a protection, of which convincing and brilliant evidence
+had been afforded during the then recent Seven Years' War. As a matter
+of political combination and adjustment, for peace or for war, the
+general result appeared to most men of that day to be consummate in
+conception and in development, and therefore by all means to be
+perpetuated. In that light men of to-day must realize it, if they
+would adequately understand the influence exercised by this
+prepossession upon the course of events which for the United States
+issued in the War of 1812.
+
+In this picture, so satisfactory as a whole, there had been certain
+shadows menacing to the future. Already, in the colonial period, these
+had been recognized by some in Great Britain as predictive of
+increasing practical independence on the part of the continental
+colonies, with results injurious to the empire at large, and to the
+particular welfare of the mother kingdom. In the last analysis, this
+danger arose from the fact that, unlike the tropical West Indies,
+these children were for the most part too like their parent in
+political and economical character, and in permanent natural
+surroundings. There was, indeed, a temporary variation of activities
+between the new communities, where the superabundance of soil kept
+handicrafts in abeyance, and the old country, where agriculture was
+already failing to produce food sufficient for the population, and men
+were being forced into manufactures and their export as a means of
+livelihood. There was also a difference in their respective products
+which ministered to beneficial exchange. Nevertheless, in their
+tendencies and in their disposition, Great Britain and the United
+States at bottom were then not complementary, but rivals. The true
+complement of both was the West Indies; and for these the advantage of
+proximity, always great, and especially so with regard to the special
+exigencies of the islands, lay with the United States. Hence it came
+to pass that the trade with the West Indies, which then had almost a
+monopoly of sugar and coffee production for the world, became the most
+prominent single factor in the commercial contentions between the two
+countries, and in the arbitrary commercial ordinances of Great
+Britain, which step by step led the two nations into war. The
+precedent struggle was over a market; artificial regulation and
+superior naval power seeking to withstand the natural course of
+things, and long successfully retarding it.
+
+The suspension of intercourse during the War of Independence had
+brought the economical relations into stronger relief, and
+accomplished independence threatened the speedy realization of their
+tendencies. There were two principal dangers dreaded by Great Britain.
+The West India plantation industry had depended upon the continental
+colonies for food supplies, and to a considerable extent also
+financially; because these alone were the consumers of one important
+product--rum. Again, ship-building and the carrying trade of the
+empire had passed largely into the hands of the continental colonists,
+keeping on that side of the Atlantic, it was asserted, a great number
+of British-born seamen. While vessels from America visited many parts
+of the world, the custom-house returns showed that of the total inward
+and outward tonnage of the thirteen colonies, over sixty per cent had
+been either coastwise or with the West Indies; and this left out of
+account the considerable number engaged in smuggling. Of the
+remainder, barely twenty-five per cent went to Great Britain or
+Ireland. In short, there had been building upon the western side of
+the ocean, under the colonial connection, a rival maritime system,
+having its own products, its own special markets, and its own carrying
+trade. The latter also, being done by very small vessels, adapted to
+the short transit, had created for itself, or absorbed from
+elsewhere, a separate and proportionately large maritime population,
+rivalling that of the home country, while yet remaining out of easy
+reach of impressment and remote from immediate interest in European
+wars. One chief object of the Navigation Act was thus thwarted; and
+indeed, as might be anticipated from quotations already made, it was
+upon this that British watchfulness more particularly centred. As far
+as possible all interchange was to be internal to the empire, a kind
+of coasting trade, which would naturally, as well as by statute, fall
+to British shipping. Protective regulation therefore should develop in
+the several parts those productions which other parts needed,--the
+material of commerce; but where this could not be done, and supplies
+must be sought outside, they should go and come in British vessels,
+navigated according to the Act. "Our country," wrote Sheffield, in
+concluding his work, "does not entirely depend upon the monopoly of
+the commerce of the thirteen American states, and it is by no means
+necessary to sacrifice any part of our carrying trade for imaginary
+advantages never to be attained."[63]
+
+A further injury was done by the cheapness with which the Americans
+built and sold ships, owing to their abundance of timber. They built
+them not only to order, but as it were for a market. Although
+acceptable to the mercantile interest, and even indirectly beneficial
+by sparing the resources for building ships of war, this was an
+invasion of the manufacturing industry of the kingdom, in a particular
+peculiarly conducive to naval power. The returns of the British
+underwriters for twenty-seven shipping ports of Great Britain and
+Ireland, during a series of years immediately preceding the American
+revolt, no ship being counted twice, showed the British-built vessels
+entered to be 3,908, and the American 2,311.[64] The tonnage of the
+latter was more than one-third of the total. The intercourse between
+the American continent and the West Indies, not included in this
+reckoning, was almost wholly in American bottoms. The proportion of
+American-built shipping in the total of the empire is hence apparent,
+as well as the growth of the ship-building industry. This of course
+was accompanied by a tendency of mechanics, as well as seamen, to
+remove to a situation so favorable for employment. But the maintenance
+of home facilities for building ships was as essential to the
+development of naval power as was the fostering of a class of seamen.
+In this respect, therefore, the ship-building of America was
+detrimental to the objects of the Navigation Act; and the evil
+threatened to increase, because of a discernible approaching shortness
+of suitable timber in the overtaxed forests of Europe.
+
+Such being the apparent tendency of things, owing to circumstances
+relatively permanent in character, the habit of mind traditional with
+British merchants and statesmen, formed by the accepted colonial and
+mercantile systems, impelled them at once to prohibitory measures of
+counteraction, as soon as the colonies, naturally rival, had become by
+independence a foreign nation. For a moment, indeed, it appeared that
+broader views might prevail, based upon a sounder understanding of
+actual conditions and of the principles of international commerce. The
+second William Pitt was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time the
+provisional articles of peace with the United States were signed, in
+November, 1782; and in March, 1783, he introduced into the House of
+Commons a bill for regulating temporarily the intercourse between the
+two nations, so far as dependent upon the action of Great Britain,
+until it should be possible to establish a mutual arrangement by
+treaty. This measure reflected not only a general attitude of good
+will towards America, characteristic of both father and son, but also
+the impression which had been made upon the younger man by the
+writings of Adam Smith. Professing as its objects "to establish
+intercourse on the most enlarged principles of reciprocal benefit,"
+and "to evince the disposition of Great Britain to be on terms of most
+perfect amity with the United States of America," the bill admitted
+the ships and vessels of the United States, with the merchandise on
+board, into all the ports of Great Britain in the same manner as the
+vessels of other independent states; that is, manned three-fourths by
+American seamen. This preserved the main restrictions of the
+Navigation Act, protective of British navigation; but the merchandise,
+even if brought in American ships, was relieved of all alien duties.
+These, however, wherever still existing for other nations, were light,
+and this remission slight;[65] a more substantial concession was a
+rebate upon all exports from Great Britain to the United States, equal
+to that allowed upon goods exported to the colonies. As regarded
+intercourse with the West Indies, there was to be made in favor of the
+thirteen states a special and large remission in the rigor of the Act;
+one affecting both commerce and navigation. To British colonies, by
+long-standing proscription, no ships except British had been admitted
+to export or import. By the proposed measure, the United States, alone
+among the nations of the world, were to be allowed to import freely
+any goods whatsoever, of their own growth, produce, or manufacture, in
+their own ships; on the same terms exactly as British vessels, if
+these should engage in the traffic between the American continent and
+the islands. Similarly, freedom to export colonial produce was granted
+to American bottoms from the West Indies to the United States. Both
+exports and imports, thus to be authorized, were to be "liable to the
+same duties and charges only as the same merchandise would be subject
+to, if it were the property of British native-born subjects, and
+imported in British ships, navigated by British seamen."[66] In short,
+while the primary purpose doubtless was the benefit of the islands,
+the effect of the measure, as regarded the West India trade, was to
+restore the citizens of the now independent states to the privileges
+they had enjoyed as colonists. The carrying trade between the islands
+and the continent was conceded to them, and past experience gave
+ground to believe it would be by them absorbed.
+
+It was over this concession that the storm of controversy arose and
+raged, until the outbreak of the French Revolution, by the
+conservative reaction it provoked in other governments, arrested for
+the time any change of principle in regard to colonial administration,
+whatever modifications might from time to time be induced by momentary
+exigencies of policy. The question immediately argued was probably on
+all hands less one of principle than of expediency. Superior as
+commercial prosperity and the preservation of peace were to most other
+motives in the interest of Pitt's mind, he doubtless would have
+admitted, along with his most earnest opponents, that the fostering of
+the national carrying trade, as a nursery to the navy and so
+contributory to national defence, took precedence of purely commercial
+legislation. With all good-will to America, his prime object
+necessarily was the welfare of Great Britain; but this he, contrary to
+the mass of public opinion, conceived to lie in the restoration of the
+old intercourse between the two peoples, modified as little as
+possible by the new condition of independence. He trusted that the
+habit of receiving everything from England, the superiority of British
+manufactures, a common tongue, and commercial correspondences only
+temporarily interrupted by the war, would tend to keep the new states
+customers of Great Britain chiefly, as they had been before; and what
+they bought they must pay for by sending their own products in return.
+This constraint of routine and convenience received additional force
+from the scarcity of capital in America, and its abundance in Great
+Britain, relatively to the rest of Europe. The wealthiest nation could
+hold the Americans by their need of accommodations which others could
+not extend.
+
+In so far there probably was a general substantial agreement in Great
+Britain. The Americans had been consumers to over double the amount of
+the West Indies before the war, and it was desirable to retain their
+custom. Nor was the anticipation of success deceived. Nine years
+later, despite the rejection of Pitt's measure, an experienced
+American complained "that we draw so large a proportion of our
+manufactures from one nation. The other European nations have had the
+eight years of the war (of Independence) exclusively, and the nine
+years of peace in fair competition, and do not yet supply us with
+manufactures equivalent to half of the stated value of the shoes made
+by ourselves."[67] In the first year of the government under the
+Constitution, from August, 1789, to September 30, 1790, after seven
+years of independence, out of a total of not quite $20,000,000 imports
+to the United States, over $15,000,000 were from the dominions of
+Great Britain;[68] and nearly half the exports went to the same
+destination, either as raw material for manufactures, or as to the
+distributing centre for Europe. The commercial dependence is evident;
+it had rather increased than diminished since the Peace. As regards
+American navigation, the showing was somewhat better; but even here
+217,000 tons British had entered United States ports, against a total
+of only 355,000 American. As of the latter only 50,000 had sailed from
+Great Britain, it is clear that the empire had retained its hold upon
+its carrying trade, throughout the years intervening between the Peace
+and the adoption of the Constitution.
+
+As regards the commercial relations between the two nations, these
+results corresponded in the main with the expectations of those who
+frustrated Pitt's measure. He had conceived, however, that it was wise
+for Great Britain not only to preserve a connection so profitable, but
+also to develop it; to multiply the advantage by steps which would
+promote the prosperity and consequent purchasing power of the
+communities involved. This was the object of his proposed concession.
+During the then recent war, no part of the British dominions--save
+besieged Gibraltar--had suffered so severely as the West Indies.
+Though other causes concurred, this was due chiefly to the cessation
+of communications with the revolted colonies, entailing failure of
+supplies indispensable to their industries. Despite certain
+alleviations incidental to the war, such as the capture of American
+vessels bound to foreign islands, and the demand for tropical products
+by the British armies and fleets, there had been great misery among
+the population, as well as financial loss. The restoration of
+commercial intercourse would benefit the continent as well as the
+islands; but the latter more. The prosperity of both would redound to
+the welfare of Great Britain; for the one, though now politically
+independent, was chained to her commercial system by imperative
+circumstances, while of the trade of the other she would have complete
+monopoly, except for this tolerance of a strictly local traffic with
+the adjoining continent. As for British navigation, the supreme
+interest, Pitt believed that it would receive more enlargement from
+the increase of productiveness in the islands, and of consequent
+demand for British manufactures, than it would suffer loss by American
+navigation. More commerce, more ships. Then, as at the present day,
+the interests of Great Britain and of the United States, in their
+relations to a matter of common external concern, were not opposed,
+but complementary; for the prosperity of the islands through America
+would make for the prosperity of Great Britain through the islands.
+
+This, however, was just the point disputed; and, in default of the
+experience which the coming years were to furnish, fears not wholly
+unreasonable, from the particular point of view of sea power, as then
+understood, were aroused by the known facts of American shipping
+enterprise, both as ship-builders and carriers, even under colonial
+trammels. John Adams, who was minister to Great Britain from 1785 to
+1788, had frequent cause to note the deep and general apprehension
+there entertained of the United States as a rival maritime state. The
+question of admission to the colonial trade, as it presented itself to
+most men of the day, was one of defence and of offence, and was
+complicated by several considerations. As a matter of fact, there was
+no denying the existence of that transatlantic commercial system, in
+which the former colonies had been so conspicuous a factor, the sole
+source of certain supplies to an important market, reflecting therein
+exactly Great Britain's own position relatively to the consumers of
+the European continent. The prospect of reviving what had always been
+an _imperium in imperio_, but now uncontrolled by the previous
+conditions of political subjection, seemed ominous; and besides, there
+was cherished the hope, ill-founded and delusive though it was, that
+the integrity of the empire as a self-sufficing whole, broken by
+recent revolt, might be restored by strong measures, coercive towards
+the commerce of the United States, and protective towards Canada and
+the other remaining continental colonies. It was believed by some that
+the agriculture, shipping, and fisheries of Canada, Nova Scotia, and
+Newfoundland, despite the obstacles placed by nature, could be so
+fostered as to supply the needs of the West Indies, and to develop
+also a population of consumers bound to take off British manufactures,
+as the lost colonists used to do. This may be styled the constructive
+idea, in Sheffield's series of propositions, looking to the
+maintenance of the British carrying trade at the expense of that of
+the United States. This expectation proved erroneous. Up to and
+through the War of 1812, the British provinces, so far from having a
+surplus for export, had often to depend upon the United States for
+much of the supplies which Sheffield expected them to send to the West
+Indies.
+
+The proposition was strongly supported also by a wish to aid the
+American loyalists, who, to the number of many thousands, had fled
+from the old colonies to take refuge in the less hospitable North.
+These men, deprived of their former resources, and having a new start
+in life to make, desired that the West India market should be reserved
+for them, to build up their local industries. Their influence was
+exerted in opposition to the planters, and the mother country justly
+felt itself bound to their relief by strong obligation. Conjoined to
+this was doubtless the less worthy desire to punish the successful
+rebellion, as well as to hinder the growth of a competitor. "If I had
+not been here and resided here some time," wrote John Adams, in 1785,
+"I should not have believed, nor could have conceived, such an union
+of all Parliamentary factions against us, which is a demonstration of
+the unpopularity of our cause."[69] "Their direct object is not so
+much the increase of their own wealth, ships, or sailors, as the
+diminution of ours. A jealousy of our naval power is the true motive,
+the real passion which actuates them. They consider the United States
+as their rival, and the most dangerous rival they have in the world. I
+can see clearly they are less afraid of the augmentation of French
+ships and sailors than American. They think they foresee that if the
+United States had the same fisheries, carrying trade, and same market
+for ready-built ships, they had ten years ago, they would be in so
+respectable a position, and in so happy circumstances, that British
+seamen, manufacturers, and merchants too, would hurry over to
+them."[70] These statements, drawn from Adams's association with many
+men, reflect so exactly the line of argument in the best known of the
+many controversial pamphlets published about that time,--Lord
+Sheffield's "Observations on the Commerce of the American States,"--as
+to prove that it represented correctly a preponderant popular feeling,
+not only adverse to the restoration of the colonial privileges
+contemplated by Pitt, but distinctly inimical to the new nation; a
+feeling born of past defeat and of present apprehension.
+
+Inextricably associated with this feeling was the conviction that the
+navigation supported by the sugar islands, being a monopoly always
+under the control of the mother country, and ministering to the
+_entrepot_ on which so much other shipping depended, was the one sure
+support of the general carrying trade of the nation. "Considering the
+bulk of West India commodities," Sheffield had written, "and the
+universality and extent of the consumption of sugar, a consumption
+still in its infancy even in Europe, and still more in America, it is
+not improbable that in a few ages the nation which may be in
+possession of the most extensive and best cultivated sugar islands,
+_subject to a proper policy_,[71] will take the lead at sea." Men of
+all schools concurred in this general view, which is explanatory of
+much of the course pursued by the British Government, alike in
+military enterprise, commercial regulation, and political belligerent
+measures, during the approaching twenty years of war with France. It
+underlay Pitt's subsequent much derided, but far from unwise, care to
+get the whole West India region under British control, by conquering
+its sugar islands. It underlay also the other measures, either
+instituted or countenanced by him, or inherited from his general war
+policy, which led through ever increasing exasperation to the war with
+the United States. The question, however, remained, "What is the
+proper policy conducive to the end which all desire?" Those who
+thought with Pitt in 1783 urged that to increase the facilities of the
+islands, by abundant supplies from the nearest and best source, in
+America, would so multiply the material of commerce as most to promote
+the necessary navigation. The West India planters pressed this view
+with forcible logic. "Navigation and naval power are not the parents
+of commerce, but its happy fruits. If mutual wants did not furnish the
+subject of intercourse between distant countries, there would soon be
+an end of navigation. The carrying trade is of great importance, but
+it is of greater still to have trade to carry." To this the reply
+substantially was that if the trade were thrown open to Americans, by
+allowing them to carry in their own vessels, the impetus so given to
+their navigation, with the cheapness of their ships, owing to the
+cheapness of materials, would make them carriers to the whole world,
+breaking up the monopoly of British merchants, and supplanting the
+employment of British ships.
+
+A few statesmen, more far seeing and deeper reasoning,--notably Edmund
+Burke,--came to Pitt's support, and the West India proprietors,
+largely resident in England, by their knowledge of details contributed
+much to elucidate the facts; but their efforts were unavailing. Their
+argument ran thus: "Only the American continent can furnish at
+reasonable rates the animals required for the agriculture of the
+islands, the food for the slaves, the lumber for buildings and for
+packing produce. Only the continent will take the rum which Europe
+refuses, and with which the planter pays his running expenses. Owing
+to irreversible currents of trade, neither British nor island shipping
+can carry this traffic at a profit to themselves, except by ruinously
+overcharging the planter. Americans only can do it. Concede the
+exchange by this means, and the development of sugar and coffee
+raising, owing to their bulk as freight, will enlarge British shipping
+to Europe by an amount much beyond that lost in the local transport.
+Of the European carriage you will retain a monopoly, as you will of
+the produce, which goes into your storehouses alone; whence you reap
+the advantage of brokerage and incidental handling, at the expense of
+the continental consumer, while your home navigation is enlarged by
+its export. Refuse this privilege, and your islands sink under French
+and Spanish competition. French Santo Domingo, especially, exceeds by
+far all your possessions, both in the extent of soil and quality of
+product." Very shortly they were able also to say that the French
+allowed ships to be bought from Americans; and, although in their
+treaty with the United States they had refused free intercourse to
+American vessels, a royal ordinance of 1784 permitted it to vessels of
+under sixty tons' burden.
+
+Within a month of the introduction of Pitt's bill the ministry to
+which he then belonged fell. The one which followed refrained from
+dealing at all with the subject, except by recourse to an expedient
+not uncommon with party leaders, dealing with a new question of
+admitted intricacy. They passed a bill leaving the whole matter to the
+Crown for executive action. Accordingly, in July, 1783, a proclamation
+was issued permitting intercourse between the islands and the
+American continent, in a long list of specified articles, but only by
+British ships, owned and navigated as required by the Navigation Act.
+American vessels were excluded by omission, and while most necessaries
+for food, agriculture, and commerce were admitted, one staple article,
+salt fish, urgently requested by the planters, was forbidden. This was
+partly to encourage the Newfoundland fisheries and those of Great
+Britain, and partly to injure American. Both objects were in the line
+of the Navigation Act, to foster home navigation and impede that of
+foreigners; fisheries being considered a prime support of each. A
+generation before, the elder Pitt had inveighed against the Peace of
+Paris, in 1763, on account of the concession of the cod fisheries.
+"You leave to France," he said, "the opportunity of reviving her
+navy." Before the separation, the near and great market of the West
+India negro population had consumed one-third of the American catch of
+fish. So profitable a condition could no longer be continued. Salt
+provisions also, butter, and cheese, were not allowed, being reserved
+for Irish producers.[72]
+
+The next December the enabling bill was renewed and the proclamation
+re-issued. At this moment Pitt returned to office. A few months later,
+in the spring of 1784, Parliament was dissolved, and the ensuing
+elections carried him into power at the head of a great majority. He
+made no immediate attempt to resume legislation favoring the American
+trade with the West Indies. The disposition of the majority of
+Englishmen in the matter had been plainly shown, and other more urgent
+commercial reforms engaged his attention. Soon after the receipt of
+the news in America, some of the states passed retaliatory measures,
+on their own account, or authorized the Continental Congress so to act
+for them. The bad feeling already caused by the non-fulfilment, on
+both sides, of certain stipulations of the treaty of peace was
+particularly exasperated by this proclamation; for anticipation,
+aroused by Pitt's proposed measure, had been nursed into confident
+expectation during the four months' interval, in which intercourse had
+been openly or tacitly allowed. It was at this period that Nelson
+first came conspicuously into public notice, by checking the
+connivance of the West Indian governors in the infractions of the
+Navigation Laws; the Act authorizing commanders of Kings' ships to
+seize offending vessels, and bring them before the Court of
+Admiralty.[73] It is said also that his experience had much to do with
+shaping subsequent legislation upon the same prohibitory lines. In
+America disappointment was bitter. Little concern was felt in England.
+Concerted action by several states was thought most unlikely, and a
+more perfect union impossible. While Massachusetts, for example, in
+1785 forbade import or export in any vessel belonging in whole or in
+part to British subjects, the state then next to her in maritime
+importance, Pennsylvania, in 1786 repealed laws imposing extra charges
+on British ships, and admitted all nations on equal terms with her
+sister states. "The ministry in England," wrote Adams, "build all
+their hopes and schemes upon the supposition of such divisions in
+America as will forever prevent a combination of the States, either in
+prohibition or in retaliatory duties."[74]
+
+Effective retaliation consequently was not feared, and as for results
+otherwise, it was doubtless thought best to await the test of
+experience. Proclamation, annually authorized and re-issued, remained
+therefore the mode of regulating commerce between the British
+dominions and the United States up to the date of Jay's treaty. Once
+only, in 1788, Parliament interfered so far as to pass a law,
+confining the trade with the West Indies to British-built ships and
+to certain enumerated articles, in the strict spirit of the Navigation
+system. Otherwise, intercourse with the United States was throughout
+this period subject at any moment to be modified or annulled by the
+single will of the Executive; whereas that with other nations, fixed
+by statute,--the Navigation Act,--could be altered only by the
+legislature.[75]
+
+Of this British commercial policy, following immediately upon the
+recognition of independence, Americans had not the slightest reason to
+complain. They had insisted upon being independent, and it would be
+babyish to fret about the consequences, when unpalatable. It was
+unpleasant to find that Great Britain, satisfied that the carrying
+trade was the first of her interests, upon which depended her naval
+supremacy, rigorously excluded Americans from branches of that trade
+before permitted to them; but in so doing she was simply seeking her
+own advantage by means of her own laws, as a nation does, for
+instance, when it imposes heavy protective duties. It is quite as
+legitimate to protect the carrying trade as any other form of
+industry; and the Navigation Act was no new device, for the special
+annoyance of Americans. It is very possible that the action of Great
+Britain at this time was so stupid, that, to use words of Jefferson's,
+the only way to prophesy what she would do was to ascertain what she
+ought to do, and infer the contrary. The rule, he said, never failed.
+This particular stupidity, if such it were,--and there was at least
+partial ground for the charge,--was simply another case of a most
+common form of human dulness of perception, preoccupation with a fixed
+idea. But were the policy wise or foolish, as regards herself, towards
+the Americans it was not a wrong, but an injury; and, consequently,
+what the newly independent people had to do was not to complain, but
+to strike back with retaliatory commercial measures. Jefferson, no
+friend generally to coercive action, wrote concerning this particular
+situation, "It is not to the moderation or justice of others we are to
+trust for fair and equal access to market with our productions, or for
+our due share in the transportation of them; but to our own means of
+independence, and the firm will to use them."[76]
+
+Equally, when Great Britain, under the emergencies of the French
+Revolution, resorted to measures that overpassed her rights, either
+municipal or international, and infringed our own, the resort should
+have been to the remedy with which nations defend their rights, as
+distinct from their interest. The American people, then poor, and
+habituated to colonial dependence, failed to create for themselves in
+due time the power necessary to self-assertion; nor did they as a
+nation realize, what men like John Adams and Gouverneur Morris saw and
+preached, that in the complicated tangle of warring interests which
+constitutes every contemporary situation, the influence of any single
+factor depends, not merely upon its own value, but upon that value
+taken in connection with other conditions. A pound is but a pound; but
+when the balance is nearly equal, a pound may turn a scale. Because
+America could not possibly put afloat the hundred--or two
+hundred--ships-of-the-line which Great Britain had in commission,
+therefore, many argued, as many do to-day, it was vain to have any
+navy. "I believe," wrote Morris in 1794,[77] and few men better
+understood financial conditions, "that we could now maintain twelve
+ships-of-the-line, perhaps twenty, with a due proportion of frigates
+and smaller vessels. And I am tolerably certain that, while the United
+States of America pursue a just and liberal conduct, _with twenty
+sail-of-the-line at sea_, no nation on earth will dare to insult them.
+I believe also, that, not to mention individual losses, five years of
+war would involve more national expense than the support of a navy for
+twenty years. One thing I am thoroughly convinced of, that, if we do
+not render ourselves respectable, we shall continue to be insulted."
+
+A singular, and too much disregarded, instance of the insults to which
+the United States was exposed, by the absence of naval strength, is
+found in the action of the Barbary Powers towards our commerce, which
+scarcely dared to enter the Mediterranean. It is less known that this
+condition of things was eminently satisfactory to British politicians
+of the old-fashioned school, and as closely linked as was the
+Navigation system itself to the ancient rivalry with Holland. "Our
+ships," wrote the Dutch statesman De Witt, who died in 1672, "should
+be well guarded by convoy against the Barbary pirates. Yet it would by
+no means be proper to free that sea of those pirates, because we
+should hereby be put upon the same footing with East-landers, [_i.e._,
+Baltic nations, Denmark, Sweden, etc.] English, Spaniards, and
+Italians; wherefore it is best to leave that thorn in the sides of
+those nations, whereby they will be distressed in that trade, while we
+by convoy engross all the European traffic and navigation."[78] This
+cynical philosophy was echoed in 1784 by the cultured English
+statesman, Lord Sheffield, the intimate friend of the historian
+Gibbon, and editor of his memoirs. "If the great maritime powers know
+their interests," he wrote, "they will not encourage the Americans to
+be carriers. That the Barbary States are an advantage to the maritime
+powers is obvious. If they were suppressed, the little states of
+Italy, etc., would have much more of the carrying trade. The Armed
+Neutrality would be as hurtful to the great maritime powers as the
+Barbary States are useful."[79]
+
+It may be a novel thought to many Americans, that at that time
+American commerce in the Mediterranean depended largely for protection
+upon Portuguese cruisers; its own country extending none. When peace
+was unexpectedly made between Portugal and Algiers in 1793, through
+the interposition of a British consular officer, a wail of dismay went
+up to heaven from American shipmen. "The conduct of the British in
+this business," wrote the American consul at Lisbon, "leaves no room
+to doubt or mistake their object, which was evidently aimed at us, and
+that they will leave nothing unattempted to effect our ruin." It
+proved, indeed, that the British consul's action was not that of his
+Government, but taken on his own initiative; but the incident not only
+recalls the ideas of the time, long since forgotten, but in its
+indications, both of British commercial security and American
+exposure, illustrates the theory of the Navigation Act as to the
+reciprocal influence of the naval and merchant services. There was
+then nothing, in the economical conditions of the United States, to
+forbid a navy stronger than the Portuguese; yet the consul, in his
+pitiful appeal to the Portuguese Court, had to write: "My countrymen
+have been led into their present embarrassment by confiding in the
+friendship, power, and protection of her Most Faithful Majesty," ...
+which "lulled our citizens into a fatal security."[80] Our lamentable
+dependence upon others, for the respect we should have extorted
+ourselves, is shown in the instructions issued to Jay, on his mission
+to England in 1794. "It may be represented to the British Ministry,
+how productive of perfect conciliation it might be to the people of
+the United States, if Great Britain would use her influence with the
+Dey of Algiers for the liberation of the American citizens in
+captivity, and for a peace upon reasonable terms. It has been
+communicated from abroad, to be the fixed policy of Great Britain to
+check our trade in grain to the Mediterranean. This is too doubtful to
+be assumed, but fit for inquiry."[81] The Dey had declared war in
+1785, this being with the Barbary rulers the customary method of
+opening piratical action. "If the Dey makes peace with every one,"
+said one of his captains to Nelson, "what is he to do with his ships?"
+
+The experience of the succeeding fifteen years was to give ample
+demonstration of the truth of Morris's prophecy; but what is
+interesting now to observe is, that he, who certainly did not imagine
+twenty ships to be equal to a hundred, accurately estimated the
+deterrent force of such a body, prepared to act upon an enemy's
+communications,--or interests,--at a great distance from the strategic
+centre of operations. A valuable military lesson of the War of 1812 is
+just this: that a comparatively small force--a few frigates and
+sloops--placed as the United States Navy was, can exercise an
+influence utterly disproportionate to its own strength. Instances of
+Great Britain's extremity, subsequent to Morris's prediction, are
+easily cited. In 1796, her fleet was forced to abandon the
+Mediterranean. In 1799, a year after the Nile, Nelson had to implore a
+small Portuguese division not to relinquish the blockade of Malta,
+which he could not otherwise maintain. Under such conditions,
+apprehension of even a slight additional burden of hostility imposes
+restraint. Had Morris's navy existed in 1800, we probably should have
+had no War of 1812; that is, if Jefferson's passion for peace, and
+abhorrence of navies, could have been left out of the account. War, as
+Napoleon said, is a business of positions. The commercial importance
+of the United States, and the position of its navy relatively to the
+major interests of Great Britain, would together have produced an
+effect, to which, under the political emergency of the time, the mere
+commercial retaliation then attempted was quite inadequate. This
+distressed the enemy, but did not reduce him; and it bitterly
+alienated a large part of our own community, so that we went into the
+war a discordant, almost a disunited, nation.
+
+During the years of American impotence under the early confederation,
+the trade regulations of the British Government, framed on the lines
+advocated by Lord Sheffield, met with a measure of success which was
+perhaps more apparent than real; due attention being scarcely paid to
+the actual loss entailed upon British planters by the heightened cost
+of supplies, and the consequent effect upon British commerce and
+navigation. "Under the present limited intercourse with America,"
+wrote the planter, Edwards, "the West Indies are subject to three sets
+of devouring monopolies: 1, the British ship-owners; 2, their agents
+in American ports; 3, their agents in the ports of the islands; all of
+whom exact an unnatural profit of the planters."[82] Chalmers, looking
+only to the navigation of the kingdom, which these culprits
+represented, admits that in the principal supplies Great Britain
+cannot compete with America; but, "whatever may be the difference in
+price to the West Indians, this is but a small equivalent which they
+ought to pay to the British consumer, for enjoying the exclusive
+supply of sugar, rum, and other West India products."[83] A few
+figures show conclusively that under all disadvantages the islands
+increased in actual prosperity, although they fell behind their French
+competitors, favored by a more liberal policy. In the quiet year 1770,
+before the revolt of the continent, the British West Indies shipped
+to the home country produce amounting to L3,279,204;[84] in 1787 this
+had risen to L4,839,145,[85] a gain of over 30 per cent. Between the
+same years, exports to the United States, limited after the peace to
+British ships, had fallen from L481,407 to L196,461. American produce,
+confined to British bottoms for admission to British colonies, had
+gone largely to the French islands, with which before the Revolution
+they could have only surreptitious intercourse. The result was that
+the British planter had to pay much more for his plantation supplies
+than did the French, who were furnished by American vessels, built and
+run much cheaper than British.[86] He was rigidly forbidden also to
+seek stores in the French islands. Such circuitous intercourse with
+America, by depriving British ships of the long voyage to the
+continent, would place the French islands in the obnoxious relation of
+_entrepot_ to their neighbors, which Holland had once occupied towards
+England. In all legislation minute care was taken to prevent such
+injury to navigation. Direct trade with British dominions was the
+fetich of British policy; circuitous trade its abomination.
+
+Despite drawbacks, a distinct advance was observable also in British
+navigation; in the development of the British-American colonies,
+continental and island; and in the intercolonial intercourse and
+shipping. Immediately after the institution of the new government, the
+United States enacted laws protective of her own navigation; notably
+by an alien duty laid upon all foreign tonnage. To consider the
+probable effects of this legislation, and of the new American
+institutions, upon British commerce and navigation, a committee of the
+Privy Council was appointed, to which we owe a digested and
+authoritative summary of the change of conditions effected by the
+British measures, between 1783 and 1790. From its report, based upon
+averages of several years, it appears that in the direct trade between
+Great Britain and the United States, in which American ships stood on
+equal terms with British, there had been little variation in value of
+imports or exports, with the single exception of tobacco and rice.
+These two articles, which formerly had to pass through Great Britain
+as an _entrepot_, now went direct to their destination. The American
+shipping--navigation--employed in the trade with Great Britain
+herself, was only one-third of the British; the respective tonnage
+being 26,564 and 52,595. As this was nearly the proportion of American
+to British built ships in the colonial period, American shipping
+before the adoption of the Constitution had not gained at all, under
+the most favorable treatment conceded to it in British dominions. The
+Report, indeed, estimated that it had lost by nearly 20 per cent.[87]
+
+In the colonial trade, on the other hand, very marked British gains
+could be reported. The commercially backward communities of Canada,
+etc., forbidden now to admit American ships, or to import many
+articles from the United States, and given special privileges in the
+West Indies, had more than doubled their imports from the mother
+country; the amount rising from L379,411 to L829,088. These sums are
+not to be regarded in their own triviality, but as harbingers of a
+development, which it was hoped would fill the void in the British
+imperial system caused by the loss of the former colonies. The West
+Indies showed a more gradual increase, though still satisfactory;
+their exports since 1774 had risen 20 per cent. It was, however, in
+navigation, avowedly the chief aim of the protective legislation, that
+the intercolonial results were most encouraging. Through the exclusion
+of American competition, British tonnage to Canada and the neighboring
+colonies had enlarged fourfold, from 11,219 to 46,106. The national
+tonnage engaged between the West Indies and the mother country had
+grown from 80,482 to 133,736; 60 per cent. More encouraging still,
+from the ideal point of view of a restored system of mutual support,
+embracing both sides of the Atlantic, the tonnage employed between
+Canada and the West Indies had risen from 996 only in 1774, to 14,513
+in 1789. In brief, after a careful and systematic examination of the
+whole field, the committee considered that British navigation had
+gained 111,638 tons by excluding Americans from branches of trade they
+had once shared, and still eagerly desired.
+
+The effects of the system were most conspicuous in the trade between
+the West Indies and the United States. The tonnage here employed had
+fallen from 107,739, before the war, to 62,738. The reflections of the
+Committee upon this particular are so characteristic of national
+convictions as to be worth quoting.[88] "This decrease is rather less
+than half what it was before the war;[89] but before the war
+five-eighths belonged to merchants, permanent inhabitants of the
+countries now under the dominion of the United States, and
+three-eighths to British merchants residing occasionally in the said
+countries. At that time, very few vessels belonging to British
+merchants, resident in the British European dominions, or in the
+British Islands in the West Indies, had a share in this trade. The
+vessels employed in this trade can now only belong to British subjects
+_residing_ in the present British dominions. Many vessels now go from
+the ports of Great Britain, carrying British manufactures to the
+United States, there load with lumber and provisions for the British
+Islands in the West Indies, and return with the produce of these
+islands to Great Britain. The whole of this branch of freight may also
+be considered as a new acquisition, and was obtained by your Majesty's
+Order in Council before mentioned,[90] which has operated to the
+increase of British Navigation, compared to that of the United States
+in a double ratio; _but it has taken from the navigation of the United
+States more than it has added to that of Great Britain_."
+
+The last sentence emphasizes the fact, which John Adams had noted,
+that the object of the Navigation system was scarcely more defensive
+than offensive, in the military sense of the word. The Act carried
+provisions meant distinctly to impede the development of foreign
+shipping, as far as possible to do so by municipal regulation. The
+prohibition of entrance to a port of Great Britain by a foreign
+trader, unless three-fourths manned by citizens of the country whose
+flag she bore, was distinctly offensive in intent. But for this, other
+states might increase their tonnage by employing seamen not their own,
+which Great Britain could not do without weakening the reserves
+available for her navy, and imperative to her defence. Rivalry was
+thus engendered, and became bitter and apprehensive in proportion to
+the national interests involved; but at no time had such
+considerations persuaded the country to depart from its purpose. "The
+foreign war which those measures first brought upon us, and the odium
+which they have never ceased to cause, to the present day (1792) among
+neighboring nations, have not induced the legislature to give up any
+one of its principles."[91] In the case of the United States, the
+exasperation aroused was very great. It perpetuated the national
+animosity surviving from the War of Independence, and provoked
+retaliation. Before the formation of the better Union this was too
+desultory and divided to have much effect, and the artificial system
+of which Sheffield was the chief public champion had the appearance of
+success which has been described; but as soon as the thirteen states
+could wield their power as one whole, under a system at once
+consistent and permanent, American navigation began to make rapid
+headway. In 1790 there entered American ports from abroad 355,000 tons
+of American shipping and 251,000 foreign, of which 217,000 were
+British.[92] After one year of the discriminating tonnage dues laid by
+the national Congress, the American tonnage entering home ports from
+Great Britain had risen, from the 26,564 average of the three years,
+1787 to 1789, ascertained by the British committee, to 43,580.[93] In
+1801 there entered 799,304 tons of native shipping,[94] and but
+138,000 foreign.[95] The amount of British among the latter is not
+stated; but in the year 1800 there cleared from Great Britain, under
+her own flag, for the United States, but 14,381 tons.[96] This
+reversal of the conditions in 1787-89, before quoted,[97] was the
+result of a gradual progress, noticeable immediately after the
+American imposition of tonnage duties, and increasing up to 1793, when
+it was accelerated by the war between Great Britain and France.
+
+It is carefully to be remembered that the British committee,
+representing strictly the prepossessions of the body by which it was
+constituted, looked primarily to the development of national carrying
+trade. "As the security of the British dominions principally depends
+on the greatness of your Majesty's naval power, it has ever been the
+policy of the British Government to watch with a jealous eye every
+attempt that has been made by foreign nations to the detriment of its
+navigation; and even in cases where the interests of commerce and
+those of navigation could not be wholly reconciled, the Government of
+Great Britain has always given the preference to the interests of
+navigation; and it has never yet submitted to the imposition of any
+tonnage duties by foreign nations on British ships trading to their
+ports, without proceeding immediately to retaliation."[98] It had,
+however, submitted to several such measures, retaliatory for the
+exclusion from the West India trade, enacted by the separate states in
+the years 1783 to 1789; as well as to other legislation, taxing
+British shipping by name much above that of other foreigners. This
+quiescence was due to confidence, that the advantages possessed by
+Great Britain would enable her to overcome all handicaps. It was
+therefore with satisfaction that, after six years of commercial
+antagonism, the committee was able, not only to report the growth of
+British shipping, already quoted, but to show by the first official
+statement of entries issued by the American Government,[99] for the
+first year of its own existence, that for every five American tons
+entering American ports from over sea, there entered also three
+British; and that of the whole foreign tonnage there were six British
+to one of all other nations together.
+
+Upon the whole, therefore, while regretting the evidence in the
+American statement which showed increasing activity by American
+shipping over that ascertained by themselves for the previous
+years,--to be accounted for, as was believed, by transient
+circumstances,--the committee, after consultation with the leading
+merchants in the American trade, thought better to postpone
+retaliation for the new tonnage duties, which contained no invidious
+distinction in favor of other foreign shipping against British. The
+system of trade regulation so far pursued had given good results, and
+its continuance was recommended; though bitterly antagonizing
+Americans, and maintaining ill-will between the two countries. Upon
+one point, especially desired by the United States, the committee was
+particularly firm. It considered that its Government might judiciously
+make one proposition--and one only--for a commercial treaty; namely,
+that there should be entire equality of treatment, as to duties and
+tonnage, towards the ships of both nations in the home ports of each
+other. "But if Congress should propose (as they certainly will) that
+this principle of equality should be extended to the ports of our
+Colonies and Islands, and that the ships of the United States should
+there be treated as British ships, it should be answered that this
+demand cannot be admitted even as a subject of negotiation.... This
+branch of freight is of the same nature with the freight from one
+American state to another" (that is, trade internal to the empire is
+essentially a coasting trade). "Congress has made regulations to
+confine the freight, employed between the different states, to the
+ships of the United States, and Great Britain does not object to this
+restriction."[100] "The great advantages which have resulted from
+excluding American ships appear in the accounts given in this report;
+many of the merchants and planters of the West Indies, who formerly
+resisted this advice, now acknowledge the wisdom of it."[101]
+
+The committee recognized that exclusion from the carrying trade of the
+British West Indies was in some degree compensated to the American
+carrier, by the permission given by the Government of France for
+vessels not exceeding sixty tons to trade with her colonies, actually
+much greater producers, and therefore larger customers. Santo Domingo
+in particular, in the period following the American war, had enjoyed a
+heyday of prosperity, far eclipsing that of all the British islands
+together. This was due partly to natural advantages, and partly to
+social conditions,--the planters being generally resident, which the
+British were not; but cheaper supplies through free intercourse with
+the American continent also counted for much. From the French West
+Indies there entered the United States in 1790, 101,417 tons of
+shipping, of which only 3,925 were French.[102] From the British
+Islands there came 90,375, but of these all but 4,057 were
+British.[103] Returning, the exports from the United States to the two
+were respectively, $3,284,656 and $2,077,757.[104] The flattering
+testimony borne by these figures to the meagreness of French
+navigation, in the particular quarter, needed doubtless to be
+qualified by reference to their home trade from the West Indies, borne
+in French ships. This amounted in 1788 to 296,435 tons from Santo
+Domingo alone;[105] whereas the British trade from all their islands
+employed but 133,736.[106] This, however, was the sole great carrying
+trade of France; to the United States she sent from her home ports
+less than 13,000 tons.
+
+It was the opinion of the British committee that the privilege
+conceded to American shipping in the French islands was so contrary to
+established colonial policy as to be of doubtful continuance. Still,
+in concluding its report with a summary of American commercial
+conditions, which it deemed were in a declining way, it took occasion
+to utter a warning, based upon these relations of America with the
+foreign colonies. In case of a commercial treaty, "Should it be
+proposed to treat on maritime regulations, any article allowing the
+ships of the United States to protect the property of the enemies of
+Great Britain in time of war" (that is, the flag to cover the goods),
+"should on no account be admitted. It would be more dangerous to
+concede this privilege to the United States than to any other foreign
+country. From their situation, the ships of these states would be able
+to cover the whole trade of France and Spain with their islands and
+colonies, in America and the West Indies, whenever Great Britain shall
+be engaged with either of those Powers; and the navy of Great Britain
+would, in such case, be deprived of the means of distressing the
+enemy, by destroying his commerce and thereby diminishing his
+resources." It is well to note in these words the contemporary
+recognition of the importance of the position of the United States; of
+the value of the colonial trade; of the bearing of commerce
+destruction on war, by "diminishing the resources" of an enemy; and of
+the opportunity of the United States, "from their situation," to cover
+the carriage of colonial produce to Europe; for upon these several
+points turned much of the troubles, which by their accumulation caused
+mutual exasperation, and established an antagonism that inevitably
+lent itself to the war spirit when occasion arose. The specific
+warning of the committee was doubtless elicited by the terms of the
+then recent British commercial treaty with France, in 1786, by which
+the two nations had agreed that, in case of war to which one was a
+party, the vessels of the other might freely carry all kinds of goods,
+the property of any person or nation, except contraband. Such a
+concession could be made safely to France,--was in fact perfectly
+one-sided in favoring Great Britain; but to America it would open
+unprecedented opportunity.
+
+To the state of things so far described came the French Revolution;
+already begun, indeed, when the committee sat, but the course of which
+could not yet be foreseen. Its coincidence with the formation of the
+new government of the United States is well to be remembered; for the
+two events, by their tendencies, worked together to promote the
+antagonism between the United States and Great Britain, which was
+already latent in the navigation system of the one and the maritime
+aptitudes of the other. Washington, the first American President, was
+inaugurated in March, 1789; in May, the States General of France met.
+In February, 1793, the French Republic declared war against Great
+Britain, and in March Washington entered on his second term. In the
+intervening four years the British Government had persisted in
+maintaining the exclusion of American carrying trade from her colonial
+ports. During the same period the great French colony Santo Domingo
+had undergone a social convulsion, which ended in the wreck of its
+entire industrial system by the disappearance of slavery, and with it
+of all white government. The huge sugar and coffee product of the
+island vanished as a commercial factor, and with it the greater part
+of the colonial carriage of supplies, which had indemnified American
+shippers and agriculturists for their exclusion from British ports. Of
+167,399 American tonnage entering American ports from the West Indies
+in 1790, 101,417 had been from French islands.
+
+The removal of so formidable a competitor as Santo Domingo of course
+inured to the advantage of the British sugar and coffee planter, who
+was thus more able to bear the burden laid upon him to maintain the
+navigation of the empire, by paying a heavy percentage on his
+supplies. This, however, was not the only change in conditions
+affecting commerce and navigation. By 1793 it had become evident that
+Canada, Nova Scotia, and their neighbors, could not fill the place in
+an imperial system which it had been hoped they would take, as
+producers of lumber and food stuffs. This increased the relative
+importance of the West India Islands to the empire, just when the rise
+in price of sugar and coffee made it more desirable to develop their
+production. Should war come, the same reason would make it expedient
+to extend by conquest British productive territory in the Caribbean,
+and at the same time to cut off the supplies of such enemy's
+possessions as could not be subdued; thus crippling them, and removing
+their competition by force, as that of Santo Domingo had been by
+industrial ruin. These considerations tended further to fasten the
+interest of Great Britain upon this whole region, as particularly
+conducive to her navigation system. That cheapening supplies would
+stimulate production, to meet the favorable market and growing demands
+of the world, had been shown by the object-lesson of the French
+colonies; though as yet the example had not been followed.
+
+At this time also Great Britain had to recognize her growing
+dependence upon the sea, because her home territory had ceased to be
+self-sufficing. Her agriculture was becoming inadequate to feeding her
+people, in whose livelihood manufactures and commerce were playing an
+increasing part. Both these, as well as food from abroad, required the
+command of the sea, in war as in peace, to import raw materials and
+export finished products; and control of the sea required increase of
+naval resources, proportioned to the growing commercial movement.
+According to the ideas of the age, the colonial monopoly was the
+surest means to this. It was therefore urgent to resort to measures
+which should develop the colonies; and the question was inevitable
+whether reserving to British navigation the trade by which they were
+supplied was not more than compensated by the diminished production,
+with its effect in lessening the cargoes employing shipping for the
+homeward voyage.
+
+Thus things were when war broke out. The two objects, or motives,
+which have been indicated, came then at once into play. The conquest
+of the French West Indies, a perfectly legitimate move, was speedily
+undertaken; and meanwhile orders passing the bounds of recognized
+international law were issued, to suppress, by capture, their
+intercourse with the United States, alike in import and export. The
+blow of course fell upon American shipping, by which this traffic was
+almost wholly maintained. This was the beginning of a long series of
+arbitrary measures, dictated by a policy uniform in principle, though
+often modified by dictates of momentary expediency. It lasted for
+years in its various manifestations, the narration of which belongs to
+subsequent chapters. Complementary to this was the effort to develop
+production in British colonies, by extending to them the neutral
+carriage denied to their enemies. This was effected by allowing direct
+trade between them and the United States to American vessels of not
+over seventy tons; a limit substantially the same as that before
+imposed by France, and designed to prevent their surreptitiously
+conveying the cargoes to Europe, to the injury of British monopoly of
+the continental supply, effected by the _entrepot_ system, and doubly
+valuable since the failure of French products.
+
+This concession to American navigation, despite the previous
+opposition, had become possible to Pitt, partly because its
+advisability had been demonstrated and the opportunity recognized;
+partly, also, because the immense increase of the active navy, caused
+by the war, created a demand for seamen, which by impressment told
+heavily upon the merchant navigation of the kingdom, fostered for this
+very purpose. To meet this emergency, it was clearly politic to
+devolve the supply of the British West Indies upon neutral carriers,
+who would enjoy an immunity from capture denied to merchant ships of a
+belligerent, as well as relieve British navigation of a function which
+it had never adequately fulfilled. The measure was in strict accord
+with the usual practice of remitting in war the requirement of the
+Navigation Act, that three-fourths of all crews should be British
+subjects; by which means a large number of native seamen became at
+once released to the navy. To throw open a reserved trade to foreign
+ships, and a reserved employment to foreign seamen, are evidently only
+different applications of the one principle, viz.: to draw upon
+foreign aid, in a crisis to which the national navigation was unequal.
+
+Correlative to these measures, defensive in character, was the
+determination that the enemy should be deprived of these benefits;
+that, so far as international law could be stretched, neutral ships
+should not help him as they were encouraged to help the British. The
+welfare of the empire also demanded that native seamen should not be
+allowed to escape their liability to impressment, by serving in
+neutral vessels. The lawless measures taken to insure these two
+objects were the causes avowed by the United States in 1812 for
+declaring war. The impressment of American seamen, however, although
+numerous instances had already occurred, had not yet made upon the
+national consciousness an impression at all proportionate to the
+magnitude of the wrong; and the instructions given to Jay,[107] as
+special envoy in 1794, while covering many points at issue, does not
+mention this, which eventually overtopped all others.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[54] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 121.
+
+[55] Commerce of the American States (Edition February, 1784), pp.
+198-199.
+
+[56] Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 290.
+
+[57] Washington's Correspondence, 1787, edited by W.C. Ford, vol.
+viii. pp. 159, 160, 254.
+
+[58] Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, p.
+20.
+
+[59] Chalmers, Opinions, p. 32.
+
+[60] Jurien de la Graviere, Guerres Maritimes, Paris, 1847, vol. ii.
+p. 238.
+
+[61] Canada, Newfoundland, Bermuda, etc.
+
+[62] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 303.
+
+[63] p. 288.
+
+[64] Coxe, View of the United States, p. 346.
+
+[65] Reeves, p. 381. Nevertheless, foreign nations frequently
+complained of this as a distinction against them (Report of the
+Committee of the Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, p. 10).
+
+[66] Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 494 (note).
+
+[67] Coxe's View, p. 318.
+
+[68] American State Papers, Foreign Affairs, vol. i. p. 301. Jefferson
+added, "These imports consist mostly of articles on which industry has
+been exhausted,"--_i.e._, completed manufactures. The State Papers,
+Commerce and Navigation, give the tabulated imports and exports for
+many succeeding years.
+
+[69] Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 333.
+
+[70] Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 291.
+
+[71] My italics.
+
+[72] Chalmers, Opinions, p. 65.
+
+[73] Reeves, pp. 47, 57.
+
+[74] Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 281.
+
+[75] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 307.
+
+[76] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 304.
+
+[77] Morris to Randolph (Secretary of State), May 31, 1794. American
+State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 409. The italics are
+Morris's.
+
+[78] Quoted from De Witt's Interest of Holland, in Macpherson's Annals
+of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 472.
+
+[79] Observations on the Commerce of the American States, 1783, p.
+115. Concerning this pamphlet, Gibbon wrote, "The Navigation Act, the
+palladium of Britain, was defended, perhaps saved, by his pen."
+
+[80] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. pp. 296-299.
+
+[81] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 474.
+
+[82] West Indies, vol. ii. page 522, note.
+
+[83] Opinions, p. 89.
+
+[84] Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 506.
+
+[85] Ibid., vol. iv. p. 158.
+
+[86] Bryan Edwards, himself a planter of the time, says (vol. ii. p.
+522) that staves and lumber had risen 37 per cent in the British
+islands, which he attributes to the extortions of the navigation
+monopoly, "under the present limited intercourse with America." Coxe
+(View, etc., p. 134) gives lists of comparative prices, in 1790, June
+to November, in the neighboring islands of Santo Domingo and Jamaica,
+which show forcibly the burdens under which the latter labored.
+
+[87] Chalmers, in one of his works quoted by Macpherson (vol. iii. p.
+559), estimates the annual entries of American-built ships to British
+ports, 1771-74, to be 34,587 tons. From this figure the falling off
+was marked.
+
+[88] Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, p.
+39.
+
+[89] This awkward expression means that the amount of decrease was
+rather less than half the before-the-war total.
+
+[90] June 18, 1784, substantially the re-issue of that of Dec. 26,
+1783, which Reeves (p. 288) considers the standard exemplar.
+
+[91] Reeves, p. 431.
+
+[92] American State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, vol. x. p. 389.
+
+[93] Ibid., Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 301.
+
+[94] Ibid., Commerce and Navigation, vol. x. p. 528.
+
+[95] Ibid., p. 584.
+
+[96] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. iv. p. 535.
+
+[97] Ante, pp. 77, 78.
+
+[98] Report of the Committee, p. 85.
+
+[99] Ibid., p. 52.
+
+[100] Report, p. 96.
+
+[101] Ibid., p. 94.
+
+[102] American State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, vol. x. p. 47.
+
+[103] Ibid., p. 45.
+
+[104] Ibid., p. 24.
+
+[105] Coxe, p. 171.
+
+[106] Committee's estimate; Report, p. 43.
+
+[107] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 472.
+
+ [Illustration: JOHN JAY
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in Bedford (Jay) House,
+ Katonah, N.Y.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FROM JAY'S TREATY TO THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL
+
+1794-1807
+
+
+While there were many matters in dispute between the two countries,
+the particular occasion of Jay's mission to London in 1794 was the
+measures injurious to the commerce of the United States, taken by the
+British Government on the outbreak of war with France, in 1793.
+Neutrals are certain to suffer, directly and indirectly, from every
+war, and especially in maritime wars; for then the great common of all
+nations is involved, under conditions and regulations which by general
+consent legalize interference, suspension, and arrest of neutral
+voyages, when conflicting with acknowledged belligerent rights, or
+under reasonable suspicion of such conflict. It was held in the United
+States that in the treatment of American ships Great Britain had
+transcended international law, and abused belligerent privilege, by
+forced construction in two particulars. First, in June, 1793, she sent
+into her own ports American vessels bound to France with provisions,
+on the ground that under existing circumstance these were contraband
+of war. She did indeed buy the cargoes, and pay the freight, thus
+reducing the loss to the shipper; but he was deprived of the surplus
+profit arising from extraordinary demand in France, and it was claimed
+besides that the procedure was illegal. Secondly, in November of the
+same year, the British Government directed the seizure of "all ships
+laden with goods the produce of any colony belonging to France, or
+carrying provisions or other supplies for the use of any such colony."
+Neutrals were thus forbidden either to go to, or to sail from, any
+French colony for purposes of commercial intercourse. For the injuries
+suffered under these measures Jay was to seek compensation.
+
+The first order raised only a question of contraband, of frequent
+recurrence in all hostilities. It did not affect the issues which led
+to the War of 1812, and therefore need not here be further considered.
+But the second turned purely on the question of the intercourse of
+neutrals with the colonies of belligerents, and rested upon those
+received opinions concerning the relations of colonies to mother
+countries, which have been related in the previous chapters. The
+British Government founded the justification of its action upon a
+precedent established by its own Admiralty courts, which, though not
+strictly new, was recent, dating back only to the Seven Years' War,
+1756-63, whence it had received the name of the Rule of 1756. At that
+time, in the world of European civilization, all the principal
+maritime communities were either mother countries or colonies. A
+colonial system was the appendage of every maritime state; and among
+all there obtained the invariable rule, the formulation of which by
+Montesquieu has been already quoted, that "commercial monopoly is the
+leading principle of colonial intercourse," from which foreign states
+were rigorously excluded. Dealing with such a recognized international
+relation, at a period when colonial production had reached
+unprecedented proportions, the British courts had laid down the
+principle that a trade which a nation in time of peace forbade to
+foreigners could not be extended to them, if neutrals, in time of war,
+at the will and for the convenience of the belligerent; because by
+such employment they were "in effect incorporated in the enemy's
+navigation, having adopted his commerce and character, and identified
+themselves with his interests and purposes."[108]
+
+During the next great maritime war, that of American Independence, the
+United States were involved as belligerents, and the only maritime
+neutrals were Holland and the Baltic States. These drew together in a
+league known historically as the Armed Neutrality of 1780, in
+opposition to certain British interpretations of the rights of
+neutrals and belligerents; but in their formulated demands that of
+open trade with the colonies of belligerents does not appear, although
+there is found one closely cognate to it,--an asserted right to
+coasting trade, from port to port, of a country at war. The Rule of
+1756 therefore remained, in 1793, a definition of international
+maritime law laid down by British courts, but not elsewhere accepted;
+and it rested upon a logical deduction from a system of colonial
+administration universal at that period. The logical deduction may be
+stated thus. The mother country, for its own benefit, reserves to
+itself both the inward and outward trade; the products of the colony,
+and the supplying of it with necessaries. The carriage of these
+commodities is also confined to its own ships. Colonial commerce and
+navigation are thus each a national monopoly. To open to neutrals the
+navigation, the carriage of products and supplies, in time of war, is
+a war measure simply, designed to preserve a benefit endangered by the
+other belligerent. As a war measure, it tends to support the financial
+and naval strength of the nation employing it; and therefore, to an
+opponent whose naval power is capable of destroying that element of
+strength, the stepping in of a neutral to cover it is clearly an
+injury. The neutral so doing commits an unfriendly act, partial
+between the two combatants; because it aids the one in a proceeding,
+the origin and object of which are purely belligerent.
+
+When the United States in 1776 entered the family of nations, she came
+without colonies, but in the war attendant upon her liberation she had
+no rights as a neutral. In the interval of peace, between 1783 and
+1793, she had endeavored, as has been seen, to establish between
+herself and the Caribbean region those conditions of open navigation
+which were indicated as natural by the geographical relations of the
+two and their several products. This had been refused by Great
+Britain; but France had conceded it on a restricted scale, plainly
+contrived, by the limitation of sixty tons on the size of vessels
+engaged, to counteract any attempt at direct carriage from the islands
+to Europe, which was not permitted. Under these circumstances the
+United States was brought into collision with the Rule of 1756, for
+the first time, by the Order in Council of November 6, 1793. A people
+without colonies, and with a rapidly growing navigation, could have no
+sympathy with a system, coextensive with Europe, which monopolized the
+carriage of colonial products. The immediate attitude assumed was one
+of antagonism; and the wrong as felt was the greater, because the
+direct intercourse between the United States and the then great French
+colonies was not incidental to war, but had been established in peace.
+In principle, the Rule rested for its validity upon an exception made
+in war, for the purposes of war.
+
+The British Government in fact had overlooked that the Rule had
+originated in European conditions; and, if applicable at all to the
+new transatlantic state, it could only be if conditions were the same,
+or equivalent. Till now, by universal usage, trade from colonies had
+been only to the mother country; the appearance of an American state
+with no colonies introduced two factors hitherto non-existent. Here
+was a people not identified with a general system of colonial
+exclusiveness; and also, from their geographical situation, it was
+possible for a European government to permit them to trade with its
+colonies, without serious trespass on the privileges reserved to the
+mother country. The monopoly of the latter consisted not only in the
+commerce and carrying trade of the colony, but in the _entrepot_; that
+is, in the receipt and storage of the colonial produce, and its
+distribution to less favored European communities,--the profit, in
+short, of the middleman, or broker. France had recognized, though but
+partially, this difference of conditions, and in somewhat grudging
+manner had opened her West Indian ports to American vessels, for
+intercourse with their own country. This trade, being permitted in
+peace, did not come under the British Rule; therefore by its own
+principle the seizures under it were unlawful. Accordingly, on January
+8, 1794, the order was revoked, and the application limited to vessels
+bound from the West Indies direct to Europe.
+
+This further Order in Council preserved the principle of the Rule of
+1756, but it removed the cause of a great number of the seizures which
+had afflicted American shipping. There were nevertheless, among these,
+some cases of vessels bound direct to France from French colonies,
+laden with colonial produce; one of which was the first presented to
+Jay on his arrival in London. In writing to the Secretary of State he
+says, "It unfortunately happens that this is not among the strongest
+of the cases;" and in a return made three years later to Congress, of
+losses recovered under the treaty, this vessel's name does not appear.
+In the opinion of counsel, submitted to Jay, it was unlikely that the
+case would be reversed on appeal, because it unequivocally fell under
+the Rule.[109] It is therefore to be inferred that this principle, the
+operation of which was revived so disastrously in 1805, was not
+surrendered by the British Government in 1794. In fact, in the
+discussions between Mr. Jay and the British Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, there seems to have been on both sides a disposition to avoid
+pronouncements upon points of abstract right. It remained the constant
+policy of British negotiators, throughout this thorny period, to seek
+modes of temporary arrangement, which should obviate immediate causes
+of complaint; leaving principles untouched, to be asserted, if
+desirable, at a more favorable moment. This was quite contrary to the
+wishes of the United States Government, which repeatedly intimated to
+Jay that in the case of the Rule of 1756 it desired to settle the
+question of principle, which it denied. To this it had attached
+several other topics touching maritime neutral rights, such as the
+flag covering the cargo, and matters of contraband.[110]
+
+Jay apparently satisfied himself, by his interviews and observation of
+public feeling in England, that at the moment it was vain for a
+country without a navy to expect from Great Britain any surrender of
+right, as interpreted by her jurists; that the most to be accomplished
+was the adoption of measures which should as far as possible extend
+the immediate scope of American commerce, and remove its present
+injuries, presenting withal a probability of future further
+concessions. In his letter transmitting the treaty, he wrote: "That
+Britain, at this period, and involved in war, should not admit
+principles which would impeach the propriety of her conduct in seizing
+provisions bound to France, and enemy's property on board neutral
+vessels, does not appear to me extraordinary. The articles, as they
+now stand, secure compensation for seizures, and leave us at liberty
+to decide whether they were made in such cases as to be warranted by
+the _existing_ law of nations."[111] The italics are Jay's, and the
+expression is obscure; but it seems to imply that, while either
+nation, in their respective claims for damages, would be bound by the
+decision of the commissioners provided for their settlement by the
+treaty, it would preserve the right to its own opinion as to whether
+the decision was in accordance with admitted law, binding in the
+future. In short, acceptance of the Rule of 1756 would not be affected
+by the findings upon the claims. If adverse to Great Britain, she
+could still assert the Rule in times to come, if expedient; if against
+the United States, she likewise, while submitting, reserved the right
+of protest, with or without arms, against its renewed enforcement.
+
+"As to the principles we contend for," continued Jay, "you will find
+them saved in the conclusion of the twelfth article, from which it
+will appear that we still adhere to them." This conclusion specifies
+that after the termination of a certain period, during which Great
+Britain would open to American vessels the carrying trade between her
+West India Islands and the United States, there should be further
+negotiation, looking to the extension of mutual intercourse; "and the
+said parties will then endeavor to agree whether, in any, and what,
+cases neutral vessels shall protect enemy's property; and in what
+cases provisions and other articles, not generally contraband, may
+become such. But in the meantime, their conduct towards each other in
+these respects shall be regulated by the articles hereinafter inserted
+on those subjects."[112] The treaty therefore was a temporary
+arrangement, to meet temporary difficulties, and involved no surrender
+of principle on either side. Although the Rule of 1756 is not
+mentioned, it evidently shared the same fate as the other American
+propositions looking to the settlement of principles; the more so that
+subsequent articles admitted, not only the undoubted rule that the
+neutral flag did not cover enemy's goods, but also the vehemently
+disputed claim that naval stores and provisions were, or might be,
+contraband of war. Further evidence of the understanding of Great
+Britain in this matter is afforded by a letter of the law adviser of
+the Crown, transmitted in 1801 by the Secretary for Foreign Affairs to
+Mr. King, then United States Minister. "The direct trade between the
+mother country and its colonies has not during this present war been
+recognized as legal, either by his Majesty's Government or by his
+tribunals."[113]
+
+It is to be inferred that the Administration and the Senate, while
+possibly thinking Jay too yielding as a negotiator, reached the
+conclusion that his estimate of British feeling, formed upon the spot,
+was correct as to the degree of concession then to be obtained. At all
+events, the treaty, which provided for mixed commissions to adjudicate
+upon the numerous seizures made under the British orders, and, under
+certain conditions, admitted American vessels to branches of British
+trade previously closed to them, was ratified with the exception of
+the twelfth article. This conferred on Americans the privilege, long
+and urgently desired, of direct trade between their own country and
+the British West Indies on the same terms as British ships, though in
+vessels of limited size. Greatly desired as this permission had been,
+it came coupled with the condition, not only that cargoes from the
+islands should be landed in the United States alone, but also, while
+the concession lasted, American vessels should not carry "molasses,
+sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton" from the United States to any part of
+the world. By strict construction, this would prevent re-exporting the
+produce of French or other foreign colonies; a traffic, the extent of
+which during this war may be conceived by the returns for a single
+year, 1796, when United States shipping carried to Europe thirty-five
+million pounds of sugar and sixty-two million pounds of coffee,
+products of the Caribbean region. This article was rejected by the
+Senate, and the treaty ratified without it; but the coveted privilege
+was continued by British executive order, the regulations in the
+matter being suspended on account of the war, and the trade opened to
+American as well as British ships. Ostensibly a favor, not resting on
+the obligations of treaty, but on the precarious ground of the
+Government's will, its continuance was assured under the circumstances
+of the time by its practical utility to Great Britain; for the trade
+of that country, and its vital importance in the prevailing wars, were
+developing at a rate which outstripped its own tonnage. The numbers of
+native seamen were likewise inadequate, through the heavy demands of
+the Navy for men. The concurrence of neutrals was imperative. Under
+the conditions it was no slight advantage to have the islands supplied
+and the American market retained, by the services of American vessels,
+leaving to British the monopoly of direct carrying between the
+colonies and Europe.
+
+Although vexations to neutrals incident to a state of war continued
+subsequent to this treaty, they turned upon points of construction and
+practice rather than upon principle. Negotiation was continuous; and
+in September, 1800, towards the close of Adams's administration, Mr.
+John Marshall, then Secretary of State, summed up existing complaints
+of commercial injury under three heads,--definitions of contraband,
+methods of blockade, and the unjust decisions of Vice-Admiralty
+Courts; coupled with the absence of penalty to cruisers making
+unwarranted captures, which emboldened them to seize on any ground,
+because certain to escape punishment. But no formal pronouncement
+further injurious to United States commerce was made by the British
+Government during this war, which ended in October, 1801, to be
+renewed eighteen months later. On the contrary, the progress of events
+in the West Indies, by its favorable effect upon British commerce,
+assisted Pitt in taking the more liberal measures to which by
+conviction he was always inclined. The destruction of Haiti as a
+French colony, and to a great degree as a producer of sugar and
+coffee, by eliminating one principal source of the world's supply,
+raised values throughout the remaining Caribbean; while the capture of
+almost all the French and Dutch possessions threw their commerce and
+navigation into the hands of Great Britain. In this swelling
+prosperity the British planter, the British carrier, and the British
+merchant at home all shared, and so bore without apparent grudging the
+issuance of an Order, in January, 1798, which extended to European
+neutrals the concession, made in 1795 to the United States, of
+carrying West Indian produce direct from the islands to their own
+country, or to Great Britain; not, however, to a hostile port, or to
+any other neutral territory than their own.
+
+Although this Order in no way altered the existing status of the
+United States, it was embraced in a list of British measures affecting
+commerce,[114] transmitted to Congress in 1808. From the American
+standpoint this was accurate; for the extension to neutrals to carry
+to their own country, and to no other, continued the exclusion of the
+United States from a direct traffic between the belligerent colonies
+and Europe, which she had steadily asserted to be her right, but which
+the Rule of 1756 denied. The utmost the United States had obtained was
+the restitution of privileges enjoyed by them as colonists of Great
+Britain, in trading with the British West Indies; and this under
+circumstances of delay and bargain which showed clearly that the
+temporary convenience of Great Britain was alone consulted. No
+admission had been made on the point of right, as maintained by
+America. On the contrary, the Order of 1798 was at pains to state as
+its motive no change of principle, but "consideration of the present
+state of the commerce of Great Britain, as well as of that of neutral
+countries," which makes it "expedient."[115]
+
+Up to the preliminaries of peace in 1801, nothing occurred to change
+that state of commerce which made expedient the Order of January,
+1798. It was renewed in terms when war again began between France and
+Great Britain, in May, 1803. In consideration of present conditions,
+the direct trade was permitted to neutral vessels between an enemy's
+colony and their own country. The United States remained, as before,
+excluded from direct carriage between the West Indies and Europe; but
+the general course of the British Administration of the moment gave
+hopes of a line of conduct more conformable to American standards of
+neutral rights. Particularly, in reply to a remonstrance of the United
+States, a blockade of the whole coast of Martinique and Guadaloupe,
+proclaimed by a British admiral, was countermanded; instructions being
+sent him that the measure could apply only to particular ports,
+actually invested by sufficient force, and that neutrals attempting to
+enter should not be captured unless they had been previously
+warned.[116] Although no concession of principle as to colonial trade
+had been made, the United States acquiesced in, though she did not
+accept, the conditions of its enforcement. These were well understood
+by the mercantile community, and were such as admitted of great
+advantage, both to the merchant and to the carrying trade. In 1808,
+Mr. Monroe, justifying his negotiations of 1806, wrote that, even
+under new serious differences which had then arisen, "The United
+States were in a prosperous and happy condition, compared with that of
+other nations. As a neutral Power, they were almost the exclusive
+carriers of the commerce of the whole world; and in commerce they
+flourished beyond example, notwithstanding the losses they
+occasionally suffered."[117]
+
+Under such circumstances matters ran along smoothly for nearly two
+years. In May, 1804, occurred a change of administration in England,
+bringing Pitt again into power. As late as November 8 of this year,
+Jefferson in his annual message said, "With the nations of Europe, in
+general, our friendship and intercourse are undisturbed; and, from the
+governments of the belligerent powers, especially, we continue to
+receive those friendly manifestations which are justly due to an
+honest neutrality." Monroe in London wrote at the same time, "Our
+commerce was never so much favored in time of war."[118] These words
+testify to general quietude and prosperity under existing conditions,
+but are not to be understood as affirming absence of subjects of
+difference. On the contrary, Monroe had been already some time in
+London, charged to obtain from Great Britain extensive concessions of
+principle and practice, which Jefferson, with happy optimism, expected
+a nation engaged in a life and death struggle would yield in virtue of
+reams of argument, maintaining views novel to it, advanced by a
+country enjoying the plenitude of peace, but without organized power
+to enforce its demands.
+
+About this time, but as yet unknown to the President, the question had
+been suddenly raised by the British Government as to what constituted
+a direct trade; and American vessels carrying West Indian products
+from the United States to Europe were seized under a construction of
+"direct," which was affirmed by the court before whom the cases came
+for adjudication. As Jefferson's expressions had reflected the
+contentment of the American community, profiting, as neutrals often
+profit, by the misfortunes of belligerents, so these measures of Pitt
+proceeded from the discontents of planters, shippers, and merchants.
+These had come to see in the prosperity of American shipping, and the
+gains of American merchants, the measure of their own losses by a
+trade which, though of long standing, they now claimed was one of
+direct carriage, because by continuous voyage, between the hostile
+colonies and the continent of Europe. The losses of planter and
+merchant, however, were but one aspect of the question, and not the
+most important in British eyes. The products of hostile origin carried
+by Americans to neutral or hostile countries in Europe did by
+competition reduce seriously the profit upon British colonial articles
+of the same kind, to the injury of the finances of the kingdom; and
+the American carriers, the American ships, not only supplanted so much
+British tonnage, but were enabled to do so by British seamen, who
+found in them a quiet refuge--relatively, though not wholly,
+secure--from the impressment which everywhere pursued the British
+merchant ship. It was a fundamental conviction of all British
+statesmen, and of the general British public, that the welfare of the
+navy, the one defence of the empire, depended upon maintaining the
+carrying trade, with the right of impressment from it; and Pitt, upon
+his return to office, had noted "with considerable concern, the
+increasing acrimony which appears to pervade the representations made
+to you [the British Minister at Washington] by the American Secretary
+of State on the subject of the impressment of seamen from on board
+American ships."[119]
+
+The issue of direct trade was decided adversely to the contention of
+the United States, in the test case of the ship "Essex," in May, 1805,
+by the first living authority in England on maritime international
+law, Sir William Scott. Resting upon the Rule of 1756, he held that
+direct trade from belligerent colonies to Europe was forbidden to
+neutrals, except under the conditions of the relaxing Orders of 1798
+and 1803; but the privilege to carry to their own country having been
+by these extended, it was conceded, in accordance with precedent,
+that products thus imported, if they had complied with the legal
+requirements for admission _to use_ in the importing country,
+thenceforth had its nationality. They became neutral in character, and
+could be exported like native produce to any place open to commerce,
+belligerent or neutral. United States shippers, therefore, were at
+liberty to send even to France French colonial products which had been
+thus Americanized. The effect of this procedure upon the articles in
+question was to raise their price at the place of final arrival, by
+all the expense incident to a broken transit; by the cost of landing,
+storing, paying duties, and reshipping, together with that of the
+delay consequent upon entering an American port to undergo these
+processes. With the value thus enhanced upon reaching the continent of
+Europe, the British planter, carrier, and merchant might hope that
+British West India produce could compete; although various changes of
+conditions in the West Indies, and Bonaparte's efforts at the
+exclusion of British products from the continent, had greatly reduced
+their market there from the fair proportions of the former war. In the
+cases brought before Sir William Scott, however, it was found that the
+duties paid for admission to the United States were almost wholly
+released, by drawback, on re-exportation; so that the articles were
+brought to the continental consumer relieved of this principal element
+of cost. He therefore ruled that they had not complied with the
+conditions of an actual importation; that the articles had not lost
+their belligerent character; and that the carriage to Europe was by
+direct voyage, not interrupted by an importation. The vessels were
+therefore condemned.
+
+The immediate point thus decided was one of construction, and in
+particular detail hitherto unsettled. The law adviser of the Crown had
+stated in 1801, as an accepted precedent, "that landing the goods and
+paying the duties in the neutral country breaks the continuity of the
+voyage;"[120] but the circumstance of drawback, which belonged to the
+municipal prerogative of the independent neutral state, had not then
+been considered. The foundation on which all rested was the principle
+of 1756. The underlying motive for the new action taken--the
+protection of a British traffic--linked the War of 1812 with the
+conditions of colonial dependence of the United States, which was a
+matter of recent memory to men of both countries still in the vigor of
+life. The American found again exerted over his national commerce a
+control indistinguishable in practice from that of colonial days; from
+what port his ships should sail, whither they might go, what cargoes
+they might carry, under what rules be governed in their own ports,
+were dictated to him as absolutely, if not in as extensive detail, as
+before the War of Independence. The British Government placed itself
+in the old attitude of a sovereign authority, regulating the commerce
+of a dependency with an avowed view to the interest of the mother
+country. This motive was identical with that of colonial
+administration; the particular form taken being dictated, of course,
+then as before, by the exigencies of the moment,--by a "consideration
+of the present state of the commerce of this country." Messrs. Monroe
+and Pinkney, who were appointed jointly to negotiate a settlement of
+the trouble, wrote that "the British commissioners did not hesitate to
+state that their wish was to place their own merchants on an equal
+footing in the great markets of the continent with those of the United
+States, by burthening the intercourse of the latter with severe
+restrictions."[121] The wish was allowable; but the method, the
+regulation of American commercial movement by British force, resting
+for justification upon a strained interpretation of a contested
+belligerent right, was naturally and accurately felt to be a
+re-imposition of colonial fetters upon a people who had achieved their
+independence.
+
+The motive remained; and the method, the regulation of American trade
+by British orders, was identical in substance, although other in form,
+with that of the celebrated Orders in Council of 1807 and 1809. Mr.
+Monroe, who was minister to England when this interesting period
+began, had gone to Spain on a special mission in October, 1804,
+shortly after his announcement, before quoted, that "American commerce
+was never so much favored in time of war." "On no principle or
+pretext, so far, has more than one of our vessels been condemned."
+Upon his return in July, 1805, he found in full progress the seizures,
+the legality of which had been affirmed by Sir William Scott. A
+prolonged correspondence with the then British Government followed,
+but no change of policy could be obtained. In January, 1806, Pitt
+died; and the ministry which succeeded was composed largely of men
+recently opposed to him in general principles of action. In
+particular, Mr. Fox, between whom and Pitt there had been an
+antagonism nearly lifelong, became Secretary for Foreign Affairs. His
+good dispositions towards America were well known, and dated from the
+War of Independence. To him Monroe wrote that under the recent
+measures "about one hundred and twenty vessels had been seized,
+several condemned, all taken from their course, detained, and
+otherwise subjected to heavy losses and damages."[122] The injury was
+not confined to the immediate sufferers, but reacted necessarily on
+the general commercial system of the United States.
+
+ [Illustration: JAMES MONROE
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in the possession of Hon.
+ T. Jefferson Coolidge.]
+
+In his first conversations with Monroe, Fox appeared to coincide with
+the American view, both as to the impropriety of the seizures and the
+general right of the United States to the trade in dispute, under
+their own interpretation of it; namely, that questions of duties and
+drawbacks, and the handling of the cargoes in American ports, were
+matters of national regulation, upon which a foreign state had no
+claim to pronounce. The American envoy was sanguine of a favorable
+issue; but the British Secretary had to undergo the experience, which
+long exclusion from office made novel to him, that in the
+complications of political life a broad personal conviction has often
+to yield to the narrow logic of particular conditions. It is clear
+that the measures would not have been instituted, had he been in
+control; but, as it was, the American representative demanded not only
+their discontinuance, but a money indemnity. The necessity of
+reparation for wrong, if admitted, stood in the way of admitting as a
+wrong a proceeding authorized by the last Government, and pronounced
+legal by the tribunals. To this obstacle was added the weight of a
+strong outdoor public feeling, and of opposition in the Cabinet, by no
+means in accord upon Fox's general views. Consequently, to Monroe's
+demands for a concession of principle, and for pecuniary compensation,
+Fox at last replied with a proposition, consonant with the usual
+practical tone of English statesmanship, never more notable than at
+this period, that a compromise should be effected; modifying causes of
+complaint, without touching on principles. "Can we not agree to
+suspend our rights, and leave you in a satisfactory manner the
+enjoyment of the trade? In that case, nothing would be said about the
+principle, and there would be no claim to indemnity."[123]
+
+The United States Government, throughout the controversy which began
+here and lasted till the war, clung with singular tenacity to the
+establishment of principles. To this doubtless contributed much the
+personality of Madison, then Secretary of State; a man of the pen,
+clear-headed, logical, incisive, and delighting like all men in the
+exercise of conscious powers. The discussion of principles, the
+exposure of an adversary's weakness or inconsistencies, the weighty
+marshalling of uncounted words, were to him the breath of life; and
+with happy disregard of the need to back phrases with deeds, there now
+opened before him a career of argumentation, of logical deduction and
+exposition, constituting a condition of political and personal
+enjoyment which only the deskman can fully appreciate. It was not,
+however, an era in which the pen was mightier than the sword; and in
+the smooth gliding of the current Niagara was forgotten. Like
+Jefferson, he was wholly oblivious of the relevancy of Pompey's retort
+to a contention between two nations, each convinced of its own right:
+"Will you never have done with citing laws and privileges to men who
+wear swords?"
+
+To neither President nor Secretary does it seem to have occurred that
+the provision of force might lend weight to argument; a consideration
+to which Monroe, intellectually much their inferior, was duly
+sensible. "Nothing will be obtained without some kind of pressure,
+such a one as excites an apprehension that it will be increased in
+case of necessity; and to produce that effect it will be proper to put
+our country in a better state of defence, by invigorating the militia
+system and increasing the naval force." "Victorious at sea, Great
+Britain finds herself compelled to concentrate her force so much in
+this quarter, that she would not only be unable to annoy us
+essentially in case of war, but even to protect her commerce and
+possessions elsewhere, which would be exposed to our attacks."[124]
+Most true when written, in 1805; the time had passed in 1813.
+"Harassed as they are already with war, and the menaces of a powerful
+adversary, a state of hostility with us would probably go far to throw
+this country into confusion. It is an event which the ministry would
+find it difficult to resist, and therefore cannot, I presume, be
+willing to encounter."[1] But he added, "There is here an opinion,
+which many do not hesitate to avow, that the United States are, by the
+nature of their Government, incapable of any great, vigorous, or
+persevering exertion."[125] This impression, for which it must
+sorrowfully be confessed there was much seeming ground in contemporary
+events, and the idiosyncrasies of Jefferson and Madison, in their full
+dependence upon commercial coercion to reduce Great Britain to concede
+their most extreme demands, contributed largely to maintain the
+successive British ministries in that unconciliatory and disdainful
+attitude towards the United States, which made inevitable a war that a
+higher bearing might have averted.
+
+Monroe had been instructed that, if driven to it, he might waive the
+practical right to sail direct from a belligerent colony to the mother
+country, being careful to use no expression that would imply yielding
+of the abstract principle. But the general insistence of his
+Government upon obtaining from Great Britain acknowledgment of right
+was so strong that he could not accept Fox's suggestion. The British
+Minister, forced along the lines of his predecessors by the logic of
+the situation, then took higher ground. "He proceeded to insist that,"
+to break the continuity of the voyage, "our vessels which should be
+engaged in that commerce must enter our ports, their cargoes be
+landed, and the duties paid."[126] This was the full extent of Pitt's
+requirements, as of the rulings of the British Admiralty Court; and
+made the regulation of transactions in an American port depend upon
+the decisions of British authorities. Monroe unhesitatingly rejected
+the condition, and their interview ended, leaving the subject where it
+had been. The British Cabinet then took matters into its own hands,
+and without further communication with Monroe adopted a practical
+solution, which removed the particular contention from the field of
+controversy by abandoning the existing measures, but without any
+expression as to the question of right or principle, which by this
+tacit omission was reserved. Unfortunately for the wishes of both
+parties, this recourse to opportunism, for such it was, however
+ameliorative of immediate friction, resulted in a further series of
+quarrels; for the new step of the British Government was considered by
+the American to controvert international principles as much cherished
+by it as the right to the colonial trade.
+
+Monroe's interview was on April 25. On May 17 he received a letter
+from Fox, dated May 16, notifying him that, in consequence of certain
+new and extraordinary means resorted to by the enemy for distressing
+British commerce, a retaliatory commercial blockade was ordered of the
+coast of the continent, from the river Elbe to Brest. This blockade,
+however, was to be absolute, against all commerce, only between the
+Seine and Ostend. Outside of those limits, on the coast of France west
+of the Seine, and those of France, Holland, and Germany east of
+Ostend, the rights of capture attaching to blockades would be forborne
+in favor of neutral vessels, bound in, which had not been laden at a
+port hostile to Great Britain; or which, going out, were not destined
+to such hostile port.[127] No discrimination was made against the
+character of the cargo, except as forbidden by generally recognized
+laws of war. This omission tacitly allowed the colonial trade by way
+of American ports, just as the measure as a whole tacitly waived all
+questions of principle upon which that difference had turned. After
+this, a case coming before a British court would require from it no
+concession affecting its previous rulings. By these the vessel still
+would stand condemned; but she was relieved from the application of
+them by the new Order, in which the Government had relinquished its
+asserted right. The direct voyage from the colony to the mother
+country was from a hostile port, and therefore remained prohibited;
+but the proceedings in the United States ports, as affecting the
+question of direct voyage, though held by the Court to be properly
+liable to interpretation by itself on international grounds, if
+brought before it, was removed from its purview by the act of its own
+Government, granting immunity.
+
+The first impressions made upon Monroe by this step were favorable, as
+it evidently relieved the immediate embarrassments under which
+American commerce was laboring. There would at least be no more
+seizures upon the plea of direct voyages. While refraining from
+expressing to Fox any approbation of the Order of May 16, he wrote
+home in this general sense of congratulation; and upon his letters,
+communicated to Congress in 1808, was founded a claim by the British
+Minister at Washington in 1811, that the blockade thus instituted was
+not at the time regarded by him "as founded on other than just and
+legitimate principles." "I have not heard that it was considered in a
+contrary light when notified as such to you by Mr. Secretary Fox, nor
+until it suited the views of France to endeavor to have it considered
+otherwise."[128] Monroe, who was then Secretary of State, replied that
+with Fox "an official formal complaint was not likely to be resorted
+to, because friendly communications were invited and preferred. The
+want of such a document is no proof that the measure was approved by
+me, or no complaint made."[129] The general tenor of his home
+letters, however, was that of satisfaction; and it is natural to men
+dealing with questions of immediate difficulty to hail relief, without
+too close scrutiny into its ultimate consequences. It may be added
+that ministers abroad, in close contact with the difficulties and
+perplexities of the government to which they are accredited, recognize
+these more fully than do their superiors at home, and are more
+susceptible to the advantages of practical remedies over the
+maintenance of abstract principle.
+
+The legitimacy of the blockade of May 16, 1806, was afterwards sharply
+contested by the United States. There was no difference between the
+two governments as to the general principle that a blockade, to be
+lawful, must be supported by the presence of an adequate force, making
+it dangerous for a vessel trying to enter or leave the port. "Great
+Britain," wrote Madison, "has already in a formal communication
+admitted the principle for which we contend." The difficulty turned on
+a point of definition, as to what situation, and what size, of a
+blockading division constituted adequacy. The United States
+authorities based themselves resolutely on the position that the
+blockaders must be close to the ports named for closure, and denied
+that a coast-line in its entirety could thus be shut off from
+commerce, without specifying the particular harbors before which ships
+would be stationed. Intent, as neutrals naturally are, upon narrowing
+belligerent rights, usually adverse to their own, they placed the
+strictest construction on the words "port" and "force." This is
+perhaps best shown by quoting the definition proposed by American
+negotiators to the British Government over a year later,--July 24,
+1807. "In order to determine what characterizes a blockade, that
+denomination is given only to a _port_, where there is, by the
+disposition of the Power which blockades it _with ships stationary_,
+an evident danger in entering."[130] Madison, in 1801, discussing
+vexations to Americans bound into the Mediterranean, by a Spanish
+alleged blockade of Gibraltar, had anticipated and rejected the
+British action of 1806. "Like blockades might be proclaimed by any
+particular nation, enabled by its naval superiority to distribute its
+ships at the mouth of that or any similar sea, _or across channels or
+arms of the sea_, so as to make it dangerous for the commerce of other
+nations to pass to its destination. These monstrous consequences
+condemn the principle from which they flow."[131]
+
+The blockade of May 16 offered a particularly apt illustration of the
+point at issue. From the entrance of the English Channel to the
+Straits of Dover, the whole of both shore-lines was belligerent. On
+one side all was British; on the other all French. Evidently a line of
+ships disposed from Ushant to the Lizard, the nearest point on the
+English coast, would constitute a very real danger to a vessel seeking
+to approach any French port on the Channel. Fifteen vessels would
+occupy such a line, with intervals of only six miles, and in
+combination with a much smaller body at the Straits of Dover would
+assuredly bring all the French coast between them within the limits of
+any definition of danger. That these particular dispositions were
+adopted does not appear; but that very much larger numbers were
+continually moving in the Channel, back and forth in every direction,
+is certain. As to the remainder of the coast declared under
+restriction, from the Straits to the Elbe,--about four hundred
+miles,--with the great entrances to Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, the
+Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe, there can be no doubt that it was within
+the power of Great Britain to establish the blockade within the
+requirements of international law. Whether she did so was a question
+of fact, on which both sides were equally positive. The British to the
+last asserted that an adequate force had been assigned, "and actually
+maintained,"[132] while the blockade lasted.
+
+The incident derived its historical significance chiefly from
+subsequent events. It does not appear at the first to have engaged the
+special attention of the United States Government, the general
+position of which, as to blockades, was already sufficiently defined.
+The particular instance was only one among several, and interest was
+then diverted to two other leading points,--impressment and the
+colonial trade. Peculiar importance began to attach to it only in the
+following November, when Napoleon issued his Berlin decree. Upon this
+ensued the exaggerated oppressions of neutral commerce by both
+antagonists; and the question arose as to the responsibility for
+beginning the series of measures, of which the Berlin and Milan
+Decrees on one side, and the British Orders in Council of 1807 and
+1809 on the other, were the most conspicuous features. Napoleon
+contended that the whole sprang from the extravagant pretensions of
+Great Britain, particularly in the Order of May 16, which he, in
+common with the United States, characterized as illegal. The British
+Government affirmed that it was strictly within belligerent rights,
+and was executed by an adequate force; that consequently it gave no
+ground for the course of the French Emperor. American statesmen, while
+disclaiming with formal gravity any purpose to decide with which of
+the two wrong-doers the ill first began,[133] had no scruples about
+reiterating constantly that the Order of May 16 contravened
+international right; and in so far, although wholly within the limits
+of diplomatic propriety, they supported Napoleon's assertion. Thus it
+came to pass that the United States was more and more felt, not only
+in Europe, but by dissentients at home, to side with France; and as
+the universal contest grew more embittered, this feeling became
+emphasized.
+
+While these discussions were in progress between Monroe and Fox, the
+United States Government had taken a definite step to bring the
+dispute to an issue by commercial restriction. The remonstrances from
+the mercantile community, against the seizures under the new ruling as
+to direct trade, were too numerous, emphatic, and withal reasonable,
+to be disregarded. Congress therefore, before its adjournment on April
+23, 1806, passed a law shutting the American market, after the
+following November 15, against certain articles of British
+manufacture, unless equitable arrangements between the two countries
+should previously be reached. This recourse was in line with the
+popular action of the period preceding the War of Independence, and
+foreshadowed the general policy upon which the Administration was soon
+to enter on a larger scale. The measure was initiated before news was
+received of Pitt's death, and the accession of a more friendly
+ministry; but, having been already recommended in committee, it was
+not thought expedient to recede in consequence of the change. At the
+same time, the Administration determined to constitute an
+extraordinary mission, for the purpose of "treating with the British
+Government concerning the maritime wrongs which have been committed,
+and the regulation of commercial navigation between the parties." For
+this object Mr. William Pinkney, of Maryland, was nominated as
+colleague to Monroe, and arrived in England on June 24.
+
+The points to be adjusted by the new commissioners were numerous, but
+among them two were made pre-eminent,--the question of colonial
+trade, already explained, and that of impressment of seamen from
+American vessels. These were named by the Secretary of State as the
+motive of the recent Act prohibiting certain importations. The envoys
+were explicitly instructed that no stipulation requiring the repeal of
+that Act was to be made, unless an effectual remedy for these two
+evils was provided. The question of impressment, wrote Madison,
+"derives urgency from the licentiousness with which it is still
+pursued, and from the growing impatience of this country under
+it."[134] When Pinkney arrived, the matter of the colonial trade had
+already been settled indirectly by the Order of May 16, and it was
+soon to disappear from prominence, merged in the extreme measures of
+which that blockade was the precursor; but impressment remained an
+unhealed sore to the end.
+
+To understand the real gravity of this dispute, it is essential to
+consider candidly the situation of both parties, and also the
+influence exerted upon either by long-standing tradition. The British
+Government did not advance a crude claim to impress American seamen.
+What it did assert, and was enforcing, was a right to exercise over
+individuals on board foreign merchantmen, upon the high seas, the
+authority which it possessed on board British ships there, and over
+all ships in British ports. The United States took the ground that no
+such jurisdiction existed, unless over persons engaged in the military
+service of an enemy; and that only when a vessel entered the ports or
+territorial waters of Great Britain were those on board subject to
+arrest by her officers. There, as in every state, they came under the
+law of the land.
+
+The British argument in favor of this alleged right may be stated in
+the words of Canning, who became Foreign Secretary a year later.
+Writing to Monroe, September 23, 1807, he starts from the premise,
+then regarded by many even in America as sound, that allegiance by
+birth is inalienable,--not to be renounced at the will of the
+individual; consequently, "when mariners, subjects of his Majesty, are
+employed in the private service of foreigners, they enter into
+engagements inconsistent with the duty of subjects. In such cases, the
+species of redress which the practice of all times has admitted and
+sanctioned is that of taking those subjects at sea out of the service
+of such foreign individuals, and recalling them to the discharge of
+that paramount duty, which they owe to their sovereign and to their
+country. That the exercise of this right involves some of the dearest
+interests of Great Britain, your Government is ready to
+acknowledge.... It is needless to repeat that these rights existed in
+their fullest force for ages previous to the establishment of the
+United States of America as an independent government; and it would be
+difficult to contend that the recognition of that independence can
+have operated any change in this respect."[135]
+
+Had this been merely a piece of clever argumentation, it would have
+crumbled rapidly under an appreciation of the American case; but it
+represented actually a conviction inherited by all the British people,
+and not that of Canning only. Whether the foundation of the alleged
+right was solidly laid in reason or not, it rested on alleged
+prescription, indorsed by a popular acceptance and suffrage which no
+ministry could afford to disregard, at a time when the manning of the
+Royal Navy was becoming a matter of notorious and increasing
+difficulty. If Americans saw with indignation that many of their
+fellow-citizens were by the practice forced from their own ships to
+serve in British vessels of war, it was equally well known, in
+America as in Great Britain, that in the merchant vessels of the
+United States were many British seamen, sorely needed by their
+country. Public opinion in the United States was by no means united in
+support of the position then taken by Jefferson and Madison, as well
+as by their predecessors in office, proper and matter-of-course as
+that seems to-day. Many held, and asserted even with vehemence, that
+the British right existed, and that an indisputable wrong was
+committed by giving the absentees shelter under the American flag. The
+claim advanced by the United States Government, and the only one
+possible to it under the circumstances, was that when outside of
+territorial limits a ship's flag and papers must be held to determine
+the nation, to which alone belonged jurisdiction over every person on
+board, unless demonstrably in the military service of a belligerent.
+
+As a matter involving extensive practical consequences, this
+contention, like that concerning the colonial trade, had its origin
+from the entrance into the family of European nations of a new-comer,
+foreign to the European community of states and their common
+traditions; indisposed, consequently, to accept by mere force of
+custom rules and practices unquestioned by them, but traversing its
+own interests. As Canning argued, the change of political relation, by
+which the colonies became independent, could not affect rights of
+Great Britain which did not derive from the colonial connection; but
+it did introduce an opposing right,--that of the American citizen to
+be free from British control when not in British territory. This the
+United States possessed in common with all foreign nations; but in her
+case it could not, as in theirs, be easily reconciled with the claim
+of Great Britain. When every one whose native tongue was English was
+also by birth the subject of Great Britain, the visitation of a
+foreign neutral, in order to take from her any British seamen,
+involved no great difficulty of discrimination, nor--granting the
+theory of inalienable allegiance--any injustice to the person taken.
+It was quite different when a large maritime English-speaking
+population, quite comparable in numbers to that remaining British, had
+become independent. The exercise of the British right, if right it
+was, became liable to grievous wrong, not only to the individuals
+affected, but to the nation responsible for their protection; and the
+injury was greater, both in procedure and result, because the
+officials intrusted with the enforcement of the British claim were
+personally interested in the decisions they rendered. No one who
+understands the affection of a naval officer for an able seaman,
+especially if his ship be short-handed, will need to have explained
+how difficult it became for him to distinguish between an Englishman
+and an American, when much wanted. In short, there was on each side a
+practical grievance; but the character of the remedy to be applied
+involved a question of principle, the effect of which would be unequal
+between the disputants, increasing the burden of the one while it
+diminished that of the other, according as the one or the other
+solution was adopted.
+
+Except for the fact that the British Government had at its disposal
+overwhelming physical force, its case would have shared that of all
+other prescriptive rights when they come into collision with present
+actualities, demanding their modification. It might be never so true
+that long-standing precedent made legal the impressment of British
+seamen from neutral vessels on the open sea; but it remained that in
+practice many American seamen were seized, and forced into involuntary
+servitude, the duration of which, under the customs of the British
+Navy, was terminable certainly only by desertion or death. The very
+difficulty of distinguishing between the natives of the two countries,
+"owing to similarity of language, habits, and manners,"[136] alleged
+in 1797 by the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Grenville, to Rufus
+King, the American Minister, did but emphasize the incompatibility of
+the British claim with the security of the American citizen. The
+Consul-General of Great Britain at New York during most of this stormy
+period, Thomas Barclay, a loyalist during the War of Independence,
+affirms from time to time, with evident sincerity of conviction, the
+wishes of the British Government and naval officers not to impress
+American seamen; but his published correspondence contains none the
+less several specific instances, in which he assures British admirals
+and captains that impressed men serving on board their ships are
+beyond doubt native Americans, and his editor remarks that "only a few
+of his many appeals on behalf of Americans unlawfully seized are here
+printed."[137] This, too, in the immediate neighborhood of the United
+States, where evidence was most readily at hand. The condition was
+intolerable, and in principle it mattered nothing whether one man or
+many thus suffered. That the thing was possible, even for a single
+most humble and unknown native of the United States, condemned the
+system, and called imperiously for remedy. The only effectual remedy,
+however, was the abandonment of the practice altogether, whether or
+not the theoretic ground for such abandonment was that advanced by the
+United States. Long before 1806, experience had demonstrated, what had
+been abundantly clear to foresight, that a naval lieutenant or captain
+could not safely be intrusted with a function so delicate as deciding
+the nationality of a likely English-speaking topman, whom, if British,
+he had the power to impress.
+
+The United States did not refuse to recognize, distinctly if not
+fully, the embarrassment under which Great Britain labored by losing
+the services of her seamen at a moment of such national exigency; and
+it was prepared to offer many concessions in municipal regulations, in
+order to exclude British subjects from American vessels. Various
+propositions were advanced looking to the return of deserters and to
+the prevention of enlistments; coupled always with a renunciation of
+the British claim to take persons from under the American flag. There
+had been much negotiation by individual ministers of the United States
+in the ordinary course of their duties; beginning as far back as 1787,
+when John Adams had to remonstrate vigorously with the Cabinet
+"against this practice, which has been too common, of impressing
+American citizens, and especially with the aggravating circumstances
+of going on board American vessels, which ought to be protected by the
+flag of their sovereign."[138] Again, in 1790, on hostilities
+threatening with Spain, a number of American seamen were impressed in
+British ports. The arrests, being within British waters, were not an
+infringement of American jurisdiction, and the only question then
+raised was that of proving nationality. Gouverneur Morris, who
+afterwards so violently advocated the British claim to impress their
+own subjects in American vessels on the seas,[139] was at this time in
+London on a special semi-official errand, committed to him by
+President Washington. There being then no American resident minister,
+he took upon himself to mention to the Foreign Secretary "the conduct
+of their pressgangs, who had taken many American seamen, and had
+entered American vessels with as little ceremony as those belonging to
+Britain;" adding, with a caustic humor characteristic of him, "I
+believe, my Lord, this is the only instance in which we are not
+treated as aliens." He suggested certificates of citizenship, to be
+issued by the Admiralty Courts of the United States. This was
+approved by the Secretary and by Pitt; the latter, however, remarking
+that the plan was "very liable to abuse, notwithstanding every
+precaution."[140] Various expedients for attaching to the individual
+documentary evidence of birth were from time to time tried; but the
+heedless and inconsequent character and habits of the sailor of that
+day, and the facility with which the papers, once issued, could be
+transferred or bought, made any such resource futile. The United
+States was thus driven to the position enunciated in 1792 by
+Jefferson, then Secretary of State: "The simplest rule will be that
+the vessel being American shall be evidence that the seamen on board
+of her are such."[141] If this demand comprehended, as it apparently
+did, cases of arrest in British harbors, it was clearly extravagant,
+resembling the idea proceeding from the same source that the Gulf
+Stream should mark the neutral line of United States waters; but for
+the open sea it formulated the doctrine on which the country finally
+and firmly took its stand.
+
+ [Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in Bowdoin College,
+ Brunswick, Me.]
+
+The history of the practice of impressment, and of the consequent
+negotiations, from the time of Jefferson's first proposition down to
+the mission of Monroe and Pinkney, had shown conclusively that no
+other basis of settlement than that of the flag vouching for the crew
+could adequately meet and remove the evil of which the United States
+complained; an evil which was not only an injury to the individuals
+affected, but a dishonor to the nation which should continue to
+submit. The subject early engaged the care of Rufus King, who became
+Minister to Great Britain in 1796. In 1797, Lord Grenville and he had
+a correspondence,[142] which served merely to develop the difficulties
+on both sides, and things drifted from bad to worse. Not only was
+there the oppression of the individual, but the safety of ships was
+endangered by the ruthless manner in which they were robbed of their
+crews; an evil from which British merchant vessels often
+suffered.[143] On October 7, 1799, King again presented Grenville a
+paper,[144] summarizing forcibly both the abuses undergone by
+Americans, and the inconsistency of the British principle of
+inalienable allegiance with other British practices, which not only
+conferred citizenship upon aliens serving for a certain time in their
+merchant ships, but even attributed it compulsorily to seamen settled
+or married in the land.[145] No satisfactory action followed upon this
+remonstrance. In March, 1801, Grenville having resigned with Pitt,
+King brought the question before their successors, referring to the
+letter of October, 1799, as "a full explanation, requiring no further
+development on the present occasion."[146] At the same time, by
+authority from his Government, he made a definite proposal, "that
+neither party shall upon the high seas impress seamen out of the
+vessels of the other." The instructions for this action were given
+under the presidency of John Adams, John Marshall being then Secretary
+of State. On the high seas the vessels of the country were not under
+British jurisdiction for any purpose. The only concession of
+international law was that the ship itself could be arrested, if found
+by a belligerent cruiser under circumstances apparently in violation
+of belligerent rights, be brought within belligerent jurisdiction, and
+the facts there determined by due process of law. But in the practice
+of impressment the whole procedure, from arrest to trial and sentence,
+was transferred to the open sea; therefore to allow it extended
+thither a British jurisdiction, which possessed none of the guarantees
+for the sifting of evidence, the application of law, or the
+impartiality of the judge, which may be presumed in regular tribunals.
+
+Yet, while holding clearly the absolute justice of the American
+contention, demonstrated both by the faulty character of the method
+and the outrageous injustice in results, let us not be blind to the
+actuality of the loss Great Britain was undergoing, nor to her
+estimate of the compensation offered for the relinquishment of the
+practice. The New England States, which furnished a large proportion
+of the maritime population, affirmed continually by their constituted
+authorities that very few of their seamen were known to be impressed.
+Governor Strong of Massachusetts, in a message to the Legislature,
+said, "The number of our native seamen impressed by British ships has
+been grossly exaggerated, and the number of British seamen employed by
+us has at all times been far greater than those of all nations who
+have been impressed from our vessels. If we are contending for the
+support of a claim to exempt British seamen from their allegiance to
+their own country, is it not time to inquire whether our claim is
+just?"[147] It seems singular now that the fewness of the citizens
+hopelessly consigned to indefinite involuntary servitude should have
+materially affected opinion as to the degree of the outrage; but,
+after making allowance for the spirit of faction then prevalent, it
+can be readily understood that such conditions, being believed by the
+British, must color their judgment as to the real extent of the
+injustice by which they profited. At New York, in 1805, Consul-General
+Barclay,[148] who had then been resident for six years, in replying to
+a letter from the Mayor, said, "It is a fact, too notorious to have
+escaped your knowledge, that many of his Majesty's subjects are
+furnished with American protection, to which they have no title." This
+being brought to Madison's attention produced a complaint to the
+British Minister. In justifying his statements, Barclay wrote there
+were "innumerable instances where British subjects within a month
+after their arrival in these states obtain certificates of
+citizenship." "The documents I have already furnished you prove the
+indiscriminate use of those certificates."[149] Representative Gaston
+of North Carolina, whose utterances on another aspect of the question
+have been before quoted,[150] said in this relation, "In the battle, I
+think of the President and the Little Belt, a neighbor of mine, now an
+industrious farmer, noticed in the number of the slain one of his own
+name. He exclaimed, 'There goes one of my protections.' On being asked
+for an explanation, he remarked that in his wild days, when he
+followed the sea, it was an ordinary mode of procuring a little
+spending money to get a protection from a notary for a dollar, and
+sell it to the first foreigner whom it at all fitted for fifteen or
+twenty." But, while believing that the number of impressed Americans
+"had been exaggerated infinitely beyond the truth," Gaston added, with
+the clear perceptions of patriotism, "Be they more or less, the right
+to the protection of their country is sacred and must be
+regarded."[151]
+
+The logic was unimpeachable which, to every argument based upon
+numbers, replied that the question was not of few or many, but of a
+system, under which American seamen--one or more--were continually
+liable to be seized by an irresponsible authority, without protection
+or hearing of law, and sent to the uttermost part of the earth, beyond
+power of legal redress, or of even making known their situation. Yet
+it can be understood that the British Government, painfully conscious
+of the deterioration of its fighting force by the absence of its
+subjects, and convinced of its right, concerning which no hesitation
+was ever by it expressed, should have resolved to maintain it,
+distrustful of offers to exclude British seamen from the American
+merchant service, the efficacy of which must have been more than
+doubtful to all familiar with shipping procedures in maritime ports.
+The protections issued to seamen as American citizens fell under the
+suspicion which in later days not infrequently attached to
+naturalization papers; and, if questioned by some of our own people,
+it is not to be wondered that they seemed more than doubtful to a
+contrary interest.
+
+In presenting the proposition, "that neither party should impress from
+the ships of the other," King had characterized it as a temporary
+measure, "until more comprehensive and precise regulations can be
+devised to secure the respective rights of the two countries."
+Nevertheless, the United States would doubtless have been content to
+rest in this, duly carried out, and even to waive concession of the
+principle, should it be thus voided in practice. As King from the
+first foresaw,[152] acceptance by the British Cabinet would depend
+upon the new head of the Admiralty, Lord St. Vincent, a veteran
+admiral, whose reputation, and experience of over fifty years, would
+outweigh the opinions of his colleagues. In reply to a private letter
+from one of St. Vincent's political friends, sent at King's request,
+the admiral wrote: "Mr. King is probably not aware of the abuses which
+are committed by American Consuls in France, Spain, and Portugal, from
+the generality of whom every Englishman, knowing him to be such, may
+be made an American for a dollar. I have known more than one American
+master carry off soldiers, in their regimentals, arms, and
+accoutrements, from the garrison at Gibraltar; and there cannot be a
+doubt but the American trade is navigated by a majority of British
+subjects; and a very considerable one too." However inspired by
+prejudice, these words in their way echo Gaston's statements just
+quoted; while Madison in 1806 admitted that the number of British
+seamen in American merchant ships was "considerable, though probably
+less than supposed."
+
+Entertaining these impressions, the concurrence of St. Vincent seemed
+doubtful; and in fact, through the period of nominal peace which soon
+ensued, and continued to May, 1803, the matter dragged. When the
+renewal of the war was seen to be inevitable, King again urged a
+settlement, and the Foreign Secretary promised to sign any agreement
+which the admiral would approve. After conference, King thought he had
+gained this desired consent, for a term of five years, to the American
+proposition. He drew up articles embodying it, together with the
+necessary equivalents to be stipulated by the United States; but,
+before these could be submitted, he received a letter from St.
+Vincent, saying that he was of the opinion that the narrow seas should
+be expressly excepted from the operation of the clause, "as they had
+been immemorially considered to be within the dominions of Great
+Britain." Since this would give the consent of the United States to
+the extension of British jurisdiction far beyond the customary three
+miles from the shore, conceded by international law, King properly
+would not accept the solution, tempting as was the opportunity to
+secure immunity for Americans in other quarters from the renewed
+outrages that could be foreseen. He soon after returned to the United
+States, where his decision was of course approved; for though the Gulf
+Stream appeared to Jefferson the natural limit for the neutral
+jurisdiction of America, the claim of Great Britain to the narrow seas
+was evidently a grave encroachment upon the rights of others.
+
+In later years Lord Castlereagh, in an interview with the American
+charge d'affaires, Jonathan Russell, assured him that Mr. King had
+misapprehended St. Vincent's meaning; reading, from a mass of records
+then before him, a letter of the admiral to Sir William Scott, Judge
+of the High Court of Admiralty, "asking for counsel and advice, and
+confessing his own perplexity and total incompetency to discover any
+practical project for the safe discontinuance of the practice." "You
+see," proceeded Lord Castlereagh, "that the confidence of Mr. King on
+this point was entirely unfounded."[153]
+
+Wherever the misunderstanding lay, matters had not advanced in the
+least towards a solution when Monroe reached England, in 1803, as
+King's successor. Up to that time, no tabular statement seems to have
+been prepared, showing the total number of seamen impressed from
+American vessels during the first war, 1793-1801; nor does the present
+writer think it material to ascertain, from the fragmentary data at
+hand, the exact extent of an injury to which the question of more or
+less was secondary. The official agent of the American Government, for
+the protection of seamen, upon quitting his post in London in 1802,
+wrote that he had transferred to his successor "A list of 597 seamen,
+where answers have been returned to me, stating that, having no
+documents to prove their citizenship, the Lords Commissioners of the
+Admiralty could not consent to their discharge." Only seven cases then
+remained without replies, which shows at the least a decent attention
+to the formalities of intercourse; and King, in his letter of October
+7, 1799, had acknowledged that the Secretary to the Admiralty had
+"given great attention to the numerous applications, and that a
+disposition has existed to comply with our demands, when the same
+could be done consistently with the maxims and practice adopted and
+adhered to by Great Britain." The Admiralty, however, maintained that
+"the admission of the principle, that a man declaring himself to
+belong to a foreign state should, upon that assertion merely, and
+without direct or very strong circumstantial proof, be suffered to
+leave the service, would be productive of the most dangerous
+consequences to his Majesty's Navy." The agent himself had written to
+the Secretary of the Admiralty, "I freely confess that I believe many
+of them are British subjects; but I presume that all of them were
+impressed from American vessels, and by far the greater proportion are
+American citizens, who, from various causes, have been deprived of
+their certificates, and who, from their peculiar situation, have been
+unable to obtain proofs from America."[154]
+
+When Mr. Monroe arrived in England in 1803, after the conclusion of
+the Louisiana purchase from France, war had just re-begun.
+Instructions were sent him, in an elaborate series of articles framed
+by Madison, for negotiating a convention to regulate those matters of
+difference which experience had shown were sure to arise between the
+two countries in the progress of the hostilities. Among them,
+impressment was given the first place; but up to 1806, when Pinkney
+was sent as his associate, nothing had been effected, nor does urgency
+seem to have been felt. So long as in practice things ran smoothly,
+divergences of opinion were easily tolerable. Soon after the receipt
+of the instructions, in March, 1804,[155] the comparatively friendly
+administration of Addington gave way to that of Pitt; and upon this
+had followed Monroe's nine-months absence in Spain. Before departure,
+however, he had written, "The negotiation has not failed in its great
+objects, ... nor was there ever less cause of complaint furnished by
+impressment."[156] The outburst of seizure upon the plea of a
+constructively direct trade, already mentioned, had followed, and,
+with the retaliatory non-importation law of the United States, made
+the situation acute and menacing. Further cause for exasperation was
+indicated in a report from the Secretary of State, March 5, 1806,
+giving, in reply to a resolution of the House, a tabulated statement,
+by name, of 913 persons, who "appear to have been impressed from
+American vessels;" to which was added that "the aggregate number of
+impressments into the British service since the commencement of the
+present war in Europe (May, 1803) is found to be 2,273."[157]
+
+Confronted by this situation of wrongs endured, by commerce and by
+seamen, the mission of Monroe and Pinkney was to negotiate a
+comprehensive treaty of "amity, commerce, and navigation," the first
+attempted between the two countries since Jay's in 1794. When Pinkney
+landed, Fox was already in the grip of the sickness from which he died
+in the following September. This circumstance introduced an element of
+delay, aggravated by the inevitable hesitations of the new ministry,
+solicitous on the one hand to accommodate, but yet more anxious not to
+incense British opinion. The Prime Minister, in room of Mr. Fox,
+received the envoys on August 5, and, when the American demand was
+explained to him, defined at once the delicacy of the question of
+impressment. "On the subject of the impressment of our seamen, he
+suggested doubts of the practicability of devising the means of
+discrimination between the seamen of the two countries, within (as we
+understood him) their respective jurisdictions; and he spoke of the
+importance to the safety of Great Britain, in the present state of the
+power of her enemy, of preserving in their utmost strength the right
+and capacity of Government to avail itself in war of the services of
+its seamen. These observations were connected with frequent
+professions of an earnest wish that some liberal and equitable plan
+should be adopted, for _reconciling the exercise_ of this essential
+right with the just claims of the United States, and for removing from
+it all cause of complaint and irritation."[158]
+
+In consequence of Mr. Fox's continued illness two negotiators, one of
+whom, Lord Holland, was a near relative of his, were appointed to
+confer with the American envoys, and to frame an agreement, if
+attainable. The first formal meeting was on August 27, the second on
+September 1.[159] As the satisfactory arrangement of the impressment
+difficulty was a _sine qua non_ to the ratification of any treaty, and
+to the repeal of the Non-Importation Act, this American requirement
+was necessarily at once submitted. The reply was significant,
+particularly because made by men apparently chosen for their general
+attitude towards the United States, by a ministry certainly desirous
+to conciliate, and to retain the full British advantage from the
+United States market, if compatible with the preservation of an
+interest deemed greater still. "It was soon apparent that they felt
+the strongest repugnance to a formal renunciation, or the abandonment,
+of their claim to take from our vessels on the high seas such seamen
+as should appear to be their own subjects, and they pressed upon us
+with much zeal a provision" for documentary protection to individuals;
+"but that, subject to such protections, the ships of war of Great
+Britain should continue to visit and impress on the main ocean as
+heretofore."
+
+In the preliminary discussions the British negotiators presented the
+aspect of the case as it appeared to them and to their public. They
+"observed that they supposed the object of our plan to be to prevent
+the impressment at sea of American seamen, and not to withdraw
+British seamen from the naval service of their country in times of
+great national peril, for the purpose of employing them ourselves;
+that the first of these purposes would be effectually accomplished by
+a system which should introduce and establish a clear and conclusive
+distinction between the seamen of the two countries, which on all
+occasions would be implicitly respected; that if they should consent
+to make our commercial navy a floating asylum for all the British
+seamen who, tempted by higher wages, should quit their service for
+ours, the effect of such a concession upon their maritime strength, on
+which Great Britain depended, not only for her prosperity but for her
+safety, might be fatal; that on the most alarming emergency they might
+be deprived, to an extent impossible to calculate, of their only means
+of security; that our vessels might become receptacles for deserters
+to any amount, and when once at sea might set at defiance the just
+claims of the service to which such deserters belonged; that, even
+within the United States, it could not be expected that any plan for
+recovering British deserters could be efficacious; and that, moreover,
+the plan we proposed was inadequate in its range and object, inasmuch
+as it was merely prospective, confined wholly to deserters, and in no
+respect provided for the case of the vast body of British seamen _now_
+employed in our trade to every part of the world."
+
+To these representations, which had a strong basis in fact and reason,
+if once the British principle was conceded, the American negotiators
+replied in detail as best they could. In such detail, the weight of
+argument and of probability appears to the writer to rest with the
+British case; but there is no adequate reply to the final American
+assertion, which sums up the whole controversy, "that impressment upon
+the high seas by those to whom that service is necessarily confided
+must under any conceivable guards be frequently abused;" such abuse
+being the imprisonment without trial of American citizens, as "a
+pressed man," for an indefinite period. Lord Cochrane, a British naval
+officer of rare distinction, stated in the House of Commons a few
+years later that "the duration of the term of service in his Majesty's
+Navy is absolutely without limitation."[160]
+
+The American envoys were prevented by their instructions from
+conceding this point, and from signing a treaty without some
+satisfactory arrangement. Meantime, impressed by the conciliatoriness
+of the British representatives, and doubtless in measure by the
+evident seriousness of the difficulty experienced by the British
+Government, they wrote home advising that the date for the
+Non-Importation Act going into operation, now close at hand, should be
+postponed; and, in accordance with a recommendation from the
+President, the measure was suspended by Congress, with a provision for
+further prolongation in the discretion of the Executive. On September
+13 Fox died, an event which introduced further delays, esteemed not
+unreasonable by Monroe and Pinkney. Their next letter home, however,
+November 11,[161] while reporting the resumption of the negotiation,
+announced also its failure by a deadlock on this principal subject of
+impressment: "We have said everything that we could in support of our
+claim, that the flag should protect the crew, which we have contended
+was founded in unquestionable right.... This right was denied by the
+British commissioners, who asserted that of their Government to seize
+its subjects on board neutral vessels on the high seas, and also urged
+that the relinquishment of it at this time would go far to the
+overthrow of their naval power, on which the safety of the state
+essentially depended." In support of the abstract right was quoted the
+report from a law officer of the Crown, which "justified the
+pretension by stating that the King had a right, by his prerogative,
+to require the services of all his seafaring subjects against the
+enemy, and to seize them by force wherever found, not being within the
+territorial limits of another Power; that as the high seas were
+extra-territorial, the merchant vessels of other Powers navigating on
+them were not admitted to possess such a jurisdiction as to protect
+British subjects from the exercise of the King's prerogative over
+them."
+
+This was a final and absolute rejection of Madison's doctrine, that
+merchant vessels on the high seas were under the jurisdiction only of
+their own country. Asserted right was arrayed directly and
+unequivocally against asserted right. Negotiation on that subject was
+closed, and to diplomacy was left no further resort, save arms, or
+submission to continued injury and insult. The British commissioners
+did indeed submit a project,[162] in place of that of the United
+States, rejected by their Government. By this it was provided that
+thereafter the captain of a cruiser who should impress an American
+citizen should be liable to heavy penalties, to be enacted by law; but
+as the preamble to this proposition read, "Whereas it is not lawful
+for a belligerent to impress or carry off, from on board a neutral,
+seafaring persons _who are not the subjects of the belligerent_,"
+there was admitted implicitly the right to impress those who were such
+subjects, the precise point at issue. The Americans therefore
+pronounced it wholly inadmissible, and repeated that no project could
+be adopted "which did not allow our ships to protect their crews."
+
+The provision made indispensable by the United States having thus
+failed of adoption, the question arose whether the negotiation should
+cease. The British expressed an earnest desire that it should not, and
+as a means thereto communicated the most positive assurances from
+their Government that "instructions have been given, and will be
+repeated and enforced, for the observance of the greatest caution in
+the impressing of British seamen; that the strictest care shall be
+taken to preserve the citizens of the United States from molestation
+or injury; and that prompt redress shall be afforded upon any
+representation of injury."[163] To this assurance the American
+commissioners attached more value as a safeguard for the future than
+past experience warranted; but in London they were able to feel, more
+accurately than an official in Washington, the extent and complexity
+of the British problem, both in actual fact and in public feeling.
+They knew, too, the anxious wish of the President for an accommodation
+on other matters; so they decided to proceed with their discussions,
+having first explicitly stated that they were acting on their own
+judgment.[164] Consequently, whatever instrument might result from
+their joint labors would be liable to rejection at home, because of
+the failure of the impressment demand.
+
+The discussions thus renewed terminated in a treaty of amity,
+commerce, and navigation, signed by the four negotiators, December 31,
+1806. Into the details of this instrument it is unnecessary to go, as
+it never became operative. Jefferson persisted in refusing approval to
+any formal convention which did not provide the required stipulation
+against impressment. He was dissatisfied also with particular details
+connected with the other arrangements. All these matters were set
+forth at great length in a letter[165] of May 20, 1807, from Mr.
+Madison to the American commissioners; in which they were instructed
+to reopen negotiations on the basis of the treaty submitted,
+endeavoring to effect the changes specified. The danger to Great
+Britain from American commercial restriction was fully expounded, as
+an argument to compel compliance with the demands; the whole
+concluding with the characteristic remark that, "as long as
+negotiation can be honorably protracted, it is a resource to be
+preferred, under existing circumstances, to the peremptory alternative
+of improper concessions or inevitable collisions." In other words, the
+United States Government did not mean to fight, and that was all Great
+Britain needed to know. That she would suffer from the closure of the
+American market was indisputable; but, being assured of transatlantic
+peace, there were other circumstances of high import, political as
+well as commercial, which rendered yielding more inexpedient to her
+than a commercial war.
+
+At the end of March, 1807, within three months of the signature at
+London, the British Ministry fell, and the disciples of Pitt returned
+to power. Mr. Canning became Foreign Secretary. Circumstances were
+then changing rapidly on the continent of Europe, and by the time
+Madison's letter reached England a very serious event had modified
+also the relations of the United States to Great Britain. This was the
+attack upon the United States frigate "Chesapeake" by a British ship
+of war, upon the high seas, and the removal of four of her crew,
+claimed as deserters from the British Navy. Unofficial information of
+this transaction reached England July 25, just one day after Monroe
+and Pinkney had addressed to Canning a letter communicating their
+instructions to reopen negotiations, and stating the changes deemed
+desirable in the treaty submitted. The intervention of the
+"Chesapeake" affair, to a contingent adjustment of which all other
+matters had been postponed, delayed to October 22 the reply of the
+British Minister.[166] In this, after a preamble of "distinct protest
+against a practice, altogether unusual in the political transactions
+of states, by which the American Government assumes to itself the
+privilege of revising and altering agreements concluded and signed on
+its behalf by its agents duly authorized for that purpose," Canning
+thus announced the decision of the Cabinet: "The proposal of the
+President of the United States for proceeding to negotiate anew, upon
+the basis of a treaty already solemnly concluded and signed, is a
+proposal wholly inadmissible. And his Majesty has therefore no option,
+under the present circumstances of this transaction, but to acquiesce
+in the refusal of the President of the United States to ratify the
+treaty signed on December 31, 1806." The settlement of the
+"Chesapeake" business having already been transferred to Washington,
+by the appointment of a special British envoy, this rejection of
+further consideration of the treaty closed all matters pending between
+the two governments, except those appertaining to the usual duties of
+a legation, and Monroe's mission ended. A fortnight later he sailed
+for the United States. His place as regularly accredited Minister to
+the British Court was taken by Pinkney, through whom were conducted
+the subsequent important discussions, which arose from the marked
+extension given immediately afterwards by France and Great Britain to
+their several policies for the forcible restriction of neutral trade.
+
+Those who have followed the course of the successive events traced in
+this chapter, and marked their accelerating momentum, will be prepared
+for the more extreme and startling occurrences which soon after ensued
+as a matter of inevitable development. They will be able also to
+understand how naturally the phrase, "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights,"
+grew out of these various transactions, as the expression of the
+demands and grievances which finally drove the United States into
+hostilities; and will comprehend in what sense these terms were used,
+and what the wrongs against which they severally protested. "Free
+Trade" had no relation of opposition to a system of protection to home
+industries, an idea hardly as yet formulated to consciousness, except
+by a few advanced economists. It meant the trade of a nation carried
+on according to its own free will, relieved from fetters forcibly
+imposed by a foreign yoke, in which, under the circumstances of the
+time, the resurrection of colonial bondage was fairly to be discerned.
+"Sailors' Rights" expressed not only the right of the American seaman
+to personal liberty of action,--in theory not contested, but in
+practice continually violated by the British,--but the right of all
+seamen under the American flag to its protection in the voluntary
+engagements which they were then fulfilling. It voiced the sufferings
+of the individual; the personal side of an injury, the reverse of
+which was the disgrace of the nation responsible for his security.
+
+It was afterwards charged against the administrations of Jefferson and
+Madison, under which these events ran their course to their
+culmination in war, that impressment was not a cause of the break
+between the two countries, but was adduced subsequently to swell the
+array of injuries, in which the later Orders in Council were the real
+determinative factor. The drift of this argument was, that the Repeal
+of the Orders, made almost simultaneously with the American
+Declaration of War, and known in the United States two months later,
+should have terminated hostilities. The British Government, in an
+elaborate vindication of its general course, published in January,
+1813, stated that, "in a manifesto, accompanying their declaration of
+hostilities, in addition to the former complaints against the Orders
+in Council, a long list of grievances was brought forward; but none of
+them such as were ever before alleged by the American Government to be
+grounds for war." In America itself similar allegations were made by
+the party in opposition. The Maryland House of Delegates, in January,
+1814, adopted a memorial, in which it was said that "The claim of
+impressment, which has been so much exaggerated, but which was never
+deemed of itself a substantive cause of war, has been heretofore
+considered susceptible of satisfactory arrangement in the judgment of
+both the commissioners, who were selected by the President then in
+office to conduct the negotiation with the English ministry in the
+year 1806."[167] The words of the commissioners in their official
+letters of November 11, 1806,[168] and April 22, 1807,[169] certainly
+sustain this statement as to their opinion, which was again
+deliberately affirmed by Monroe in a justificatory review of their
+course, addressed to Madison in February, 1808,[170] after his return.
+Gaston, speaking in the House in February, 1814, said: "Sir, the
+question of seamen was not a cause of this war. More than five years
+had passed over since an arrangement on this question, perfectly
+satisfactory to our ministers, [Monroe and Pinkney] had been made with
+Great Britain; but it pleased not the President, and was rejected.
+Yet, during the whole period that afterwards elapsed until the
+declaration of war, no second effort was made to adjust this cause of
+controversy."[171]
+
+Gaston here is slightly in error as to fact, for the attack upon the
+"Chesapeake" was made by the Government the occasion for again
+demanding an abandonment of the practice of impressment from American
+merchant ships; but, accepting the statements otherwise, nothing more
+could be required of the Administration, so far as words went, than
+its insistence upon this relinquishment as a _sine qua non_ to any
+treaty. Its instructions to its ministers in 1806 had placed this
+demand first, not only in order, but in importance, coupling with it
+as indispensable only one other condition, the freedom of trade; the
+later and more extreme infringements of which were constituted by the
+Orders in Council of 1807. After protracted discussion, the American
+requirement as to impressment had been refused by Great Britain,
+deliberately, distinctly, and in the most positive manner; nor does it
+seem possible to concur with the opinion of our envoys that the
+stipulations offered by her representatives, while not sacrificing the
+British principle, did substantially and in practice secure the
+American demands. These could be satisfactorily covered only by the
+terms laid down by the Administration. Thereafter, any renewal of the
+subject must come from the other side; it was inconsistent with
+self-respect for the United States again to ask it, unless with arms
+in her hands. To make further advances in words would have been, not
+to negotiate, but to entreat. This, in substance, was the reply of the
+Government to its accusers at home, and it is irrefutable.
+
+It is less easy--rather, it is impossible--to justify the
+Administration for refraining from adequate deeds, when the impotence
+of words had been fully and finally proved. In part, this was due to
+miscalculation, in itself difficult to pardon, from the somewhat
+sordid grounds and estimates of national feeling upon which it
+proceeded. The two successive presidents, and the party behind them,
+were satisfied that Great Britain, though standing avowedly and
+evidently upon grounds considered by her essential to national honor
+and national safety, could be compelled to yield by the menace of
+commercial embarrassment. That there was lacking in them the elevated
+instinct, which could recognize that they were in collision with
+something greater than a question of pecuniary profits, is in itself a
+condemnation; and their statesmanship was at fault in not appreciating
+that the enslaved conditions of the European continent had justly
+aroused in Great Britain an exaltation of spirit, which was prepared
+to undergo every extreme, in resistance to a like subjection, till
+exhaustion itself should cause her weapons to drop from her hands.
+
+The resentment of the United States Government for the injuries done
+its people was righteous and proper. It was open to it to bear them
+under adequate protest, sympathizing with the evident embarrassments
+of the old cradle of the race; or, on the other hand, to do as she was
+doing, strain every nerve to compel the cessation of outrage. The
+Administration preferred to persist in its military and naval
+economies, putting forth but one-half of its power, by measures of
+mere commercial restriction. These impoverished its own people, and
+divided national sentiment, but proved incapable within reasonable
+time to reduce the resolution of the opponent. That that finally gave
+way when war was clearly imminent proves, not that commercial
+restriction alone was sufficient, but that coupled with military
+readiness it would have attained its end more surely, and sooner;
+consequently with less of national suffering, and no national
+ignominy.
+
+Entire conviction of the justice and urgency of the American
+contentions, especially in the matter of impressment, and only to a
+less degree in that of the regulation of trade by foreign force, as
+impeaching national independence, is not enough to induce admiration
+for the course of American statesmanship at this time. The acuteness
+and technical accuracy of Madison's voluminous arguments make but more
+impressive the narrowness of outlook, which saw only the American
+point of view, and recognized only the force of legal precedent, at a
+time when the foundations of the civilized world were heaving.
+American interests doubtless were his sole concern; but what was
+practicable and necessary to support those interests depended upon a
+wide consideration and just appreciation of external conditions. That
+laws are silent amid the clash of arms, seems in his apprehension
+transformed to the conviction that at no time are they more noisy and
+compulsive. Upon this political obtuseness there fell a kind of
+poetical retribution, which gradually worked the Administration round
+to the position of substantially supporting Napoleon, when putting
+forth all his power to oppress the liberties of Spain, and of
+embarrassing Great Britain at the time when a people in insurrection
+against perfidy and outrage found in her their sole support. During
+these eventful five years, the history of which we are yet to trace,
+the bearing of successive British ministries towards the United States
+was usually uncompromising, often arrogant, sometimes insolent, hard
+even now to read with composure; but in the imminent danger of their
+country, during a period of complicated emergencies, they held, with
+cool heads, and with steady hands on the helm, a course taken in full
+understanding of world conditions, and with a substantially just
+forecast of the future. Among their presuppositions, in the period
+next to be treated, was that America might argue and threaten, but
+would not fight. There was here no miscalculation, for she did not
+fight till too late, and she fought wholly unprepared.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[108] Wheaton's International Law, p. 753.
+
+[109] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 476.
+
+[110] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. pp. 472-474.
+
+[111] Ibid., p. 503.
+
+[112] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 522.
+
+[113] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 491.
+
+[114] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 263.
+
+[115] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 265.
+
+[116] Ibid., p. 266.
+
+[117] Ibid., p. 175.
+
+[118] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 98.
+
+[119] History of the United States, by Henry Adams, vol. ii. p. 423.
+
+[120] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 491.
+
+[121] Ibid., vol. iii. p. 145.
+
+[122] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 114.
+
+[123] Monroe to Madison, April 28, 1806. American State Papers, vol.
+iii. p. 117.
+
+[124] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 111.
+
+[125] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 109,
+107.
+
+[126] Ibid., p. 118.
+
+[127] For the text of this measure, see American State Papers, Foreign
+Relations, vol. iii. p. 267.
+
+[128] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 443.
+
+[129] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 446.
+
+[130] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 195.
+Author's italics.
+
+[131] Ibid., p. 371.
+
+[132] See, particularly, Foster to Monroe, July 3, 1811. American
+State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 436.
+
+[133] Ibid., pp. 428, 439.
+
+[134] The Instructions to Monroe and Pinkney are found in American
+State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 120.
+
+[135] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 200,
+201.
+
+[136] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 148.
+
+[137] Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, edited by George L. Rives, New
+York, 1894. For instances, see Index, Impressment.
+
+[138] Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 456.
+
+[139] Ante, p. 6.
+
+[140] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. pp. 123-124.
+
+[141] Jefferson's Works, Letter to T. Pinckney, Minister to Great
+Britain, June 11, 1792.
+
+[142] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. pp. 145-150.
+
+[143] See, for example, Naval Chronicle, vol. xxvi. pp. 215-221,
+306-309.
+
+[144] Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, vol. iii. p. 115.
+
+[145] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 150.
+
+[146] Ibid., p. 493.
+
+[147] Niles' Register, vol. v. p. 343.
+
+[148] Correspondence, p. 210.
+
+[149] Correspondence, p. 219.
+
+[150] Ante, p. 7.
+
+[151] Niles' Register, vol. v. Supplement, p. 105.
+
+[152] King to Thomas Erskine. Life of King, vol. iii. p. 401.
+
+[153] Russell to the Secretary of State, Sept. 17, 1812. American
+State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 593.
+
+[154] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. pp. 427, 473.
+
+[155] Ibid., vol. iii. p. 90.
+
+[156] Ibid., p. 98.
+
+[157] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. pp. 776-798.
+
+[158] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 131.
+Author's italics.
+
+[159] For the American report of these interviews, see Ibid., pp.
+133-135.
+
+[160] Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, vol. xxvi. p. 1103.
+
+[161] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 137-140.
+
+[162] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 140.
+
+[163] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 140.
+
+[164] Ibid., p. 139.
+
+[165] Ibid., pp. 166-173.
+
+[166] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 198.
+
+[167] Niles' Register, vol. v. p. 377.
+
+[168] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 139.
+
+[169] Ibid., p. 161.
+
+[170] Ibid., p. 173.
+
+[171] Niles' Register, vol. v. Supplement, p. 102.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+FROM THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL TO WAR
+
+1807-1812
+
+
+When the treaty of December 31, 1806, was about to be signed, the
+British negotiators delivered to the Americans a paper, of the general
+character of which they had been forewarned, but which in precise
+terms then first came before them. Its origin was due to a
+pronouncement of the French Emperor, historically known as the Decree
+of Berlin, which was dated November 21, while the negotiations were in
+progress, but had become fully known only when they had reached a very
+advanced stage. The pretensions and policy set forth in the Decree
+were considered by the British Government to violate the rights of
+neutrals, with a specific and far-reaching purpose of thereby injuring
+Great Britain. It was claimed that acquiescence in such violations by
+the neutral, or submission to them, would be a concurrence in the
+hostile object of the enemy; in which case Great Britain might feel
+compelled to adopt measures retaliatory against France, through the
+same medium of neutral navigation. In such steps she might be
+fettered, should the present treaty take effect. In final
+ratification, therefore, the British Government would be guided by the
+action of the United States upon the Berlin Decree. Unless the Emperor
+abandoned his policy, or "the United States by its conduct or
+assurances will have given security to his Majesty that it will not
+submit to such innovations on the established system of maritime law,
+... his Majesty will not consider himself bound by the present
+signature of his commissioners to ratify the treaty, or precluded from
+adopting such measures as may seem necessary for counteracting the
+designs of his enemy."[172] The American representatives transmitted
+this paper to Washington, with the simple observation that "we do not
+consider ourselves a party to it, or as having given it in any the
+slightest degree our sanction."[173]
+
+The Berlin Decree was remarkable not only in scope and spirit, but in
+form. "It had excited in us apprehensions," wrote Madison to the
+United States minister in Paris, "which were repressed only by the
+inarticulate import of its articles, and the presumption that it would
+be executed in a sense not inconsistent with the respect due to the
+treaty between France and the United States." It bore, in fact, the
+impress of its author's mind, which, however replete with knowledge
+concerning conventional international law, defined in accordance with
+the momentary and often hasty impulses of his own will, and
+consequently often also with the obscurity attendant upon ill-digested
+ideas. The preamble recited various practices of Great Britain as
+subversive of international right; most of which were not so, but in
+accordance with long-standing usage and general prescription. The
+methods of blockade instituted by her were more exceptionable, and
+were given prominence, with evident reference to the Order of May 16,
+declaring the blockade of a long coast-line. It being evident, so ran
+the Emperor's reasoning, that the object of this abuse of blockade was
+to interrupt neutral commerce in favor of British, it followed that
+"whoever deals on the Continent in English merchandise favors that
+design, and becomes an accomplice." He therefore decreed, as a measure
+of just retaliation, "that the British Islands were thenceforward in
+a state of blockade; that all correspondence and commerce with them
+was prohibited; that trade in English merchandise was forbidden; and
+that all merchandise belonging to England, or" (even if neutral
+property) "proceeding from its manufactories and colonies, is lawful
+prize." No vessel coming directly from British dominions should be
+received in any port to which the Decree was applicable. The scope of
+its intended application was shown in the concluding command, that it
+should be communicated "to the Kings of Spain, of Naples, of Holland,
+of Etruria, and to our allies, whose subjects, like ours, are the
+victims of the injustice and barbarism of the English maritime
+laws."[174]
+
+The phrasing of the edict was ambiguous, as Madison indicated.
+Notably, while neutral vessels having on board merchandise neutral in
+property, but British in origin, were to be seized when voluntarily
+entering a French port, it was not clear whether they were for the
+same reason to be arrested when found on the high seas; and there was
+equal failure to specify whether the proclaimed blockade authorized
+the capture of neutrals merely because bound to the British Isles, as
+was lawful if destined to a seaport effectively blockaded. Again, some
+of the proposed measures, such as refusal of admission to vessels or
+merchandise coming to French ports from British, were matters of
+purely local concern and municipal regulation; whereas the seizure of
+neutral property, because of English manufacture, was at least of
+doubtful right, if exercised within municipal limits, and certainly
+unlawful, if effected on the high seas. Whether such application was
+intended could not certainly be inferred from the text. The genius of
+the measure, as a whole, its inspiring motive and purpose, was
+revealed in the closing words of the preamble: "This decree shall be
+considered as the fundamental law of the Empire, until England has
+acknowledged that the rights of war are the same an land and on sea;
+that it [war] cannot be extended to any private property whatever; nor
+to persons who are not military; and until the right of blockade be
+restrained to fortified places, actually invested by competent
+forces." These words struck directly at measures of war resting upon
+long-standing usage, in which the strength of a maritime state such as
+Great Britain was vitally implicated.
+
+The claim for private property possesses particular interest; for it
+involves a play upon words to the confusion of ideas, which from that
+time to this has vitiated the arguments upon which have been based a
+prominent feature of American policy. Private property at a standstill
+is one thing. It is the unproductive money in a stocking, hid in a
+closet. Property belonging to private individuals, but embarked in
+that process of transportation and exchange which we call commerce, is
+like money in circulation. It is the life-blood of national
+prosperity, upon which war depends; and as such is national in its
+employment, and only in ownership private. To stop such circulation is
+to sap national prosperity; and to sap prosperity, upon which war
+depends for its energy, is a measure as truly military as is killing
+the men whose arms maintain war in the field. Prohibition of commerce
+is enforced at will where an enemy's army holds a territory; if
+permitted, it is because it inures to the benefit of the conqueror, or
+at least from its restricted scope does not injure him. It will not be
+doubted that, should a prohibition on shore be disregarded, the
+offending property would be seized in punishment. The sea is the great
+scene of commerce. The property transported back and forth,
+circulating from state to state in exchanges, is one of the greatest
+factors in national wealth. The maritime nations have been, and are,
+the wealthy nations. To prohibit such commerce to an enemy is, and
+historically has been, a tremendous blow to his fighting power; never
+more conspicuously so than in the Napoleonic wars. But prohibition is
+a vain show, in war as it is in civil government, if not enforced by
+penalties; and the natural penalty against offending property is fine,
+extending even to confiscation in extreme cases. The seizure of
+enemy's merchant ships and goods, for violating the prohibition
+against their engaging in commerce, is what is commonly called the
+seizure of private property. Under the methods of the last two
+centuries, it has been in administration a process as regular,
+legally, as is libelling a ship for an action in damages; nor does it
+differ from it in principle. The point at issue really is not, "Is the
+property private?" but, "Is the method conducive to the purposes of
+war?" Property strictly private, on board ship, but not in process of
+commercial exchange, is for this reason never touched; and to do so is
+considered as disgraceful as a common theft.
+
+Napoleon, as a ruler, was always poverty-stricken. For that reason he
+levied heavy contributions on conquered states, which it is needless
+to say were paid by private taxpayers; and for the same reason, by
+calling French ships and French goods "private property," he would
+compel for them the freedom of the sea, which the maritime
+preponderance of Great Britain denied them. He needed the revenue that
+commerce would bring in. So as to blockades. In denying the right to
+capture under a nominal blockade, unsupported by an effective force,
+he took the ground which the common-sense of nations had long before
+embodied in the common consent called international law. But he went
+farther. Blockade is very inconvenient to the blockaded, which was the
+role played by France. Along with the claim for "private property," he
+formulated the proposition that the right of blockade is restrained
+to fortified places; to which was afterwards added the corollary that
+the place must be invested by land as well as by sea. It is to be
+noticed that here also American policy showed a disposition to go
+astray, by denying the legitimacy of a purely commercial blockade; a
+tendency natural enough at that passing moment, when, as a weak
+nation, it was desired to restrict the rights of belligerents, but
+which in its results on the subsequent history of the country would
+have been ruinous. John Marshall, one of the greatest names in
+American jurisprudence, when Secretary of State in 1800, wrote to the
+minister in London:
+
+ On principle it might well be questioned whether this rule [of
+ blockade] can be applied to a place not completely invested, by
+ land as well as by sea. If we examine the reasoning on which is
+ founded the right to intercept and confiscate supplies designed
+ for a blockaded town, it will be difficult to resist the
+ conviction that its extension to towns invested by sea only is
+ an unjustifiable encroachment on the rights of neutrals. But it
+ is not of this departure from principle (a departure which has
+ received some sanction from practice) that we mean to
+ complain.[175]
+
+In 1810, the then Secretary of State enclosed to the American minister
+in London the letter from which this extract is taken, among other
+proofs of the positions maintained by the United States on the subject
+of blockade. The particular claim cited was not directly indorsed; but
+as its mention was unnecessary to the matter immediately in hand, we
+may safely regard its retention as indicative of the ideal of the
+Secretary, and of the President, Mr. Madison. In consequence, we find
+the minister, William Pinkney, in his letter of January 14, 1811,
+adducing Marshall's view to the British Foreign Secretary:
+
+ It is by no means clear that it may not fairly be contended, on
+ principle and early usage, that a maritime blockade is
+ incomplete, with regard to States at peace,[176] unless the
+ place which it would affect is invested by land, as well as by
+ sea. The United States, however, have called for the recognition
+ of no such rule. They appear to have contented themselves,
+ etc.[177]
+
+The error into which both these eminent statesmen fell is military in
+character, and proceeds from the same source as the agitation in favor
+of exempting so-called private property from capture. Both spring from
+the failure to recognize a function of the sea, vital to the
+maintenance of war by states which depend upon maritime commerce. To
+forbid the free use of the seas to enemy's merchant ships and material
+of commerce, differs in no wise in principle from shutting his ports
+to neutral vessels, as well as to his own, by blockade. Both are aimed
+at the enemy's sources of supply, at his communications; and the
+penalty inflicted by the laws of war in both cases is the
+same,--forfeiture of the offending property. With clear recognition of
+this military principle involved, and of the importance of sustaining
+it by Great Britain, British high officials repeatedly declared that
+the Berlin Decree was to be regarded, not chiefly in its methods, but
+in its object, or principle, which was to deprive Great Britain of her
+principal weapon. This purpose stood avowed in the words, "this decree
+shall be considered the fundamental law of the Empire until England
+has acknowledged," etc. British statesmen correctly paraphrased this,
+"has renounced the established foundations, admitted by all civilized
+nations, of her maritime rights and interests, upon which depend the
+most valuable rights and interests of the nation."[178] The British
+authorities understood that, by relinquishing these rights, they would
+abandon in great measure the control of the sea, so far as useful to
+war. The United States have received their lesson in history. If the
+principle contended for by their representatives, Marshall and
+Pinkney, had been established as international law before 1861, there
+could have been no blockade of the Southern coast in the Civil War.
+The cotton of the Confederacy, innocent "private property," could have
+gone freely; the returns from it would have entered unimpeded;
+commerce, the source of national wealth, would have flourished in full
+vigor; supplies, except contraband, would have flowed unmolested; and
+all this at the price merely of killing some hundred thousands more
+men, with proportionate expenditure of money, in the effort to
+maintain the Union, which would probably have failed, to the
+immeasurable loss of both sections.
+
+The British Government took some time to analyze the "inarticulate
+import" of the Berlin Decree. Hence, in the paper presented to Monroe
+and Pinkney, stress was laid upon the methods only, ignoring the
+object of compelling Great Britain to surrender her maritime rights.
+In the methods, however, instinct divined the true character of the
+plotted evil. There was to be formed, under military pressure, a vast
+political combination of states pledged to exclude British commerce
+from the markets of the Continent; a design which in execution
+received the name of the Continental System. The Decree being issued
+after the battle of Jena, upon the eve of the evident complete
+subjugation of Prussia, following that of Austria the year before,
+there was room to fear that the predominance of Napoleon on the
+Continent would compel in Europe universal compliance with these
+measures of exclusion. It so proved, in fact, in the course of 1807,
+leading to a commercial warfare of extraordinary rigor, the effects of
+which upon Europe have been discussed by the author in a previous
+work.[179] Its influence upon the United States is now to be
+considered; for it was a prominent factor in the causes of the War of
+1812.
+
+Although in a military sense weak to debility, and politically not
+welded as yet into a nation, strong in a common spirit and accepted
+traditions, the United States was already in two respects a force to
+be considered. She possessed an extensive shipping, second in tonnage
+only to that of the British Islands, to which it was a dangerous rival
+in maintaining the commercial intercourse of Europe; while her
+population and purchasing power were so increased as to constitute her
+a very valuable market, manufacturing for which was chiefly in the
+hands of Great Britain. It became, therefore, an object with Napoleon,
+in prosecution of the design of the Berlin Decree, to draw the United
+States into co-operation with the European continental system, by
+shutting her ports to Great Britain; while the latter, confronted by
+this double danger, sought to impose upon neutral navigation--almost
+wholly American--such curtailment as should punish the Emperor and his
+tributaries for their measures of exclusion, and also neutralize the
+effect of these by forcing the British Islands into the chain of
+communication by which Europe in general was supplied. To retaliate
+the Berlin Decree upon the enemy, and by the same means to nourish the
+trade of Great Britain, was the avowed twofold object. The shipping of
+the United States found itself between hammer and anvil, crushed by
+these opposing policies. Napoleon banned it from continental harbors,
+if coming from England or freighted with English goods; Great Britain
+forbade it going to a continental port, unless it had first touched at
+one of hers; and both inflicted penalties of confiscation, when able
+to lay hands on a vessel which had violated their respective commands.
+
+The lack of precision in the terms of the Berlin Decree exposed it
+from the first to much latitude of interpretation; and the Emperor
+remaining absent from France for eight months after its promulgation,
+preoccupied with an arduous warfare in Eastern Europe, the
+construction of the edict by the authorities in Paris made little
+alteration in existing conditions. Nevertheless, the impulse to
+retaliate prevailed; and the British ministry with which Monroe and
+Pinkney had negotiated, though comparatively liberal in political
+complexion, would not wait for more precise knowledge. The occasion
+was seized with a precipitancy which lent color to Napoleon's
+assertion, that the leading aim was to favor their own trade by
+depressing that of others. This had already been acknowledged as the
+motive for interrupting American traffic in West India produce. Now
+again, one week only after stating to Monroe and Pinkney that they
+"could not believe that the enemy will ever seriously attempt to
+enforce such a system," and without waiting to ascertain whether
+neutral nations, the United States in particular, would, "contrary to
+all expectations, acquiesce in such usurpations,"[180] the Government
+on January 7, 1807, with no information as to the practical effect
+given to the Decree in operation, issued an Order in Council, which
+struck Americans directly and chiefly. Neutrals were forbidden to sail
+from one port to another, both of which were so far under the control
+of France or her allies that British vessels might not freely trade
+thereat. This was aimed immediately at trade along the coast of
+Europe, but it included, of course, the voyages from a hostile colony
+to a hostile European port already interdicted by British rulings, of
+which the new Order was simply an extension. It fell with particular
+severity on Americans, accustomed to go from port to port, not
+carrying on local coasting, but seeking markets for their outward
+cargoes, or making up a homeward lading. It is true that the Cabinet
+by which the Order was issued did not intend to forbid this particular
+procedure; but the wording naturally implied such prohibition, and was
+so construed by Madison,[181] who communicated his understanding to
+the British minister at Washington. Before this letter could reach
+London, the ministry changed, and the new Government refrained from
+correcting the misapprehension. For this it was taken to task in
+Parliament, by Lords Holland and Grenville.[182]
+
+Monroe had once written to the British Foreign Secretary that "it
+cannot well be conceived how it should be lawful to carry on commerce
+from one port to another of the parent country, and not from its
+colonies to the mother country."[183] This well meant argument, in
+favor of opening the colonial trade, gave to the new step of the
+British Cabinet a somewhat gratuitous indorsement of logical
+consistency. A consciousness of this may have underlain the remarkable
+terms in which this grievous restriction was imparted to the United
+States Government, as evincing the singular indulgence of Great
+Britain. Her minister in Washington, in conveying the Order to the
+State Department, wrote: "His Majesty, with that forbearance and
+moderation which have at all times distinguished his conduct, has
+determined for the present to confine himself to exercising his
+decided naval superiority in such a manner only as is authorized by
+the acknowledged principles of the laws of nations, and has issued an
+Order for preventing all commerce from port to port of his enemies;
+comprehending in this Order not only the ports of France, but those of
+other nations, as, either in alliance with France, or subject to her
+dominion, have, by measures of active offence or by the exclusion of
+British ships, taken part in the present war."[184] These words
+characterized the measure as strictly retaliatory. They implied that
+the extra-legal action of the enemy would warrant extra-legal action
+by Great Britain, but asserted expressly that the present step was
+sanctioned by existing law,--"in such a manner only as is authorized
+by the acknowledged principles of the law of nations." The prohibition
+of coasting trade could be brought under the law of nations only by
+invoking the Rule of 1756, forbidding neutrals to undertake for a
+state at war employment denied to them in peace. Of this, coasting was
+a precise instance; but to call the Rule an acknowledged principle of
+the law of nations was an assumption peculiarly calculated to irritate
+Madison, who had expended reams in refutation. He penned two careful
+replies, logical, incisive, and showing the profound knowledge of the
+subject which distinguished him; but in a time of political convulsion
+he contended in vain against men who wore swords and thought their
+country's existence imperilled.
+
+The United States authorities argued by text and precedent. To the end
+they persisted in shutting their eyes to the important fact,
+recognized intuitively by Great Britain, that the Berlin Decree was no
+isolated measure, to be discussed on its separate merits, but an
+incident in an unprecedented political combination, already
+sufficiently defined in tendency, which overturned the traditional
+system of Europe. It destroyed the checks inherent in the balance of
+power, concentrating the whole in the hands of Napoleon, to whom there
+remained on the Continent only one valid counterweight, the Emperor of
+Russia, whom he soon after contrived to lead into his scheme of
+policy. The balance of power was thus reduced to the opposing scales
+of Great Britain and France, and for five years so remained. The
+Continental System, embracing all the rest of Europe, was arrayed
+against Great Britain, and might well look to destroy her, if it could
+command the support of the United States. Founded upon armed power, it
+proposed by continuous exertion of the same means to undermine the
+bases of British prosperity, and so to subvert the British Empire. The
+enterprise was distinctly military, and could be met only by measures
+of a similar character, to which existing international law was
+unequal. The corner-stone was the military power of Napoleon, which,
+by nullifying the independence of the continental states, compelled
+them to adopt the methods of the Berlin Decree contrary to their will,
+and contrary to the wishes, the interests, and the bare well-being of
+their populations. "You will see," wrote an observant American
+representative abroad, "that Napoleon stalks at a gigantic stride
+among the pygmy monarchs of Europe, and bends them to his policy. It
+is even an equal chance if Russia, after all her blustering, does not
+accede to his demands without striking a blow."[185] To meet the
+danger Great Britain opposed a maritime dominion, equally exclusive,
+equally founded on force, and exercised in equally arbitrary fashion
+over the populations of the sea.
+
+At the end of March, 1807, the British Cabinet with which Monroe and
+Pinkney had negotiated went out of office. Their successors came in
+prepared for extreme action in consequence of the Berlin Decree; but
+their hand was for the moment stayed, because its enforcement remained
+in abeyance, owing to the Emperor's continued absence in the field.
+Towards the claims of the United States their attitude was likely to
+be uncompromising; and the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Canning, to
+whom fell the expression of the Government's views and purposes,
+possessed an adroitness in fastening upon minor weaknesses in a case,
+and postponing to such the consideration of the important point at
+issue, which, coupled with a peremptoriness of tone often bordering on
+insolence, effected nothing towards conciliating a people believed to
+be both unready and unwilling to fight. The American envoys, at their
+first interview, in April, met him with the proposition of their
+Government to reopen negotiations on the basis of the treaty of
+December 31. Learning from them that the treaty would not be ratified
+without a satisfactory arrangement concerning impressment, Canning
+asked what relations would then obtain between the two nations. The
+reply was that the United States Government wished them placed
+informally on the most friendly footing; that is, that an
+understanding should be reached as to practical action to be expected
+on either side, without concessions of principle.[186] As final
+instructions from Washington were yet to come, it was agreed that the
+matter should be postponed. When they arrived, on July 16, the envoys
+drew up a letter, submitting the various changes desired; but
+conveying also the fixed determination of the President "to decline
+any arrangement, formal or informal, which does not comprise a
+provision against impressments from American vessels on the high seas,
+and which would, notwithstanding, be a bar to legislative measures by
+Congress for controlling that species of aggression."[187]
+
+This letter was dated July 24, but by the time it could be delivered
+news arrived which threw into the background all matters of
+negotiation and illustrated with what respect British naval officers
+regarded "the instructions, repeated and enforced, for the observance
+of the greatest caution in impressing British seamen."[188] It is
+probable, indeed, that the change of ministry, and the well-understood
+tone of the new-comers, had modified the influence of these
+restraining orders; and Canning evidently felt that such an inference
+was natural, for Monroe reported his noticeable desire "to satisfy me
+that no new orders had been issued by the present ministry to the
+commandant of the British squadron at Halifax," who was primarily
+responsible for the lamentable occurrence which here traversed the
+course of negotiation. It had been believed, and doubtless correctly,
+that some deserters from British ships of war had found their way into
+the naval service of the United States. In June, 1807, the American
+frigate "Chesapeake," bearing the broad pendant of Commodore James
+Barron, had been fitting for sea in Hampton Roads. At this time two
+French ships of war were lying off Annapolis, a hundred miles up
+Chesapeake Bay; and, to prevent their getting to sea, a small British
+squadron had been assembled at Lynnhaven Bay, just within Cape Henry,
+a dozen miles below the "Chesapeake's" anchorage. They were thus, as
+Jefferson said, enjoying the hospitality of the United States. On June
+22 the American frigate got under way for sea, and as she stood down,
+one of the British, the "Leopard" of fifty guns, also made sail, going
+out ahead of her. Shortly after noon the "Chesapeake" passed the
+Capes. When about ten miles outside, a little after three o'clock, the
+"Leopard" approached, and hailed that she had a despatch for Commodore
+Barron. This was brought on board by a lieutenant, and proved to be a
+letter from the captain of the "Leopard," enclosing an order from
+Vice-Admiral Berkeley, in charge of the Halifax station, "requiring
+and directing the captains and commanders of his Majesty's vessels
+under my command, in case of meeting the American frigate, the
+'Chesapeake,' at sea, without the limits of the United States, to show
+her captain this order, and to require to search his ship for
+deserters from certain British ships," specified by name. Upon
+Barron's refusal, the "Leopard" fired into the "Chesapeake," killed or
+wounded twenty-one men, and reduced her to submission. The order for
+search was then enforced. Four of the American crew, considered to be
+British deserters, were taken away. Of these, one was hanged; one
+died; and the other two, after prolonged disputation, were returned
+five years later to the deck of the "Chesapeake," in formal
+reparation.
+
+Word of this transaction reached the British Government before it did
+Monroe, who was still sole American minister for all matters except
+the special mission. Canning at once wrote him a letter of regret, and
+spontaneously promised "prompt and effectual reparation," if upon
+receipt of full information British officers should prove culpable.
+Four days later, July 29, Monroe and Canning met in pursuance of a
+previous appointment, the object of which had been to discuss
+complaints against the conduct of British ships of war on the coast of
+the United States. The "Chesapeake" business naturally now
+overshadowed all others. Monroe maintained that, on principle, a ship
+of war could not be entered to search for deserters, or for any
+purpose, without violating the sovereignty of her nation. Canning was
+very guarded; no admission of principle could then be obtained from
+him; but he gave Monroe to understand that, in whatever light the
+action of the British officer should be viewed by his Government, the
+point whether the men seized were British subjects or American
+citizens would be of consideration, in the question of restoring
+them, now that they were in British hands. Monroe, in accordance with
+the position of his Government on the subject of impressment, replied
+that the determining consideration was not the nationality of the men,
+but of the ship, the flag of which had been insulted.
+
+The conference ended with an understanding that Monroe would send in a
+note embodying his position and claims. This he did the same day;[189]
+but his statements were grounded upon newspaper accounts, as the
+British Government had not yet published Berkeley's official report.
+He would not await the positive information that must soon be given
+out, but applied strong language to acts not yet precisely
+ascertained; and he mingled with the "Chesapeake" affair other very
+real, but different and minor, subjects of complaint, seemingly with a
+view to cumulative effect. He thus made the mistake of encumbering
+with extraneous or needless details a subject which required separate,
+undivided, and lucid insistence; while Canning found an opportunity,
+particularly congenial to his temperament, to escape under a cloud of
+dignified words from the simple admission of wrong, and promise of
+reparation, which otherwise he would have had to face. He could assume
+a tone of haughty rebuke, where only that of apology should have been
+left open. His reply ran thus:
+
+ I have the honor to acknowledge your official note of the 29th
+ ultimo, which I have lost no time in laying before the King.
+
+ As _the statement_ of the transaction to which this note refers
+ is not brought forward either by the authority of the Government
+ of the United States, _or with any precise knowledge of the
+ facts on which it is founded_, it might have been sufficient for
+ me to express to you his Majesty's readiness to take the whole
+ of the circumstances of the case, _when fully disclosed_, into
+ his consideration, and to make reparation for any _alleged
+ injury_ to the sovereignty of the United States, whenever it
+ should be _clearly shown_ that such injury has been _actually
+ sustained_, and that such reparation is _really due_.
+
+ Of the existence of such a disposition on the part of the
+ British Government, you, Sir, cannot be ignorant; I have already
+ assured you of it, though in an unofficial form, by the letter
+ which I addressed you on the first receipt of the intelligence
+ of this unfortunate transaction; and I may, perhaps, be
+ permitted to express my surprise, after such an assurance, at
+ the tone of that representation which I have just had the honor
+ to receive from you.
+
+ But the earnest desire of his Majesty to evince, in the most
+ satisfactory manner, the principles of justice and moderation by
+ which he is uniformly actuated, has not permitted him to
+ hesitate in commanding me to assure you, that his Majesty
+ neither does, nor has at any time maintained the pretension of a
+ right to search ships of war, in the national service of any
+ State, for deserters.
+
+ _If_, therefore, _the statement in your note should prove to be
+ correct_, and to contain all the circumstances of the case, upon
+ which the complaint is intended to be made, and it shall appear
+ that the action of his Majesty's officers rested on no other
+ grounds than the simple and unqualified assertion of the
+ pretension above referred to, his Majesty has no difficulty in
+ disavowing the act, and will have no difficulty in manifesting
+ his displeasure at the conduct of his officers.
+
+ With respect to the other causes of complaint, (whatever they
+ may be,) which are hinted at in your note, I perfectly agree
+ with you, in the sentiment which you express, as to the
+ propriety of not involving them in a question, which of itself
+ is of sufficient importance to claim a separate and most serious
+ consideration.
+
+ _I have only to lament that the same sentiment did not induce
+ you to abstain from alluding to these subjects_, on an occasion
+ which you were yourself of opinion was not favorable for
+ pursuing the discussion of them.[190]
+
+ I have the honor to be, with great consideration, your most
+ obedient, humble servant
+
+ GEORGE CANNING.
+
+JAMES MONROE, ESQ. &C.
+
+While the right of the occasion was wholly with the American nation,
+the honors of the discussion, the weight of the first broadside,
+rested so far with the British Secretary; the more so that Monroe, by
+his manner of adducing his "other causes of complaint," admitted their
+irrelevancy and yet characterized them irritatingly to his
+correspondent. "I might state other examples of great indignity and
+outrage, many of which are of recent date, to which the United States
+have been exposed off their own coast, and even within several of
+their harbors, from the British squadron; but it is improper to mingle
+them with the present more serious causes of complaint." This invited
+Canning's retort,--You do mingle them, in the same sentence in which
+you admit the impropriety. And why, he shrewdly insinuated,
+precipitate action ahead of knowledge, when the facts must soon be
+known? The unspoken reason is evident. Because a government, which by
+its own fault is weak, will try with big words to atone to the public
+opinion of its people for that which it cannot, or will not, effect in
+deeds. Bluster, whether measured or intemperate in terms, is bluster
+still, as long as it means only talk, not act.
+
+Monroe comforted himself that, though Canning's note was "harsh," he
+had obtained the "concession of the point desired."[191] he had in
+fact obtained less than would probably have resulted from a policy of
+which the premises were assured, and the demands rigorously limited to
+the particular offence. Canning's note set the key for the subsequent
+British correspondence, and dictated the methods by which he
+persistently evaded an amends spontaneously promised under the first
+emotions produced by an odious aggression. He continued to offer it;
+but under conditions impossible of acceptance, and as discreditable to
+the party at fault as they were humiliating to the one offended. In
+themselves, the first notes exchanged between Monroe and Canning are
+trivial, a revelation chiefly of individual characteristics. Their
+interest lies in the exemplification of the general course of the
+American administration, imposed by its years of temporizing, of
+money-getting, and of military parsimony. President Jefferson in
+America met the occasion precisely as did Monroe in London, with the
+same result of a sharp correspondence, abounding in strong language,
+but affording Canning further opportunity to confuse issues and escape
+from reparations, which, however just and wise, were distasteful. It
+was a Pyrrhic victory for the British minister, destroying the last
+chance of conciliating American acquiescence in a line of action
+forced upon Great Britain by Napoleon; but as a mere question of
+dialectics he had scored a success.
+
+When the news of the "Chesapeake" outrage was received in Washington,
+Jefferson issued a proclamation, dated July 2, 1807, suited chiefly
+for home consumption, as the phrase goes. He began with a recitation
+of the various wrongs and irritations, undeniable and extreme, which
+his long-suffering Administration had endured from British cruisers,
+and to which Monroe alluded in his note to Canning. Upon this followed
+an account of the "Chesapeake" incident, thus inextricably entangled
+with other circumstances differing from it in essential feature. Then,
+taking occasion by a transaction which, however reprehensible, was
+wholly external to the territory of the United States,--unless
+construed to extend to the Gulf Stream, according to one of
+Jefferson's day-dreams,--action was based upon the necessity of
+providing for the internal peace of the nation and the safety of its
+citizens, and consequently of refusing admission to British ships of
+war, as inconsistent with these objects. Therefore, "all armed
+vessels, bearing commissions under the Government of Great Britain,
+now within the harbors of the United States, are required immediately
+and without any delay to depart from the same; and entrance of all the
+said harbors and waters is interdicted to the said armed vessels, and
+to all others bearing commissions under the authority of the British
+Government." Vessels carrying despatches were excepted.
+
+This procedure had the appearance of energy which momentarily
+satisfies a public demand that something shall be done. It also
+afforded Canning the peg on which to hang a grievance, and dexterously
+to prolong discussion until the matter became stale in public
+interest. By the irrelevancy of the punishment to the crime, and by
+the intrusion of secondary matters into the complaint, the
+"Chesapeake" issue, essentially clear, sharp, and impressive, became
+hopelessly confused with other considerations. Upon the proclamation
+followed a despatch from Madison to Monroe, July 6, which opened with
+the just words, "This enormity is not a subject for discussion," and
+then proceeded to discuss at length. Demand was to be made, most
+properly, for a formal disavowal, and for the restoration of the
+seamen to the ship. This could have been formulated in six lines, and
+had it stood alone could scarcely have been refused; but to it was
+attached indissolubly an extraneous requirement. "As a security for
+the future, an entire abolition of impressment from vessels[192] under
+the flag of the United States, if not already arranged, is also to
+make an _indispensable part of the satisfaction_."[193]
+
+This made accommodation hopeless. Practically, it was an ultimatum;
+for recent notorious discussion had demonstrated that this the British
+Government would not yield, and as it differed essentially from the
+point at issue in the "Chesapeake" affair, there was no reason to
+expect a change of attitude in consequence of that. Great as was the
+wrong to a merchant vessel, it has not the status of a ship of war,
+which carries even into foreign ports a territorial immunity
+resembling that of an ambassador, representing peculiarly the
+sovereignty of its nation. Further, the men taken from the
+"Chesapeake" were not seized as liable to impressment, but arrested as
+deserters; the case was distinct. Finally, Great Britain's power to
+maintain her position on impressment had certainly not waned under the
+"Chesapeake" humiliation, and was not likely to succumb to peremptory
+language from Madison. No such demand should have been advanced, in
+such connection, by a self-respecting government, unless prepared to
+fight instantly upon refusal. The despatch indeed contains cautions
+and expressions indicating a sense of treading on dangerous ground; an
+apprehension of exciting hostile action, though no thought of taking
+it. The exclusion of armed vessels was justified "by the vexations and
+dangers to our peace, experienced from these visits." The reason, if
+correct, was adequate as a matter of policy under normal conditions;
+but it became inconsistent with self-respect when the national flag
+was insulted in the attack on the "Chesapeake." Entire composure, and
+forbearance from demonstrations bearing a trace of temper, alone
+comport with such a situation. To distinguish against British ships of
+war at such a moment, by refusing them only, and for the first time,
+admission into American harbors, was either a humiliating confession
+of impotence to maintain order within the national borders, or it
+justified Canning's contention that it was in retaliation for the
+"Leopard's" action. His further plea, that it must therefore be taken
+into the account in determining the reparation due, was pettifogging,
+reducing a question of insult and amends to one of debit and credit
+bookkeeping; but the American claim that the step was necessary to
+internal quiet was puerile, and its precipitancy carried the
+appearance of petulance.
+
+Monroe received Madison's despatch August 30, and on September 3 had
+an interview with Canning. In it he specified the redress indicated by
+Madison. With this was coupled an intimation that a special mission to
+the United States ought to be constituted, to impart to the act of
+reparation "a solemnity which the extraordinary nature of the
+aggression particularly required." This assertion of the extraordinary
+nature of the occasion separated the incident from the impressment
+grievance, with which Madison sought to join it; but what is more
+instructively noticeable is the contrast between this extreme
+formality, represented as requisite, and the wholly informal, and as
+it proved unreal, withdrawal by Napoleon of his Decrees, which the
+Administration of Madison at a later day maintained to be sufficient
+for the satisfaction of Great Britain.
+
+In this interview[194] Canning made full use of the advantages given
+him by his adversaries' method of presentation and action. "He said
+that by the President's proclamation, and the seizure and detention of
+some men who had landed on the coast to procure water, the Government
+seemed to have taken redress into its own hands." To Monroe's
+statement that "the suppression of the practice of impressment from
+merchant vessels had been made indispensable by the late aggression,
+for reasons which were sufficiently known to him," he retorted, "that
+the late aggression was an act different in all respects to the
+former practice; and ought not to be connected with it, as it showed a
+disposition to make a particular incident, in which Great Britain was
+in the wrong, instrumental to an accommodation in a case in which his
+Government held a different doctrine." The remark went to the root of
+the matter. This was what the Administration was trying to do. As
+Madison afterwards put it to Rose, the President was desirous "of
+converting a particular incident into an occasion for removing another
+and more extensive source of danger to the harmony of the two
+countries." This plausible rendering was not likely to recommend to a
+resolute nation such a method of obtaining surrender of a claimed
+right. The exclusion proclamation Monroe represented to be "a mere
+measure of police indispensable for the preservation of order within
+the United States." Canning declined to be shaken from his stand that
+it was an exhibition of partiality against Great Britain, the vessels
+of which alone were excluded, because of an outrage committed by one
+of them outside of American waters. The time at which the proclamation
+issued, and the incorporation in it of the "Chesapeake" incident, made
+this view at least colorable.
+
+This interview also was followed by an exchange of notes. Monroe's of
+September 7, 1807, developed the American case and demand as already
+given. That of Canning, September 23, stated as follows the dilemma
+raised by the President's proclamation: Either it was an act of
+partiality between England and France, the warships of the latter
+being still admitted, or it was an act of retaliation for the
+"Chesapeake" outrage, and so of the nature of redress, self-obtained,
+it is true, but to be taken into account in estimating the reparation
+which the British Government "acknowledged to have been originally
+due."[195] To the request for explanation Monroe replied lamely, with
+a statement which can scarcely be taken as other than admitting the
+punitive character of the proclamation. "There certainly existed no
+desire of giving a preference;" but,--"_Before, this aggression_ it is
+well known that His Britannic Majesty's ships of war lay within the
+waters of the Chesapeake, and enjoyed all the advantages of the most
+favored nation; it cannot therefore be doubted that my Government will
+be ready _to restore them to the same situation as soon as it can be
+done consistently with the honor and rights of the United
+States_."[196]
+
+In closing his letter of September 23, Canning asked Monroe whether he
+could not, consistently with his instructions, separate the question
+of impressment from that of the "Chesapeake." If not, as it was the
+fixed intention of his Government not to treat the two as connected,
+the negotiation would be transferred to Washington, and a special
+envoy sent. "But in order to avoid the inconvenience which has arisen
+from the mixed nature of your instructions, he will not be empowered
+to entertain, as connected with this subject, any proposition
+respecting the search of merchant vessels."[197] Monroe replied that
+his "instructions were explicit to consider the whole of this class of
+injuries as an entire subject."[198] To his inquiry as to the nature
+of the special mission, in particulars, Canning replied that it would
+be limited in the first instance to the question of the "Chesapeake."
+Whether it would have any further scope, he could not say.[199]
+
+Mr. George Henry Rose was nominated for this mission, and sailed from
+England in November. Before his departure, the British Government took
+a further step, which in view of the existing circumstances, and of
+all that had preceded, emphasized beyond the possibility of
+withdrawal the firmness of its decision not to surrender the claim to
+impress British subjects from foreign merchant vessels. On October 16,
+1807, a Royal Proclamation was issued, recalling all seafaring persons
+who had entered foreign services, whether naval or merchant, directing
+them to withdraw at once from such service and return home, or else to
+ship on board any accessible British ship of war. Commanders of naval
+vessels were ordered to seize all such persons whenever found by them
+on board foreign merchantmen. In the case of British-born subjects,
+known to be serving on board foreign men-of-war,--which was the case
+of the "Chesapeake,"--the repetition of the outrage was implicitly
+forbidden, by prescribing the procedure to be observed. Requisition
+for the discharge of such persons was to be made on the foreign
+captain, and, in case of refusal, the particulars of the case were to
+be transmitted to the British minister to the nation concerned, or to
+the British home authorities; "in order that the necessary steps may
+be taken for obtaining redress ... for the injury done to us by the
+unwarranted detention of our natural-born subjects in the service of a
+foreign state." The proclamation closed by denying the efficacy of
+letters of naturalization to discharge native British from their
+allegiance of birth.
+
+Rose's mission proved abortive. Like Monroe's, his instructions were
+positive to connect with his negotiation a matter which, if not so
+irrelevant as impressment, was at least of a character that a politic
+foreign minister might well have disregarded, in favor of the
+advantage to be gained by that most conciliatory of actions, a full
+and cordial apology. Rose was directed not to open his business until
+the President had withdrawn the proclamation excluding British ships
+of war. Having here no more option than Monroe as to impressment, the
+negotiation became iron-bound. The United States Government went to
+the utmost limit of concession to conclude the matter. Receding from
+its first attitude, it agreed to sever the question of impressment
+from that of the "Chesapeake;" but, with regard to the recalling of
+the President's proclamation, it demanded that Rose should show his
+cards, should state what was the nature and extent of the reparation
+he was empowered to offer, and whether it was conditioned or
+unconditioned. If this first outcome were such as to meet the just
+expectations of the Administration, revocation of the proclamation
+should bear the same date as the British act of reparation. Certainly,
+more could not be offered. The Government could not play a blind game,
+yielding point after point in reliance upon the unknown contents of
+Rose's budget. This, however, was what it was required to do,
+according to the British envoy's reading of his orders, and the matter
+terminated in a fruitless exchange of argumentation.[200] In April,
+1808, Rose quitted the country, and redress for the "Chesapeake"
+injury remained in abeyance for three years longer. Interest in it had
+waned under more engrossing events which had already taken place, and
+it was relegated by both Governments to the background of diplomacy.
+Admiral Berkeley had been recalled, as a mark of his Majesty's
+disapproval. He arrived in England in the beginning of 1808, some six
+months after the outrage, accompanied by the "Leopard." Her captain
+was not again given a ship; but before the end of the year the chief
+offender, the admiral, had been assigned to the important command at
+Lisbon. To Pinkney's observation upon this dissatisfying proceeding,
+Canning replied that it was impossible for the Admiralty to resist his
+claim to be employed (no other objection existing against him) after
+such a lapse of time since his return from Halifax, without bringing
+him to a court-martial.[201] In the final settlement, further
+punishment of Berkeley was persistently refused.
+
+Although standing completely apart from the continuous stream of
+connected events which constituted contemporaneous history,--perhaps
+because of that very separateness,--the "Chesapeake" affair marks
+conspicuously the turning-point in the relations of the two countries.
+In point of time, its aptness as a sign-post is notable; for it
+occurred just at the moment when the British ministry, under the
+general exigencies of the situation, and the particular menace of the
+Tilsit compacts between Napoleon and the Czar, were meditating the new
+and extraordinary maritime system by which alone they might hope to
+counteract the Continental system that now threatened to become truly
+coextensive with Europe. But to the writer the significance of the
+"Chesapeake" business is more negative than positive; it suggests
+rather what might have been under different treatment by the Portland
+ministry. The danger to Great Britain was imminent and stupendous, and
+her measures of counteraction needed to correspond. These were
+confessedly illegal in the form they took, and were justified by their
+authors only on the ground of retaliation. Towards neutrals, among
+whom the United States were by far the chief, they were most
+oppressive. Yet for over four years not only did the American
+Government endure them, but its mercantile community conformed to the
+policy of Great Britain, found profit in so doing, and deprecated
+resort to war. At a later day Jefferson asserted bitterly that under
+British influence one fourth of the nation had compelled the other
+three fourths to abandon the embargo. Whether this be quite a fair
+statement may be doubted; but there was in it so much of truth as to
+suggest the possibility, if not of acquiescence in the Orders in
+Council, at least of such abstention from active resentment as would
+have been practically equivalent.
+
+The acquiescence, if possible even the co-operation, of America was at
+this time momentous to Great Britain as well as to Napoleon. To
+complete his scheme for ruining his enemy, by closing against her
+commerce all the ports of Europe, the Emperor needed to deprive her
+also of access to the markets of the United States; while the grave
+loss to which Great Britain was exposed in the one quarter made it
+especially necessary to retain the large and increasing body of
+consumers across the Atlantic. In the United States there was a
+division of public opinion and feeling, which offered a fair chance of
+inclining national action in one direction or the other. Although the
+Treaty of Commerce and Navigation of December 31, 1806, had been
+rejected by the Administration, and disapproved by the stricter
+followers of Jefferson and Madison, it was regarded with favor in many
+quarters. Its negotiators had represented the two leading parties
+which divided the nation. Monroe was a republican, traditionally
+allied to Jefferson; Pinkney was a federalist. Although in it the
+principles of the United States had not been successfully asserted, as
+regarded either impressment or the transport of colonial produce, the
+terms of compromise had commanded their signatures, because they held
+that in effect the national objects were obtained; that impressment
+would practically cease, and the carrying trade, under the
+restrictions they had accepted, would not only nourish, but be as
+remunerative as before. Monroe, who had a large personal following in
+his state and party, maintained this view in strong and measured
+language after his return home; and it found supporters in both
+political camps, as well as upon the floor of the two houses of
+Congress. Then, and afterwards, it was made a reproach to the
+Administration that it had refused a working arrangement which was
+satisfactory in its substantial results and left the principles of the
+country untouched for future assertion. Whatever may be thought, from
+an American standpoint, of the justice or dignity of this position, it
+showed grave divergences of sentiment, from which it is the skill of
+an opposing diplomatist to draw profit. It is impossible to estimate
+the effect upon the subsequent course of America, if the British
+ministry, with a certain big-heartedness, had seized the opportunity
+of the "Chesapeake" affair; if they had disclaimed the act of their
+officers with frankness and cordiality, offering ungrudging regret,
+and reparation proportionate to the shame inflicted upon a community
+too weak in military power to avenge its wrongs. As it was, at a
+moment when the hostilities she had provoked would have been most
+embarrassing, Great Britain escaped only by the unreadiness of the
+American Government.
+
+Left unatoned, the attack on the "Chesapeake" remained in American
+consciousness where Jefferson and Madison had sought to place it,--an
+example of the outrages of impressment. The incidental violence, which
+aroused attention and wrath, differed in nothing but circumstance from
+the procedure when an unresisting merchant vessel was deprived of men.
+In both cases there was the forcible exaction of a disputed claim.
+Canning, indeed, was at pains to explain that originally the British
+right extended to vessels of every kind; but "for nearly a century the
+Crown had forborne to instruct the commanders of its ships of war to
+search foreign ships of war for deserters, ... because to attack a
+national ship of war is an act of hostility. The very essence of the
+charge against Admiral Berkeley, as you represent it, is the having
+taken upon himself to commit an act of hostility without the previous
+authority of his Government." Under this construction, the incident
+only served to emphasize the fundamental opposition of principle, and
+to exasperate the war party in the United States. To deprive a foreign
+merchant vessel of men was not considered a hostile act; and the
+difference in the case of ships of war was only because the Crown
+chose so to construe. The argument was, that to retain seamen of
+British birth, when recalled by proclamation, was itself hostile,
+because every such seaman disobeying this call was a deserter. It was
+to be presumed that a foreign Power would not countenance their
+detention, and on this presumption no search of its commissioned ships
+was ordered. "But with respect to merchant vessels there is no such
+presumption."[202]
+
+While the "Chesapeake" affair was still in its earlier stages of
+discussion, the passage of events in Europe was leading rapidly to the
+formulation of the extreme British measures of retaliation for the
+Berlin Decree. On June 14 Napoleon defeated the Russians at the battle
+of Friedland; and on June 22, the day the "Leopard" attacked the
+"Chesapeake," an armistice was signed between the contending parties.
+Upon this followed the Conventions of Tilsit, July 8, 1807, by which
+the Czar undertook to support the Continental system, and to close his
+ports to Great Britain. The deadly purpose of the commercial warfare
+thus reinforced was apparent; and upon the Emperor's return to Paris,
+soon afterwards, the Berlin Decree received an execution more
+consonant to its wording than was the construction hitherto given it
+by French officials. In May, an American ship, the "Horizon," bound
+from England to Peru, had been wrecked upon the coast of France. Her
+cargo consisted in part of goods of British origin. Up to that time,
+no decisions contrary to American neutral rights had been based upon
+the Decree by French courts; but final action in the case of the
+"Horizon" was not taken till some time after the Emperor's return.
+Meanwhile, on August 9, General Armstrong, the American minister, had
+asked that Spain, which had formally adopted the Berlin Decree as
+governing its own course, should be informed of the rulings of the
+French authorities; "for a letter from the _charge des affaires_ of
+the United States at Madrid shows that the fate of sundry American
+vessels, captured by Spanish cruisers, will depend, not on the
+construction which might be given to the Spanish decree by Spanish
+tribunals, but on the practice which shall have been established in
+France."[203] This letter was referred in due course--August 21--to
+the Minister of Marine, and a reply promised when his answer should be
+received. Under Napoleon's eye, doubts not entertained in his absence
+seem to have occurred to the ministers concerned, and on September 24
+Armstrong learned that the Emperor had been consulted, and had said
+that, as he had expressed no exceptions to the operation of his
+Decree, French armed vessels were authorized to seize goods of English
+origin on board neutral vessels. This decision, having the force of
+law, was communicated to the tribunals, and under it so much of the
+"Horizon's" cargo as answered to this description was condemned. The
+rest was liberated.[204]
+
+When this decision became known, it was evident that within the range
+of Napoleon's power there would henceforth be no refuge for British
+manufactures, or the produce of British colonies; that neutral
+ownership or jurisdiction would be no protection against force. Even
+the pity commonly extended to the shipwrecked failed, if his property
+had been bought in England. Recognition of the increased danger was
+shown in the doubling and trebling of insurance. The geographical
+sweep intended to be given to the edict was manifested by the action
+of state after state whither arms had extended Napoleon's influence;
+or, as Armstrong phrased it, "having settled the business of
+belligerents, with the exception of England, very much to his own
+liking, he was now on the point of settling that of neutrals in the
+same way." In July, Denmark and Portugal, as yet at peace, had been
+notified that they must choose between France and England, and had
+been compelled to exclude English commerce. August 29, a French
+division entered Leghorn, belonging to the nominally independent
+Kingdom of Etruria, took possession of the harbor and forts, ordered
+the surrender of all British goods in the hands of the inhabitants,
+and laid a general embargo upon the shipping, among which were many
+Americans. In Lower Italy, the Papal States and Naples underwent the
+same restrictions. Prussia yielded under obvious constraint, and
+Austria acceded from motives of policy, distinguishable in form only
+from direct compulsion. Russia, as already said, had joined
+immediately after decisive defeat in the field. The co-operation of
+the United States, the second maritime nation in the world, was vital
+to the general plan. Could it be secured? Already, at an audience
+given to the diplomatic corps on August 2, the Danish minister had
+taken Armstrong aside and asked him whether any application had been
+made to him with regard to the projected _union of all commercial
+states against Great Britain_. Being answered in the negative, he
+said, "You are much favored, but it will not last."[205] Armstrong
+characterized this incident as not important; but in truth the words
+italicized defined exactly the menacing scheme already matured in the
+Emperor's mind, for the execution of which, as events already showed,
+and continued to prove, he relied upon the force of arms. To this the
+United States was not accessible; but to coerce or cajole her by other
+means became a prominent feature of French policy, which was
+powerfully abetted by the tone of Great Britain speaking through
+Canning.
+
+To appreciate duly the impending measures of the British ministry,
+attention should fasten upon the single decisive fact that this vast
+combination was not the free act of the parties concerned, but a
+submission imposed by an external military power, which at the moment,
+and for five succeeding years, they were unable to resist. It is one
+thing to deny the right of any number of independent communities to
+join in a Customs Union; it is another to maintain the obligations
+upon third parties of such a convention, when extorted by external
+compulsion. Either action may be resisted, but means not permissible
+in the one case may be justified in the other. In the European
+situation the subjected states, by reason of their subjection,
+disappeared as factors in diplomatic consideration. There remained
+only their master Napoleon, with his momentary lieutenant the Czar,
+and opposed to them Great Britain. "It is obvious," said the French
+Minister of Foreign Affairs, Champagny, to Armstrong, "that his
+Majesty _cannot permit_ to his allies a commerce which he denies to
+himself. This would be at once to defeat his system and oppress his
+subjects."[206] A few days later he wrote formally, "His Majesty
+considered himself bound to _order_ reprisals on American vessels
+_not only in his territory, but likewise in the countries which are
+under his influence_,--Holland, Spain, Italy, Naples."[207] The
+Emperor by strength of arms oppressed to their grievous injury those
+who could not escape him; what should be the course of those whom he
+could not reach, to whom was left the choice between actual resistance
+and virtual co-operation? The two really independent states were Great
+Britain and the United States. In the universal convulsion of
+civilization, the case of the several nations recalls the law of
+Solon, that in civil tumults the man who took neither side should be
+disfranchised.
+
+The United States chose neutrality, and expected that it would be
+permitted her. She chose to overlook the interposition of Napoleon,
+and to regard the exclusion laws, forced by him upon other states, as
+instances of municipal regulation, incontestable when freely
+exercised. Not only would she not go behind the superficial form, but
+on technical grounds of international law she denied the right of
+another to do so. Great Britain had no choice. She was compelled to
+resistance; the question was as to methods. Direct military action was
+impossible. The weapon used against her was commercial prohibition,
+which meant eventual ruin, unless adequately parried by her own
+action. From Europe no help was to be expected. If the United States
+also decided so far to support Napoleon as to prosecute her trade
+subject to his measures, accepting as legal regulations extorted by
+him from other European countries, the trade of Europe would be
+transferred from Great Britain to America, and the revenues of France
+would expand in every way, while those of Great Britain shrank,--a
+result militarily fatal. In this the British Government would not
+acquiesce. It chose instead war with the United States, under the
+forms of peace.
+
+That the tendency of the course pursued by the United States was to
+destroy British commerce, and that this tendency was successfully
+counteracted by the means framed by the British Government,--the
+Orders in Council,--admits of little doubt. When the American policy
+had worked out to its logical conclusion, in open trade with France,
+and complete interdict of importation from Great Britain, Joel Barlow,
+American Minister to France in 1811-12, and an intimate of Jefferson
+and Madison, wrote thus to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs: "In
+adopting the late arrangements with France the United States could not
+contemplate the deprivation of revenue. They really expected to draw
+from this country and from the rest of continental Europe the same
+species of manufactures, and to as great an amount as they were
+accustomed to do from England. They calculated with the more
+confidence on such a result as they saw how intimately it was combined
+with the great and essential interests of the Imperial Government.
+They perceived that _it would promote in an unexpected degree the
+Continental system_, which the Emperor has so much at heart.... The
+Emperor now commands nearly all the ports of continental Europe. The
+whole interior of the Continent must be supplied with American
+products. These must pass through French territory, French commercial
+houses, canals, and wagons. They must pay" toll to France in various
+ways, "and thus render these territories as tributary to France as if
+they were part of her own dominions."[208] But Napoleon replied that
+his system, as it stood, had greatly crippled British commerce, and
+that if he should admit American shipping freely to the Continent,
+trade could not be carried on, because the English under the Orders in
+Council would take it all, going or coming.[209]
+
+"The peril of the moment is truly supposed to be great beyond all
+former example," wrote Pinkney, now American minister in London, when
+communicating to his Government the further Orders in Council adopted
+by Great Britain, in response to the attempted "union of all the
+commercial states" against her. As defined by Canning to Pinkney,[210]
+"the principle upon which the whole of this measure has been framed is
+that of refusing to the enemy those advantages of commerce which he
+has forbidden to this country. The simplest method of enforcing this
+system of retaliation would have been to follow the example of the
+enemy, by prohibiting altogether all commercial intercourse between
+him and other states." America then would not be allowed to trade with
+the countries under his Decrees. It was considered, however, more
+indulgent to neutrals--to the second parties in commercial intercourse
+with the enemy--to allow this intercourse subject to duties in transit
+to be paid in Great Britain. This would raise the cost to the
+continental consumer and pay revenue to Great Britain.
+
+The Orders in Council of November 11, 1807, therefore forbade all
+entrance to ports of the countries which had embraced the Continental
+system. It was not pretended that they would be blockaded effectively.
+"All ports from which the British flag is excluded shall from
+henceforth be subject to the same restrictions, in point of trade and
+navigation, with the exceptions hereinafter mentioned, _as if the same
+were actually blockaded_ in the most strict and rigorous manner by his
+Majesty's naval forces." The exception was merely that a vessel
+calling first at a British port would be allowed to proceed to one of
+those prohibited, after paying certain duties upon her cargo and
+obtaining a fresh clearance. This measure was instituted by the
+Executive, in pursuance of the custom of regulating trade with
+America by Orders in Council, prevalent since 1783; but it received
+legislative sanction by an Act of Parliament, March 28, 1808, which
+fixed the duties to be paid on the foreign goods thus passing through
+British custom-houses. Cotton, for instance, was to pay nine pence a
+pound, an amount intended to be prohibitory; tobacco, three halfpence.
+These were the two leading exports of United States domestic produce.
+In the United States this Act of Parliament was resented more
+violently, if possible, than the Order in Council itself. In the
+colonial period there had been less jealousy of the royal authority
+than of that of Parliament, and the feeling reappears in the
+discussion of the present measures. "This," said a Virginia
+senator,[211] "is the Act regulating our commerce, of which I
+complain. An export duty, which could not be laid in Charleston
+because forbidden by our Constitution, is laid in London, or in
+British ports." It was literally, and in no metaphorical sense, the
+reimposition of colonial regulation, to increase the revenues of Great
+Britain by reconstituting her the _entrepot_ of commerce between
+America and Europe. "The Orders in Council," wrote John Quincy Adams
+in a public letter, "if submitted to, would have degraded us to the
+condition of colonists."[212]
+
+This just appreciation preponderated over other feelings throughout
+the middle and southern states. Adams, a senator from Massachusetts,
+had separated himself in action and opinion from the mass of the
+people in New England, where, although the Orders were condemned,
+hatred of Napoleon and his methods overbore the sense of injury
+received from Great Britain. The indignation of the supporters of the
+Administration was intensified by the apparent purpose of the British
+Government to keep back information of the measure. Rose had sailed
+the day after its adoption, Monroe two days later, but neither
+brought any official intimation of its issuance, although that was
+announced in the papers of the day. "The Orders in Council," wrote
+Adams, "were not merely without official authenticity. Rumors had been
+for several weeks in circulation, derived from English prints and from
+private correspondence, that such Orders were to issue,[213] and no
+inconsiderable pains were taken to discredit the facts. Suspicions
+were lulled by declarations equivalent as nearly as possible to
+positive denial, and these opiates were continued for weeks after the
+embargo was laid, until Mr. Erskine received orders to make official
+communication of the Orders themselves, in proper form, to our
+Government."[214] This remissness, culpable as it certainly was in a
+matter of such importance, was freely attributed to the most sinister
+motives. "These Orders in Council were designedly concealed from Mr.
+Rose, although they had long been deliberated upon, and almost
+matured, before he left London. They were the besom which was intended
+to sweep, and would have swept, our commerce from the ocean. Great
+Britain in the most insidious manner had issued orders for the entire
+destruction of our commerce."[215]
+
+The wrath was becoming, but in this particular the inference was
+exaggerated. The Orders, modelled on the general plan of blockades,
+provided for the warning of a vessel which had sailed before receiving
+notification; and not till after a first notice by a British cruiser
+was she liable to capture. Mention of such cases occurs in the
+journals of the day.[216] Some captains persisted, and, if successful
+in reaching a port under Napoleon's control, found themselves arrested
+under a new Decree,--that of Milan,--for having submitted to a visit
+they could not resist. Such were sequestered, subject to the decision
+of the United States to take active measures against Great Britain.
+"Arrived at New York, March 23, [1808], ship 'Eliza,' Captain Skiddy,
+29 days from Bordeaux. All American vessels in France which had been
+boarded by British cruisers were under seizure. The opinion was, they
+would so remain till it was known whether the United States had
+adjusted its difficulties with Great Britain, in which case they would
+be immediately condemned. A letter from the Minister of Marine was
+published that the Decree of Milan must be executed severely,
+strictly, and literally."[217] Independent of a perpetual need to
+raise money, by methods more consonant to the Middle Ages than to the
+current period, Napoleon thus secured hostages for the action of the
+United States in its present dilemma.
+
+The Orders in Council of November 11, having been announced in English
+papers of the 10th, 11th, and 12th, appeared in the Washington
+"National Intelligencer" of December 18.[218] The general facts were
+therefore known to the Executive and to the Legislature; and, though
+not officially adduced, could not but affect consideration, when the
+President, on December 18, 1807, sent a message to Congress
+recommending "an inhibition of the departure of our vessels from the
+ports of the United States." With his customary exaggerated expression
+of attendance upon instructions from Congress, he made no further
+definition of wishes which were completely understood by the party
+leaders. "The wisdom of Congress will also see the necessity of making
+every preparation for whatever events may grow out of the present
+crisis." Accompanying the message, as documents justificatory of the
+action to be taken, were four official papers. One was the formal
+communication to the French Council of Prizes of Napoleon's decision
+that goods of English origin were lawful prize on board neutral
+vessels; the second was the British proclamation directing the
+impressment of British seamen found on board neutral ships. These two
+were made public. Secrecy was imposed concerning the others, which
+were a letter of September 24, from Armstrong to the French Minister
+of Exterior Relations, and the reply, dated October 7. In this the
+minister, M. Champagny, affirmed the Emperor's decision, and added a
+sentence which, while susceptible of double meaning, certainly
+covertly suggested that the United States should join in supporting
+the Berlin Decree. "The decree of blockade has now been issued eleven
+months. The principal Powers of Europe, far from protesting against
+its provisions, have adopted them. They have perceived that its
+execution must be complete to render it more effectual, and it has
+seemed easy to reconcile these measures with the observance of
+treaties, especially at a time when the infractions by England of the
+rights of _all maritime_ Powers render their interests common, and
+tend to _unite them in support of the same cause_."[219] This
+doubtless might be construed as applicable only to the European
+Powers; but as a foremost contention of Madison and Armstrong had been
+that the Berlin Decree contravened the treaty between France and the
+United States, the sentence lent itself readily to the interpretation,
+placed upon it by the Federalists, that the United States was invited
+to enforce in her own waters the continental system of exclusion, and
+so to help bring England to reason.
+
+This the United States immediately proceeded to do. Though the motive
+differed somewhat, the action was precisely that suggested. On the
+same day that Jefferson's message was received, the Senate passed an
+Embargo Bill. This was sent at once to the House, returned with
+amendments, amendments concurred in, and bill passed and approved
+December 22. This rapidity of action--Sunday intervened--shows a
+purpose already decided in general principle; while the enactment of
+three supplementary measures, before the adjournment of Congress in
+April, indicates a precipitancy incompatible with proper weighing of
+details, and an avoidance of discussion, commendable only on the
+ground that no otherwise than by the promptest interception could
+American ships or merchandise be successfully jailed in port. The bill
+provided for the instant stoppage of all vessels in the ports of the
+United States, whether cleared or not cleared, if bound to any foreign
+port. Exception was made only in favor of foreign ships, which of
+course could not be held. They might depart with cargo already on
+board, or in ballast. Vessels cleared coastwise were to be deterred
+from turning foreign by bonds exacted in double the value of ship and
+cargo. American export and foreign navigation were thus completely
+stopped; and as the Non-Importation Act at last went into operation on
+December 14,[220] there was practical exclusion of all British
+vessels, for none could be expected to enter a port where she could
+neither land her cargo nor depart.
+
+In communicating the embargo to Pinkney, for the information of the
+British Government,[221] Madison was careful to explain, as he had to
+the British minister at Washington, that it was a measure of
+precaution only; not to be considered as hostile in character. This
+was scarcely candid; coercion of Great Britain, to compel the
+withdrawal of her various maritime measures objectionable to the
+United States, was at least a silent partner in the scheme, as
+formulated to the consciousness of Jefferson and his followers.[222]
+The motive transpired, as such motives necessarily do; but, even had
+it not, the operation of the Act, under the conditions of the European
+war, was so plainly partial between the two belligerents, as to
+amount virtually to co-operation with Napoleon by the preponderance of
+injury done to Great Britain. It deprived her of cotton for raw
+material; of tobacco, which, imported in payment for British
+manufactures, formed a large element in her commerce with the
+Continent; of wheat and flour, which to some extent contributed to the
+support of her people, though in a much less degree than many
+supposed. It closed to her the American market at the moment that
+Napoleon and Alexander were actively closing the European; and it shut
+off from the West Indies American supplies known to be of the greatest
+importance, and fondly, but mistakenly, believed to be indispensable.
+
+All this was well enough, if national policy required. Great Britain
+then was scarcely in a position to object seriously to retaliation by
+a nation thinking itself injured; but to define such a measure as not
+hostile was an insult to her common-sense. It was certainly hostile in
+nature, it was believed to be hostile in motive, and it intensified
+feelings already none too friendly. In France, although included in
+the embargo, and although her action was one of the reasons alleged
+for its institution, Napoleon expressed approval. It was injurious to
+England, and added little to the pressure upon France exerted by the
+Orders in Council through the British control of the ocean. Senator
+Smith of Maryland, a large shipping merchant, bore testimony to this.
+"It has been truly said by an eminent merchant of Salem, that not more
+than one vessel in eight that sailed for Europe within a short time
+before the embargo reached its destination. My own experience has
+taught me the truth of this; and as further proof I have in my hand a
+list of fifteen vessels which sailed for Europe between September 1
+and December 23, 1807. Three arrived; two were captured by French and
+Spaniards; one was seized in Hamburg; and nine carried into England.
+But for the embargo, ships that would have sailed would have fared as
+ill, or worse. Not one in twenty would have arrived." Granting the
+truth of this anticipation, Great Britain might have claimed that, so
+far as evident danger was concerned, her blockades over long
+coast-lines were effective.
+
+The question speedily arose,--If the object of embargo be precaution
+only, to save our vessels from condemnation under the sweeping edicts
+of France and Great Britain, and seamen from impressment on American
+decks, why object to exporting native produce in foreign bottoms, and
+to commerce across the Canada frontier? If, by keeping our vessels at
+home, we are to lose the profits upon sixty million dollars' worth of
+colonial produce which they have heretofore been carrying, with
+advantage to the national revenue, why also forbid the export of the
+forty to fifty million dollars' worth of domestic produce which
+foreign ship-owners would gladly take and safely carry? for such
+foreigners would be chiefly British, and would sail under British
+convoy, subject to small proportionate risk.[223] Why, also, to save
+seamen from impressment, deprive them of their living, and force them
+in search of occupation to fly our ports to British, where lower wages
+and more exposure to the pressgang await them? On the ground of
+precaution, there was no reply to these questions; unless, perhaps,
+that with open export of domestic produce the popular suffering would
+be too unequally distributed, falling almost wholly on New England
+shipping industries. Logically, however, if the precaution were
+necessary, the suffering must be accepted; its incidence was a detail
+only. The embargo was distinctly a hostile measure; and more and more,
+as people talked, in and out of Congress, was admitted to be simply
+an alternative for open war.
+
+As such it failed. It entailed most of the miseries of war, without
+any of its compensations. It could not arouse the popular enthusiasm
+which elevates, nor command the popular support that strengthens.
+Hated and despised, it bred elusion, sneaking and demoralizing, and so
+debased public sentiment with reference to national objects, and
+individual self-sacrifice to national ends, that the conduct of the
+many who now evaded it was reproduced, during the War of 1812, in
+dealings with the enemy which even now may make an American's head
+hang for shame. Born of the Jeffersonian horror of war, its evil
+communication corrupted morals among those whose standards were
+conventional only; for public opinion failed to condemn breaches of
+embargo, and by a natural declension equally failed soon after to
+condemn aid to the enemy in an unpopular war. Was it wonderful that an
+Administration which bade the seamen and the ship-owners of the day to
+starve, that a foreign state might be injured, and at the same time
+refused to build national ships to protect them, fell into contempt?
+that men, so far as they might, simply refused to obey, and wholly
+departed from respect? "I have believed, and still do believe," wrote
+Mr. Adams, "that our internal resources are competent to establish and
+maintain a naval force, if not fully adequate to the protection and
+defence of our commerce, at least sufficient to induce a retreat from
+these hostilities, and to deter from the renewal of them by either of
+the harrying parties;" in short, to compel peace, the first object of
+military preparation. "I believed that a system to that effect might
+be formed, ultimately far more economical, and certainly more
+energetic than a three years' embargo. I did submit such a proposition
+to the Senate, and similar attempts had been made in the House of
+Representatives, but equally discountenanced."[224] This was
+precisely the effect of Jefferson's teaching, which then dominated his
+party, and controlled both houses. At this critical moment he wrote,
+"Believing, myself, that gunboats are the only water defence which can
+be useful to us, and protect us from the ruinous folly of a navy, I am
+pleased with everything which promises to improve them."[225]
+
+Not thus was a nation to be united, nor foreign governments impressed.
+The panacea recommended was to abandon the sea; to yield practical
+submission to the Orders in Council, which forbade American ships to
+visit the Continent, and to the Decrees of Napoleon, which forbade
+them entrance to any dominion of Great Britain. By a curious mental
+process this was actually believed to be resistance. The American
+nation was to take as its model the farmer who lives on his own
+produce, sternly independent of his neighbor; whose sons delved, and
+wife span, all that the family needed. This programme, half sentiment,
+half philosophy, and not at all practical, or practicable, was the
+groundwork of Jefferson's thought. To it co-operated a dislike
+approaching detestation for the carrying trade; the very opposite,
+certainly, of the other ideal. American shipping was then handling
+sixty million dollars' worth of foreign produce, and rolling up the
+wealth which for some reason follows the trader more largely than the
+agriculturist, who observed with ill-concealed envy. "I trust," wrote
+Jefferson, "that the good sense of our country will see that its
+greatest prosperity depends on a due balance between agriculture,
+manufactures, and commerce, and not on this protuberant navigation,
+which has kept us in hot water from the commencement of our
+government. This drawback system enriches a few individuals, but
+lessens the stock of native productions, by withdrawing all the hands
+[seamen] thus employed. It is essentially necessary for us to have
+shipping and seamen enough to carry our surplus products to market,
+but beyond that I do not think we are bound to give it encouragement
+by drawbacks or other premiums." This meant that it was unjust to the
+rest of the community to allow the merchant to land his cargo, and
+send it abroad, without paying as much duty as if actually consumed in
+the country. "This exuberant commerce brings us into collision with
+other Powers in every sea, and will force us into every war with
+European Powers." "It is now engaging us in war."[226]
+
+Whether for merchant ships or navies the sea was odious to Jefferson's
+conception of things. As a convenient medium for sending to market
+surplus cotton and tobacco, it might be tolerated; but for that ample
+use of it which had made the greatness of Holland and England, he had
+only aversion. This prepossession characterized the whole body of men,
+who willingly stripped the seaman and his employers of all their
+living, after refusing to provide them with an armed protection to
+which the resources of the state were equal. Up to the outbreak of the
+war not a ship was added to the navy. With this feeling, Great
+Britain, whose very being was maritime, not unnaturally became the
+object of a dislike so profound as unconsciously to affect action.
+Napoleon decreed, and embargoed, and sequestered, with little effect
+upon national sentiment outside of New England. "Certainly all the
+difficulties and the troubles of the Government during our time
+proceeded from England," wrote Jefferson soon after quitting
+office,[227] to Dearborn, his Secretary of War. "At least all others
+were trifling in comparison." Yet not to speak of the Berlin Decree,
+by which ships were captured for the mere offence of sailing for
+England,[228] Bonaparte, by the Bayonne Decree, April 17, 1808, nearly
+a year before Jefferson left office, pronounced the confiscation of
+all American vessels entering ports under his control, on the ground
+that under the existing embargo they could not lawfully have left
+their own country; a matter which was none of his business. Within a
+year were condemned one hundred and thirty-four ships and cargoes,
+worth $10,000,000.[229]
+
+That Jefferson consciously leaned to France from any regard to
+Napoleon is incredible; the character and procedures of the French
+Emperor were repugnant to his deepest convictions; but that there was
+a still stronger bias against the English form of government, and the
+pursuit of the sea for which England especially stood, is equally
+clear. Opposition to England was to him a kind of mission. His best
+wish for her had been that she might be republicanized by a successful
+French invasion.[230] "I came into office," he wrote to a political
+disciple, "under circumstances calculated to generate peculiar
+acrimony. I found all the offices in the possession of a political
+sect, who wished to transform it ultimately into the shape of their
+darling model, the English government; and in the meantime to
+familiarize the public mind to the change, by administering it on
+English principles, and in English forms. The elective interposition
+of the people had blown all their designs, and they found themselves
+and their fortresses of power and profit put in a moment in the hand
+of other trustees."[231]
+
+These words, written in the third of the fifteen embargo months,
+reveal an acrimony not wholly one-sided. It was perceived by the
+parties hardest hit by this essentially Jeffersonian scheme; by the
+people of New England and of Great Britain. In the old country it
+intensified bitterness. In the following summer, at a dinner given to
+representatives of the Spanish revolt against Napoleon, the toast to
+the President of the United States was received with hisses,[232] "and
+the marks of disapprobation continued till a new subject drew off the
+attention of the company." The embargo was not so much a definite
+cause of complaint, for at worst it was merely a retaliatory measure
+like the Orders in Council. Enmity was recognized, alike in the
+council boards and in the social gatherings of the two peoples; the
+spirit that leads to war was aroused. Nor could this hostile
+demonstration proceed from sympathy with the Spanish insurgents; for,
+except so far as might be inferred from the previous general course of
+the American Administration, there was no reason to believe that they
+would regard unfavorably the Spanish struggle for liberty. Yet they
+soon did, and could not but do so.
+
+It is a coincidence too singular to go unnoticed, that the first
+strong measure of the American Government against Great
+Britain--Embargo--was followed by Napoleon's reverses in Spain, which,
+by opening much of that country and of her colonies to trade, at once
+in large measure relieved Great Britain from the pressure of the
+Continental system and the embargo; while the second, the last resort
+of nations, War, was declared shortly before the great Russian
+catastrophe, which, by rapidly contracting the sphere of the Emperor's
+control, both widened the area of British commerce and deprived the
+United States of a diversion of British effort, upon which calculation
+had rightly been based. It was impossible for the American Government
+not to wish well to Napoleon, when for it so much depended upon his
+success; and to wish him well was of course to wish ill to his
+opponents, even if fighting for freedom.
+
+Congress adjourned April 25, having completed embargo legislation, as
+far as could then be seen necessary. On May 2 occurred the rising in
+Madrid, consequent upon Napoleon's removal of the Spanish Royal
+Family; and on July 21 followed the surrender of Dupont's corps at
+Baylen. Already, on July 4, the British Government had stopped all
+hostilities against Spain, and withdrawn the blockade of all Spanish
+ports, except such as might still be in French control. On August 30,
+by the Convention of Cintra, Portugal was evacuated by the French, and
+from that time forward the Peninsula kingdoms, though scourged by war,
+were in alliance with Great Britain; their ports and those of their
+colonies open to her trade.
+
+This of itself was a severe blow to the embargo, which for coercive
+success depended upon the co-operation of the Continental system. It
+was further thwarted and weakened by extensive popular repudiation in
+the United States. The political conviction of the expediency, or
+probable efficacy, of the measure was largely sectional; and it is no
+serious imputation upon the honesty of its supporters to say that
+they mustered most strongly where interests were least immediately
+affected. Tobacco and cotton suffered less in keeping than flour and
+salt fish; and the deterioration of these was by no means so instant
+as the stoppage of a ship's sailing or loading. The farmer ideal is
+realizable on a farm; but it was not so for the men whose sole
+occupation was transporting that which the agriculturist did not need
+to markets now closed by law. Wherever employment depended upon
+commerce, distress was immediate. The seamen, improvident by habit,
+first felt the blow. "I cannot conceive," said Representative
+[afterwards Justice] Story, "why gentlemen should wish to paralyze the
+strength of the nation by keeping back our naval force, and
+particularly now, when many of our native seamen (and I am sorry to
+say from my own knowledge I speak it) are starving in our ports."[233]
+The Commandant of the New York Navy Yard undertook to employ, for
+rations only, not wages, three hundred of those adrift in the streets;
+the corporation of the city undertaking to pay for the food
+issued.[234] They moved off, as they could get opportunity, towards
+the British Provinces; and thus many got into the British service, by
+enlistment or impressment. "Had your frigate arrived here instead of
+the Chesapeake," wrote the British Consul General at New York, as
+early as February 15, 1808, "I have no doubt two or three hundred able
+British seamen would have entered on board her for his Majesty's
+service; and even now, was your station removed to this city, I feel
+confident, _provided the embargo continues_, you would more than
+complete your complement."[235] Six months later, "Is it not notorious
+that not a seaport in the United States can produce seamen enough to
+man three merchant ships?"[236] In moving the estimates for one
+hundred and thirty thousand seamen a year later (February, 1809), the
+Secretary of the Admiralty observed that Parliament would learn with
+satisfaction that the number of seamen now serving in the navy
+covered, if it did not exceed, the number here voted.[237] It had not
+been so once. Sir William Parker, an active frigate captain during ten
+years of this period, wrote in 1805, "I dread the discharge of our
+crew; for I do not think the miserable wretches with which the ships
+lately fitted out were manned are equal to fight their ships in the
+manner they are expected to do."[238] The high wages, which the
+profits of the American merchant service enabled it to pay, outbade
+all competition by the British navy. "Dollars for shillings," as the
+expression ran. The embargo stopped all this, and equivalent
+conditions did not return before the war. The American Minister to
+France in 1811 wrote: "We complain with justice of the English
+practice of pressing our seamen into their service. But the fact is,
+and there is no harm in saying it, there are at present more American
+seamen who seek that service than are forced into it."[239]
+
+After the seamen followed the associated employments; those whose
+daily labor was expended in occupations connected with transportation,
+or who produced objects which men could not eat, or with which they
+could dispense. Before the end of the year testimony came from every
+quarter of the increase of suffering among the deserving poor; and not
+they only, but those somewhat above them as gainers of a comfortable
+living. They were for the most part helpless, except as helped by
+their richer neighbors. Work for them there was not, and they could
+not rebel. Not so with the seafarers, or the dwellers upon the
+frontiers. On the great scale, of course, a sure enforcement of the
+embargo was possible; the bulk of the shipping, especially the bigger,
+was corralled and idle. In the port of New York, February 17, 1808,
+lay 161 ships, 121 brigs, and 98 smaller sea-going vessels; in all 380
+unoccupied, of which only 11 were foreign. In the much smaller port of
+Savannah, at this early period there were 50. In Philadelphia, a year
+later, 293, mostly of large tonnage for the period. "What is that huge
+forest of dry trees that spreads itself before the town?" asked a
+Boston journal. "You behold the masts of ships thrown out of
+employment by the embargo."[240] "Our dismantled, ark-roofed vessels
+are indeed decaying in safety at our wharves, forming a suitable
+monument to the memory of our departed commerce. But where are your
+seamen? Gone, sir! Driven into foreign exile in search of
+subsistence."[241] Yet not all; for illicit employment, for evading
+the Acts, enough remained to disconcert the Government, alike by their
+numbers and the boldness of their movements.
+
+"This Embargo law," wrote Jefferson to Gallatin, August 11, 1808, "is
+certainly the most embarrassing we ever had to execute. I did not
+expect a crop of so sudden and rank growth of fraud, and open
+opposition by force, could have grown up within the United
+States."[242] Apostle of pure democracy as he was, he had forgotten to
+reckon with the people, and had mistaken the convictions of himself and
+a coterie for national sentiment. From all parts of the country men
+began silently and covertly to undermine the working of the system.
+Passamaquoddy Bay on the borders of New Brunswick, and St. Mary's on
+the confines of Florida, remote from ordinary commerce, became
+suddenly crowded with vessels.[243] Coasters, not from recalcitrant New
+England only, but from the Chesapeake and Southern waters, found it
+impossible to reach their ports of destination. Furious gales of wind
+drove them from their course; spars smitten with decay went overboard;
+butts of planking started, causing dangerous leaks. Safety could be
+found only by bearing up for some friendly foreign port, in Nova Scotia
+or the West Indies, where cargoes of flour and fish had to be sold for
+needed repairs, to enable the homeward voyage to be made. Not
+infrequently the vessel's name had been washed off the stern by the
+violence of the waves, and the captain could remember neither it nor
+his own. The New York and Vermont frontiers became the scene of
+widespread illegal trade, the shameful effects of which upon the
+patriotism of the inhabitants were conspicuous in the following war. A
+gentleman returning from Canada in January, 1809, reported that he had
+counted seven hundred sleighs, going and returning between Montreal and
+Vermont.[244] This on one line only. A letter received in New York
+stated that, during the embargo year, 1808, thirty thousand barrels of
+potash had been brought into Quebec.[245] "While our gunboats and
+cutters are watching the harbors and sounds of the Atlantic," said a
+senator from his place, "a strange inversion of business ensues, and by
+a retrograde motion of all the interior machinery of the country,
+potash and lumber are launched upon the lakes, and Ontario and
+Champlain feel the bustle of illicit traffic.... Violators of the laws
+are making fortunes, while the conscientious observers of them are
+suffering sad privations."[246] Not the conscientious only, but the
+unlucky. Unlike New York, North Carolina had not a friendly foreign
+boundary nigh to her naval stores.
+
+Under these circumstances the blow glanced from the British dominions.
+At the first announcement of the embargo, prices of provisions and
+lumber rose heavily in the West Indies; but reaction set in, as the
+leaks in the dam became manifest and copious. The British Government
+fostered the rebellious evasions of American citizens by a
+proclamation, issued April 11, directing commanders of cruisers not to
+interrupt any neutral vessel laden with provisions or lumber, going to
+the West Indies; no matter to whom the property belonged, nor whether
+the vessel had any clearance, or papers of any kind. A principal
+method of eluding the embargo, Gallatin informed Jefferson, was by
+loading secretly and going off without clearing. "Evasions are chiefly
+effected by vessels going coastwise."[247] The two methods were not
+incompatible. Besides the sea-going vessels already mentioned as lying
+in New York alone, there were there over four hundred coasters. It was
+impossible to watch so many. The ridiculous gunboats, identified with
+this Administration, derisively nicknamed "Jeffs"[248] by the
+unbelieving, were called into service to arrest the evil; but neither
+their numbers nor their qualities fitted them to cope with the
+ubiquity and speed of their nimble opponents. "The larger part of our
+gunboats," wrote Commodore Shaw[249] from New Orleans, "are well known
+to be dull sailers." "For enforcing the embargo," said Secretary
+Gallatin, "gunboats are better calculated as a stationary force, and
+for the purpose of stopping vessels in certain places, than for
+pursuit."[250] A double bond was a mockery, when in West Indian ports
+the cargo was worth from four to eight times what it was at the place
+of loading. These were the palmier days of the embargo breakers; the
+ease and frequency with which they escaped soon brought prices down.
+Randolph, in the House, asserted that in the first four months of
+embargo one hundred thousand barrels of flour had been shipped from
+Baltimore alone; and the West India planters, besides opening new
+sources of supply, devoted part of their ground to raising food. They
+thus turned farmer, after the Jefferson ideal, supporting themselves
+off their own grounds; an economical error, for sugar was their better
+crop, but unavoidable in the circumstances. With all this, the
+difficulty in the way of exportation so cheapened articles in the
+United States as to maintain a considerable disproportion in prices
+there and abroad, which kept alive the spirit of speculation, and
+maintained the opportunity of large profits,[251] at the same time
+that it distressed the American grower.
+
+Upon the whole, after making allowance for the boasts which succeeded
+the first fright in the West Indies, the indications seem to be that
+they escaped much better than had been expected, either by themselves
+or by the American Government. Just before adjourning, Congress had
+passed a supplementary measure, which, besides drawing restrictions
+tighter, authorized the President to license vessels to go abroad in
+ballast, in order to bring home property belonging to American
+citizens. These dispersed in various directions, and in very large
+numbers.[252] Many doubtless remained away; but those which returned
+brought constant confirmation of the numerous American shipping in
+the various ports of the West Indies, and the general abundance of
+American produce. A letter from Havana, September 12, said: "We have
+nearly one hundred American vessels in port. Three weeks ago there
+were but four or five. If the property, for which these vessels were
+ostensibly despatched, had been really here, why have they been so
+long delayed? The truth is, the property is not here. A host of people
+have been let loose, who could not possibly have had any other motive
+than procuring freight and passengers from merchants of this country,
+or from the French, who are supposed to be going off with their
+property [in consequence of the Spanish outbreak]. The vast number of
+evasions and smugglers which the embargo has created is surprising.
+For some days after the last influx of American vessels, the quays and
+custom-house were every morning covered with all kinds of provisions,
+which had been landed during the preceding night."[253]
+
+To Quebec and Halifax the embargo was a positive boon, from the
+diversion upon them of smuggling enterprise, by the lakes and by land,
+or by coasters too small to make the direct voyage to the West Indies.
+In consequence of the embargo, these towns became an _entrepot_ of
+commerce, such as the Orders in Council were designed to make the
+British Islands. There was, of course, a return trade, through them,
+of British manufactures smuggled into the United States. These imports
+seem to have exceeded the exports by the same route. A New Bedford
+town meeting, in August, affirmed that gold was already at a premium,
+from the facility with which it was transported through the country,
+and across the frontier, in payment of purchases.[254] At the end of
+the summer one hundred and fifty vessels were despatched from Quebec
+with full cargoes, and it may be believed they had not arrived empty.
+"From a Canada price current now before us, it will be seen that since
+the embargo was laid the single port of Quebec has done more foreign
+business than the whole United States. In less than eleven months
+there cleared thence three hundred and thirty-four vessels."[255] An
+American merchant visiting Halifax wrote home: "Our embargo is an
+excellent thing for this place. Every inhabitant of Nova Scotia is
+exceedingly desirous of its continuance, as it will be the making of
+their fortunes."[256] Independent of the _entrepot_ profit, the
+British provinces themselves produced several of the articles which
+figured largely among the exports of the middle and eastern states;
+not to the extent imagined by Sheffield, sufficient to supply the West
+Indies, but, in the artificial scarcity caused by the embargo, the
+enhanced prices redounded directly to their advantage. Sir George
+Prevost, governor of Nova Scotia, summed up the experience of the year
+by saying that "the embargo has totally failed. New sources have been
+resorted to with success to supply deficiencies produced by so sudden
+an interruption of commerce, and the vast increase of export and
+import of this province proves that the embargo is a measure well
+adapted to promote the true interests of his Majesty's American
+colonies."[257]
+
+Upon the British Islands themselves the injury was more appreciable
+and conspicuous. It was, moreover, in the direction expected by
+Jefferson and his supporters. The supply of cotton nearly ceased. Mr.
+Baring, March 6, 1809, said in the House of Commons that raw material
+had become so scarce and so high, that in many places it could not be
+procured. "In Manchester during the greatest part of the past year,
+only nine cotton mills were in full employment; about thirty-one at
+half work, and forty-four without any at all."[258] Flaxseed,
+essential to the Irish linen manufactures, and of which three fourths
+came from America, had risen from L2-1/2 to L23 the quarter.[259] The
+exports for the year 1808 had fallen fifteen per cent; the imports the
+same amount, involving a total diminution in trade of L14,000,000. An
+increase of distress was manifested in the poor rates. In Manchester
+they had risen from L24,000 to L49,000. On the other hand, the harvest
+for the year, contrary to first anticipation, had been very good; and,
+in part compensation for intercourse with the United States, there was
+the opening of Spain, Portugal, and their extensive colonies, the
+effect of which was scarcely yet fully felt.
+
+There was, besides, the relief of American competition in the carrying
+trade. This was a singularly noteworthy effect of the embargo; for
+this industry was particularly adverse to United States navigation,
+and particularly benefited by the locking up of American shipping. On
+April 28, 1808, there was not in Liverpool a vessel from Boston or New
+York.[260] The year before, four hundred and eighty-nine had entered,
+paying a tonnage duty of L36,960.[261] In Bristol at the same time
+there were only ten Americans. In consequence of the loss of so much
+tonnage, "those who have anything to do with vessels for freight or
+charter are absolutely insolent in their demands. For a ship of 330
+tons from this to St. Petersburg and back L3,300 have been paid;
+L2,000 for a ship of 199 tons to Lisbon and back."[262] At the end of
+August, in Liverpool, the value of British shipping had increased
+rapidly, and vessels which had long been laid up found profitable
+employment at enormous freights.[263]
+
+Thus, while the effect of the embargo doubtless was to raise prices of
+American goods in England, it stopped American competition with the
+British carrying trade, especially in West India produce. This
+occurred also at the time when the revolt of Spain opened to British
+navigation the colonies from which Americans hitherto had been the
+chief carriers. The same event had further relieved British shipping
+by the almost total destruction of French privateering, thenceforth
+banished from its former ports of support in the Caribbean. From all
+these causes, the appreciation quoted from a London letter of
+September 5 seems probably accurate. "The continuance of the embargo
+is not as yet felt in any degree adequate to make a deep impression on
+the public mind.... Except with those directly interested [merchants
+in the American trade], the dispute with the United States seems
+almost forgotten, or remembered only to draw forth ironical gratitude,
+that the kind embargo leaves the golden harvest to be reaped by
+British enterprise alone."[264]
+
+Upon the whole, through silent popular resistance, and the concurrence
+of the Spanish revolution, the United States by cutting its own throat
+underwent more distress than it inflicted upon the enemy. Besides the
+widespread individual suffering,[265] already mentioned, the national
+revenue, dependent almost wholly on customs, shrank with the imports.
+Despite the relief afforded by cargoes bound home when the embargo
+passed, and the permits issued to bring in American property abroad,
+the income from this source sank from over $16,000,000 to
+$8,400,000.[266] "However dissimilar in some respects," wrote Gallatin
+in a public report, "it is not believed that in their effect upon
+national wealth and public revenue war and embargo would be materially
+different. In case of war, some part of that revenue will remain; but
+if embargo and suspension of commerce continue, that which arises from
+commerce will entirely disappear."[267] Jefferson nevertheless clung
+to the system, even to the end of his life, with a conviction that
+defied demonstration. The fundamental error of conception, of course,
+was in considering embargo an efficient alternative for war. The
+difference between the two measures, regarded coercively, was that
+embargo inflicted upon his own people all the loss that war could, yet
+spared the opponent that which war might do to him. For the United
+States, war would have meant, and when it came did mean, embargo, and
+little more. To Great Britain it would have meant all that the
+American embargo could do, plus the additional effort, expense, and
+actual loss, attendant upon the increased exposure of her maritime
+commerce, and its protection against active and numerous foes,
+singularly well fitted for annoyance by their qualities and situation.
+War and embargo, combined, with Napoleon in the plenitude of his
+power, as he was in 1808, would sorely have tried the enemy; even when
+it came, amid the Emperor's falling fortunes, the strain was severe.
+But Jefferson's lack of appreciation for maritime matters, his dislike
+to the navy, and the weakness to which he had systematically reduced
+it, prevented his realizing the advantages of war over embargo, as a
+measure of coercion. To this contributed also his conviction of the
+exposure of Canada to offensive operations, which was just, though
+fatally vitiated by an unfounded confidence in untrained troops, or
+militia summoned from their farms. Neither was there among his
+advisers any to correct his views; rather they had imbibed their own
+from him, and their utterances in debate betray radical
+misapprehension of military considerations.
+
+Among the incidents attendant upon the embargo was the continuance
+abroad of a number of American vessels, which were there at the
+passage of the Act. They remained, willing exiles, to share the
+constant employment and large freights which the sudden withdrawal of
+their compatriots had opened to British navigation. They were
+doubtless joined by many of those which received permission to sail in
+quest of American property. One flagrant instance of such abuse of
+privilege turned up at Leghorn, with a load of tropical produce;[268]
+and the comments above quoted from an Havana letter doubtless depended
+upon that current acquaintance with facts which men in the midst of
+affairs pick up. It was against this class of traders specifically
+that Napoleon launched the Bayonne Decree, April 17, 1808. Being
+abroad contrary to the law of the United States, he argued, was a
+clear indication that they were not American, but British in
+disguise. This they were not; but they were carrying on trade under
+the Orders in Council, and often under British convoy.[269] The fact
+was noteworthy, as bearing upon the contention of the United States
+Government soon after, that the Non-Intercourse Law was adequate
+security for the action of American merchant vessels; a grotesque
+absurdity, in view of the embargo experiences. That it is not
+consonant with national self-esteem to accept foreign assistance to
+carry out national laws is undeniable; but it is a step further to
+expect another nation to accept, as assured, the efficiency of an
+authority notoriously and continually violated by its own subjects.
+
+Under the general conditions named, the year 1808 wore on to its
+close. Both the British Orders in Council and the Decrees of the
+French Emperor continued in force and received execution;[270] but so
+far as the United States was concerned their effect was much limited,
+the embargo retaining at home the greater part of the nation's
+shipping. The vessels which had remained abroad, and still more those
+which escaped by violation of the law, or abuse of the permission to
+sail unloaded to bring back American property, for the most part
+purchased immunity by acquiescence in the British Orders. They
+accepted British licenses, and British convoy also, where expedient.
+It was stated in Congress that, of those which went to sea under
+permission, comparatively few were interrupted by British
+cruisers.[271] Napoleon's condemnations went on apace, and in the
+matter of loss,--waiving questions of principle,--were at this moment
+a more serious grievance than the British Orders. Nor could it be said
+that the grounds upon which he based his action were less arbitrary or
+unjust. The Orders in Council condemned a vessel for sailing for an
+enemy's port, because constructively blockaded--a matter as to which
+at least choice was free; the Milan Decree condemned because visited
+by a British cruiser, to avoid which a merchant ship was powerless.
+The American brig "Vengeance" sailed from Norfolk before the embargo
+was laid, for Bilboa, then a port in alliance with France. On the
+passage the British frigate "Iris" boarded her, and indorsed on her
+papers that, in accordance with the orders of November 11, she must
+not proceed. That night the "Vengeance" gave the cruiser the slip, and
+pursued her course. She was captured off Bilboa by a French vessel,
+sent in as a prize, and condemned because of the frigate's visit.[272]
+This case is notable because of the pure application of a single
+principle, not obscured by other incidental circumstances, as often
+happens. The brig "George", equally bound to Bilboa, after visitation
+by a British vessel had been to Falmouth, and there received a British
+license to go to her destination. She was condemned for three
+offenses: the visit, the entrance to Falmouth, and the license.[272a]
+These cases were far from isolated, and quite as flagrant as anything
+done by Great Britain; but, while not overlooked, nor unresented, by
+the supporters of the embargo, there was not evident in the debates of
+Congress any such depth of feeling as was aroused by the British
+measures. As was said by Mr. Bayard, an Opposition Senator, "It may be
+from the habit of enduring, but we do not feel an aggression from
+France with the same quickness and sensibility that we do from
+England."[273]
+
+Throughout the year 1808, the embargo was maintained by the
+Administration with as much vigor as was possible to the nature of the
+administrator, profoundly interested in the success of a favorite
+measure. Congress had supplemented the brief original Act by a
+prohibition of all intercourse with foreign territories by land, as
+well as by sea. This was levelled at the Florida and Canada frontiers.
+Authority had been given also for the absolute detention of all
+vessels bound coastwise, if with cargoes exciting suspicion of
+intention to evade the laws. Part of the small navy was sent to
+cruise off the coast, and the gunboats were distributed among the
+maritime districts, to intercept and to enforce submission. Steps were
+taken to build vessels on Lakes Ontario and Champlain; for, in the
+undeveloped condition of the road systems, these sheets of water were
+principal means of transportation, after snow left the ground. To the
+embargo the Navy owed the brig "Oneida", the most formidable vessel on
+Ontario when war came. All this restrictive service was of course
+extremely unpopular with the inhabitants; or at least with that
+active, assertive element, which is foremost in pushing local
+advantages, and directs popular sentiment. Nor did feeling in all
+cases refrain from action. April 19, the President had to issue a
+proclamation against combinations to defy the law in the country about
+Champlain. The collector at Passamaquoddy wrote that, with upwards of
+a hundred vessels in port, he was powerless; and the mob threatened to
+burn his house.[274] A Kennebec paper doubted whether civil society
+could hang together much longer. There were few places in the region
+where it was safe for civil officers to execute the laws.[274a] Troops
+and revenue vessels were despatched to the chief centres of
+disturbance; but, while occasional rencounters occurred, attended at
+times with bloodshed, and some captures of smuggled goods were
+effected, the weak arm of the Government was practically powerless
+against universal connivance in the disaffected districts. Smuggling
+still continued to a large extent, and was very profitable; while the
+determination of the smugglers assumed the character commonly styled
+desperate.
+
+Such conditions, with a falling revenue, and an Opposition strong in
+sectional support, confronted the supporters of the Administration
+when Congress again met in November. Confident that embargo was an
+efficient coercive weapon, if relentlessly wielded, the President
+wished more searching enactments, and power for more extensive and
+vigorous enforcement. This Congress proceeded to grant. Additional
+revenue cutters were authorized; and after long debate was passed an
+Act for the Enforcement of the Embargo, approved January 9, 1809.[275]
+The details of this law were derived from a letter[276] addressed to a
+Committee of Congress by Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, upon
+whom the administration of the embargo system chiefly fell. The two
+principal difficulties so far encountered were the evasions of vessels
+bound coastwise, and departure without clearance. "The infractions
+thus practised threaten to prostrate the law and the Government
+itself." Even to take cargo on board should not be permitted, without
+authorization from the collector of the district. "The great number of
+vessels now laden and in a state of readiness to depart shows the
+necessity of this provision."
+
+It was therefore enacted that no vessel, coasting or registered,
+should load, without first having obtained permission from the
+custom-house, and given bond, in six times the value of the cargo,
+that she would not depart without a clearance, nor after clearing go
+to any foreign port, or transfer her lading to any other vessel. The
+loading was to be under the inspection of revenue officers. Ships
+already loaded, when notice of the Act was received, must unload or
+give bonds. Further to insure compliance, vessels bound coastwise
+must, within two months after sailing, deposit with the collector at
+the port of clearance a certificate from the collector at the port of
+destination, that they had arrived there. If going to New Orleans from
+the Atlantic coast, four months were allowed for this formality.
+Failing this, proof of total loss at sea would alone relieve the
+bond. "Neither capture, distress, nor any other accident, shall be
+pleaded or given in evidence." Collectors were empowered to take into
+custody specie and goods, whether on vessels or land vehicles, when
+there was reason to believe them intended for exportation; and
+authority was given to employ the army and navy, and the militia, for
+carrying out this and the other embargo legislation. A further
+provision of thirty armed vessels, to stop trade, was made by this
+Congress; which otherwise, like its predecessors and successors, was
+perfectly faithful to the party tradition not to protect trade, or
+seek peace, by providing a navy.
+
+All this was sitting on the safety valve. However unflattering to
+national self-esteem it might be to see national legislation
+universally disregarded, the leakage of steam by evasion had made the
+tension bearable. The Act also opened to a number of subaltern
+executive officers, of uncertain discretion, an opportunity for
+arbitrary and capricious action, to which the people of the United
+States were unaccustomed. Already a justice of a circuit court had
+decided in opposition to instructions issued by the President himself.
+The new legislation was followed by an explosion of popular wrath and
+street demonstrations. These were most marked in the Eastern states,
+where the opposition party and the shipping interest were strongest.
+Feeling was the more bitter, because the revolt of Spain, and the
+deliverance of Portugal, had exempted those nations and their
+extensive colonies from the operation of the British Orders in
+Council, had paralyzed in many of their ports the edicts of Napoleon,
+and so had extended widely the field safe for neutral commerce. It was
+evident also that, while the peninsula everywhere was the scene of
+war, it could not feed itself; nor could supplies for the population,
+or for the British armies there, come from England, often narrowly
+pressed herself for grain. Cadiz was open on August 26; all neutrals
+admitted, and the British blockade raised. Through that portal and
+Lisbon might flow a golden tide for American farmers and shipmen. The
+town meetings of New England again displayed the power for prompt
+political agitation which so impressed the imagination of Jefferson.
+The Governor of Connecticut refused, on constitutional grounds, to
+comply with the President's request to detail officers of militia, to
+whom collectors could apply when needing assistance to enforce the
+laws. The attitude of the Eastern people generally was that of mutiny;
+and it became evident that it could only be repressed by violence, and
+with danger to the Union.
+
+Congress was not prepared to run this risk. On February 8, less than a
+month after the Enforcement Act became law, its principal supporter in
+the Senate[277] introduced a resolution for the partial repeal of the
+Embargo Act. "This is not of my choice," he said, "nor is the step one
+by which I could wish that my responsibility should be tested. It is
+the offspring of conciliation, and of great concession on my part. On
+one point we are agreed,--resistance to foreign aggressions. The
+points of difficulty to be adjusted,--and compromised,--relate to the
+extent of that resistance and the mode of its application. In my
+judgment, if public sentiment could be brought to support them, wisdom
+would dictate the combined measures of embargo, non-intercourse, and
+war. Sir, when the love of peace degenerates into fear of war, it
+becomes of all passions the most despicable." It was not the first
+time the word "War" had been spoken, but the occasion made it doubly
+significant and ominous; for it was the requiem of the measure upon
+which the dominant party had staked all to avoid war, and the
+elections had already declared that power should remain in the same
+hands for at least two years to come. Within four weeks Madison was
+to succeed his leader, Jefferson; with a Congressional majority,
+reduced indeed, but still adequate.
+
+The debate over the new measure, known as the Non-Intercourse Act, was
+prolonged and heated, abounding in recriminations, ranging over the
+whole gamut of foreign injuries and domestic misdoings, whether by
+Government policy or rebellious action; but clearer and clearer the
+demand for war was heard, through and above the din. "When the late
+intelligence from the northeast reached us," said an emotional
+follower of the Administration,[278] "it bore a character most
+distressful to every man who valued the integrity of the Government.
+Choosing not to enforce the law with the bayonet, I thought proper to
+acknowledge to the House that I was ready to abandon the embargo....
+The excitement in the East renders it necessary that we should enforce
+it by the bayonet, or repeal. I will repeal, and could weep over it
+more than over a lost child." There was, he said, nothing now but war.
+"The very men who now set your laws at defiance," cried another, "will
+be against you if you go to war;" but he added, "I will never let go
+the embargo, unless on the very same day on which we let it go, we
+draw the sword."[279]
+
+Josiah Quincy, an extremist on the other side, gave a definition of
+the position of Massachusetts, which from his ability, and his known
+previous course on national questions, is particularly valuable. In
+the light of the past, and of what was then future, it may be
+considered to embody the most accurate summary of the views prevailing
+in New England, from the time of the "Chesapeake" affair to the war.
+He "wished a negotiation to be opened, unshackled with the impedimenta
+which now exist. As long as they remained, people in the part of the
+country whence he came would not deem an unsuccessful attempt at
+negotiation cause for war. If they were removed, and an earnest
+attempt at negotiation made, unimpeded by these restrictions, and
+should not meet with success, they would join heartily in a war. They
+would not, however, go to war to contest the right of Great Britain to
+search American vessels for British seamen; for it was the general
+opinion with them that, if American seamen were encouraged, there
+would be no need for the employment of foreign seamen."[280] Quincy
+therefore condemned the retaliatory temper of the Administration, as
+shown in the "Chesapeake" incident by the proclamation excluding
+British ships of war, and in the embargo as a reply to the Orders in
+Council. The oppression of American trade, culminating in the Orders,
+was a just cause of war; but war was not expedient before a further
+attempt at negotiation, favored by a withdrawal of all retaliatory
+acts. He was willing to concede the exercise of British authority on
+board American merchantmen on the high seas.
+
+In the main these were the coincident opinions of Monroe, although a
+Virginian and identified with the opposite party. At this time he
+wrote to Jefferson privately, urging a special mission, for which he
+offered his services. "Our affairs are evidently at a pause, and the
+next step to be taken, without an unexpected change, seems likely to
+be the commencement of war with both France and Great Britain, unless
+some expedient consistent with the honor of the Government and Country
+is adopted to prevent it." To Jefferson's rejection of the proposition
+he replied: "I have not the hope you seem still to entertain that our
+differences with either Power will be accommodated under existing
+arrangements. The embargo was not likely to accomplish the desired
+effect, if it did not produce it under the first impression....
+Without evidence of firm and strong union at home, nothing favorable
+to us can be expected abroad, and from the symptoms in the Eastern
+states there is much cause to fear that tranquillity cannot be secured
+at present by adherence only to the measures which have heretofore
+been pursued."[281] Monroe had already[282] expressed the opinion--not
+to Jefferson, who had refused to ratify, but to a common
+intimate--that had the treaty of December 31, 1806, signed by himself
+and Pinkney, been accepted by the Administration, none of the
+subsequent troubles with France and Great Britain would have ensued;
+that not till the failure of accommodation with Great Britain became
+known abroad was there placed upon the Berlin Decree that stricter
+interpretation which elicited the Orders in Council, whence in due
+sequence the embargo, the Eastern commotions, and the present alarming
+outlook. In principle, Quincy and Monroe differed on the impressment
+question, but in practical adjustment there was no serious divergence.
+In other points they stood substantially together.
+
+Under the combined influences indicated by the expressions quoted,
+Congress receded rapidly from the extreme measures of domestic
+regulation embodied in the various Embargo Acts and culminating in that
+of January 9. The substitute adopted was pronouncedly of the character
+of foreign policy, and assumed distinctly and unequivocally the hostile
+form of retaliation upon the two countries under the decrees of which
+American commerce was suffering. It foreshadowed the general line of
+action followed by the approaching new Administration, with whose
+views and purposes it doubtless coincided. Passed in the House on
+February 27, 1809, it was to go into effect May 20, after which date
+the ports of the United States were forbidden to the ships of war of
+both France and Great Britain, except in cases of distress, or of
+vessels bearing despatches. Merchant vessels of the two countries were
+similarly excluded, with a provision for seizure, if entering.
+Importation from any part of the dominions of those states was
+prohibited, as also that of any merchandise therein produced. Under
+these conditions, and with these exceptions, the embargo was to stand
+repealed from March 15 following; but American and other merchant
+vessels, sailing after the Act went into operation, were to be under
+bonds not to proceed to any port of Great Britain or France, nor during
+absence to engage in any trade, direct or indirect, with such port.
+From the general character of these interdictions, stopping both
+navigation and commerce between the United States and the countries
+proscribed, this measure was commonly called the Non-Intercourse Act.
+Its stormy passage through the House was marked by a number of
+amendments and proposed substitutes, noticeable principally as
+indicative of the growth of warlike temper among Southern members.
+There were embodied with the bill the administrative and police clauses
+necessary for its enforcement. Finally, as a weapon of negotiation in
+the hands of the Government, there was a provision, corresponding to
+one in the original Embargo Act, that in case either France or Great
+Britain should so modify its measures as to cease to violate the
+neutral commerce of the United States, the President was authorized to
+proclaim the fact, after which trade with that country might be
+renewed. In this shape the bill was returned to the Senate, which
+concurred February 28. Next day it became law, by the President's
+signature.
+
+The Enforcement Act and the Non-Intercourse Act, taken together and in
+their rapid sequence, symbolize the death struggle between Jefferson's
+ideal of peaceful commercial restriction, unmitigated and protracted,
+in the power of which he had absolute faith, and the views of those to
+whom it was simply a means of diplomatic pressure, temporary, and
+antecedent to war. Napoleon himself was not more ruthless than
+Jefferson in his desired application of commercial prohibition. Not so
+his party, in its entirety. The leading provisions of the
+Non-Intercourse Act, by partially opening the door and so facilitating
+abundant evasion, traversed Jefferson's plan. It was antecedently
+notorious that their effect, as regarded Great Britain, would be to
+renew trade with her by means of intermediary ports. Yet that they
+were features in the policy of the men about to become prominent under
+the coming Administration was known to Canning some time before the
+resolution was introduced by Giles; before the Enforcement Act even
+could reach England. Though hastened by the outburst in New England,
+the policy of the Non-Intercourse Act was conceived before the
+collapse of Jefferson's own measure was seen to be imminent.
+
+On January 18 and 22 Canning, in informal conversations with Pinkney,
+had expressed his satisfaction at proceedings in Congress, recently
+become known, looking to the exclusion of French ships equally with
+British, and to the extension of non-importation legislation to France
+as well as Great Britain.[283] He thought that such measures might
+open the way to a withdrawal of the Orders in Council, by enabling the
+British Government to entertain the overture, made by Pinkney August
+23, under instructions, that the President would suspend the embargo,
+if the British Government would repeal its orders. This he conceived
+could not be done, consistently with self-respect, so long as there
+was inequality of treatment. In these anticipations he was encouraged
+by representations concerning the attitude of Madison and some
+intended members of his Cabinet, made to him by Erskine, the British
+Minister in Washington, who throughout seems to have cherished an
+ardent desire to reconcile differences which interfered with his just
+appreciation even of written words,--much more of spoken.
+
+In the interview of the 22d Pinkney confined himself to saying
+everything "which I thought consistent with candor and discretion to
+confirm him in his dispositions." He suggested that the whole matter
+ought to be settled at Washington, and "that it would be well (in case
+a special mission did not meet their approbation) that the necessary
+powers should be sent to Mr. Erskine."[284] He added, "I offered my
+intervention for the purpose of guarding them against deficiencies in
+these powers."[285] The remark is noteworthy, for it shows Pinkney's
+sense that Erskine's mere letter of credence as Minister Resident, not
+supplemented by full powers for the special transaction, was
+inadequate to a binding settlement of such important matters. In the
+sequel the American Administration did not demand of Erskine the
+production either of special powers or of the text of his
+instructions; a routine formality which would have forestalled the
+mortifying error into which it was betrayed by precipitancy, and which
+became the occasion of a breach with Erskine's successor.
+
+The day after his interview with Pinkney, Canning sent Erskine
+instructions,[286] the starting-point of which was that the Orders in
+Council must be maintained, unless their object could be otherwise
+accomplished. Assuming, as an indispensable preliminary to any
+negotiation, that equality of treatment between British and French
+ships and merchandise would have been established, he said he
+understood further from Erskine's reports of conversations that the
+leading men in the new Administration would be prepared to agree to
+three conditions: 1. That, contemporaneously with the withdrawal of
+the Orders of January 7 and November 11, there would be a removal of
+the restrictions upon British ships and merchandise, leaving in force
+those against French. 2. The claim, to carry on with enemies' colonies
+a trade not permitted in peace, would be abandoned for this war. 3.
+Great Britain should be at liberty to secure the operation of the
+Non-Intercourse measures, still in effect against France, by the
+action of the British Navy, which should be authorized to capture
+American vessels seeking to enter ports forbidden them by the
+Non-Intercourse Act. Canning justly remarked that otherwise
+Non-Intercourse would be nugatory; there would be nothing to prevent
+Americans from clearing for England or Spain and going to Holland or
+France. This was perfectly true. Not only had a year's experience of
+the embargo so demonstrated, but a twelvemonth later[287] Gallatin had
+to admit that "the summary of destinations of these exports, being
+grounded on clearances, cannot be relied on under existing
+circumstances. Thus, all the vessels actually destined for the
+dominions of Great Britain, which left the United States between April
+19 and June 10, 1809, cleared for other ports; principally, it is
+believed, for Sweden." Nevertheless, the proposition that a foreign
+state should enforce national laws, because the United States herself
+could not, was saved from being an insult only by the belief,
+extracted by Canning from Erskine's report of conversations, that
+Madison, or his associates, had committed themselves to such an
+arrangement. He added that Pinkney "recently (but for the first time)"
+had expressed an opinion to the same effect.
+
+The British Government would consent to withdraw the Orders in Council
+on the conditions cited; and for the purpose of obtaining a distinct
+and official recognition of them, Canning authorized Erskine to read
+his letter _in extenso_ to the American Government. Had this been
+done, as the three concessions were a _sine qua non_, the
+misunderstanding on which the despatch was based would have been at
+once exposed; and while its assumptions and tone could scarcely have
+failed to give offence, there would have been saved the successive
+emotions of satisfaction and disappointment which swept over the
+United States, leaving bitterness worse than before. Instead of
+communicating Canning's letter, Erskine, after ascertaining that the
+conditions would not be accepted, sent in a paraphrase of his own,
+dated April 18,[288] in which he made no mention of the three
+stipulations, but announced that, in consequence of the impartial
+attitude resulting from the Non-Intercourse Act, his Majesty would
+send a special envoy to conclude a treaty on all points of the
+relations between the two countries, and meanwhile would be willing to
+withdraw the Orders of January 7 and November 11, so far as affecting
+the United States, in the persuasion that the President would issue
+the proclamation restoring intercourse. This advance was welcomed, the
+assurance of revocation given, and the next day Erskine wrote that he
+was "authorized to declare that the Orders will have been withdrawn as
+respects the United States on the 10th day of June next." The same
+day, by apparent preconcertment, in accordance with Canning's
+requirement that the two acts should be coincident, Madison issued
+his proclamation, announcing the fact of the future withdrawal, and
+that trade between the United States and Great Britain might be
+renewed on June 10.
+
+Erskine's proceeding was disavowed instantly by the British
+Government, and himself recalled. A series of unpleasant explanations
+followed between him and the members of the American Government,[289]
+astonished by the interpretation placed upon their words, as shown in
+Canning's despatch. Canning also had to admit that he had strained
+Erskine's words, in reaching his conclusions as to the willingness of
+Madison and his advisers to allow the enforcement of the
+Non-Intercourse Act by British cruisers;[290] while Pinkney entirely
+disclaimed intending any such opinion as Canning imagined him to have
+expressed.[291] The British Secretary was further irritated by the
+tone of the American replies to Erskine's notes; but he "forbore to
+trouble"[292] Pinkney with any comment upon them. That would be made
+through Erskine's successor; an unhappy decision, as it proved. No
+explanation of the disavowal was given; but the instructions sent were
+read to Pinkney by Canning, and a letter followed saying that
+Erskine's action had been in direct contradiction to them. Things thus
+returned to the momentarily interrupted condition of American
+Non-Intercourse and British Orders in Council; the British Government
+issuing a temporary order for the protection of American vessels which
+might have started for the ports of Holland in reliance upon Erskine's
+assurances. From America there had been numerous clearances for
+England; and it may be believed that there would have been many more
+if the transient nature of the opportunity had been foreseen. August
+9, Madison issued another proclamation, annulling the former.
+
+While Erskine was conducting his side negotiation, the British
+Government had largely modified the scope of the restrictions laid
+upon neutral trade. In consequence of the various events which had
+altered its relations with European states and their dependencies, the
+Orders of November, 1807, were revoked; and for them was substituted a
+new one, dated April 26, 1809,[293] similar in principle but much
+curtailed in extent. Only the coasts of France itself, of Holland to
+its boundary, the River Ems, and those of Italy falling under
+Napoleon's own dominion, from Orbitello to Pesaro, were thenceforth to
+be subject to "the same restrictions as if actually blockaded."
+Further, no permission was given, as in the former Orders, to
+communicate with the forbidden ports by first entering one of Great
+Britain, paying a transit duty, and obtaining a permit to proceed. In
+terms, prohibition was now unqualified; and although it was known that
+licenses for intercourse with interdicted harbors were freely issued,
+the overt offence of prescribing British channels to neutral
+navigation was avoided. Within the area of restriction, "No trade save
+through England" was thus converted, in form, to no trade at all. This
+narrowing of the constructive blockade system, combined with the
+relaxations effected by the Non-Intercourse Act, and with the food
+requirements of the Spanish peninsula, did much to revive American
+commerce; which, however, did not again before the war regain the fair
+proportions of the years preceding the embargo. The discrepancy was
+most marked in the re-exportation of foreign tropical produce, sugar
+and coffee, a trade dependent wholly upon war conditions, and
+affecting chiefly the shipping interest engaged in carrying it. For
+this falling off there were several causes. After 1809 the Continental
+system was more than ever remorselessly enforced, and it was to the
+Continent almost wholly that Americans had carried these articles.
+The Spanish colonies were now open to British as well as American
+customers; and the last of the French West Indies having passed into
+British possession, trade with them was denied to foreigners by the
+Navigation Act. In 1807 the value of the colonial produce re-exported
+from the United States was $59,643,558; in 1811, $16,022,790. The
+exports of domestic productions in the same years were: 1807,
+$48,699,592; in 1811, $45,294,043. In connection with these figures,
+as significant of political conditions, it is interesting to note that
+of the latter sum $18,266,466 went to Spain and Portugal, chiefly to
+supply demands created by war. So with tropical produce; out of the
+total of $16,022,790, $5,772,572 went to the Peninsula, and an equal
+amount to the Baltic, that having become the centre of accumulation,
+from which subsequent distribution was made to the Continent in
+elusion of the Continental System. The increasing poverty of the
+Continent, also, under Napoleon's merciless suppression of foreign
+commerce, greatly lessened the purchasing power of the inhabitants.
+The great colonial trade had wasted under the combined action of
+British Orders and French Decrees, supplemented by changes in
+political relations. The remote extremities of the Baltic lands and
+the Spanish peninsula now alone sustained its drooping life.
+
+Coincident with Erskine's recall had been the appointment of his
+successor, Mr. Francis J. Jackson, who took with him not only the
+usual credentials, but also full powers for concluding a treaty or
+convention.[294] He departed for his post under the impulse of the
+emotions and comments excited by the manner and terms in which
+Erskine's advances had been met, with which Canning had forborne to
+trouble Pinkney. Upon his arrival in Washington, disappointment was
+expressed that he had no authority to give any explanations of the
+reasons why his Government had disavowed arrangements, entered into by
+Erskine, concerning not only the withdrawal of the Orders in
+Council,--as touching the United States,--but also the reparation for
+the "Chesapeake" business. This Erskine had offered and concluded,
+coincidently with the revocation of the Orders, though not in
+connection with it; but in both instances his action was disapproved
+by his Government. After two verbal conferences, held within a week of
+Jackson's arrival, the Secretary of State, Mr. Robert Smith, notified
+him on October 9 that it was thought expedient, for the present
+occasion, that further communication on this matter should be in
+writing. There followed an exchange of letters, which in such
+circumstances passed necessarily under the eyes of President Madison,
+who for the eight preceding years had held Smith's present office.
+
+This correspondence[295] presents an interesting exhibition of
+diplomatic fencing; but beyond the discussion, pro and con, of the
+matters in original and continuous dispute between the two countries,
+the issue turned upon the question whether the United States had
+received the explanation due to it,--in right and courtesy,--of the
+reasons for disavowing Erskine's agreements. Smith maintained it had
+not. Jackson rejoined that sufficient explanation had been given by
+the terms of Canning's letter of May 27 to Pinkney, announcing that
+Erskine had been recalled because he had acted in direct contradiction
+to his instructions; an allegation sustained by reading to the
+American minister the instructions themselves. In advancing this
+argument, Jackson stated also that Canning's three conditions had been
+made known by Erskine to the American Government, which, in declining
+to admit them, had suggested substitutes finally accepted by Erskine;
+so that the United States understood that the arrangement was reached
+on another basis than that laid down by Canning. This assertion he
+drew from the expressions of Erskine in a letter to Canning, after the
+disavowal. Smith replied that Erskine, while not showing the despatch,
+had stated the three stipulations; that they had been rejected; and
+that the subsequent arrangement had been understood to be with a
+minister fully competent to recede from his first demand and to accept
+other conditions. Distinctly he affirmed, that the United States
+Government did not know, at any time during the discussion preceding
+the agreement, that Erskine's powers were limited by the conditions in
+the text of his instructions, afterwards published. That he had no
+others, "is now for the first time made known to this Government," by
+Jackson's declaration.
+
+ [Illustration: JAMES MADISON
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in Bowdoin College,
+ Brunswick, Me.]
+
+Jackson had come prepared to maintain, not only the British
+contention, but the note set by Canning for British diplomatic
+correspondence. He was conscious too of opposing material force to
+argument, and had but recently been amid the scenes at Copenhagen,
+which had illustrated Nelson's maxim that a fleet of ships of the line
+were the best negotiators in Europe. The position has its advantages,
+but also its dangers, when the field of warfare is that of words, not
+deeds; and in Madison, who superintended the American case, he was
+unequally matched with an adversary whose natural dialectical ability
+had been tempered and sharpened in many campaigns. There is
+noticeable, too, on the American side, a labored effort at acuteness
+of discrimination, an adroitness to exaggerate shades of difference
+practically imperceptible, and an aptitude to give and take offence,
+not so evident under the preceding Administration. These suggest
+irresistibly the absence, over Madison the President, of a moderating
+hand, which had been held over Madison the Secretary of State. It may
+be due also to the fact that both the President and his Cabinet were
+somewhat less indisposed to war than his predecessor had been.
+
+In his answer to Smith Jackson reiterated, what Smith had admitted,
+that Erskine had made known the three conditions. He added, "No
+stronger illustration of the deviation from them which occurred can be
+given than by a reference to the terms of the agreement." As an
+incidental comment, supporting the contention that Erskine's departure
+from his sole authority was so decisive as to be a sufficient
+explanation for the disavowal of his procedure, the words were
+admissible; so much so as to invite the suspicion that the opponent,
+who had complained of the want of such explanation, felt the touch of
+the foil, and somewhat lost temper. Whatever impression of an
+insinuation the phrase may have conveyed should have been wholly
+removed by the further expression, in close sequence, "You are already
+acquainted with the instruction given; and _I have had_[296] the honor
+of informing you it was the only one." Smith's knowledge that
+Erskine's powers were limited to the one document is here attributed
+explicitly to Jackson. The Secretary (or President) saw fit not to
+recognize this, but took occasion to administer a severe rebuke, which
+doubtless the general tone of Jackson's letter tended to provoke. "I
+abstain, sir, from making any particular animadversions on several
+irrelevant and improper allusions in your letter.... But it would be
+improper to conclude the few observations to which I purposely limit
+myself, without adverting to your repetition of a language implying a
+knowledge, on the part of this Government, that the instructions of
+your predecessor did not authorize the arrangement formed by him.
+After the explicit and peremptory asseveration that this Government
+had no such knowledge, and that with such a knowledge no such
+arrangement would have been entered into, the view which you have
+again presented of the subject makes it my duty to apprise you that
+such insinuations are inadmissible in the intercourse of a foreign
+minister with a Government that understands what it owes to itself."
+
+Whatever may be thought of the construction placed upon Jackson's
+words by his opponent, this thrust should have made him look to his
+footing; but arrogance and temper carried the day, and laid him open
+to the fatal return which he received. By drawing attention to the
+qualifying phrase, he could have shown that he had been misunderstood,
+but he practically accepted the interpretation; for, instead of
+repelling it, he replied: "In my correspondence with you I have
+carefully avoided drawing conclusions that did not necessarily follow
+from the premises advanced by me, and least of all should I think of
+uttering an insinuation where I was unable to substantiate a fact. To
+facts, such as I have become acquainted with them, I have scrupulously
+adhered, and in so doing I must continue, whenever the good faith of
+his Majesty's Government is called in question," etc. To this outburst
+the reply was: "You have used language which cannot but be understood
+as reiterating, and even aggravating, the same gross insinuation. It
+only remains, in order to preclude opportunities which are thus
+abused, to inform you that no further communications will be received
+from you, and that the necessity for this determination will, without
+delay, be made known to your Government." Jackson thereupon quitted
+Washington for New York, leaving a _charge d'affaires_ for transacting
+current business.
+
+Before leaving the city, however, Jackson, through the channel of the
+_charge_, made a statement to the Secretary of State. In this he
+alleged that the facts which he considered it his duty to state, and
+to the assertion of which, as facts, exception was taken, and his
+dismissal attributed, were two. One was, that the three conditions had
+been submitted by Mr. Erskine to the Secretary of State. This the
+Secretary had admitted. "The other, namely: that that instruction is
+the only one, in which the conditions were prescribed to Mr. Erskine,
+for the conclusion of an arrangement on the matter to which it
+related, is known to Mr. Jackson by the instructions which he has
+himself received." This he had said in his second letter; if somewhat
+obscurely, still not so much so but that careful reading, and
+indisposition to take offence, could have detected his meaning, and
+afforded him the opportunity to be as explicit as in this final paper.
+If Madison, who is understood to have given special supervision to
+this correspondence,[297] meant the severe rebuke conveyed by his
+reply as a feint, to lead the British minister incautiously to expose
+himself to a punishment which his general bearing and that of his
+Government deserved, he assuredly succeeded; yet it may be questioned
+who really came best out of the encounter. Jackson had blundered in
+words; the American Administration had needlessly intensified
+international bitterness.
+
+Prepossession in reading, and proneness to angry misconception, must
+be inferred in the conduct of the American side of this discussion;
+for another notable and even graver instance occurs in the
+despatch[298] communicating Jackson's dismissal to Pinkney, beyond
+whose notice it probably was not allowed to go. Canning, in his third
+rejected condition, had written:
+
+ Great Britain, for the purpose of securing _the operation of_
+ the embargo, and _of_ the bona fide intention of America to
+ prevent her citizens from trading with France, and the Powers
+ adopting and acting under the French decrees, is to be
+ considered as being at liberty to capture all such American
+ vessels as shall be found attempting to trade with the ports of
+ such Powers;[299]
+
+and he explained that, unless such permission was granted, "the
+raising of the embargo nominally as to Great Britain, would raise it,
+in fact, with respect to all the world," owing to the evident
+inability of the United States to enforce its orders beyond its own
+ports.
+
+In the passage quoted, both the explanatory comment and the syntax
+show that the object of this proposed concession was to secure _the
+operation_, the effectual working, of the _bona fide_ intention
+expressly conceded to the American Government. The repetition of the
+preposition "of," before _bona fide_, secures this meaning beyond
+peradventure. Nevertheless Smith, in labored arraignment of the whole
+British course, wrote to Pinkney as follows:
+
+ In urging this concession, Mr. Canning has taken a ground
+ forbidden by those principles of decorum which regulate and mark
+ the proceedings of Governments towards each other. In his
+ despatch the condition is stated to be for the purpose of
+ _securing the bona fide intention_ of America, to prevent her
+ citizens from trading with France and certain other Powers; in
+ other words to secure a pledge to that effect against the _mala
+ fide_ intention of the United States. And this despatch too was
+ authorized to be communicated _in extenso_ to the Government, of
+ which such language was used.[300]
+
+Being addressed only to Pinkney, a man altogether too careful and
+shrewd not to detect the mistake, no occasion arose for this grave
+misstatement doing harm, or receiving correction. But, conjoined with
+the failure to note that Jackson in his second letter had attributed
+to his own communication the American Government's knowledge that
+Erskine had no alternative instructions, the conclusion is
+irresistible that the President acted, perhaps unconsciously, under
+impulses foreign to the deliberate care which should precede and
+accompany so momentous an act as the refusal to communicate with an
+accredited foreign minister. It will be remembered that this action
+was taken on grounds avowedly independent of the reasonableness or
+justice of the British demands. It rested purely on the conduct of the
+minister himself.
+
+This incident powerfully furthered the alienation of the two nations,
+for the British Government not only refused to disapprove Jackson's
+conduct, but for nearly two years neglected to send a successor, thus
+establishing strained diplomatic relations. Before finally leaving
+this unlucky business, it is due to a complete appreciation to mention
+that, in its very outset, at the beginning of Erskine's well-meant but
+blundering attempt, the United States Government had overpassed the
+limits of diplomatic civility. Canning was a master of insolence; he
+could go to the utmost verge of insult and innuendo, without
+absolutely crossing the line which separates them from formal
+observance of propriety; but it cannot be said that the American
+correspondence in this instance was equally adroit. In replying to
+Erskine's formal offer of reparation for the "Chesapeake" affair,
+certain points essential to safeguarding the position of the United
+States were carefully and properly pointed out; then the reparation,
+as tended, was accepted. There the matter might have dropped;
+acceptance is acceptance; or, if necessary, failure of full
+satisfaction on the part of the United States might have been candidly
+stated, as due to itself. But the Secretary[301] proceeded to
+words--and mere words--reflecting on the British Sovereign and
+Government. "I have it in express charge from the President to state,
+that, while he forbears to insist upon the further punishment of the
+offending officer, he is not the less sensible of the justice and
+utility of such an example, nor the less persuaded that it would best
+comport with what is due from his Britannic Majesty to his own honor."
+
+To the writer nothing quite as bad as this occurs in Jackson's
+letters, objectionable as they were in tone. With the opinion he
+agrees; the further employment of Berkeley was indecent, nor was he a
+man for whom it could be claimed that he was indispensable; but it is
+one thing to hold an opinion, and another to utter it to the person
+concerned. Had Madison meant war, he might have spoken as he did, and
+fought; but to accept, and then to speak words barren of everything
+but useless insult, is intolerable. Jackson very probably believed
+that the American Government was lying when it said it did not know
+the facts as to Erskine's instructions.[302] It would be quite in
+character that he should; but he did not say so. There was put into
+his mouth a construction of his words which he heedlessly accepted.
+
+Jackson's dismissal was notified to the British Government through
+Pinkney, on January 2, 1810.[303] Some time before, a disagreement
+within the British Cabinet had led to a duel between Castlereagh and
+Canning, in which the latter was severely wounded. He did not return
+to the Foreign Office, but was succeeded by the Marquis Wellesley,
+brother of the future Duke of Wellington. After presenting the view of
+the correspondence taken by his Government, Pinkney seems to betray a
+slight uneasiness as to the accuracy of the interpretation placed on
+Jackson's words. "I willingly leave your Lordship to judge whether Mr.
+Jackson's correspondence will bear any other construction than that it
+in fact received; and whether, supposing it to have been erroneously
+construed, his letter of the 4th of November should not have corrected
+the mistake, instead of confirming and establishing it."
+
+Wellesley, with a certain indolent nonchalance, characteristic of his
+correspondence with Pinkney, delayed to answer for two months, and
+then gave a reply as indifferent in manner as it was brief in terms.
+Jackson had written, "There appears to have prevailed, throughout the
+whole of this transaction [Erskine's], a fundamental mistake, which
+would suggest that his Majesty had proposed to propitiate the
+Government of the United States, to consent to the renewal of
+commercial intercourse; ... as if, in any arrangement, his Majesty
+would condescend to barter objects of national policy and dignity for
+permission to trade with another country." The phrase was Canning's,
+and summarized precisely the jealous attitude towards its own prestige
+characteristic of the British policy of the day. It also defined
+exactly the theory upon which the foreign policy of the United States
+had been directed for eight years by the party still in power. Madison
+and Jefferson had both placed just this construction upon Erskine's
+tender. "The British Cabinet must have changed its course under a full
+conviction that an adjustment with this country had become
+essential."[304] "Gallatin had a conversation with Turreau at his
+residence near Baltimore. He professes to be confident that his
+Government will consider England broken down, by the examples she has
+given in repealing her Orders."[305] "By our unyielding adherence to
+principle Great Britain has been forced into revocation."[306] Canning
+and his associates intuitively divined this inference, which after all
+was obvious enough. The feeling increased their discontent with
+Erskine, who had placed his country in the false light of receding
+under commercial pressure from America, and probably enough
+prepossessed them with the conviction that the American Government
+could not but have realized that Erskine was acting beyond his powers.
+
+Wellesley, after his manner,--which was not Canning's,--asserted
+equally the superiority of the British Government to concession for
+the sake of such advantage. His Majesty regretted the Jackson episode,
+the more so that no opportunity had been given for him to interpose,
+which "was the usual course in such cases." Mr. Jackson had written
+positive assurances that it was not his purpose to give offence; to
+which the reply was apt, that in such matters it is not enough to
+intend, but to succeed in avoiding offence.[307] "His Majesty has not
+marked, with any expression of his displeasure, the conduct of Mr.
+Jackson, who does not appear, on this occasion, to have committed any
+intentional offence against the Government of the United States." A
+_charge_ would be appointed to carry on the ordinary intercourse, but
+no intention was expressed of sending another minister. Persistence in
+this neglect soon became a further ground of bad feeling.
+
+By its own limitations the Non-Intercourse Act was to expire at the
+end of the approaching spring session of the new Congress, but it was
+renewed by that body to the end of the winter session. During the
+recess the Jackson episode occurred, and was the first subject to
+engage attention on reassembling, November 27, 1809. After prolonged
+discussion in the lower house,[308] a joint resolution was passed
+approving the action of the Executive, and pledging to him the support
+of the nation. Despite a lucid exposition by Josiah Quincy, that the
+offence particularly attributed to the British minister was disproved
+by a reasonable attention to the construction of his sentences, the
+majority persisted in sustaining the party chief. That disposed of,
+the question of commercial restriction was again taken up.
+
+It was conceded on all sides that Non-Intercourse had failed, and
+precisely in the manner predicted. On the south, Amelia Island,--at
+the mouth of the St. Mary's River, just outside the Florida
+boundary,--and on the north Halifax, and Canada in general, had become
+ports of deposit for American products, whence they were conveyed in
+British ships to Great Britain and her dependencies, to which the Act
+forbade American vessels to go. The effect was to give the carrying of
+American products to British shipping, in precise conformity with the
+astute provisions of the Navigation Acts. British markets were reached
+by a broken voyage, the long leg of which, from Amelia and Halifax to
+Europe and elsewhere, was taken by British navigation. It was stated
+that there were at a given moment one hundred British vessels at
+Amelia,[309] the shores of which were encumbered with American goods
+awaiting such transportation. The freight from the American ports to
+Amelia averaged a cent a pound, from Amelia to England eight
+cents;[310] the latter amount going to British pockets, the former to
+Americans who were debarred from full transatlantic freight by the
+prohibitions of the Non-Intercourse Act. The absence of competition
+necessarily raised the prices obtainable by the British shipper, and
+this, together with the additional cost of transshipment and delays,
+attendant upon a broken voyage, fell upon the American agriculturist,
+whose goods commanded just so much less at their place of origin. The
+measure was even ingeniously malaprop, considered from the point of
+view of its purpose towards Great Britain, whether retaliatory or
+coercive. Upon France its effect was trivial, in any aspect. There was
+no French navigation, and the Orders in Council left little chance for
+American vessels to reach French ports.
+
+All agreed that the Non-Intercourse Act must go; the difficulty was to
+find a substitute which should not confessedly abandon the whole
+system of commercial restrictions, idealized by the party in power,
+but from which it was being driven foot by foot. A first measure
+proposed was to institute a Navigation Act, borrowed in broad outline
+from that of Great Britain, but in operation applied only to that
+nation and France, in retaliation for their injurious edicts.[311]
+Open intercourse with the whole world should be restored; but British
+and French merchant ships, as well as vessels of war, should be
+excluded from American harbors. British and French products could be
+imported only in vessels owned wholly by American citizens; and after
+April 15, 1810, could be introduced only by direct voyage from the
+place of origin. This was designed to prevent the continuance of trade
+by way of Amelia or Halifax. It was pointed out in debate, however,
+that French shipping practically did not exist, and that in the days
+of open trade, before the embargo, only about eight thousand tons of
+British shipping yearly entered American ports, whereas from three
+hundred thousand to four hundred thousand American tons visited Great
+Britain.[312] Should she, by a strict retaliation, resent this clumsy
+attempt at injuring her, the weight of the blow would fall on
+Americans. American ships would be excluded from British ports; the
+carrying trade to Amelia and Halifax would be resumed, to the
+detriment of American vessels by a competition which otherwise would
+not exist, and British manufactures would be introduced by smuggling,
+to the grievous loss of the revenue, as had been notoriously and
+abundantly the case under the Non-Intercourse Act. In truth, a purely
+commercial war with Great Britain was as injurious as a military war,
+and more hopeless.
+
+The bill consequently failed in the Senate, though passed by the
+House. In its stead was adopted an Act which repealed that of
+Non-Intercourse, but prescribed that in case either Great Britain or
+France, before March 3, 1811, should so revoke or modify its edicts as
+that they should cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United
+States, the President should declare the fact by proclamation; and if
+the other nation should not, within three months from the date of such
+proclamation, in like manner so modify or revoke its edicts, there
+should revive against it those sections of the Non-Intercourse Act
+which excluded its vessels from American ports, and forbade to
+American vessels importation from its ports, or of its goods from any
+part of the world whatsoever. The determination of the fact of
+revocation by either state was left to the sole judgment of the
+President, by whose approval the Act became law May 1, 1810.[313]
+
+As Great Britain and France, by the Orders in Council and the Berlin
+and Milan Decrees, were then engaged in a commercial warfare, in which
+the object of each was to exhaust its rival, the effect of this Act
+was to tender the co-operation of the United States to whichever of
+them should embrace the offer. In terms, it was strictly impartial
+between the two. In fact, forasmuch as France could not prevent
+American intercourse with Great Britain, whereas Great Britain, in
+furtherance of her purposes, could and did prevent American trade with
+France, the latter had much more to gain; and particularly, if she
+should so word her revocation as to save her face, by not appearing
+the first to recede,--to show weakening,--as Great Britain had been
+made for the moment to seem by Erskine's arrangement. Should this
+ingenious diplomacy prove satisfactory to the President, yet fail so
+to convince Great Britain as to draw from her the recall of the Orders
+in Council, the United States, by the simple operation of the law
+itself, would become a party to the Emperor's Continental system, in
+its specific aim of reducing his opponent's strength.
+
+At this very moment Napoleon was putting into effect against the
+United States one of those perverse and shameless interpretations of
+international relations, or actions, by which he not infrequently
+contrived to fill his pockets. The Non-Intercourse Act, passed March
+3, 1809, had decreed forfeiture of any French or British ship, or
+goods, which should enter American waters after May 20, of the same
+year. The measure was duly communicated to the French Government, and
+no remonstrance had been made against a municipal regulation, which
+gave ample antecedent warning. There the matter rested until March 23,
+1810, when the Emperor, on the ground of the Act, imposing these
+confiscations and forbidding American vessels to visit France, signed
+a retroactive decree that all vessels under the flag of the United
+States, which, since May 20, 1809, had entered ports of his empire,
+colonies, or of the countries occupied by his arms, should be seized
+and sold. Commissioners were sent to Holland to enforce there this
+edict, known as the Decree of Rambouillet, which was not actually
+published till May 14.[314] It took effect upon vessels which, during
+a twelvemonth previous, unwarned, had gone to France, or the other
+countries indicated. Immediately before it was signed, the American
+minister, Armstrong, had written to Champagny, Duke of Cadore, the
+French Minister of Foreign Affairs, "Your Excellency knows that there
+are not less than one hundred American ships within his Majesty's
+possession, or that of his allies;" and he added that, from several
+sources of information, he felt warranted in believing that not a
+single French vessel had violated the Non-Intercourse law, and
+therefore none could have been seized.[315]
+
+The law of May 1 was duly communicated to the two states concerned, by
+the United States ministers there resident. Great Britain was informed
+that not only the Orders in Council, but the blockade of May,
+1806,[316] were included among the edicts affecting American commerce,
+the repeal of which was expected, as injurious to that commerce.
+France was told that this demand would be made upon her rival;[317]
+but that it was also the purpose of the President not to give the law
+effect favorable to herself, by publishing a proclamation, if the late
+seizures of the property of citizens of the United States had been
+followed by absolute confiscation, and restoration were finally
+refused.[318] This referred not to the Rambouillet Decree, as yet
+unknown in America, but to the previous seizures upon various
+pretexts, mentioned above by Armstrong. Ultimately this purpose was
+not adhered to; but the Emperor was attentive to the President's
+intimation that "by putting in force, agreeably to the terms of this
+statute, the non-intercourse against Great Britain, the very species
+of resistance would be made which France has constantly been
+representing as most efficacious."[319] Thus, the co-operation of
+America to the Continental System was no longer asked, but offered.
+
+The Emperor did not wait even for information by the usual official
+channels. By some unexplained delay, Armstrong's first knowledge was
+through a copy of the Gazette of the United States containing the Act,
+which he at once transmitted to Champagny, who replied August 5,
+1810.[320] His Majesty wished that the acts of the United States
+Government could be more promptly communicated; not till very lately
+had he heard of the Non-Intercourse,--a statement which Armstrong
+promptly denied, referring Champagny to the archives of his own
+department.[321] In view of the Act of May 1, the Emperor's decision
+was announced in a paragraph of the same letter, in the following
+words:
+
+ In this new state of things I am authorized to declare to you,
+ Sir, that the Decrees of Berlin and Milan are revoked, and that
+ after the first of November they will cease to have effect; it
+ being understood that, in consequence of this declaration, the
+ English shall revoke their Orders in Council, and renounce the
+ new principles of blockade, which they have wished to establish;
+ or that the United States, conformably to the Act which you have
+ just communicated, shall cause their rights to be respected by
+ the English.
+
+Definition is proverbially difficult; and over this superficially
+simple definition of circumstances and conditions, under which the
+Decrees of Berlin and Milan stood revoked, arose a discussion
+concerning construction and meaning which resembled the wrangling of
+scholars over a corrupt text in an obscure classical author.
+Clear-headed men became hopelessly involved, as they wrestled with
+each others' interpretations; and the most got no farther than
+sticking to their first opinions, probably reached in the majority of
+cases by sheer prepossession. The American ministers to France and
+Great Britain both accepted the words as a distinct, indisputable,
+revocation; and Madison followed suit. These hasty conclusions are not
+very surprising; for there was personal triumph, dear to diplomatists
+as to other men, in seeing the repeal of the Decrees, or of the
+Orders, result from their efforts. It has been seen how much this
+factor entered into the feelings of Madison and Jefferson in the
+Erskine business, and to Armstrong the present turn was especially
+grateful, as he was about quitting his mission after several years
+buffeting against wind and tide. His sun seemed after all about to set
+in glory. He wrote to Pinkney, "I have the honor to inform you that
+his Majesty, the Emperor and King, has been pleased to revoke his
+Decrees of Berlin and Milan."[322] Pinkney, to whom the recall of the
+British Orders offered the like laurels, was equally emphatic in his
+communication to Wellesley; adding, "I take for granted that the
+revocation of the British Orders in Council of January and November,
+1807, April, 1809, and all other orders dependent upon, or analogous,
+or in execution of them, will follow of course."[323] The British
+Government demurred to the interpretation; but Madison accepted it,
+and on November 2 proclaimed it as a fact. In consequence, by the
+terms of the Act, non-intercourse would revive against Great Britain
+on February 2, 1811.
+
+When Congress met, distrust on one side and assertion on the other
+gave rise to prolonged and acute discussion. Napoleon had surprised
+people so often, that no wonder need be felt at those who thought his
+words might bear a double meaning. The late President, who did not
+lack sagacity, had once written to his successor, "Bonaparte's policy
+is so crooked that it eludes conjecture. I fear his first object now
+is to dry up the sources of British prosperity, by excluding her
+manufactures from the Continent. He may fear that opening the ports of
+Europe to our vessels will open them to an inundation of British
+wares."[324] This was exactly Bonaparte's dilemma, and suggested the
+point of view from which his every action ought to be scrutinized.
+Then there was the recent deception with Erskine, which, if it
+increased the doubts of some concerning the soundness of Madison's
+judgment, made it the more incumbent on others to show that on this
+occasion at least he had not been precipitate. Certainly, as regards
+the competency of the foreign official in either case, there was no
+comparison. A simple Minister Resident should produce particular
+powers or definite instructions, to guarantee his authority for
+concluding so important a modification of national policy as was
+accepted from Erskine; but by common usage the Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, at a national capital, is understood to speak for the Chief
+Executive. The statement of Champagny, at Paris, that he was
+"authorized" to make a specific declaration, could be accepted as the
+voice of Napoleon himself. The only question was, what did the voice
+signify?
+
+In truth, explicit as Champagny's words sound, Napoleon's
+memoranda,[325] on which they were based, show a deliberate purpose to
+avoid a formal revocation, for reasons analogous to those suggested by
+Jefferson. Throughout he used "_rapporter_" instead of "_revoquer_."
+In the particular connection, the words are nearly synonymous; yet to
+the latter attaches a natural fitness and emphasis, the avoidance of
+which betrays the bias, perhaps unconscious, towards seeking escape
+from self-committal on the matter in hand. His phrases are more
+definite. July 31 he wrote, "After much reflection upon American
+affairs, I have decided that to withdraw (_rapporter_) my decrees of
+Berlin and Milan would conduce to nothing (_n'aurait aucun effet_);
+that it is better you should address a note to Mr. Armstrong, in which
+you will acquaint him that you have placed before me the details
+contained in the American gazette, ... and since he assures us it may
+be regarded as official, he may depend (_compter_) that my decrees of
+Berlin and Milan will not receive execution (_n'auront aucun effet_)
+dating from November 1; and that he should consider them as withdrawn
+(_rapportes_) in consequence of the Act of the American Congress;
+provided," etc. "This," he concludes, "seems to me more suitable than
+a decree, which would cause disturbance and would not fulfil my aim.
+This method seems to me more conformable to my dignity and to the
+serious character of the business." The Decrees, as touching the
+United States alone, were to be quietly withdrawn from action, but not
+formally revoked. They were to be dormant, yet potential. As
+convenience might dictate, it would be open to say that they were
+revoked [in effect], or not revoked [in form]. The one might, and did,
+satisfy the United States; the other might not, and did not, content
+Great Britain, against whom exclusion from the continent remained in
+force. The two English-speaking peoples were set by the ears. August 2
+the Emperor made a draft of the note to be sent to Armstrong. This
+Champagny copied almost verbatim in the declaration quoted;
+substituting, however, "_revoquer_" for "_rapporter_."
+
+It would be intolerable to attempt to drag readers through the mazes
+of analysis, and of comparison with other papers, by which the parties
+to the discussion, ignorant of the above memoranda, sought to
+establish their respective views. One thing, however, should have been
+patent to all,--that, with a man so subtle and adroit as Napoleon, any
+step in apparent reversal of a decided and cherished policy should
+have been complete and unequivocal, both in form and in terms. The
+Berlin Decree was put forth with the utmost formality with which
+majesty and power could invest it; the asserted revocation, if
+apparently explicit, was simply a paragraph in ordinary diplomatic
+correspondence, stating that revocation had taken place. If so, where
+was it? An act which undoes another, particularly if an injury, must
+correspond fully in form to that which it claims to undo. A private
+insult may receive private apology; but no private expression can
+atone for public insult or public wrong. In the appreciation of Mr.
+Madison, in 1807, so grave an outrage as that of the "Chesapeake"
+called for a special envoy, to give adequate dignity to the proffered
+reparation. Yet his followers now would have form to be indifferent to
+substantial effect. Champagny's letter, it is true, was published in
+the official paper; but, besides being in form merely a diplomatic
+letter, it bore the signature of Champagny, whereas the decree bore
+that of Napoleon. The Decree of Rambouillet, then less than six months
+old, was clothed with the like sanction. Even Pinkney, usually so
+clear-headed, and in utterance incisive, suffered himself here to be
+misled. Does England find inadequate the "manner" of the French
+Revocation? he asked. "It is precisely that in which the orders of its
+own Government, establishing, modifying, or removing blockades, are
+usually proclaimed." But the Decree of Berlin was no mere proclamation
+of a blockade. It had been proclaimed, in the Emperor's own name, a
+fundamental law of the Empire, until England had abandoned certain
+lines of action. This was policy against policy, to which the blockade
+was incidental as a method. English blockades were announced and
+withdrawn under identical forms of circular letter; but when an Order
+in Council, as that of November, 1807, was modified, as in April,
+1809, it was done by an Order in Council, not by a diplomatic letter.
+In short, Champagny's utterance was the declaration of a fact; but
+where was the fact itself?
+
+Great Britain therefore refused to recognize the letter as a
+revocation, and could not be persuaded that it was by the opinion of
+the American authorities. Nor was the form alone inadequate; the terms
+were ambiguous, and lent themselves to a construction which would
+deprive her of all benefit from the alleged revocation. She had to
+look to her own battle, which reached its utmost intensity in this
+year 1810. Except the helpless Spanish and Portuguese insurgents, she
+had not an open friend in Europe; while Napoleon, freed from all
+opponents by the overthrow of Austria in 1809, had organized against
+Great Britain and her feeble allies the most gigantic display of force
+made in the peninsula since his own personal departure thence, nearly
+two years before. The United States had plain sailing; so far as the
+letter went, the Decrees were revoked, conditional on her executing
+the law of May 1. But Great Britain must renounce the "new" principles
+of blockade. What were these principles, pronounced new by the Decree?
+They were, that unfortified ports, commercial harbors, might be
+blockaded, as the United States a half century later strangled the
+Southern Confederacy. Such blockades were lawful then and long before.
+To yield this position would be to abandon rights upon which depended
+the political value of Great Britain's maritime supremacy; yet unless
+she did so the Berlin Decree remained in force against her. The
+Decree was universal in application, not limited to the United States
+commerce, towards which Champagny's letter undertook to relax it; and
+British commerce would remain excluded from neutral continental ports
+unless Great Britain not only withdrew the Orders in Council, but
+relinquished prescriptive rights upon which, in war, depended her
+position in the world.
+
+In declining to repeal, Great Britain referred to her past record in
+proof of consistency. In the first communication of the Orders in
+Council, February 23, 1808,[326] Erskine had written, "I am commanded
+by his Majesty especially to represent to the Government of the United
+States the earnest desire of his Majesty to see the commerce _of the
+world_ restored once more to that freedom which is necessary for its
+prosperity, and his readiness to abandon the system which has been
+forced upon him, _whenever the enemy shall retract the principles_
+which have rendered it necessary." The British envoy in these
+sentences reproduced _verbatim_ the instructions he had received,[327]
+and the words italicized bar expressly the subsequent contention of
+the United States, that revocation by one party as to one nation,
+irrespective of the rest _of the world_, and that in practice only,
+not in principle, entitled the nation so favored to revocation by the
+other party. They exclude therefore, by all the formality of written
+words at a momentous instant, the singular assertion of the American
+Government, in 1811, that Great Britain had pledged herself to proceed
+"_pari passu_"[328] with France in the revocation of their respective
+acts. As far as can be ascertained, the origin of this confident
+assumption is to be found in letters of February 18 and 19, 1808,[329]
+from Madison, then Secretary of State, to Armstrong and Pinkney. In
+these he says that Erskine, in communicating the Orders,[330]
+expressed his Majesty's regrets, and "assurances that his Majesty
+would readily follow the example, in case the Berlin Decree should be
+rescinded, or would proceed _pari passu_ with France in relaxing the
+rigor of their measures." By whichever of the colloquists the
+expression was used, the contrast between this report of an interview
+and the official letter quoted sufficiently shows the snare latent in
+conversations, and the superior necessity of relying upon written
+communications, to which informal talk only smooths the way. On the
+very day of Madison's writing to Armstrong, February 18, the Advocate
+General, who may be presumed to have understood the purposes of the
+Government, was repudiating such a construction in the House of
+Commons. "Even let it be granted that there had been a public
+assurance to America that she alone was to be excepted from the
+influence of the Berlin Decree, would that have been a sufficient
+ground for us not to look further to our own interest? What! Because
+France chooses to exempt America from her injurious decrees, are we to
+consent to their continuance?"[331] Where such a contradiction
+exists, to assert a pledge from a Government, and that two years after
+Erskine's singular performance of 1809, which led to his recall, is a
+curious example of the capacity of the American Administration, under
+Madison's guidance, for putting words into an opponent's mouth. In the
+present juncture, Wellesley replied[332] to Pinkney's claim for the
+revocation of the Orders in Council by quoting, and repeating, the
+assurance of Erskine's letter of February 23, 1808, given above.
+
+Yet, unless the Orders in Council were repealed, Napoleon's
+concessions would not go far to relieve the United States. The vessels
+he would admit would be but the gleanings, after British cruisers had
+reaped the ocean field. Pinkney, therefore, had to be importunate in
+presenting the demands of his Government. Wellesley persisted in his
+method of procrastination. At last, on December 4, he wrote briefly to
+say that after careful inquiry he could find no authentic intelligence
+of the repeal, nor of the restoration of the commerce of neutral
+nations to its previous conditions. He invited, however, a fresh
+statement from Pinkney, who then, in a letter dated December 10,[333]
+argued the case at length, under the three heads of the manner, or
+form, the terms, and the practical effect of the alleged repeal.
+Having completed the argument, he took incidental occasion to present
+the views of the United States concerning the whole system of the
+Orders in Council; animadverting severely, and emphasizing with
+liberal italics. The Orders went far beyond any intelligible standard
+of _retaliation_; but it soon appeared that neutrals might be
+permitted to traffic, if they would submit with a dependence _truly
+colonial_ to carry on their trade through British ports, to pay such
+duties as the British Government might impose, and such charges as
+British agents might make. The modification of April 26, 1809, was one
+of appearance only. True, neutrals were no longer compelled to enter
+British ports; their prohibition from interdicted ports was nominally
+absolute; but it was known that by coming to Great Britain they could
+obtain a license to enter them, so that the effect was the same; and
+by forged papers this license system was so extended "that the
+commerce of _England_ could advantageously find its way to those
+ports."[334]
+
+Wellesley delayed reply till December 29.[335] He regretted the
+intrusion of these closing remarks, which might tend to interfere with
+a conciliatory spirit, but without further comment on them addressed
+himself to the main question. His Government did not find the
+"notification" of the repeal of the French Decrees such as would
+justify it in recalling the Orders in Council. The United States
+having demanded the formal revocation of the blockade of May, 1806, as
+well as of the Orders in Council, he "must conclude, combining your
+requisition with that of the French Minister, that America demands the
+revocation of that order of blockade, as a practical instance of our
+renunciation of those principles of blockade which are condemned by
+the French Government." This inference seems overstrained; but
+certainly much greater substantial concession was required of Great
+Britain than of France. Wellesley intimated that this concert of
+action was partial--not neutral--between the two belligerents. "I
+trust that the justice of the American Government will not consider
+that France, by the repeal of her obnoxious decrees, _under such a
+condition_,[336] has placed the question in that state which can
+warrant America in enforcing the Non-Intercourse Act against Great
+Britain, and not against France." He reminded Pinkney of the situation
+in which the commerce of neutral nations had been placed by many
+recent acts of the French Government; and said that its system of
+violence and injustice required some precautions of defence on the
+part of Great Britain. In conclusion, his Majesty stood ready to
+repeal, when the French Decrees should be repealed without conditions
+injurious to the maritime rights and honor of the United Kingdom.
+
+Unhappily for Pinkney's argument on the actuality of Napoleon's
+repeal, on the very day of his own writing, December 10, the American
+_charge_[337] in Paris, Jonathan Russell, was sending Champagny a
+remonstrance[338] upon the seizure of an American vessel at Bordeaux,
+under the decrees of Berlin and Milan, on December 1,--a month after
+their asserted repeal. That the Director of Customs at a principal
+seaport should understand them to be in force, nearly four months
+after the publication of Champagny's letter in the "Moniteur," would
+certainly seem to imply some defect in customary form;[339] and the
+ensuing measures of the Government would indicate also something
+misleading in the terms. Russell told Champagny that, since November
+1, the alleged day of repeal, this was the first case to which the
+Berlin and Milan Decrees could apply; and lo! to it they were applied.
+Yet, "to execute the Act of Congress against the English requires the
+previous revocation of the decrees." It was, indeed, ingeniously
+argued in Congress, by an able advocate of the Administration, that
+all the law required was the revocation in terms of the Decrees; their
+subsequent enforcement in act was immaterial.[340] Such a solution,
+however, would scarcely content the American people. The French
+Government now took a step which clearly showed that the Decrees were
+still in force, technically, however honest its purpose to hold to the
+revocation, if the United States complied with the conditions.
+Instructions to the Council of Prizes,[341] from the proper minister,
+directed that the vessel, and any others falling under the same
+category of entry after November 1, should "remain suspended" until
+after February 2, the period at which the United States should have
+fulfilled its obligation. Then they should be restored.
+
+The general trend of argument, pro and con, with the subsequent
+events, probably shook the confidence of the Administration, and of
+its supporters in Congress, in the certainty of the revocation, which
+the President had authenticated by his proclamation. Were the fact
+unimpeachable, the law was clear; non-intercourse with Great Britain
+would go into effect February 2, without further action. But the
+doubts started were so plausible that it was certain any condemnation
+or enforcement under the law would be carried up to the highest court,
+to test whether the fact of revocation, upon which the operativeness
+of the statute turned, was legally established. Even should the court
+decline to review the act of the Executive, and accept the
+proclamation as sufficient evidence for its own decision, such feeble
+indorsement would be mortifying. A supplementary Act was therefore
+framed, doing away with the original, and then reviving it, as a new
+measure, against Great Britain alone. In presenting this, the member
+charged with its introduction said: "The Committee thought proper that
+in this case the legislature should step forward and decide; that it
+was not consistent with the responsibility they owed the community to
+turn over to judicial tribunals the decision of the question, whether
+the Non-Intercourse was in force or not."[342] The matter was thus
+taken from the purview of the courts, and decided by a party vote.
+After an exhausting discussion, this bill passed at 4 A.M., February
+28, 1811. It was approved by the President, March 2.
+
+For the settlement of American litigation this course was adequate;
+not so for the vindication of international procedure. The United
+States at this time had abundant justification for war with both
+France and Great Britain, and it was within the righteous decision of
+her own policy whether she should declare against either or both; but
+it is a serious impeachment of a Government's capacity and manfulness
+when, with such questions as Impressment, the Orders in Council,
+Napoleon's Decrees, and his arbitrary sequestrations, war comes not
+from a bold grappling with difficulties, but from a series of
+huckstering attempts to buy off one antagonist or the other, with the
+result of being fairly overreached. The outcome, summarily stated, had
+been that a finesse of the French Government had attached the United
+States to Napoleon's Continental System. She was henceforth, in
+effect, allied with the leading feature of French policy hostile to
+Great Britain. It was perfectly competent and proper for her so to
+attach herself, if she saw fit. The Orders in Council were a national
+wrong to her, justifying retaliation and war; still more so was
+Impressment. But it is humiliating to see one's country finally
+committed to such a step through being outwitted in a paltry bargain,
+and the justification of her course rested, not upon a firm assertion
+of right, but upon the refusal of another nation to accept a
+manifestly unequal proposition. The course of Great Britain was
+high-handed, unjust, and not always straightforward; but it was candor
+itself alongside of Napoleon's.
+
+There remained but one step to complete the formal breach; and that,
+if the writer's analysis has been correct, resulted as directly as did
+the final Non-Intercourse Act from action erroneously taken by Mr.
+Madison's Administration. Jackson's place, vacated in November, 1809,
+by the refusal to communicate further with him, remained still
+unfilled. This delay was thought deliberate by the United States
+Government, which on May 22 wrote to Pinkney that it seemed to
+manifest indifference to the character of the diplomatic intercourse
+between the two countries, arising from dissatisfaction at the step
+necessarily taken with regard to Mr. Jackson. Should this inference
+from Wellesley's inaction prove correct, Pinkney was directed to
+return to the United States, leaving the office with a _charge
+d'affaires_, for whom a blank appointment was sent. He was, however,
+to exercise his own judgment as to the time and manner. In consequence
+of his interview with Wellesley, and in reply to a formal note of
+inquiry, he received a private letter, July 22, 1810, saying it was
+difficult to enter upon the subject in an official form, but that it
+was the Secretary's intention immediately to recommend a successor to
+Jackson. Still the matter dragged, and at the end of the year no
+appointment had been made.
+
+In other ways, too, there was unexplained delay. In April Pinkney had
+received powers to resume the frustrated negotiations committed first
+to him and Monroe. Wellesley had welcomed the advance, and had
+accepted an order of discussion which gave priority to satisfaction
+for the "Chesapeake" affair. After that an arrangement for the
+revocation of the Orders in Council should be attempted. On June 13
+Pinkney wrote home that a verbal agreement conformable to his
+instructions had been reached concerning the "Chesapeake," and that he
+was daily expecting a written overture embodying the terms. August 14
+this had not been received,--to his great surprise, for Wellesley's
+manner had shown every disposition to accommodate. Upon this situation
+supervened Cadore's declaration of the revocation of the French
+Decrees, Pinkney's acceptance of the fact as indisputable, and his
+urgency to obtain from the British Government a corresponding measure
+in the repeal of the Orders. Through all ran the same procrastination,
+issuing in entire inaction.
+
+Pinkney's correspondence shows a man diplomatically self-controlled
+and patient, though keenly sensible to the indignity of unwarrantable
+delays. The rough speaking of his mind concerning the Orders in
+Council, in his letter of December 10, suggests no loss of temper, but
+a deliberate letting himself go. There appeared to him now no
+necessity for further endurance. To Wellesley's rejoinder of December
+29 he sent an answer on January 14, 1811, "written," he said, "under
+the pressure of indisposition, and the influence of more indignation
+than could well be suppressed."[343] The questions at issue were again
+trenchantly discussed, but therewith he brought to an end his
+functions as minister of the United States. Under the same date, but
+by separate letter, he wrote that as no steps had been taken to
+replace Jackson by an envoy of equal rank, his instructions imposed on
+him the duty of informing his lordship that the Government of the
+United States could not continue to be represented in England by a
+minister plenipotentiary. Owing to the insanity of the King, and the
+delays incident to the institution of a regency, his audience of leave
+was delayed to February 28; and it is a noticeable coincidence that
+the day of this formal diplomatic act was also that upon which the
+Non-Intercourse Bill against Great Britain passed the House of
+Representatives. In the course of the spring Pinkney embarked in the
+frigate "Essex" for the United States. He had no successor until after
+the War of 1812, and the Non-Intercourse Act remained in vigor to the
+day of hostilities.
+
+On February 15, a month after Pinkney's notification of his intended
+departure, Wellesley wrote him that the Prince Regent, whose authority
+as such dated only from February 5, had appointed Mr. Augustus J.
+Foster minister at Washington. The delay had been caused in the first
+instance, "as I stated to you repeatedly," by the wish to make an
+appointment satisfactory to the United States, and afterwards by the
+state of his Majesty's Government; the regal function having been in
+abeyance until the King's incapacity was remedied by the institution
+of the Regent. Wellesley suggested the possibility of Pinkney
+reconsidering his decision, the ground for which was thus removed; but
+the minister demurred. He replied that he inferred, from Wellesley's
+letter, that the British Government by this appointment signified its
+intention of conceding the demands of the United States; that the
+Orders in Council and blockade of May, 1806, would be annulled;
+without this a beneficial effect was not to be expected. Wellesley
+replied that no change of system was intended unless France revoked
+her Decrees. The effect of this correspondence, therefore, was simply
+to place Pinkney's departure upon the same ground as the new
+Non-Intercourse Act against Great Britain.
+
+Mr. Augustus John Foster was still a very young man, just thirty-one.
+He had but recently returned from the position of minister to Sweden,
+the duties of which he had discharged[344] during a year very critical
+for the fortunes of that country, and in the event for Napoleon and
+Europe. Upon his new mission Wellesley gave him a long letter of
+instructions,[345] in which he dealt elaborately with the whole course
+of events connected with the Orders in Council and Bonaparte's Decree,
+especially as connected with America. In this occurs a concise and
+lucid summary of the British policy, which is worth quoting. "From
+this view of the origin of the Orders in Council, you will perceive
+that the object of our system was not to crush the trade of the
+continent, but to counteract an attempt to crush British trade; that
+we have endeavored to permit the continent to receive as large a
+portion of commerce as might be practicable through Great Britain, and
+that all our subsequent regulations, and every modification of the
+system, by new orders, or modes of granting or withholding licenses,
+have been calculated for _the purpose of encouraging the trade of
+neutrals through Great Britain_,[346] whenever such encouragement
+might appear advantageous to the general interests of commerce and
+consistent with the public safety of the nation,--the preservation of
+which is the primary object of all national councils, and the
+paramount duty of the Executive power."
+
+In brief, the plea was that Bonaparte by armed constraint had forced
+the continent into a league to destroy Great Britain through her
+trade; that there was cause to fear these measures would succeed, if
+not counteracted; that retaliation by similar measures was therefore
+demanded by the safety of the state; and that the method adopted was
+retaliation, so modified as to produce the least possible evil to
+others concerned. It was admitted and deplored that prohibition of
+direct trade with the ports of the league injuriously affected the
+United States. That this was illegal, judged by the law of nations,
+was also admitted; but it was justified by the natural right of
+retaliation. Wellesley scouted the view, pertinaciously urged by the
+American Government, that the exclusion of British commerce from
+neutral continental ports by the Continental System was a mere
+municipal regulation, which the United States could not resist.
+Municipal regulation was merely the cloak, beneath which France
+concealed her military coercion of states helpless against her policy.
+"The pretext of municipal right, under which the violence of the enemy
+is now exercised against neutral commerce in every part of the
+continent, will not be admitted by Great Britain; nor can we ever deem
+the repeal of the French Decrees to be effectual, until neutral
+commerce shall be restored to the conditions in which it stood,
+previously to the commencement of the French system of commercial
+warfare, as promulgated in the Decrees."
+
+Foster's mission was to urge these arguments, and to induce the repeal
+of the Non-Intercourse law against Great Britain, as partial between
+the two belligerents; who, if offenders against accepted law, were in
+that offenders equally. The United States was urged not thus to join
+Napoleon's league against Great Britain, from which indeed, if so
+supported, the direst distress must arise. It is needless to pursue
+the correspondence which ensued with Monroe, now Secretary of State.
+By Madison's proclamation, and the passage of the Non-Intercourse Act
+of March 2, 1811, the American Government was irretrievably committed
+to the contention that France had so revoked her Decrees as to
+constitute an obligation upon Great Britain and upon the United
+States. To admit mistake, even to one's self, in so important a step,
+probably passes diplomatic candor, and especially after the blunder in
+Erskine's case. Yet, even admitting the adequacy of Champagny's
+letter, the Decrees were not revoked; seizures were still made under
+them. In November, 1811, Monroe had to write to Barlow, now American
+minister to France, "It is not sufficient that it should appear that
+the French Decrees are repealed, in the _final decision_ of a cause
+brought _before a French tribunal_. An active prohibitory policy
+should be adopted _to prevent seizures_ on the principle."[347] This
+was in the midst of his correspondence with Foster. The two disputants
+threshed over and over again the particulars of the controversy, but
+nothing new was adduced by either.[348] Conditions were hopeless, and
+war assured, even when Foster arrived in Washington, in June, 1811.
+
+One thing, however, was finally settled. In behalf of his Government,
+in reparation for the "Chesapeake" affair, Foster repeated the
+previous disavowal of Berkeley's action, and his consequent recall;
+and offered to restore to the ship herself the survivors of the men
+taken from her. Pecuniary provision for those who had suffered in the
+action, or for their families, was also tendered. The propositions
+were accepted, while denying the adequacy of Berkeley's removal from
+one command to another. The men were brought to Boston harbor, and
+there formally given up to the "Chesapeake."
+
+Tardy and insufficient as was this atonement, it was further delayed,
+at the very moment of tendering, by an incident which may be said to
+have derived directly from the original injury. In June, 1810, a
+squadron of frigates and sloops had been constituted under Commodore
+John Rodgers, to patrol the coast from the Capes of the Chesapeake
+northward to the eastern limit of the United States. Its orders,
+generally, were to defend from molestation by a foreign armed ship all
+vessels of the United States within the marine league, seaward, to
+which neutral jurisdiction was conceded by international law. Force
+was to be used, if necessary, and, if the offender were a privateer,
+or piratical, she was to be sent in. So weak and unready was the
+nominal naval force of the United States, that piracy near her very
+shores was apprehended; and concern was expressed in Congress
+regarding vessels from Santo Domingo, thus converted into a kind of
+local Barbary power. To these general instructions the Secretary of
+the Navy attached a special reminder. Recalling the "Chesapeake"
+affair, as a merely exaggerated instance of the contumely everywhere
+heaped upon the American flag by both belligerents, he wrote: "What
+has been perpetrated may be again attempted. It is therefore our duty
+to be prepared and determined at every hazard to vindicate the injured
+honor of our navy, and revive the drooping spirit of the nation. It is
+expected that, while you conduct the force under your command
+consistently with the principles of a strict and upright neutrality,
+you are to maintain and support at every risk and cost the dignity of
+our flag; and that, offering yourself no unjust aggression, you are to
+submit to none, not even a menace or threat from a force not
+materially your superior."
+
+Under such reminiscences and such words, the ships' guns were like to
+go off of themselves. It requires small imagination to picture the
+feelings of naval officers in the years after the "Chesapeake's"
+dishonor. In transmitting the orders to his captains, Rodgers added,
+"Every man, woman, and child, in our country, will be active in
+consigning our names to disgrace, and even the very vessels composing
+our little navy to the ravages of the worms, or the detestable
+transmigration to merchantmen, should we not fulfil their
+expectations. I should consider the firing of a shot by a vessel of
+war, of either nation, and particularly England, at one of our public
+vessels, whilst the colors of her nation are flying on board of her,
+as a menace of the grossest order, and in amount an insult which it
+would be disgraceful not to resent by the return of two shot at least;
+while should the shot strike, it ought to be considered an act of
+hostility meriting chastisement to the utmost extent of all your
+force."[349] The Secretary indorsed approval upon the copy of this
+order forwarded to him. Rodgers' apprehension for the fate of the navy
+reflected accurately the hostile views of leaders in the dominant
+political party. Demoralized by the gunboat system, and disorganized
+and browbeaten by the loud-mouthed disfavor of representative
+Congressmen, the extinction of the service was not unnaturally
+expected. Bainbridge, a captain of standing and merit, applied at this
+time for a furlough to make a commercial voyage to China, owing to
+straitened means. "I have hitherto refused such offers, on the
+presumption that my country would require my services. That
+presumption is removed, and even doubts entertained of the permanency
+of our naval establishment."[350]
+
+The following year, 1811, Rodgers' squadron and orders were continued.
+The British admirals of adjacent stations, acting doubtless under
+orders from home, enjoined great caution upon their ships of war in
+approaching the American coast.[351] While set not to relax the Orders
+in Council, the ministry did not wish war by gratuitous offence.
+Cruising, however, continued, though charged with possibilities of
+explosion. Under these circumstances Rodgers' ship, the "President"
+frigate, and a British sloop of war, the "Little Belt," sighted each
+other on May 16, 1811, fifty miles east of Cape Henry. Independent of
+the general disposition of ships of war in troublous times to overhaul
+and ascertain the business of any doubtful sail, Rodgers' orders
+prescribed the capture of vessels of certain character, even outside
+the three-mile limit; and, the "Little Belt" making sail from him, he
+pursued. About 8 P.M., it being then full dark, the character and
+force of the chase were still uncertain, and the vessels within range.
+The two accounts of what followed differ diametrically; but the
+British official version[352] is less exhaustive in matter and manner
+than the American, which rests upon the sworn testimony of numerous
+competent witnesses before a formal Court of Inquiry.[353] By this it
+was found proved that the "Little Belt" fired the first gun, which by
+Rodgers' statement cut away a backstay and went into the mainmast. The
+batteries of both ships opened, and an engagement followed, lasting
+twelve or fifteen minutes, during which the "Little Belt," hopelessly
+inferior in force, was badly cut up, losing nine killed and
+twenty-three wounded. Deplorable as was this result, and whatever
+unreconciled doubts may be entertained by others than Americans as to
+the blame, there can be no question that the affair was an accident,
+unpremeditated. It was clearly in evidence that Rodgers had cautioned
+his officers against any firing prior to orders. There was nothing of
+the deliberate purpose characterizing the "Chesapeake" affair; yet Mr.
+Foster, with the chariness which from first to last marked the British
+handling of that business, withheld the reparation authorized by his
+instructions until he had received a copy of the proceedings of the
+court.
+
+On July 24, 1811, the President summoned Congress to meet November 4,
+a month before the usual time, in consequence of the state of foreign
+affairs. His message spoke of ominous indications; of the inflexible
+hostility evidenced by Great Britain in trampling upon rights which no
+independent nation can relinquish; and recommended legislation for
+increasing the military force. As regarded the navy, his words were
+indefinite and vague, beyond suggesting the expediency of purchasing
+materials for ship-building. The debates and action of Congress
+reflected the tone of the Executive. War was anticipated as a matter
+of course, and mentioned freely in speeches. That the regular army
+should be enlarged, and dispositions made for more effective use of
+the militia, was granted; the only dispute being about the amount of
+development. In this the legislature exceeded the President's wishes,
+which were understood, though not expressed in the message. Previous
+Congresses had authorized an army of ten thousand, of which not more
+than five thousand were then in the ranks. It was voted to complete
+this; to add twenty-five thousand more regulars, and to provide for
+fifty thousand volunteers. Doubts, based upon past experience, and
+which proved well founded, were expressed as to the possibility of
+raising so many regular troops, pledged for five years to submit to
+the restrictions of military life. It was urged that, in the
+economical conditions of the country, the class did not exist from
+which such a force could be recruited.
+
+This consideration did not apply to the navy. Seamen could be had
+abundantly from the merchant shipping, the activities of which must
+necessarily be much curtailed by war with a great naval power.
+Nevertheless, the dominance of Jefferson, though in this particular
+already shaken, remained upon the mass of his party. The new Secretary
+of the Navy was from South Carolina, not reckoned among the commercial
+states; but, however influenced, he ventured to intimate doubts as to
+the gunboat system. Of one thing there was no doubt. On a gunboat a
+gun cost twelve thousand dollars a year; the same on a frigate cost
+but four thousand.[354] In the House of Representatives, the strongest
+support to the development of the navy as a permanent force came from
+the Secretary's state, backed by Henry Clay from Kentucky, and by the
+commercial states; the leading representative of which, Josiah Quincy,
+expressed, however, a certain diffidence, because in the embittered
+politics of the day the mere fact of Federalist support tended rather
+to damage the cause.
+
+So much of the President's message as related to the navy--three
+lines, wholly non-committal--was referred to a special committee. The
+report[355] was made by Langdon Cheves of South Carolina, whose clear
+and cogent exposition of the capabilities of the country and the
+possibility of providing a force efficient against Great Britain,
+under her existing embarrassments, was supported powerfully and
+perspicuously by William Lowndes of the same state. The text for their
+remarks was supplied by a sentence in the committee's report: "The
+important engine of national strength and national security, which is
+formed by a naval force, has hitherto been treated with a neglect
+highly impolitic, or supported by a spirit so languid, as, while it
+has preserved the existence of the establishment, has had the effect
+of loading it with the imputations of wasteful expense, and
+comparative inefficiency.... Such a course is impolitic under any
+circumstances." This was the condemnation of the party's past. Clay
+found his delight in dealing with some of the oratory, which on the
+present occasion still sustained--and for the moment successfully
+sustained--the prepossessions of Jefferson. Carthage, Rome, Venice,
+Genoa, were republics with free institutions and great navies;
+Carthage, Rome, Venice, and Genoa had lost their liberties, and their
+national existence. Clearly navies, besides being very costly, were
+fatal to constitutional freedom. Not in reply to such _non sequitur_,
+but quickened by an insight which was to receive earlier vindication
+than he could have anticipated, Quincy prophesied that, amid the
+diverse and contrary interests of the several states, which the lack
+of a common object of affection left still imperfectly unified in
+sentiment, a glorious navy, identified with the whole country because
+of its external action, yet local to no part, would supply a common
+centre for the enthusiasm not yet inspired by the central government,
+too closely associated for years back with a particular school of
+extreme political thought, narrowly territorial and clannish in its
+origin and manifestation. Within a twelvemonth, the "Constitution,"
+most happily apt of all names ever given to a ship, became the
+embodiment of this verified prediction.
+
+The report of the committee was modest in its scope. "To the defence
+of your ports and harbors, and the protection of your coasting trade,
+should be confined the present objects and operations of any navy
+which the United States can, or ought, to have." To this office it was
+estimated that twelve ships of the line and twenty frigates would
+suffice. Cheves and Lowndes were satisfied that such a fleet was
+within the resources of the country; and to insure the fifteen
+thousand seamen necessary to man it, they would be willing to limit
+the number of privateers,--a most wholesome and necessary provision.
+By a careful historical examination of Great Britain's past and
+present exigencies, it was shown that such a force would most probably
+keep clear the approaches to all American ports, the most critical
+zone for shipping, whether inward or outward bound; because, to
+counteract it, the enemy would have to employ numbers so largely
+superior that they could not be spared from her European conflict. The
+argument was sound; but unhappily Cheves, Lowndes, Clay, and Quincy
+did not represent the spirit of the men who for ten years had ruled
+the country and evolved the gunboat system. These, in their day of
+power, not yet fully past, had neither maintained the fleet nor
+accumulated material, and there was no seasoned timber to build with.
+The Administration which expired in 1801 had left timber for six
+74-gun ships, of which now remained only enough for four. The rest had
+been wasted in gunboats, or otherwise. The committee therefore limited
+its recommendations to building the frigates, for which it was
+believed materials could be procured.
+
+Even in this reduced form it proved impossible to overcome the
+opposition to a navy as economically expensive and politically
+dangerous. The question was amply debated; but as, on the one hand,
+little doubt was felt about the rapid conquest of Canada by militia
+and volunteers, so, on the other, the same disposition to trust to
+extemporized irregular forces encouraged reliance simply upon
+privateering. Private enterprise in such a cause undoubtedly has from
+time to time attained marked results; but in general effect the method
+is a wasteful expenditure of national resources, and, historically,
+saps the strength of the regular navy. In the manning of inefficient
+privateers--and the majority were inefficient and ineffective--were
+thrown away resources of seamen which, in an adequate naval force,
+organized and directed as it would have been by the admirable officers
+of that period, could have accomplished vastly more in the annoyance
+of British trade,--the one offensive naval undertaking left open to
+the nation. Even with the assistance of the Federalists the provision
+for the frigates could not be carried, though the majority was
+narrow--62 to 59. The same fate befell the proposition to provide a
+dockyard. All that could be had was an appropriation of six hundred
+thousand dollars, distributed over three successive years, for buying
+timber. These votes were taken January 27, 1812, in full expectation
+of war, and only five months before it was declared.
+
+Early in April, Congress, in secret session, passed an Act of Embargo
+for ninety days, which became law on the fourth by the President's
+signature. The motive was twofold: to retain at home the ships and
+seamen of the nation, in anticipation of war, to keep them from
+falling into the hands of the enemy; and also to prevent the carriage
+of supplies indispensably necessary to the British armies in Spain.
+Both objects were defeated by the action of Quincy, in conjunction
+with Senator Lloyd of Massachusetts and Representative Emott of New
+York. Learning that the President intended to recommend the embargo,
+these gentlemen, as stated by Quincy on the floor of the House,
+despatched at once to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, expresses
+which left Washington March 31, the day before Madison's letter was
+dated. Four or five days' respite was thus secured, and the whole
+mercantile community set zealously to work to counteract the effects
+of the measure. "Niles' Register," published in Baltimore, said:
+"Drays were working night and day, from Tuesday night, March 31, and
+continued their toil till Sunday morning, incessantly. In this
+hurly-burly to palsy the arm of the Government all parties united. On
+Sunday perhaps not twenty seamen, able to do duty, could be found in
+all Baltimore." A New York paper is quoted as saying, "The property
+could not have been moved off with greater expedition had the city
+been enveloped in flames." From that port forty-eight vessels cleared;
+from Baltimore thirty-one; Philadelphia and Alexandria in like
+proportions. It was estimated that not less than two hundred thousand
+barrels of flour, besides grain in other shapes, and provisions of all
+kinds, to a total value of fifteen million dollars, were rushed out of
+the country in those five days, when labor-saving appliances were
+nearly unknown.[356]
+
+Jonathan Russell, who was now _charge d'affaires_ at London, having
+been transferred from Paris upon the arrival of Armstrong's successor,
+Joel Barlow, wrote home, "The great shipments of provisions, which
+were hurried from America in expectation of the embargo, have given
+the Peninsula a supply for about two months; and at the expiration of
+that period the harvest in that region will furnish a stock for about
+three months more.... The avidity discovered by our countrymen to
+escape from the embargo, and the disregard of its policy, have
+encouraged this Government to hope that supplies will still continue
+to be received from the United States. The ship 'Lady Madison,' which
+left Liverpool in March, has returned thither with a cargo taken in
+off Sandy Hook without entering an American port. There are several
+vessels now about leaving this country with the intention not only of
+procuring a cargo in the same way, but of getting rid, illicitly, of
+one they carry out."[357]
+
+It was, indeed, a conspicuous instance of mercantile avidity, wholly
+disregardful of patriotic considerations, such as is to be found in
+all times and in all countries; strictly analogous to the constant
+smuggling between France and Great Britain at this very time. Its
+significance in the present case, however, is as marking the
+widespread lack of a national patriotism, as distinct from purely
+local advantage and personal interests, which unhappily characterized
+Americans at this period. Of this Great Britain stood ready to avail
+herself, by extending to the United States the system of licenses, by
+which, combined with the Orders in Council, she was combating with a
+large degree of success Napoleon's Continental System. She hoped, and
+the sequel showed not unreasonably, that even during open hostilities
+she could in the same manner thwart the United States in its efforts
+to keep its own produce from her markets. Less than a fortnight after
+the American Declaration of War was received, Russell, who had not yet
+left England, wrote to the Secretary of State that the Board of Trade
+had given notice that licenses would be granted for American vessels
+to carry provisions from the United States to Cadiz and Lisbon, for
+the term of eight months; and that a policy had been issued at Lloyds
+to a New York firm, insuring flour from that port to the peninsula,
+warranted free from British capture, and from capture or detention by
+the Government of the United States.[358]
+
+The British armies were thus nourished and dependent, both in Spain
+and in Canada. The supplying of the latter scarcely fell short of
+treason, and decisively affected the maintenance of the war in that
+quarter. It is difficult to demonstrate a moral distinction between
+what was done there, disregardful of national success, in shameful
+support of the enemy, and the supplying of the peninsula; but an
+intuitive sympathy extends to the latter a tolerance which the motives
+of the individual agents probably do not deserve, and for which calm
+reason cannot give a perfectly satisfactory account. But it was the
+misfortune of American policy, as shaped by the Administration, that
+it was committed to support Napoleon in his iniquitous attack upon the
+liberties of Spain; that it saw in his success the probable fulfilment
+of its designs upon the Floridas;[359] and that its chosen ground for
+proceeding against Great Britain, rather than France, was her refusal
+to conform her action to a statement of the Emperor's, the illusory
+and deceptive character of which became continually more apparent.
+
+To declare war because of the Orders in Council was a simple,
+straightforward, and wholly justifiable course; but the flying months
+made more and more evident, to the Government and its agents abroad,
+that it was vain to expect revocation on the ground of Napoleon's
+recall of his edicts, for they were not recalled. Having entered upon
+this course, however, it seemed impossible to recede, or to
+acknowledge a mistake, the pinch of which was nevertheless felt.
+Writing to Russell, whose service in Paris, from October, 1810, to
+October, 1811, and transfer thence to London, made him unusually
+familiar, on both sides of the Channel, with the controversy over
+Champagny's letter of August 5, 1810, Madison speaks "of the delicacy
+of our situation, having in view, on the one hand, the importance of
+obtaining from the French Government confirmation of the repeal of the
+Decrees, and on the other that of not weakening the ground on which
+the British repeal was urged."[360] That is, it would be awkward to
+have the British ministry find out that we were pressing France for a
+confirmation of that very revocation which we were confidently
+asserting to them to be indisputable, and to require in good faith the
+withdrawal of their Orders. Respecting action taken under the
+so-called repeal, Russell had written on March 15, 1811, over three
+months after it was said to take effect, "By forbearing to condemn, or
+to acquit, distinctly and loyally, [the vessels seized since November
+1], this Government encourages us to persevere in our non-importation
+against England, and England to persist in her orders against us. This
+state of things appears calculated to produce mutual complaint and
+irritation, and cannot probably be long continued without leading to a
+more serious contest, ... which is perhaps an essential object of this
+country's policy."[361] July 15, he expressed regret to the Duke of
+Bassano, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, that the proceedings
+concerning captured American vessels "had been so partial, and
+confined to cases which from their peculiar circumstances proved
+nothing conclusively in relation to the revocation of the French
+Edicts."[362]
+
+Russell might have found some light as to the causes of these delays,
+could he have seen a note addressed by the Emperor to the
+Administration of Commerce, April 29. In this, renewing the reasoning
+of the Bayonne Decree, he argued that every American vessel which
+touched at an English port was liable to confiscation in the United
+States; consequently, could be seized by an American cruiser on the
+open sea; therefore, was equally open to seizure there by a French
+cruiser--the demand advanced by Canning[363] which gave such just
+offence; and if by a French cruiser at sea, likewise in a French port
+by the French Government. She was in fact no longer American, not even
+a denationalized American, but an English vessel. Under this
+supposition, Napoleon luminously inferred, "It could be said: The
+Decrees of Berlin and Milan are recalled as to the United States, but,
+as every ship which has stopped in England, or is destined thither, is
+a ship unacknowledged (_sans aveu_), which American laws punish and
+confiscate, she may be confiscated in France." The Emperor concluded
+that should this theory not be capable of substantiation, the matter
+might for the present be left obscure.[364] On September 13 the ships
+in question had not been liberated.
+
+Coincidently with his note to Bassano, Russell wrote to Monroe, "It is
+my conviction that the great object of their policy is to entangle us
+in a war with England. They therefore abstain from doing any act which
+would furnish clear and unequivocal testimony of the revocation of
+their decrees, lest it should induce the extinction of the British
+Orders, and thereby appease our irritation against their enemy. Hence,
+of all the captured vessels since November 1, the three which were
+liberated were precisely those which had not violated the
+Decrees."[365] Yet, such were the exigencies of the debate with
+England, those three cases were transmitted by him at the same time to
+the American _charge_ in London as evidence of the revocation.[366] To
+the French Minister he wrote again, August 8, "After the declarations
+of M. de Champagny and yourself, I cannot permit myself to doubt the
+revocation; ... but I may be allowed to lament that no fact has yet
+come to my knowledge of a character unequivocally and incontrovertibly
+to confirm that revocation." "That none of the captured vessels have
+been condemned, instead of proving the extinction of the edicts,
+appears rather to be evidence, at best, of a commutation of the
+penalty from prompt confiscation to perpetual detention."[367] The
+matter was further complicated by an announcement of Napoleon to the
+Chamber of Commerce, in April of the same year, that the Berlin and
+Milan Decrees were the fundamental law of the Empire concerning
+neutral commerce, and that American ships would be repelled from
+French ports, unless the United States conformed to those decrees, by
+excluding British ships and merchandise.[368] Under such conditions,
+argument with a sceptical British ministry was attended with
+difficulties. The position to which the Government had become reduced,
+by endeavoring to play off France and Great Britain against each
+other, in order to avoid a war with either, was as perplexing as
+humiliating. "Great anxiety,"[369] to which little sympathy can be
+extended, was felt in Washington as to the evidence for the actuality
+of the repeals.
+
+The situation was finally cleared up by a clever move of the British
+Cabinet, forcing Napoleon's hand at a moment when the Orders in
+Council could with difficulty be maintained longer against popular
+discontent. On March 10, 1812, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs,
+in a report to the Senate, reiterated the demands of the Decrees, and
+asserted again that, until those demands were conceded by England, the
+Decrees must be enforced against Powers which permitted their flags to
+be denationalized. The position thus reaffirmed was emphasized by a
+requirement for a large increase of the army for this object. "It is
+necessary that all the disposable forces of France be available for
+sending everywhere where the English flag, and other flags,
+denationalized or convoyed by English ships of war, may seek to
+enter."[370] No exceptions in favor of the United States being
+stated, the British ministry construed the omission as conclusive
+proof of the unqualified continuance of the Decrees;[371] and the
+occasion was taken to issue an Order in Council, defining the
+Government's position, both in the past and for the future. Quoting
+the French minister's Report, as removing all doubts of Napoleon's
+persistence in the maintenance of a system, "as inconsistent with
+neutral rights and independence as it was hostile to the maritime
+rights and commercial interests of Great Britain," the Prince Regent
+declared that, "if at any time thereafter the Berlin and Milan Decrees
+should be absolutely and unconditionally repealed, by some authentic
+act of the French Government, publicly promulgated, then the Orders in
+Council of January, 1807, and April, 1809, shall without any further
+order be, and the same are hereby declared from thenceforth to be,
+wholly and absolutely revoked."[372] No exception could be taken to
+the phrasing or form of this Order. The wording was precise and
+explicit; the time fixed was definite,--the date of the French Repeal;
+the manner of revocation was the same as that of promulgation, an
+Order in Council observant of all usual formalities.
+
+In substance, this well-timed State Paper challenged Champagny's
+letter of August 5, 1810, and the American Non-Importation Act based
+upon it. Both these asserted the revocation of the French Decrees. The
+British Cabinet, seizing a happy opportunity, asked of the world the
+production of the revocation, or else the justification of its own
+course. The demand went far to silence the growing discontents at
+home, and to embarrass the American Government in the grounds upon
+which it had chosen to base its action. It was well calculated also
+to disconcert the Emperor, for, unless he did something more definite,
+dissension would increase in the United States, where, as Barlow
+wrote, "It is well known to the world, for our public documents are
+full of it, that great doubts exist, even among our best informed
+merchants, and in the halls of Congress itself, whether the Berlin and
+Milan Decrees are to this day repealed, or even modified, in regard to
+the United States." The sentence is taken from a letter[373] which he
+addressed to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, May 1, 1812, when
+he had received the recent British Order. He pointed out how astutely
+this step was calculated to undo the effect of Champagny's letter, and
+to weaken the American Administration at the critical moment when it
+was known to be preparing for war. He urged that the French Government
+should now make and publish an authentic Act, declaring the Berlin and
+Milan Decrees, as relative to the United States, to have ceased in
+November, 1810. "Such an act is absolutely necessary to the American
+Government; and, though solicited as an accommodation, it may be
+demanded as a right. If it was the duty of France to cease to apply
+those Decrees to the United States, it is equally her duty to
+promulgate it to the world in as formal a manner as we have
+promulgated our law for the exclusion of British merchandise. She
+ought to declare and publish the non-application of these Decrees in
+the same forms in which she enacted the Decrees. The President has
+instructed me to propose and press this object."
+
+At last the demand was made which should have been enforced eighteen
+months before. After sending the letter, Barlow had "a pretty sharp
+conversation" with Bassano, in which he perceived a singular
+reluctance to answer his letter. At last the Duke placed before him a
+Decree, drawn up in due and customary form, dated a year
+before,--April 28, 1811,--declaring that "the Decrees of Berlin and
+Milan are definitively, and to date from the first day of November
+last, [1810], considered as not having existed in regard to American
+vessels."[374] This Decree, Bassano said, had been communicated to
+Russell, and also sent to Serrurier, the French minister at
+Washington, with orders to convey it to the American Government. Both
+Russell and Serrurier denied ever having received the paper.[375]
+
+Barlow made no comment upon the strange manner in which this document
+was produced to him, and confined himself to inquiring if it had been
+published. The reply could only be, No; a singular admission with
+regard to a formal paper a year old, and of such importance to all
+concerned. He then asked that a copy might be sent him. Upon receipt,
+he at once hastened it to Russell in London, by the sloop of war
+"Wasp," then lying in a French port. He wrote, "You will doubtless
+render an essential service to both Great Britain and the United
+States by communicating it without loss of time to the Foreign
+Secretary. If by this the cause of war should be removed, there is an
+obvious reason for keeping the secret, if possible, so long as that
+the "Wasp" may not bring the news to this country in any other manner
+but in your despatch. This Government, as you must long have
+perceived, wishes not to see that effect produced; and I should not
+probably have obtained the letter and documents from the Minister, if
+the Prince Regent's Declaration had not convinced this Government that
+the war was now become inevitable."[376]
+
+Russell transmitted the Decree to the British Foreign Secretary May
+20, 1812. The Government was at the moment in confusion, through the
+assassination, May 11, of Mr. Perceval, the Prime Minister; who,
+though not esteemed of the first order of statesmanship by his
+contemporaries and colleagues, had been found in recent negotiations
+the only available man about whom a cabinet could unite. A period of
+suspense followed, in which the difficulty of forming a new
+government, owing to personal antagonisms, was complicated by radical
+differences as to public policy, especially in the cardinal point of
+pursuing or relinquishing the war in the peninsula. Not till near the
+middle of June was an arrangement reached. The same ministry,
+substantially, remained in power, with Lord Liverpool as premier;
+Castlereagh continuing as Foreign Secretary. This retained in office
+the party identified with the Orders in Council, and favoring armed
+support to the Spanish revolt.
+
+The delay in settling the government afforded an excuse for postponing
+action upon the newly discovered French Decree. It permitted also time
+for reflection. Just before Perceval's death, Russell had noted a firm
+determination to maintain the Orders in Council, conditioned only by
+the late Declaration of April 21; but at the same time there was
+evident apprehension of the consequences of war with the United
+States.[377] This, he carefully explained, was due to no apprehension
+of American military power. Even Lord Grenville, one of the chief
+leaders of the Opposition, was satisfied that the United States could
+not conquer Canada. "We are, indeed, most miserably underrated in
+Europe." "It is not believed here, notwithstanding the spirited report
+of the Committee on Foreign Relations, that we shall resort to any
+definitive measures. We have indeed a reputation in Europe for saying
+so much and doing so little that we shall not be believed in earnest
+until we act in a manner not to be mistaken." "I am persuaded this
+Government has presumed much on our weakness and divisions, and that
+it continues to believe that we have not energy and union enough to
+make effective war. Nor is this confined to the ministry, but extends
+to the leaders of the Opposition." "Mr. Perceval is well known to
+calculate with confidence that even in case of war we shall be obliged
+to resort to a license trade for a supply of British manufactures."
+"He considers us incapable even of bearing the privations of a state
+of hostility with England, and much more incapable of becoming a
+formidable enemy." On March 3 Perceval in a debate in the House had
+indicated the most positive intentions of maintaining the Orders, and
+asserted that, in consequence of Napoleon's Decrees, Great Britain was
+no longer restrained by the law of nations in the extent or form of
+retaliation to which she may resort upon the enemy. "I cannot perceive
+the slightest indication of apprehension of a rupture with the United
+States, or any measure of preparation to meet such an event. Such is
+the conviction of our total inability to make war that the five or six
+thousand troops now in Canada are considered to be amply sufficient to
+protect that province against our mightiest efforts."[378] A
+revolution of sentiment was to be noted even in the minds of former
+advocates. Castlereagh, at a levee on March 12, said to Russell that
+the movements in the United States appeared to him to be nothing but
+party evolutions.
+
+There was, however, another side to the question which occasioned more
+concern to the British ministry. "It is the increasing want of our
+intercourse," wrote Russell May 9, "rather than the apprehension of
+our arms which leads to a conciliatory spirit" which he had recently
+noticed. "They will endeavor to avoid the calamity of war with the
+United States by every means which can save their pride and their
+consistency. The scarcity of bread in this country, the distress of
+the manufacturing towns, and the absolute dependency of the allied
+troops in the Peninsula on our supplies, form a check on their conduct
+which they can scarcely have the hardihood to disregard."[379] Two
+days after these words were written, the murder of Perceval added
+political anarchy to the embarrassments of the Government. The crisis
+then impending was indeed momentous. War between France and Russia was
+certain. Upon its outcome depended the fall of the Continental System,
+or its prevalence over all Europe in an extent and with a rigor never
+yet reached. "Some of the Powers of Europe," said the Emperor, "have
+not fulfilled their promise with respect to the Continental System. I
+must force them to it." In carrying this message to the Senate, the
+Minister of Foreign Affairs said: "In whatever port of Europe a
+British ship can enter there must be a French garrison to prevent
+it;"[380] an interesting commentary upon the neutral regulations to
+which the United States professed that neither she nor Great Britain
+had any claim to object, because municipal. Great Britain had already
+touched ruin too nearly to think lightly of the conditions. By her
+Orders in Council she had so retorted Napoleon's Decrees as to induce
+him, in order still further to enforce them, into the Peninsular War,
+and now into that with Russia. To uphold the latter, her busy
+negotiators, profiting by his high-handedness, had obtained for the
+Czar peace with Sweden and Turkey. More completely to sustain him, it
+was essential to support in fullest effect the powerful diversion
+which retained three hundred thousand French troops in Spain. To do
+this, the assistance of American food supplies was imperative.
+
+If peace with the United States could be maintained, the triumph of
+British diplomacy would be unqualified. The announcement of the
+alleged Decree of April 28, 1811, came therefore most opportunely to
+save their pride and self-consistency. On June 23 Castlereagh
+transmitted to Russell an Order in Council published that day,
+revoking as to the United States the celebrated Orders of January 7,
+1807, and April 26, 1809. "I am to request you," ran his letter, "that
+you will acquaint your Government that the Prince Regent's ministers
+have taken _the earliest opportunity, after the resumption of the
+Government_, to advise his Royal Highness to the adoption of a measure
+grounded upon the document communicated by you to this office on the
+20th ultimo;"[381] that is upon the Decree of April 28. No one
+affected to believe that this had been framed at the date it bore.
+"There was something so very much like fraud on the face of it," wrote
+Russell, "that in several conversations which I have since had with
+Lord Castlereagh, particularly at a dinner at the Lord Mayor's, when I
+was placed next his lordship, I have taken care not to commit the
+honor of my Government by attempting its vindication. When his
+lordship called it a strange proceeding, a new specimen of French
+diplomacy, a trick unworthy of a civilized government, I have merely
+replied that the motives or good faith of the Government which issued
+it, or the real time when it was issued, were of little importance as
+to the effect which it ought to have here; that it was sufficient that
+it contained a most precise and formal declaration that the Berlin and
+Milan Decrees were revoked, in relation to America, from November 1,
+1810."[382]
+
+This was true; but the contention of the British Government had been
+that the system of the Decrees was one whole; that its effect upon
+America could not be dissociated from that upon continental neutral
+states, where it was enforced under the guise of municipal
+regulations; and that it must be revoked as a whole, in order to
+impose the repeal of the Orders in Council. This position had been
+reaffirmed in the recent Order of April 21. Opinion will therefore
+differ as to the ministry's success in escaping, under the cover of
+the new Decree, from the dilemma in which they were placed by the
+irresistible agitation against the Orders in Council spreading through
+the nation, and the necessity of avoiding war with the United States,
+if possible, because of the affairs of the Peninsula. They made the
+best of it by alleging, as it were, the spirit of the Order of April
+21; the disposition "to take such measures as may tend to re-establish
+the intercourse between neutral and belligerent nations upon its
+accustomed principles." For this reason, while avowing explicitly that
+the tenor of the Decree did not meet the requirements of the late
+Order, the Orders in Council were revoked from August 1 next
+following; and vessels captured after May 20, the date of Russell's
+communicating the Decree, would be released. The ministry thus receded
+gracefully under compulsion; and for their own people at least saved
+their face.
+
+Superficially the British diplomatic triumph for the moment seemed
+complete. They had withdrawn their head from the noose just as it
+began to tighten; and they had done so not on any ground of stringent
+requirement, but with expressions of desire to go even farther than
+their just claims, in order to promote conciliation. Russell naturally
+felt a moment of bitter discomfiture. "In yielding, the ministers
+appear to have been extremely perplexed in seeking for a subterfuge
+for their credit. All their feelings and all their prejudices revolted
+at the idea of publicly bending to the Opposition, or truckling to the
+United States, and they were compelled to seize on the French Decree
+of April 28, 1811, as the only means of saving themselves from the
+degradation of acknowledging that they were vanquished. Without this
+decree they would have been obliged to yield, and I almost regret that
+it existed to furnish a salvo, miserable as it is, for their pride.
+Our victory, however, is still complete, and I trust that those who
+have refused to support our Government in the contest will at least be
+willing to allow it the honors of a triumph."[383]
+
+Russell wrote under the mistaken impression that the repeal of the
+Orders had come in time to save war; in which event the yielding of
+the British ministry, identified as it was with the Orders in Council,
+might be construed as a triumph for the system of peaceable coercion,
+by commercial restrictions, which formed the whole policy of Jefferson
+and Madison. The triumph claimed by him must be qualified, however, by
+the reflection that it was obtained at the expense of becoming the
+dupe of a French deception, on its face so obvious as to deprive
+mistake of the excuse of plausibility. The eagerness of the
+Government, and of its representatives abroad, for a diplomatic
+triumph, had precipitated them into a step for which, on the grounds
+taken, no justification existed; and they had since then been dragged
+at the wheels of Napoleon's chariot, in a constant dust of
+mystification, until he had finally achieved the end of his scheming
+and landed them in a war for which they were utterly unprepared, and
+which it had been the chief object of commercial reprisals to avoid.
+Thus considered, the triumph was barren.
+
+On June 1, 1812, President Madison sent to Congress a message,[384]
+reciting the long list of international wrongs endured at the hands of
+Great Britain, and recommending to the deliberations of Congress the
+question of peace or war. On June 4 the House of Representatives, by a
+vote of seventy-nine yeas to forty-nine nays, declared that a state of
+war existed between the United States and Great Britain. The bill then
+went to the Senate, where it was discussed, amended, and passed on
+June 17, by nineteen yeas to thirteen nays. The next day the House
+concurred in the Senate's amendments, and the bill thus passed
+received the President's signature immediately. The war thus began,
+formally, on June 18, 1812, five days before the repeal of the British
+Orders in Council.
+
+While the Declaration of War was still under debate, the Secretary of
+War, Eustis, on June 8 reported to the Senate that of the ten thousand
+men authorized as a peace establishment, there were in service six
+thousand seven hundred and forty-four. He was unable to state what
+number had been enlisted of the twenty-five thousand regulars provided
+by the legislation of the current session; a singular exhibition of
+the efficiency of the Department. He had no hesitation, however, in
+expressing an unofficial opinion that there were five thousand of
+these recruits. It is scarce necessary to surmise what the condition
+of the army was likely to be, with James Wilkinson as the senior
+general officer of consecutive service, and with Dearborn, a man of
+sixty, and in civil life ever since the War of Independence, as the
+first major-general appointed under the new legislation. The navy had
+a noble and competent body of officers, in the prime of life, a large
+proportion of whom had seen instructive service in the Barbary
+conflict; but, as has been seen, Congress had no faith in a navy, and
+refused it any increase. In this distrust the Administration shared.
+
+Mr. Monroe, indeed, probably through his residence abroad, had
+attained a juster view of the influence of a navy on foreign
+relations. He has already been quoted in this connection,[385] but in
+a letter to a friend, two years before 1812, he developed his opinions
+with some precision. "I gave my opinion that our naval force ought to
+be increased. In advising this, I urged that the naval force of the
+United States ought not to be regulated by reference to the navies of
+the Great Powers, but to the strength of the squadrons which they
+usually stationed in time of war on our coasts, at the mouths of great
+rivers, and in our harbors. I thought that such a force, incorporated
+permanently with our system, would give weight at all times to our
+negotiations, and by means thereof prevent wars and save money."[386]
+Monroe at this time was not in the Administration. Such a policy was
+diametrically opposed to that of Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin; and
+when war came, ships had not been provided. Under the circumstances
+the disposition of the Government was to put the ships they had under
+a glass case.
+
+"At the commencement of the war," wrote Monroe to Jefferson, "I was
+decidedly of your opinion, that the best disposition which could be
+made of our little navy would be to keep it in a body in a safe port,
+from which it might sally, only on some important occasion, to render
+essential service. Its safety, in itself, appeared an important
+object; as, while safe, it formed a check on the enemy in all
+operations along our coast, and increased proportionately his
+expense, in the force to be kept up, as well to annoy our commerce as
+to protect his own. The reasoning against this, in which all naval
+officers have agreed, is that, if stationed together in a port,--New
+York, for example,--the British would immediately block up this, by a
+force rather superior, and then harass our coast and commerce, without
+restraint, and with any force, however small. In that case a single
+frigate might, by cruising along the coast, and menacing continually
+different parts, keep in motion great bodies of militia; that, while
+our frigates are at sea, the expectation that they may be met together
+will compel the British to keep in a body, whenever they institute a
+blockade or cruise, a force equal at least to our own whole force;
+that they, [the American vessels] being the best sailors, hazard
+little by cruising separately, or together occasionally, as they might
+bring on an action, or avoid one, as they saw fit; that in that
+measure they would annoy the enemy's commerce wherever they went,
+excite alarm in the West Indies and elsewhere, and even give
+protection to our own trade by drawing the enemy's squadron from our
+own coast.... The reasoning in favor of each plan is so nearly equal
+that it is hard to say which is best."[387] It is to be hoped that the
+sequel will show which was best, although little can be hoped when
+means, military and naval, have been allowed to waste as they had
+under the essentially unmilitary Administrations since 1801.
+
+On November 25, 1811, seven months before the war began, the Secretary
+of the Treasury, Gallatin, communicated to the Senate a report on the
+State of the Finances,[388] in which he showed that since 1801, by
+economies which totally crippled the war power of the nation, the
+public debt had been diminished from $80,000,000 to $34,000,000,--a
+saving of $46,000,000, which lessened the annual interest on the debt
+by $2,000,000. A good financial showing, doubtless; but, had there
+been on hand the troops and the ships, which the saved money
+represented, the War of 1812 might have had an issue more satisfactory
+to national retrospect. Gallatin also showed, in this paper, that by
+the restrictive system, enforced against Great Britain in consequence
+of the Administration's decision that Napoleon's revocation of his
+Decrees was real, the revenue had dropped from $12,000,000 to
+$6,000,000; leaving the nation with a probable deficiency of
+$2,000,000, on the estimate of a year of peace for 1812.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[172] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 152.
+
+[173] Ibid., p. 147.
+
+[174] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 290.
+
+[175] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 488.
+
+[176] That is, as restrictive of neutral shipping.
+
+[177] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 410.
+
+[178] Wellesley, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Pinkney, Dec. 29,
+1810; also, Feb. 11, 1811. American State Papers, Foreign Relations,
+vol. iii. pp. 409, 412. See also Sir Wm. Scott, in the Court of
+Admiralty, Ibid., p. 421.
+
+[179] Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire,
+chaps. xvii., xviii.
+
+[180] Declaration of the King's reservations, Dec. 31, 1806. American
+State Papers, vol. iii. p. 152.
+
+[181] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 159.
+
+[182] Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, vol. x. p. 1274.
+
+[183] Aug. 12, 1805. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol.
+iii. p. 104.
+
+[184] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 158.
+
+[185] Jonathan Russell to the Secretary of State, Nov. 15, 1811. U.S.
+State Department MSS.
+
+[186] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 154,
+160.
+
+[187] Ibid., p. 166.
+
+[188] The British Commissioners to Monroe and Pinkney, Nov. 8, 1806.
+Ibid., p. 140.
+
+[189] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 187.
+
+[190] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 188.
+Author's italics.
+
+[191] Monroe to Madison, Aug. 4, 1807. American State Papers, Foreign
+Relations, vol. iii. p. 186.
+
+[192] That is, all vessels, including merchantmen.
+
+[193] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 183-185.
+Author's italics.
+
+[194] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 191-193.
+
+[195] American State Papers, vol. iii. pp. 199, 200.
+
+[196] American State Papers, vol. iii. p. 202. Author's italics.
+
+[197] Ibid., Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 201.
+
+[198] Ibid., p. 202.
+
+[199] Ibid., p. 203.
+
+[200] The principal part of the correspondence between Rose and
+Madison will be found in American State Papers, Foreign Relations,
+vol. iii. pp. 213-220. Rose's instructions from Canning were first
+published by Mr. Henry Adams, History of the United States, vol. iv.
+pp. 178-182. They were of a character that completely justify the
+caution of the American Government in refusing to go further without
+knowing their contents, concerning which, indeed, Madison wrote that a
+glimpse had been obtained in the informal interviews, which showed
+their inadmissibility. Madison to Pinkney, Feb. 19, 1808, U.S. State
+Department MSS.
+
+[201] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 300.
+
+[202] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 200.
+
+[203] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 243.
+
+[204] Ibid., pp. 244-245.
+
+[205] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 243.
+
+[206] Armstrong to Smith, U.S. Secretary of State, Jan. 28, 1810.
+Ibid., p. 380. Author's italics.
+
+[207] American State Papers, vol. iii. p. 380. Author's italics.
+
+[208] Barlow to Bassano, Nov. 10, 1811. U.S. State Department MSS.
+Author's italics.
+
+[209] Barlow to Monroe, Dec. 19, 1811. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[210] Feb. 22, 1808. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol.
+iii. p. 206.
+
+[211] Giles, Annals of Congress, 1808-09, pp. 123-125.
+
+[212] N.Y. Evening Post, May 12, 1808.
+
+[213] Jefferson, under date of Nov. 15, 1807, alludes to such a
+report. (Jefferson's Works, vol. v. p. 211.) Already, indeed, on Aug.
+19, 1807, an Order in Council, addressed to vessels bearing the
+neutral flags of Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, Papenburg, or Kniphausen, had
+been issued, which, though brief, imposed precisely the same
+restrictions as the later celebrated ones here under discussion.
+(Annual Register, 1807, State Papers, p. 730; Naval Chronicle, vol.
+xviii. p. 151.) The fact is interesting, as indicative of the date of
+formulating a project, for the execution of which the "Horizon"
+decision probably afforded the occasion.
+
+[214] Erskine's communication was dated Feb. 23, 1808. (American State
+Papers, vol. iii. p. 209.) Pinkney, however, had forwarded a copy of
+the Orders on November 17. (Ibid., p. 203.) Canning's letter, of which
+Erskine's was a transcript, was dated Dec. 1, 1807. (British Foreign
+Office Archives.)
+
+[215] Senator Giles of Virginia. Annals of Congress, 1808-09, p. 218.
+
+[216] The following are instances: Philadelphia, February 23. The ship
+"Venus," King, hence to the Isle of France, has returned to port.
+January 17, Lat. 25 deg. N., Long. 34 deg. W., fell in with an English
+merchant fleet of thirty-six sail, under convoy of four ships of war.
+Was boarded by the sloop of war "Wanderer," which endorsed on all her
+papers, forbidding to enter any port belonging to France or her
+allies, they all being declared in a state of blockade. Captain King
+therefore put back. (N.Y. Evening Post, Feb. 24, 1808.) Salem, Mass.,
+February 23. Arrived bark "Active," Richardson. Sailed hence for
+Malaga, December 12. January 2, Lat. 37 deg. N., Long. 17 deg. W., boarded by
+a British cruiser, and papers endorsed against entering any but a
+British port. The voyage being thus frustrated, Captain Richardson
+returned. Marblehead, February 29. Schooner "Minerva" returned, having
+been captured under the Orders in Council, released, and come home.
+Ship "George," from Amsterdam, arrived at New York, March 6, via
+Yarmouth. Was taken by an English cruiser into Yarmouth and there
+cleared. (Evening Post, March 6.)
+
+[217] N.Y. Evening Post, March 24, 1808.
+
+[218] Letter of John Quincy Adams to Harrison Gray Otis.
+
+[219] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 245.
+Author's italics.
+
+[220] Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, p. 272.
+
+[221] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 206.
+
+[222] "We expected, too, some effect from coercion of interest."
+(Jefferson to Armstrong, March 5, 1809. Works, vol. v. p. 433.) "The
+embargo is the last card we have to play short of war." (Jefferson to
+Madison, March 11, 1808. Ibid., p. 258.) "The coercive experiment we
+have made." (Monroe to John Taylor. Works, vol. v. p. 89.) "I place
+immense value on the experiment being fully made how far an Embargo
+may be an _effectual weapon_ in future, as well as on this occasion."
+(Jefferson. Works, vol. v. p. 289.) "Bonaparte ought to be
+particularly satisfied with us, by whose unyielding adherence to
+principle England has been forced into the revocation of her Orders."
+(Jefferson to Madison, April 27, 1809. Works, vol. v. p. 442.) This
+revocation was not actual, but a mistake of the British minister at
+Washington. "I have always understood that there were two objects
+contemplated by the Embargo Laws. The first, precautionary; the
+second, coercive, operating upon the aggressive belligerents, by
+addressing strong appeals to the interests of both." (Giles of
+Virginia, in Senate, Nov. 24, 1808.) "The embargo is not designed to
+affect our own citizens, but to make an impression in Europe."
+(Williams of South Carolina, in House of Representatives, April 14,
+1808.)
+
+[223] The writer, in a previous work (Sea Power in the French
+Revolution), believes himself to have shown that the losses by capture
+of British traders did not exceed two and one half per cent.
+
+[224] Letter to Otis.
+
+[225] To Thomas Paine, concerning an improved gunboat devised by him.
+Sept. 6, 1807. (Jefferson's Works, vol. v. p. 189.)
+
+[226] Jefferson's Works, vol. v. pp. 417, 426.
+
+[227] June 14, 1809. Works, vol. v. p. 455.
+
+[228] An American ship putting into England, leaky, reported that on
+Dec. 18, 1807, she had been boarded by a French privateer, which
+allowed her to proceed because bound to Holland. The French captain
+said he had captured four Americans, all sent into Passage, in Spain;
+and that his orders were to bring in all Americans bound to English
+ports. (N.Y. Evening Post, March 1, 1808.) This was under the Berlin
+Decree, as that of Milan issued only December 17. The Berlin Decree
+proclaimed the British Islands under blockade, but Napoleon for a time
+reserved decision as to the mere act of sailing for them being an
+infringement. Mr. James Stephen, in Parliament, stated that in 1807
+several ships, not less than twenty-one, he thought, were taken for
+the mere fact of sailing between America and England; in consequence,
+insurance on American vessels rose 50 per cent, from 2-1/2 to 3-3/4.
+(Parliamentary Debates, vol. xiii. p. xxxix. App.) In the Evening Post
+of March 3, 1808, will be found, quoted from a French journal, cases
+of four vessels carried into France, apparently only because bound to
+England.
+
+[229] Henry Adams's History of the United States, vol. v. p. 242.
+
+[230] "Nothing can establish firmly the republican principles of our
+government but an establishment of them in England. France will be the
+apostle for this." (Jefferson's Works, vol. iv. p. 192.) "The
+subjugation of England would be a general calamity. Happily it is
+impossible. Should invasion end in her being only republicanized, I
+know not on what principles a true republican of our country could
+lament it." (Ibid., p. 217; Feb. 23, 1798.)
+
+[231] Jefferson to Richard M. Johnson, March 10, 1808. Works, vol. v.
+p. 257.
+
+[232] London Times of August 6, quoted in N.Y. Evening Post of Oct.
+10, 1808.
+
+[233] Annals of Congress, 1808-09, p. 1032.
+
+[234] Captains' Letters, U.S. Navy Department MSS. Jan. 11, 1808.
+
+[235] Thomas Barclay's Correspondence, p. 274. Author's italics.
+
+[236] N.Y. Evening Post, Sept. 1, 1808.
+
+[237] Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, vol. xii. p. 326.
+
+[238] Life of Sir William Parker, vol. i. p. 304.
+
+[239] Barlow to Bassano, Nov. 10, 1811. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[240] N.Y. Evening Post, Feb. 18, June 30, 1808; Feb. 24, 1809.
+
+[241] Senator White of Delaware. Annals of Congress, 1808-09, p. 52.
+
+[242] Works, vol. v. p. 336.
+
+[243] "Trinidad, July 1, 1808. We have just received 15,000 barrels of
+flour from Passamaquoddy, and not a week passes but some drops in from
+Philadelphia, Norfolk, etc. Cargo of 1,000 barrels would not now
+command more than twelve dollars; a year ago, eighteen." (N.Y. Evening
+Post, July 25.)
+
+[244] N.Y. Evening Post, Jan. 17, 1809.
+
+[245] Ibid., February 6.
+
+[246] Mitchill of N.Y. Annals of Congress, 1808-09, pp. 86, 92.
+
+[247] Jefferson's Works, vol. v. pp. 298, 318.
+
+[248] N.Y. Evening Post, Aug. 31, 1808.
+
+[249] Feb. 17, 1812. Captains' Letters, U.S. Navy Department MSS.
+
+[250] American State Papers, Finance, vol. ii. p. 306.
+
+[251] With flour varying at short intervals from $30 to $18, and $12,
+a barrel, it is evident that speculation must be rife, and also that
+only general statements can be made as to conditions over any length
+of time.
+
+[252] Orchard Cook, of Massachusetts, said in the House of
+Representatives that 590 vessels sailed thus by permission. Annals of
+Congress, 1808-09, p. 1250.
+
+[253] N.Y. Evening Post, Oct. 3, 1808.
+
+[254] Ibid., Sept. 2, 1808.
+
+[255] N.Y. Evening Post, Feb. 28, 1809.
+
+[256] Ibid., Sept. 21, 1808.
+
+[257] Ibid., Dec. 8, 1808.
+
+[258] Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, vol. xii. p. 1194.
+
+[259] Lord Grenville in House of Lords. Ibid., p. 780.
+
+[260] N.Y. Evening Post, June 28, 1808.
+
+[261] Ibid., April 8.
+
+[262] Ibid., June 28.
+
+[263] Ibid., October 27. The same effect, though on a much smaller
+scale, was seen in France. Deprived, through the joint operation of
+the embargo and the Orders in Council, of colonial produce brought by
+Americans, a number of vessels were fitted out, and armed as letters
+of marque, to carry on this trade. These adventures were very
+successful, though they by no means filled the void caused by the
+absence of American carriers. See Evening Post of Dec. 29, 1808, and
+March 22 and 28, 1809. One of these, acting on her commission as a
+letter of marque, captured an American brig, returning from India,
+which was carried into Cayenne and there condemned under the Milan
+Decree. Ibid., Dec. 6, 1808.
+
+[264] N.Y. Evening Post, Nov. 23, 1808.
+
+[265] For some instances see: Annals of Congress, 1808-09, p. 428;
+N.Y. Evening Post, Feb. 5, 8, 12; May 13; Aug. 26; Sept. 27, 1808.
+Gallatin, in a report dated Dec. 10, 1808, said, "At no time has there
+been so much specie, so much redundant unemployed capital in the
+country;" scarcely a token of prosperity in so new a country.
+(American State Papers, Finance, vol. ii. p. 309.)
+
+[266] American State Papers, Finance, vol. ii. pp. 307, 373, 442. The
+second figure is an average of the two years, 1808, 1809, within which
+fell the fifteen months of embargo.
+
+[267] Ibid., p. 309 (Dec. 10, 1808).
+
+[268] "The schooner 'John,' Clayton, from La Guayra, with two hundred
+thousand pounds of coffee, has been seized at Leghorn, and it was
+expected would be condemned under the Bayonne Decree. The 'John'
+sailed from Baltimore for La Guayra, by permission, under the fourth
+supplementary Embargo Act. By some means or other she found her way to
+Leghorn, where it was vainly hoped she might safely dispose of her
+cargo." (N.Y. Evening Post, Dec. 20, 1808.) "The frigate 'Chesapeake,'
+Captain Decatur, cruising in support of the embargo, captured off
+Block Island the brig 'Mount Vernon' and the ship 'John' loaded with
+provisions. Of these the former, at least, is expressly stated to have
+cleared 'in ballast,' by permission." (Ibid., Aug. 15, 1808.)
+
+[269] Two or three quotations are sufficient to illustrate a condition
+notorious at the time. "Jamaica. Nine Americans came with the June
+fleet, (from England) with full cargoes. At first it was thought these
+vessels would not be allowed to take cargoes, (because contrary to
+Navigation Act); but a little reflection taught the Government better.
+Rum is the surplus crop of Jamaica, and to keep on hand that which
+they do not want is too much our way (_i.e._ embargo). The British
+admiral granted these vessels convoy without hesitation, which saved
+them from five to seven and one half percent in insurance." (N.Y.
+Evening Post, Aug. 2, 1808.) "Gibraltar. A large number of American
+vessels are in these seas, sailing under license from Great Britain,
+to and from ports of Spain, without interruption. Our informant sailed
+in company with eight or ten, laden with wine and fruit for England."
+(Ibid., June 30.) Senator Hillhouse, of Connecticut: "Many of our
+vessels which were out when the embargo was laid have remained out.
+They have been navigating under the American flag, and have been
+constantly employed, at vast profit." (Annals of Congress, 1808, p.
+172.)
+
+[270] "At Gibraltar, between January 1 and April 15, eight vessels
+were sent in for breach of the Orders, of which seven were condemned."
+(N.Y. Evening Post, May 25, 1808.) "Baltimore, Sept. 30. 1808. Arrived
+brig. 'Sophia' from Rotterdam, July 28, _via_ Harwich, England.
+Boarded by British brig 'Phosphorus', and ordered to England. After
+arrival, cargo (of gin) gauged, and a duty exacted of eight pence
+sterling per gallon. Allowed to proceed, with a license, after paying
+duty. In company with the 'Sophia', and sent in with her, were three
+vessels bound for New York, with similar cargoes." (Ibid., Oct. 3.)
+"American ship 'Othello,' from New York for Nantes, with assorted
+cargo. Ship, with thirty hogsheads of sugar condemned on ground of
+violating blockade;" _i.e._ Orders in Council. (Naval Chronicle, vol.
+xx. p. 62.) Besides the 'Othello' there are two other cases, turning
+on the Orders, by compliance or evasion. From France came numerous
+letters announcing condemnations of vessels, because boarded by
+British cruisers. (N.Y. Evening Post, Sept. 10, Oct. 5, Oct. 27, Dec.
+6, Dec. 10, 1808; March 17, 1809.) Proceedings were sometimes even
+more peremptory. More than one American vessel, though neutral, was
+burned or sunk at sea, as amenable under Napoleon's decrees. (Ibid.,
+Nov. 3 and Nov. 5, Dec. 10, 1808.) See also affidavits in the case of
+the "Brutus", burned, and of the "Bristol Packet", scuttled. (Ibid.,
+April 5 and April 7, 1808.)
+
+[271] Hillhouse in the Senate (Annals of Congress, 1808, p. 172), and
+Cook, of Massachusetts, in the House. "Of about five hundred and
+ninety which sailed, only eight or ten have been captured." (Ibid.,
+1808-09, p. 1250.) Yet many went to Guadaloupe and other forbidden
+French islands. At Saint Pierre, Martinique, in the middle of
+September, were nearly ninety American vessels. "Flour, which had been
+up to fifty dollars per barrel, fell to thirty dollars, in consequence
+of the number of arrivals from America." (N.Y. Evening Post, Sept. 20,
+1808.) This shows how the permission to sail "in ballast" was abused.
+
+[272] N.Y. Evening Post, Sept. 7, 1808.
+
+[273] Annals of Congress, 1808-09, p. 406.
+
+[274] N.Y. Evening Post, May 4 and 13, 1808.
+
+[275] For the text of the Act see Annals of Congress, 1808-09, pp.
+1798-1803.
+
+[276] Ibid., p. 233.
+
+[277] Giles of Virginia. Annals of Congress, 1808-09, pp. 353-381.
+
+[278] Williams of South Carolina. Annals of Congress, 1808-09, p.
+1236.
+
+[279] Nelson of Maryland. Annals of Congress, 1808-09, p. 1258.
+
+[280] Annals of Congress, 1808-09, pp. 1438-1439.
+
+[281] Monroe to Jefferson, Jan. 18 and Feb. 2, 1809. Monroe's Works,
+vol. v. pp. 91, 93-95.
+
+[282] To John Taylor, January 9. Ibid., p. 89.
+
+[283] Pinkney, in connection with these, speaks of the "expected" Act
+of Congress. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p.
+299.
+
+[284] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 299.
+
+[285] This sentence was omitted in the papers when submitted to
+Congress.
+
+[286] State Papers, p. 300.
+
+[287] February 7, 1810. American State Papers, Commerce and
+Navigation, vol. i. p. 812.
+
+[288] The correspondence between Erskine and the Secretary of State on
+this occasion is in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol.
+iii. pp. 295-297.
+
+[289] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 304-308.
+
+[290] Ibid., p. 303.
+
+[291] Ibid.
+
+[292] Ibid., p. 301.
+
+[293] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 241.
+
+[294] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 318.
+
+[295] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 308-319.
+
+[296] Author's italics.
+
+[297] See Madison's Works, vol. ii. p. 499.
+
+[298] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. 319-322.
+
+[299] The italics in this quotation (American State Papers, vol. iii.
+p. 300) are introduced by the author, to draw attention to the words
+decisive to be noted.
+
+[300] The italics are Smith's. They serve exactly, however, to
+illustrate just wherein consists the perverseness of omission (the
+words "operation of"), and the misstatement of this remarkable
+passage.
+
+[301] Secretary Smith subsequently stated that this sentence was added
+by express interposition of the President. (Smith's Address to the
+American people.)
+
+[302] Canning in his instructions to Jackson (No. 1, July 1, 1809,
+Foreign Office MSS.) wrote: "The United States cannot have _believed_
+that such an arrangement as Mr. Erskine consented to accept was
+conformable to his instructions. _If_ Mr. Erskine availed himself of
+the liberty allowed to him of communicating those instructions in the
+affair of the Orders in Council, they must have _known_ that it was
+not so." My italics.
+
+[303] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 352.
+
+[304] Writings of James Madison. Published by Order of Congress, 1865.
+Vol. ii. p. 439.
+
+[305] Ibid., p. 440. Turreau was the French minister.
+
+[306] Works of Jefferson, vol. v. pp. 442-445.
+
+[307] "When Lord Wellesley's answer speaks of the offence imputed to
+Jackson, it does not say he gave no such cause of offence, but simply
+relied on his repeated asseverations that he did not mean to offend."
+Pinkney to Madison, Aug. 13, 1810. Wheaton's Life of Pinkney, p. 446.
+
+[308] Annals of Congress, 1809-10.
+
+[309] Ibid., January 8, 1810, pp. 1164, 1234.
+
+[310] Ibid., p. 1234.
+
+[311] Annals of Congress, 1809-10, pp. 754, 755.
+
+[312] Ibid., pp. 606, 607.
+
+[313] Annals of Congress, 1810, p. 2582.
+
+[314] For Armstrong's letter and the text of the Decree, see American
+State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 384.
+
+[315] Armstrong to Champagny, March 10, 1810. American State Papers,
+Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 382.
+
+[316] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 362.
+
+[317] Ibid., p. 385.
+
+[318] Ibid.
+
+[319] The Secretary of State to Armstrong, June 5, 1810. American
+State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 385.
+
+[320] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 386.
+
+[321] Ibid., p. 387.
+
+[322] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 364.
+
+[323] Ibid., p. 365.
+
+[324] Jefferson to Madison, April 27, 1809. Works, vol. v. p. 442.
+
+[325] Correspondance de Napoleon. Napoleon to Champagny, July 31, and
+August 2, 1810, vol. xx. p. 644, and vol. xxi. p. 1.
+
+[326] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 209.
+Author's italics.
+
+[327] Canning to Erskine, Dec. 1, 1807, transmitting the Orders in
+Council of November 11. British Foreign Office MSS.
+
+[328] Monroe to Foster, Oct. 1, 1811. American State Papers, Foreign
+Relations, vol. iii. p. 445. See also, more particularly, ibid., pp.
+440, 441.
+
+[329] U.S. State Department MSS., and State Papers, vol. iii. p. 250.
+
+[330] That is, verbally, before his formal letter of February 23.
+
+[331] Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, vol. x. p. 669. A search
+through the correspondence of Canning and Erskine, as well as through
+the debates of Parliament upon the Orders in Council, January-April,
+1808, reveals nothing confirmatory of the _pari passu_ claim, put
+forth in Madison's letters quoted, and afterwards used by Monroe in
+his arguments with Foster. But in Canning's instructions to Jackson,
+July 1, 1809 (No. 3), appears a sentence which may throw some light on
+the apparent misunderstanding. "As to the willingness or ability of
+neutral nations to resist the Decrees of France, his Majesty has
+always professed ... _a disposition to relax or modify his measures of
+retaliation and self-defence in proportion as those of neutral,
+nations_ should come in aid of them and take their place." This would
+be action _pari passu_ with a neutral; and if the same were expressed
+to Erskine, it is far from incredible, in view of his remarkable
+action of 1809, that he may have extended it verbally without
+authority to cover an act of France. My italics.
+
+[332] Wellesley to Pinkney, Aug. 31, 1810. American State Papers,
+Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 366.
+
+[333] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 376.
+
+[334] The American flag was used in this way to cover British
+shipping. For instances see American State Papers, Foreign Relations,
+vol. iii. p. 342.
+
+[335] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 408.
+
+[336] Author's italics.
+
+[337] Armstrong had sailed for the United States two months before.
+
+[338] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 391.
+
+[339] Russell on November 17 wrote that he had reason to believe that
+the revocation of the Decrees had not been notified to the ministers
+charged with the execution of them. On December 4 he said that, as the
+ordinary practice in seizing a vessel was to hold her sequestered till
+the papers were examined in Paris, this might explain why the local
+Custom-House was not notified of the repeal. Russell to the Secretary
+of State, U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[340] Langdon Cheves of South Carolina. Annals of Congress, 1810-11,
+pp. 885-887.
+
+[341] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 393.
+
+[342] Annals of Congress, 1810-11, p. 990.
+
+[343] Pinkney to the Secretary of State, Jan. 17, 1811. American State
+Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 408.
+
+[344] Foster had succeeded as _charge d'affaires_ in May, 1809, by the
+departure of Merry, formerly minister to the United States. He was
+afterwards appointed minister; but in June, 1810, under pressure from
+Bonaparte, Sweden requested him to leave the country.
+
+[345] Pearce, Life and Correspondence of the Marquis Wellesley, vol.
+iii. p. 193.
+
+[346] Author's italics.
+
+[347] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 514.
+Author's italics.
+
+[348] Ibid., p. 435.
+
+[349] Rodgers to Secretary of the Navy, Aug. 4, 1810. Captains'
+Letters.
+
+[350] Bainbridge to the Secretary of the Navy, May 3, 1810. Captains'
+Letters. The case was not singular.
+
+[351] Orders of Admiral Sawyer to the Captain of the "Little Belt."
+American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 475.
+
+[352] American State Papers, vol. iii. p. 473. In the absence of the
+British admiral, the senior officer at Halifax assembled a board of
+captains which collected what his letter styles the depositions of the
+"Little Belt's" officers. Depositions would imply that the witnesses
+were sworn, but it is not so said in the report of the Board, where
+they simply "state." In the case of honorable gentlemen history may
+give equal credit in either case; but the indication would be that
+inquiry was less particular. The Board reports no question by itself;
+the "statements" are in the first person, apparently in reply to the
+request "tell all you know," and are uninterrupted by comment.
+
+[353] The proceedings of this court are printed in American State
+Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 477-497.
+
+[354] Annals of Congress, 1811-12, p. 890.
+
+[355] Dec. 17, 1811. American State Papers, Naval Affairs, vol. i. p.
+247.
+
+[356] Niles' Register, vol. ii. pp. 101-104.
+
+[357] Russell to Monroe, May 30, 1812. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[358] Russell to Monroe, August 15 and 21, 1812. U.S. State Department
+MSS.
+
+[359] See Jefferson's Works, vol. v. pp. 335, 337, 338, 339, 419,
+442-445.
+
+[360] Madison to Russell, Nov. 15, 1811. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[361] Russell to Robert Smith, March 15, 1811. U.S. State Department
+MSS.
+
+[362] Russell to the Secretary of State, July 15, 1811. Ibid.
+
+[363] Ante, p. 217.
+
+[364] Note dictee en conseil d'Administration du Commerce, April 29,
+1811. Correspondance de Napoleon, vol. xxii. p. 144.
+
+[365] Russell to Monroe, July 13, 1811. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[366] Russell to J.S. Smith, July 14, 1811. American State Papers,
+Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 447.
+
+[367] Russell to Bassano, Aug. 8, 1811. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[368] Russell to Robert Smith, April, 1811. Ibid.
+
+[369] Monroe to Russell, June 8, 1811. Ibid.
+
+[370] Reports of the Ministers of Foreign Relations and of War, March
+10, 1812. Moniteur, March 16.
+
+[371] Russell to Monroe, April 19, 1812. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[372] The copy of this Order in Council which the author is here using
+is in the Naval Chronicle, vol. xxvii. p. 466.
+
+[373] This letter, which is given in a very mutilated form in the
+American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 602, has been
+published in full by the Bureau of Historical Research, Carnegie
+Institution, Washington. Report on the Diplomatic Archives of the
+Department of State, 1904, p. 64.
+
+[374] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 603.
+
+[375] Barlow's interview with Bassano, and the letters exchanged, will
+be found in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p.
+602-603. Russell's denial is on p. 614. Serrurier's is mentioned in a
+Report made to the House by Monroe, Secretary of State, ibid., p. 609.
+
+[376] Barlow to Russell, May 10, 1812. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[377] Russell to Monroe, May 9, 1812. Ibid.
+
+[378] The passages cited above are from Russell's correspondence with
+the State Department, under the dates of January 10, February 3 and
+19, March 4 and 20, 1812. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[379] Russell to Monroe, May 9, 1812. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[380] Barlow to Monroe, March 15, 1812. Ibid. Published by Bureau of
+Historical Research, Carnegie Institution, 1904, p. 63.
+
+[381] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 433.
+Author's italics.
+
+[382] Russell to Monroe, June 30, 1812. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[383] Russell to Monroe, June 30, 1812. U.S. State Department MSS.
+
+[384] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 405.
+
+[385] Ante, p. 106.
+
+[386] To John Taylor, Sept. 10, 1810. Works of James Monroe, vol. vi.
+p. 128.
+
+[387] Monroe to Jefferson, Monroe's Works, vol. v. p. 268.
+
+[388] Annals of Congress, 1811-12, p. 2046.
+
+ [Illustration: THEATRE OF LAND AND COAST WARFARE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE THEATRE OF OPERATIONS
+
+
+War being now immediately at hand, it is advisable, for the better
+appreciation of the course of events, the more accurate estimate of
+their historical and military value, to consider the relative
+conditions of the two opponents, the probable seats of warlike
+operations, and the methods which it was open to either to pursue.
+
+Invasion of the British Islands, or of any transmarine possession of
+Great Britain--save Canada--was denied to the United States by the
+immeasurable inferiority of her navy. To cross the sea in force was
+impossible, even for short distances. For this reason, land operations
+were limited to the North American Continent. This fact, conjoined
+with the strong traditional desire, received from the old French wars
+and cherished in the War of Independence, to incorporate the Canadian
+colonies with the Union, determined an aggressive policy by the United
+States on the northern frontier. This was indeed the only
+distinctively offensive operation available to her upon the land;
+consequently it was imposed by reasons of both political and military
+expediency. On the other hand, the sea was open to American armed
+ships, though under certain very obvious restrictions; that is to say,
+subject to the primary difficulty of evading blockades of the coast,
+and of escaping subsequent capture by the very great number of
+British cruisers, which watched all seas where British commerce went
+and came, and most of the ports whence hostile ships might issue to
+prey upon it. The principal trammel which now rests upon the movements
+of vessels destined to cripple an enemy's commerce--the necessity to
+renew the motive power, coal, at frequent brief intervals--did not
+then exist. The wind, upon which motion depended, might at particular
+moments favor one of two antagonists relatively to the other; but in
+the long run it was substantially the same for all. In this respect
+all were on an equal footing; and the supply, if fickle at times, was
+practically inexhaustible. Barring accidents, vessels were able to
+keep the sea as long as their provisions and water lasted. This period
+may be reckoned as generally three months, while by watchful
+administration it might at times be protracted to six.
+
+It is desirable to explain here what was, and is, the particular
+specific utility of operations directed toward the destruction of an
+enemy's commerce; what its bearing upon the issues of war; and how,
+also, it affects the relative interests of antagonists, unequally
+paired in the matter of sea power. Without attempting to determine
+precisely the relative importance of internal and external commerce,
+which varies with each country, and admitting that the length of
+transportation entails a distinct element of increased cost upon the
+articles transported, it is nevertheless safe to say that, to nations
+having free access to the sea, the export and import trade is a very
+large factor in national prosperity and comfort. At the very least, it
+increases by so much the aggregate of commercial transactions, while
+the ease and copiousness of water carriage go far to compensate for
+the increase of distance. Furthermore, the public revenue of maritime
+states is largely derived from duties on imports. Hence arises,
+therefore, a large source of wealth, of money; and money--ready money
+or substantial credit--is proverbially the sinews of war, as the War
+of 1812 was amply to demonstrate. Inconvertible assets, as business
+men know, are a very inefficacious form of wealth in tight times; and
+war is always a tight time for a country, a time in which its positive
+wealth, in the shape of every kind of produce, is of little use,
+unless by freedom of exchange it can be converted into cash for
+governmental expenses. To this sea-commerce greatly contributes, and
+the extreme embarrassment under which the United States as a nation
+labored in 1814 was mainly due to commercial exclusion from the sea.
+To attack the commerce of the enemy is therefore to cripple him, in
+the measure of success achieved, in the particular factor which is
+vital to the maintenance of war. Moreover, in the complicated
+conditions of mercantile activity no one branch can be seriously
+injured without involving others.
+
+This may be called the financial and political effect of "commerce
+destroying," as the modern phrase runs. In military effect, it is
+strictly analogous to the impairing of an enemy's communications, of
+the line of supplies connecting an army with its base of operations,
+upon the maintenance of which the life of the army depends. Money,
+credit, is the life of war; lessen it, and vigor flags; destroy it,
+and resistance dies. No resource then remains except to "make war
+support war;" that is, to make the vanquished pay the bills for the
+maintenance of the army which has crushed him, or which is proceeding
+to crush whatever opposition is left alive. This, by the extraction of
+private money, and of supplies for the use of his troops, from the
+country in which he was fighting, was the method of Napoleon, than
+whom no man held more delicate views concerning the gross impropriety
+of capturing private property at sea, whither his power did not
+extend. Yet this, in effect, is simply another method of forcing the
+enemy to surrender a large part of his means, so weakening him, while
+transferring it to the victor for the better propagation of
+hostilities. The exaction of a pecuniary indemnity from the worsted
+party at the conclusion of a war, as is frequently done, differs from
+the seizure of property in transit afloat only in method, and as peace
+differs from war. In either case, money or money's worth is exacted;
+but when peace supervenes, the method of collection is left to the
+Government of the country, in pursuance of its powers of taxation, to
+distribute the burden among the people; whereas in war, the primary
+object being immediate injury to the enemy's fighting power, it is not
+only legitimate in principle, but particularly effective, to seek the
+disorganization of his financial system by a crushing attack upon one
+of its important factors, because effort thus is concentrated on a
+readily accessible, fundamental element of his general prosperity.
+That the loss falls directly on individuals, or a class, instead of
+upon the whole community, is but an incident of war, just as some men
+are killed and others not. Indirectly, but none the less surely, the
+whole community, and, what is more important, the organized
+government, are crippled; offensive powers impaired.
+
+But while this is the absolute tendency of war against commerce,
+common to all cases, the relative value varies greatly with the
+countries having recourse to it. It is a species of hostilities easily
+extemporized by a great maritime nation; it therefore favors one whose
+policy is not to maintain a large naval establishment. It opens a
+field for a sea militia force, requiring little antecedent military
+training. Again, it is a logical military reply to commercial
+blockade, which is the most systematic, regularized, and extensive
+form of commerce-destruction known to war. Commercial blockade is not
+to be confounded with the military measure of confining a body of
+hostile ships of war to their harbor, by stationing before it a
+competent force. It is directed against merchant vessels, and is not
+a military operation in the narrowest sense, in that it does not
+necessarily involve fighting, nor propose the capture of the blockaded
+harbor. It is not usually directed against military ports, unless
+these happen to be also centres of commerce. Its object, which was the
+paramount function of the United States Navy during the Civil War,
+dealing probably the most decisive blow inflicted upon the
+Confederacy, is the destruction of commerce by closing the ports of
+egress and ingress. Incidental to that, all ships, neutrals included,
+attempting to enter or depart, after public notification through
+customary channels, are captured and confiscated as remorselessly as
+could be done by the most greedy privateer. Thus constituted, the
+operation receives far wider scope than commerce-destruction on the
+high seas; for this is confined to merchantmen of belligerents, while
+commercial blockade, by universal consent, subjects to capture
+neutrals who attempt to infringe it, because, by attempting to defeat
+the efforts of one belligerent, they make themselves parties to the
+war.
+
+In fact, commercial blockade, though most effective as a military
+measure in broad results, is so distinctly commerce-destructive in
+essence, that those who censure the one form must logically proceed to
+denounce the other. This, as has been seen,[389] Napoleon did;
+alleging in his Berlin Decree, in 1806, that war cannot be extended to
+any private property whatever, and that the right of blockade is
+restricted to _fortified_ places, actually invested by competent
+forces. This he had the face to assert, at the very moment when he was
+compelling every vanquished state to extract, from the private means
+of its subjects, coin running up to hundreds of millions to replenish
+his military chest for further extension of hostilities. Had this
+dictum been accepted international law in 1861, the United States
+could not have closed the ports of the Confederacy, the commerce of
+which would have proceeded unmolested; and hostile measures being
+consequently directed against men's persons instead of their trade,
+victory, if accomplished at all, would have cost three lives for every
+two actually lost. It is apparent, immediately on statement, that
+against commerce-destruction by blockade, the recourse of the weaker
+maritime belligerent is commerce-destruction by cruisers on the high
+sea. Granting equal efficiency in the use of either measure, it is
+further plain that the latter is intrinsically far less efficacious.
+To cut off access to a city is much more certainly accomplished by
+holding the gates than by scouring the country in search of persons
+seeking to enter. Still, one can but do what one can. In 1861 to 1865,
+the Southern Confederacy, unable to shake off the death grip fastened
+on its throat, attempted counteraction by means of the "Alabama,"
+"Sumter," and their less famous consorts, with what disastrous
+influence upon the navigation--the shipping--of the Union it is
+needless to insist. But while the shipping of the opposite belligerent
+was in this way not only crippled, but indirectly was swept from the
+seas, the Confederate cruisers, not being able to establish a
+blockade, could not prevent neutral vessels from carrying on the
+commerce of the Union. This consequently suffered no serious
+interruption; whereas the produce of the South, its inconvertible
+wealth--cotton chiefly--was practically useless to sustain the
+financial system and credit of the people. So, in 1812 and the two
+years following, the United States flooded the seas with privateers,
+producing an effect upon British commerce which, though inconclusive
+singly, doubtless co-operated powerfully with other motives to dispose
+the enemy to liberal terms of peace. It was the reply, and the only
+possible reply, to the commercial blockade, the grinding efficacy of
+which it will be a principal object of these pages to depict. The
+issue to us has been accurately characterized by Mr. Henry Adams, in
+the single word "Exhaustion."[390]
+
+Both parties to the War of 1812 being conspicuously maritime in
+disposition and occupation, while separated by three thousand miles of
+ocean, the sea and its navigable approaches became necessarily the
+most extensive scene of operations. There being between them great
+inequality of organized naval strength and of pecuniary resources,
+they inevitably resorted, according to their respective force, to one
+or the other form of maritime hostilities against commerce which have
+been indicated. To this procedure combats on the high seas were merely
+incidental. Tradition, professional pride, and the combative spirit
+inherent in both peoples, compelled fighting when armed vessels of
+nearly equal strength met; but such contests, though wholly laudable
+from the naval standpoint, which under ordinary circumstances cannot
+afford to encourage retreat from an equal foe, were indecisive of
+general results, however meritorious in particular execution. They had
+no effect upon the issue, except so far as they inspired moral
+enthusiasm and confidence. Still more, in the sequel they have had a
+distinctly injurious effect upon national opinion in the United
+States. In the brilliant exhibition of enterprise, professional skill,
+and usual success, by its naval officers and seamen, the country has
+forgotten the precedent neglect of several administrations to
+constitute the navy as strong in proportion to the means of the
+country as it was excellent through the spirit and acquirements of its
+officers. Sight also has been lost of the actual conditions of
+repression, confinement, and isolation, enforced upon the maritime
+frontier during the greater part of the war, with the misery and
+mortification thence ensuing. It has been widely inferred that the
+maritime conditions in general were highly flattering to national
+pride, and that a future emergency could be confronted with the same
+supposed facility, and as little preparation, as the odds of 1812 are
+believed to have been encountered and overcome. This mental
+impression, this picture, is false throughout, alike in its grouping
+of incidents, in its disregard of proportion, and in its ignoring of
+facts. The truth of this assertion will appear in due course of this
+narrative, and it will be seen that, although relieved by many
+brilliant incidents, indicative of the real spirit and capacity of the
+nation, the record upon the whole is one of gloom, disaster, and
+governmental incompetence, resulting from lack of national
+preparation, due to the obstinate and blind prepossessions of the
+Government, and, in part, of the people.
+
+This was so even upon the water, despite the great names--for great
+they were in measure of their opportunities--of Decatur, Hull, Perry,
+Macdonough, Morris, and a dozen others. On shore things were far
+worse; for while upon the water the country had as leaders men still
+in the young prime of life, who were both seamen and officers,--none
+of those just named were then over forty,--the army at the beginning
+had only elderly men, who, if they ever had been soldiers in any truer
+sense than young fighting men,--soldiers by training and
+understanding,--had long since disacquired whatever knowledge and
+habit of the profession they had gained in the War of Independence,
+then more than thirty years past. "As far as American movements are
+concerned," said one of Wellington's trusted officers, sent to report
+upon the subject of Canadian defence, "the campaign of 1812 is almost
+beneath criticism."[391] Instructed American opinion must sorrowfully
+admit the truth of the comment. That of 1813 was not much better,
+although some younger men--Brown, Scott, Gaines, Macomb, Ripley--were
+beginning to show their mettle, and there had by then been placed at
+the head of the War Department a secretary who at least possessed a
+reasoned understanding of the principles of warfare. With every
+material military advantage, save the vital one of adequate
+preparation, it was found too late to prepare when war was already at
+hand; and after the old inefficients had been given a chance to
+demonstrate their incapacity, it was too late to utilize the young
+men.
+
+Jefferson, with curious insanity of optimism, had once written, "We
+begin to broach the idea that we consider the whole Gulf Stream as of
+our waters, within which hostilities and cruising are to be frowned on
+for the present, and prohibited as soon as either consent or force
+will permit;"[392] while at the same time, under an unbroken
+succession of maritime humiliations, he of purpose neglected all naval
+preparation save that of two hundred gunboats, which could not venture
+out of sight of land without putting their guns in the hold. With like
+blindness to the conditions to which his administration had reduced
+the nation, he now wrote: "The acquisition of Canada this year [1812],
+as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of
+marching."[393] This would scarcely have been a misappreciation, had
+his care for the army and that of his successor given the country in
+1812 an effective force of fifteen thousand regulars. Great Britain
+had but forty-five hundred in all Canada,[394] from Quebec to St.
+Joseph's, near Mackinac; and the American resources in militia were to
+hers as ten to one. But Jefferson and Madison, with their Secretary of
+the Treasury, had reduced the national debt between 1801 and 1812 from
+$80,000,000 to $45,000,000, concerning which a Virginia Senator
+remarked: "This difference has never been felt by society. It has
+produced no effect upon the common intercourse among men. For my part,
+I should never have known of the reduction but for the annual Treasury
+Report."[395] Something was learned about it, however, in the first
+year of the war, and the interest upon the savings was received at
+Detroit, on the Niagara frontier, in the Chesapeake and the Delaware.
+
+The War of 1812 was very unpopular in certain sections of the United
+States and with certain parts of the community. By these, particular
+fault was found with the invasion of Canada. "You have declared war, it
+was said, for two principal alleged reasons: one, the general policy of
+the British Government, formulated in the successive Orders in Council,
+to the unjustifiable injury and violation of American commerce; the
+other, the impressment of seamen from American merchant ships. What
+have Canada and the Canadians to do with either? If war you must, carry
+on your war upon the ocean, the scene of your avowed wrongs, and the
+seat of your adversary's prosperity, and do not embroil these innocent
+regions and people in the common ruin which, without adequate cause,
+you are bringing upon your own countrymen, and upon the only nation
+that now upholds the freedom of mankind against that oppressor of our
+race, that incarnation of all despotism--Napoleon." So, not without
+some alloy of self-interest, the question presented itself to New
+England, and so New England presented it to the Government and the
+Southern part of the Union; partly as a matter of honest conviction,
+partly as an incident of the factiousness inherent in all political
+opposition, which makes a point wherever it can.
+
+Logically, there may at first appear some reason in these arguments.
+We are bound to believe so, for we cannot entirely impeach the candor
+of our ancestors, who doubtless advanced them with some degree of
+conviction. The answer, of course, is, that when two nations go to
+war, all the citizens of one become internationally the enemies of the
+other. This is the accepted principle of International Law, a residuum
+of the concentrated wisdom of many generations of international
+legists. When war takes the place of peace, it annihilates all natural
+and conventional rights, all treaties and compacts, except those which
+appertain to the state of war itself. The warfare of modern
+civilization assures many rights to an enemy, by custom, by precedent,
+by compact; many treaties bear express stipulations that, should war
+arise between the parties, such and such methods of warfare are
+barred; but all these are merely guaranteed exceptions to the general
+rule that every individual of each nation is the enemy of those of the
+opposing belligerent.
+
+Canada and the Canadians, being British subjects, became therefore,
+however involuntarily, the enemies of the United States, when the
+latter decided that the injuries received from Great Britain compelled
+recourse to the sword. Moreover, war, once determined, must be waged
+on the principles of war; and whatever greed of annexation may have
+entered into the motives of the Administration of the day, there can
+be no question that politically and militarily, as a war measure, the
+invasion of Canada was not only justifiable but imperative. "In case
+of war," wrote the United States Secretary of State, Monroe, a very
+few days[396] before the declaration, "it might be necessary to invade
+Canada; not as an object of the war, but as a means to bring it to a
+satisfactory conclusion." War now is never waged for the sake of mere
+fighting, simply to see who is the better at killing people. The
+warfare of civilized nations is for the purpose of accomplishing an
+object, obtaining a concession of alleged right from an enemy who has
+proved implacable to argument. He is to be made to yield to force what
+he has refused to reason; and to do that, hold is laid upon what is
+his, either by taking actual possession, or by preventing his
+utilizing what he still may retain. An attachment is issued, so to
+say, or an injunction laid, according to circumstances; as men in law
+do to enforce payment of a debt, or abatement of an injury. If, in the
+attempt to do this, the other nation resists, as it probably will,
+then fighting ensues; but that fighting is only an incident of war.
+War, in substance, though not perhaps in form, began when the one
+nation resorted to force, quite irrespective of the resistance of the
+other.
+
+Canada, conquered by the United States, would therefore have been a
+piece of British property attached; either in compensation for claims,
+or as an asset in the bargaining which precedes a treaty of peace. Its
+retention even, as a permanent possession, would have been justified
+by the law of war, if the military situation supported that course.
+This is a political consideration; militarily, the reasons were even
+stronger. To Americans the War of 1812 has worn the appearance of a
+maritime contest. This is both natural and just; for, as a matter of
+fact, not only were the maritime operations more pleasing to
+retrospect, but they also were as a whole, and on both sides, far more
+efficient, far more virile, than those on land. Under the relative
+conditions of the parties, however, it ought to have been a land war,
+because of the vastly superior advantages on shore possessed by the
+party declaring war; and such it would have been, doubtless, but for
+the amazing incompetency of most of the army leaders on both sides,
+after the fall of the British general, Brock, almost at the opening of
+hostilities. This incompetency, on the part of the United States, is
+directly attributable to the policy of Jefferson and Madison; for had
+proper attention and development been given to the army between 1801
+and 1812, it could scarcely have failed that some indication of men's
+fitness or unfitness would have preceded and obviated the lamentable
+experience of the first two years, when every opportunity was
+favorable, only to be thrown away from lack of leadership. That even
+the defects of preparation, extreme and culpable as these were, could
+have been overcome, is evidenced by the history of the Lakes. The
+Governor General, Prevost, reported to the home government in July and
+August, 1812, that the British still had the naval superiority on Erie
+and Ontario;[397] but this condition was reversed by the energy and
+capacity of the American commanders, Chauncey, Perry, and Macdonough,
+utilizing the undeniable superiority in available resources--mechanics
+and transportation--which their territory had over the Canadian, not
+for naval warfare only, but for land as well.
+
+The general considerations that have been advanced are sufficient to
+indicate what should have been the general plan of the war on the part
+of the United States. Every war must be aggressive, or, to use the
+technical term, offensive, in military character; for unless you
+injure the enemy, if you confine yourself, as some of the grumblers of
+that day would have it, to simple defence against his efforts,
+obviously he has no inducement to yield your contention. Incidentally,
+however, vital interests must be defended, otherwise the power of
+offence falls with them. Every war, therefore, has both a defensive
+and an offensive side, and in an effective plan of campaign each must
+receive due attention. Now, in 1812, so far as general natural
+conditions went, the United States was relatively weak on the sea
+frontier, and strong on the side of Canada. The seaboard might,
+indeed, in the preceding ten years, have been given a development of
+force, by the creation of an adequate navy, which would have
+prevented war, by the obvious danger to British interests involved in
+hostilities. But this had not been done; and Jefferson, by his gunboat
+policy, building some two hundred of those vessels, worthless unless
+under cover of the land, proclaimed by act as by voice his adherence
+to a bare defensive. The sea frontier, therefore, became mainly a line
+of defence, the utility of which primarily was, or should have been,
+to maintain communication with the outside world; to support commerce,
+which in turn should sustain the financial potency that determines the
+issues of war.
+
+The truth of this observation is shown by one single fact, which will
+receive recurrent mention from time to time in the narrative. Owing
+partly to the necessities of the British Government, and partly as a
+matter of favor extended to the New England States, on account of
+their antagonism to the war, the commercial blockade of the coast was
+for a long time--until April 25, 1814--limited to the part between
+Narragansett Bay and the boundary of Florida, then a Spanish colony.
+During this period, which Madison angrily called one of "invidious
+discrimination between different parts of the United States," New
+England was left open to neutral commerce, which the British, to
+supply their own wants, further encouraged by a system of licenses,
+exempting from capture the vessels engaged, even though American.
+Owing largely to this, though partly to the local development of
+manufactures caused by the previous policy of restriction upon foreign
+trade, which had diverted New England from maritime commerce to
+manufactures, that section became the distributing centre of the
+Union. In consequence, the remainder of the country was practically
+drained of specie, which set to the northward and eastward, the
+surplusage above strictly local needs finding its way to Canada, to
+ease the very severe necessities of the British military authorities
+there; for Great Britain, maintaining her own armies in the Spanish
+peninsula, and supporting in part the alliance against Napoleon on the
+Continent, could spare no coin to Canada. It could not go far south,
+because the coasting trade was destroyed by the enemy's fleets, and
+the South could not send forward its produce by land to obtain money
+in return. The deposits in Massachusetts banks increased from
+$2,671,619, in 1810, to $8,875,589, in 1814; while in the same years
+the specie held was respectively $1,561,034 and $6,393,718.[398]
+
+It was a day of small things, relatively to present gigantic
+commercial enterprises; but an accumulation of cash in one quarter,
+coinciding with penury in another, proves defect in circulation
+consequent upon embarrassed communications. That flour in Boston sold
+for $12.00 the barrel, while at Baltimore and Richmond it stood at
+$6.50 and $4.50, tells the same tale of congestion and deficiency, due
+to interruption of water communication; the whole proving that, under
+the conditions of 1812, as the United States Government had allowed
+them to become, through failure to foster a navy by which alone coast
+defence in the true sense can be effected, the coast frontier was
+essentially the weak point. There Great Britain could put forth her
+enormous naval strength with the most sensible and widespread injury
+to American national power, as represented in the financial stability
+which constitutes the sinews of war. Men enough could be had; there
+were one hundred thousand registered seamen belonging to the country;
+but in the preceding ten years the frigate force had decreased from
+thirteen of that nominal rate to nine, while the only additions to the
+service, except gunboats, were two sloops of war, two brigs, and four
+schooners. The construction of ships of the line, for six of which
+provision had been made under the administration which expired in
+1801, was abandoned immediately by its successor. There was no navy
+for defence.
+
+Small vessels, under which denomination most frigates should be
+included, have their appropriate uses in a naval establishment, but in
+themselves are inadequate to the defence of a coast-line, in the true
+sense of the word "defence." It is one of the first elements of
+intelligent warfare that true defence consists in imposing upon the
+enemy a wholesome fear of yourself. "The best protection against the
+enemy's fire," said Farragut, "is a rapid fire from our own guns." "No
+scheme of defence," said Napoleon, "can be considered efficient that
+does not provide the means of attacking the enemy at an opportune
+moment. In the defence of a river, for instance," he continues, "you
+must not only be able to withstand its passage by the enemy, but must
+keep in your own hands means of crossing, so as to attack him, when
+occasion either offers, or can be contrived." In short, you must
+command either a bridge or a ford, and have a disposable force ready
+to utilize it by attack. The fact of such preparation fetters every
+movement of the enemy.
+
+At its very outbreak the War of 1812 gave an illustration of the
+working of this principle. Tiny as was the United States Navy, the
+opening of hostilities found it concentrated in a body of several
+frigates, with one or two sloops of war, which put to sea together.
+The energies of Great Britain being then concentrated upon the navy of
+Napoleon, her available force at Halifax and Bermuda was small, and
+the frigates, of which it was almost wholly composed, were compelled
+to keep together; for, if they attempted to scatter, in order to watch
+several commercial ports, they were exposed to capture singly by this
+relatively numerous body of American cruisers. The narrow escape of
+the frigate "Constitution" from the British squadron at this moment,
+on her way from the Chesapeake to New York, which port she was unable
+to gain, exemplifies precisely the risk of dispersion that the British
+frigates did not dare to face while their enemy was believed to be at
+hand in concentrated force. They being compelled thus to remain
+together, the ports were left open; and the American merchant ships,
+of which a great number were then abroad, returned with comparative
+impunity, though certainly not entirely without losses.
+
+This actual experience illustrates exactly the principle of coast
+defence by the power having relatively the weaker navy. It cannot,
+indeed, drive away a body numerically much stronger; but, if itself
+respectable in force, it can compel the enemy to keep united. Thereby
+is minimized the injury caused to a coast-line by the dispersion of the
+enemy's force along it in security, such as was subsequently acquired
+by the British in 1813-14, and by the United States Navy during the
+Civil War. The enemy's fears defend the coast, and protect the nation,
+by securing the principal benefit of the coast-line--coastwise and
+maritime trade, and the revenue thence proceeding. In order, however,
+to maintain this imposing attitude, the defending state must hold ready
+a concentrated force, of such size that the enemy cannot safely divide
+his own--a force, for instance, such as that estimated by Gouverneur
+Morris, twenty years before 1812.[399] The defendant fleet, further,
+must be able to put to sea at a moment inconvenient to the enemy; must
+have the bridge or ford Napoleon required for his army. Such the United
+States had in her seaports, which with moderate protection could keep
+an enemy at a distance, and from which escape was possible under
+conditions exceedingly dangerous for the detached hostile divisions;
+but although possessing these bridge heads leading to the scene of
+ocean war, no force to issue from them existed. In those eleven
+precious years during which Great Britain by American official returns
+had captured 917 American ships,[400] a large proportion of them in
+defiance of International Law, as was claimed, and had impressed from
+American vessels 6,257 seamen,[401] asserted to be mostly American
+citizens, the United States had built two sloops of 18 guns, and two
+brigs of 16; and out of twelve frigates had permitted three to rot at
+their moorings. To build ships of the line had not even been attempted.
+Consequently, except when weather drove them off, puny divisions of
+British ships gripped each commercial port by the throat with perfect
+safety; and those weather occasions, which constitute the opportunity
+of the defendant sea power, could not be improved by military action.
+
+Such in general was the condition of the sea frontier, thrown
+inevitably upon the defensive. With the passing comment that, had it
+been defended as suggested, Great Britain would never have forced the
+war, let us now consider conditions on the Canadian line, where
+circumstances eminently favored the offensive by the United States;
+for this war should not be regarded simply as a land war or a naval
+war, nor yet as a war of offence and again one of defence, but as
+being continuously and at all times both offensive and defensive, both
+land and sea, in reciprocal influence.
+
+Disregarding as militarily unimportant the artificial boundary
+dividing Canada from New York, Vermont, and the eastern parts of the
+Union, the frontier separating the land positions of the two
+belligerents was the Great Lakes and the river St. Lawrence. This
+presented certain characteristic and unusual features. That it was a
+water line was a condition not uncommon; but it was exceptionally
+marked by those broad expanses which constitute inland seas of great
+size and depth, navigable by vessels of the largest sea-going
+dimensions. This water system, being continuous and in continual
+progress, is best conceived by applying to the whole, from Lake
+Superior to the ocean, the name of the great river, the St. Lawrence,
+which on the one hand unites it to the sea, and on the other divides
+the inner waters from the outer by a barrier of rapids, impassable to
+ships that otherwise could navigate freely both lakes and ocean.
+
+The importance of the lakes to military operations must always be
+great, but it was much enhanced in 1812 by the undeveloped condition
+of land communications. With the roads in the state they then were,
+the movement of men, and still more of supplies, was vastly more rapid
+by water than by land. Except in winter, when iron-bound snow covered
+the ground, the routes of Upper Canada were well-nigh impassable; in
+spring and in autumn rains, wholly so to heavy vehicles. The mail from
+Montreal to York,--now Toronto,--three hundred miles, took a month in
+transit.[402] In October, 1814, when the war was virtually over, the
+British General at Niagara lamented to the Commander-in-Chief that,
+owing to the refusal of the navy to carry troops, an important
+detachment was left "to struggle through the dreadful roads from
+Kingston to York."[403] "Should reinforcements and provisions not
+arrive, the naval commander would," in his opinion, "have much to
+answer for."[404] The Commander-in-Chief himself wrote: "The command
+of the lakes enables the enemy to perform in two days what it takes
+the troops from Kingston sixteen to twenty days of severe marching.
+Their men arrive fresh; ours fatigued, and with exhausted equipment.
+The distance from Kingston to the Niagara frontier exceeds two hundred
+and fifty miles, and part of the way is impracticable for
+supplies."[405] On the United States side, road conditions were
+similar but much less disadvantageous. The water route by Ontario was
+greatly preferred as a means of transportation, and in parts and at
+certain seasons was indispensable. Stores for Sackett's Harbor, for
+instance, had in early summer to be brought to Oswego, and thence
+coasted along to their destination, in security or in peril, according
+to the momentary predominance of one party or the other on the lake.
+In like manner, it was more convenient to move between the Niagara
+frontier and the east end of the lake by water; but in case of
+necessity, men could march. An English traveller in 1818 says: "I
+accomplished the journey from Albany to Buffalo in October in six days
+with ease and comfort, whereas in May it took ten of great difficulty
+and distress."[406] In the farther West the American armies, though
+much impeded, advanced securely through Ohio and Indiana to the shores
+of Lake Erie, and there maintained themselves in supplies sent
+over-country; whereas the British at the western end of the lake,
+opposite Detroit, depended wholly upon the water, although no hostile
+force threatened the land line between them and Ontario. The battle of
+Lake Erie, so disastrous to their cause, was forced upon them purely
+by failure of food, owing to the appearance of Perry's squadron.
+
+From Lake Superior to the head of the first rapid of the St. Lawrence,
+therefore, the control of the water was the decisive factor in the
+general military situation. Both on the upper lakes, where water
+communication from Sault Sainte Marie to Niagara was unbroken, and on
+Ontario, separated from the others by the falls of Niagara, the
+British had at the outset a slight superiority, but not beyond the
+power of the United States to overtake and outpass. Throughout the
+rapids, to Montreal, military conditions resembled those which
+confront a general charged with the passage of any great river. If
+undertaken at all, such an enterprise requires the deceiving of the
+opponent as to the place and time when the attempt will be made, the
+careful provision of means and disposition of men for instant
+execution, and finally the prompt and decisive seizure of opportunity,
+to transfer and secure on the opposite shore a small body, capable of
+maintaining itself until the bulk of the army can cross to its
+support. Nothing of the sort was attempted here, or needed to be
+undertaken in this war. Naval superiority determined the ability to
+cross above the rapids, and there was no occasion to consider the
+question of crossing between them. Immediately below the last lay
+Montreal, accessible to sea-going vessels from the ocean. To that
+point, therefore, the sea power of Great Britain reached, and there it
+ended.
+
+The United States Government was conscious of its great potential
+superiority over Canada, in men and in available resources. So
+evident, indeed, was the disparity, that the prevalent feeling was not
+one of reasonable self-reliance, but of vainglorious self-confidence;
+of dependence upon mere bulk and weight to crush an opponent, quite
+irrespective of preparation or skill, and disregardful of the factor
+of military efficiency. Jefferson's words have already been quoted.
+Calhoun, then a youthful member of Congress, and a foremost advocate
+of the war, said in March, 1812: "So far from being unprepared, Sir, I
+believe that in four weeks from the time a declaration of war is
+heard, on our frontier, the whole of Upper Canada"--halfway down the
+St. Lawrence--"and a part of Lower Canada will be in our power." This
+tone was general in Congress; Henry Clay spoke to the same effect.
+Granting due preparation, such might indeed readily have been the
+result of a well-designed, active, offensive campaign. Little hope of
+any other result was held by the British local officials, and what
+little they had was based upon the known want of military efficiency
+in the United States. Brock, by far the ablest among them, in February
+declared his "full conviction that unless Detroit and Michilimackinac
+be both in our possession at the commencement of hostilities, not only
+Amherstburg"--on the Detroit River, a little below Detroit--"but most
+probably the whole country, must be evacuated as far as
+Kingston."[407] This place is at the foot of Ontario, close to the
+entrance to the St. Lawrence. Having a good and defensible harbor, it
+had been selected for the naval station of the lake. If successful in
+holding it, there would be a base of operations for attempting
+recovery of the water, and ultimately of the upper country. Failing
+there, of course the British must fall back upon the sea, touch with
+which they would regain at Montreal, resting there upon the navy of
+their nation; just as Wellington, by the same dependence, had
+maintained himself at Lisbon unshaken by the whole power of Napoleon.
+
+There was, however, no certainty that the Lisbon of Canada would be
+found at Montreal. Though secure on the water side, there were there
+no lines of Torres Vedras; and it was well within the fears of the
+governors of Canada that under energetic attack their forces would not
+be able to make a stand short of Quebec, against the overwhelming
+numbers which might be brought against them. In December, 1807,
+Governor General Craig, a soldier of tried experience and reputation,
+had written: "Defective as it is, Quebec is the only post that can be
+considered tenable for a moment. If the Americans should turn their
+attention to Lower Canada, which is most probable, I have no hopes
+that the forces here can accomplish more than to check them for a
+short time. They will eventually be compelled to take refuge in
+Quebec, and operations must terminate in a siege."[408] Consequent
+upon this report of a most competent officer, much had been done to
+strengthen the works; but pressed by the drain of the Peninsular War,
+heaviest in the years 1809 to 1812, when France elsewhere was at
+peace, little in the way of troops had been sent. As late as November
+16, 1812, the Secretary for War, in London, notified Governor General
+Prevost that as yet he could give no hopes of reinforcements.[409]
+Napoleon had begun his retreat from Moscow three weeks before, but the
+full effects of the impending disaster were not yet forecast. Another
+three weeks, and the Secretary wrote that a moderate detachment would
+be sent to Bermuda, to await there the opening of the St. Lawrence in
+the spring.[410] But already the United States had lost Mackinac and
+Detroit, and Canada had gained time to breathe.
+
+Brock's remark, expanded as has here been done, defines the decisive
+military points upon the long frontier from Lake Superior to Montreal.
+Mackinac, Detroit, Kingston, Montreal--these four places, together
+with adequate development of naval strength on the lakes--constituted
+the essential elements of the military situation at the opening of
+hostilities. Why? Mackinac and Detroit because, being situated upon
+extremely narrow parts of the vital chain of water communication,
+their possession controlled decisively all transit. Held in force,
+they commanded the one great and feasible access to the northwestern
+country. Upon them turned, therefore, the movement of what was then
+its chief industry, the fur trade; but more important still, the
+tenure of those points so affected the interests of the Indians of
+that region as to throw them necessarily on the side of the party in
+possession. It is difficult for us to realize how heavily this
+consideration weighed at that day with both nations, but especially
+with the British; because, besides being locally the weaker, they knew
+that under existing conditions in Europe--Napoleon still in the height
+of his power, never yet vanquished, and about to undertake the
+invasion of Russia--they had nothing to hope from the mother country.
+Yet the leaders, largely professional soldiers, faced the situation
+with soldierly instinct. "If we could destroy the American posts at
+Detroit and Michilimackinac," wrote Lieutenant-Governor Gore of Upper
+Canada, to Craig, in 1808, "many Indians would declare for us;" and he
+agrees with Craig that, "if not for us, they will surely be against
+us."[411]
+
+It was Gore's successor, Brock, that wrested from the Americans at
+once the two places named, with the effect upon the Indians which had
+been anticipated. The dependence of these upon this water-line
+communication was greatly increased by various punitive expeditions by
+the United States troops in the Northwest, under General Harrison, in
+the autumn and winter of 1812-13. To secure further the safety of the
+whites in the outer settlements, the villages and corn of the hostile
+natives were laid waste for a considerable surrounding distance.[412]
+They were thus forced to remove, and to seek shelter in the Northwest.
+This increase of population in that quarter, relatively to a store of
+food never too abundant, made it the more urgent for them to remain
+friends of those with whom it rested to permit the water traffic, by
+which supplies could come forward and the exchange of commodities go
+on. The fall of Michilimackinac, therefore, determined their side, to
+which the existing British naval command of the upper lakes also
+contributed; and these causes were alleged by Hull in justification of
+his surrender at Detroit, which completed and secured the enemy's grip
+throughout the Northwestern frontier. This accession of strength to
+the British was not without very serious drawbacks. Shortly before the
+battle of Lake Erie the British commissaries were feeding fourteen
+thousand Indians--men, women, and children. What proportion of these
+were warriors it is hard to say, and harder still how many could be
+counted on to take the field when wanted; but it is probable that the
+exhaustion of supplies due to this cause more than compensated for any
+service received from them in war. When Barclay sailed to fight Perry,
+there remained in store but one day's flour, and the crews of his
+ships had been for some days on half allowance of many articles.
+
+The opinion of competent soldiers on the spot, such as Craig and
+Brock, in full possession of all the contemporary facts, may be
+accepted explicitly as confirming the inferences which in any event
+might have been drawn from the natural features of the situation. Upon
+Mackinac and Detroit depended the control and quiet of the
+Northwestern country, because they commanded vital points on its line
+of communication. Upon Kingston and Montreal, by their position and
+intrinsic advantages, rested the communication of all Canada, along
+and above the St. Lawrence, with the sea power of Great Britain,
+whence alone could be drawn the constant support without which
+ultimate defeat should have been inevitable. Naval power, sustained
+upon the Great Lakes, controlled the great line of communication
+between the East and West, and also conferred upon the party
+possessing it the strategic advantage of interior lines; that is, of
+shorter distances, both in length and time, to move from point to
+point of the lake shores, close to which lay the scenes of
+operations. It followed that Detroit and Michilimackinac, being at the
+beginning in the possession of the United States, should have been
+fortified, garrisoned, provisioned, in readiness for siege, and placed
+in close communication with home, as soon as war was seen to be
+imminent, which it was in December, 1811, at latest. Having in that
+quarter everything to lose, and comparatively little to gain, the
+country was thrown on the defensive. On the east the possession of
+Montreal or Kingston would cut off all Canada above from support by
+the sea, which would be equivalent to insuring its fall. "I shall
+continue to exert myself to the utmost to overcome every difficulty,"
+wrote Brock, who gave such emphatic proof of energetic and sagacious
+exertion in his subsequent course. "Should, however, the communication
+between Montreal and Kingston be cut off, the fate of the troops in
+this part of the province will be decided."[413] "The Montreal
+frontier," said the officer selected by the Duke of Wellington to
+report on the defences of Canada, "is the most important, and at
+present [1826] confessedly most vulnerable and accessible part of
+Canada."[414] There, then, was the direction for offensive operations
+by the United States; preferably against Montreal, for, if successful,
+a much larger region would be isolated and reduced. Montreal gone,
+Kingston could receive no help from without; and, even if capable of
+temporary resistance, its surrender would be but a question of time.
+Coincidently with this military advance, naval development for the
+control of the lakes should have proceeded, as a discreet precaution;
+although, after the fall of Kingston and Montreal, there could have
+been little use of an inland navy, for the British local resources
+would then have been inadequate to maintain an opposing force.
+
+Considered apart from the question of military readiness, in which
+the United States was so lamentably deficient, the natural advantages
+in her possession for the invasion of Canada were very great. The
+Hudson River, Lake George, and Lake Champlain furnished a line of
+water communication, for men and supplies, from the very heart of the
+resources of the country, centring about New York. This was not indeed
+continuous; but it was consecutive, and well developed. Almost the
+whole of it lay within United States territory; and when the boundary
+line on Champlain was reached, Montreal was but forty miles distant.
+Towards Kingston, also, there was a similar line, by way of the Mohawk
+River and Lake Oneida to Oswego, whence a short voyage on Ontario
+reached the American naval station at Sackett's Harbor, thirty miles
+from Kingston. As had been pointed out six months before the war
+began, by General Armstrong, who became the United States Secretary of
+War in January, 1813, when the most favorable conditions for
+initiative had already been lost, these two lines were identical as
+far as Albany. "This should be the place of rendezvous; because,
+besides other recommendations, it is here that all the roads leading
+from the central portion of the United States to the Canadas
+diverge--a circumstance which, while it keeps up your enemy's doubts
+as to your real point of attack, cannot fail to keep his means of
+defence in a state of division."[415] The perplexity of an army, thus
+uncertain upon which extreme of a line one hundred and fifty miles
+long a blow will fall, is most distressing; and trebly so when, as in
+this case, the means of communication from end to end are both scanty
+and slow. "The conquest of Lower Canada," Sir James Craig had written,
+"must still be effected by way of Lake Champlain;" but while this was
+true, and dictated to the officer charged with the defence the
+necessity of keeping the greater part of his force in that quarter,
+it would be impossible wholly to neglect the exposure of the upper
+section. This requirement was reflected in the disposition of the
+British forces when war began; two thirds being below Montreal,
+chiefly at Quebec, the remainder dispersed through Upper Canada. To
+add to these advantages of the United States, trivial as was the naval
+force of either party on Champlain, the preponderance at this moment,
+and throughout the first year, was in her hands. She was also better
+situated to enlarge her squadrons on all the lakes, because nearer the
+heart of her power.
+
+Circumstances thus had determined that, in general plan, the seaboard
+represented the defensive scene of campaign for the United States,
+while the land frontier should be that of offensive action. It will be
+seen, with particular reference to the latter, that the character of
+the front of operations prescribed the offensive in great and
+concentrated force toward the St. Lawrence, with preparations and
+demonstrations framed to keep the enemy doubtful to the last possible
+moment as to where the blow should fall; while on the western
+frontier, from Michilimackinac to Niagara, the defensive should have
+been maintained, qualifying this term, however, by the already quoted
+maxim of Napoleon, that no offensive disposition is complete which
+does not keep in view, and provide for, offensive action, if
+opportunity offer. Such readiness, if it leads to no more, at least
+compels the opponent to retain near by a degree of force that weakens
+by so much his resistance in the other quarter, against which the real
+offensive campaign is directed.
+
+Similarly, the seaboard, defensive in general relation to the national
+plan as a whole, must have its own particular sphere of offensive
+action, without which its defensive function is enfeebled, if not
+paralyzed. Having failed to create before the war a competent navy,
+capable of seizing opportunity, when offered, to act against hostile
+divisions throughout the world, it was not possible afterwards to
+retrieve this mistake. Under the circumstances existing in 1812, the
+previous decade having been allowed by the country to pass in absolute
+naval indifference, offensive measures were necessarily confined to
+the injury of the enemy's commerce. Had a proper force existed,
+abundant opportunity for more military action was sure to occur. The
+characteristics of parts of the American coast prevented close
+blockade, especially in winter; and the same violent winds which
+forced an enemy's ships off, facilitated egress under circumstances
+favoring evasion. Escape to the illimitable ocean then depended at
+worst upon speed. This was the case at Boston, which Commodore
+Bainbridge before the war predicted could not be effectually
+blockaded; also at Narragansett, recommended for the same reason by
+Commodore John Rodgers; and in measure at New York, though there the
+more difficult and shoaler bar involved danger and delay to the
+passage of heavy frigates. In this respect the British encountered
+conditions contrary to those they had know before the French Atlantic
+ports, where the wind which drove the blockaders off prevented the
+blockaded from leaving. Once out and away, a squadron of respectable
+force would be at liberty to seek and strike one of the minor
+divisions of the enemy, imposing caution as to how he dispersed his
+ships in face of such a chance. To the south, both the Delaware and
+Chesapeake could be sealed almost hermetically by a navy so superior
+as was that of Great Britain; for the sheltered anchorage within
+enabled a fleet to lie with perfect safety across the path of all
+vessels attempting to go out or in. South of this again, Wilmington,
+Charleston, and Savannah, though useful commercial harbors, had not
+the facilities, natural or acquired, for sustaining a military navy.
+They were not maritime centres; the commerce of the South, even of
+Baltimore with its famous schooners, being in peace carried on chiefly
+by shipping which belonged elsewhere--New England or foreign. The
+necessities of a number of armed ships could not there be supplied;
+and furthermore, the comparatively moderate weather made the coast at
+once more easy and less dangerous for an enemy to approach. These
+ports, therefore, were entered only occasionally, and then by the
+smaller American cruisers.
+
+For these reasons the northern portion of the coast, with its rugged
+shores and tempestuous weather, was the base of such offensive
+operations as the diminutive numbers of the United States Navy
+permitted. To it the national ships sought to return, for they could
+enter with greater security, and had better prospects of getting out
+again when they wished. In the Delaware, the Chesapeake, and on the
+Southern coast, the efforts of the United States were limited to
+action strictly, and even narrowly, defensive in scope. Occasionally,
+a very small enemy's cruiser might be attacked; but for the most part
+people were content merely to resist aggression, if attempted. The
+harrying of the Chesapeake, and to a less extent of the Delaware, are
+familiar stories; the total destruction of the coasting trade and the
+consequent widespread distress are less known, or less remembered.
+What is not at all appreciated is the deterrent effect upon the
+perfect liberty enjoyed by the enemy to do as they pleased, which
+would have been exercised by a respectable fighting navy; by a force
+in the Northern ports, equal to the offensive, and ready for it, at
+the time that Great Britain was so grievously preoccupied by the
+numerous fleet which Napoleon had succeeded in equipping, from Antwerp
+round to Venice. Of course, after his abdication in 1814, and the
+release of the British navy and army, there was nothing for the
+country to do, in the then military strength of the two nations, save
+to make peace on the best terms attainable. Having allowed to pass
+away, unresented and unimproved, years of insult, injury, and
+opportunity, during which the gigantic power of Napoleon would have
+been a substantial, if inert, support to its own efforts at redress,
+it was the mishap of the United States Government to take up arms at
+the very moment when the great burden which her enemy had been bearing
+for years was about to fall from his shoulders forever.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[389] Ante, p. 144.
+
+[390] Adams, History of the United States, vol. viii. chap. viii.
+
+[391] Sir J. Carmichael Smyth, Precis of Wars in Canada, p. 116.
+
+[392] To Monroe, May 4, 1806. Jefferson's Writings, Collected and
+Edited by P.L. Ford, vol. viii. p. 450.
+
+[393] Ibid., vol. vi. p. 75.
+
+[394] Kingsford's History of Canada, vol. viii. p. 183. The author is
+indebted to Major General Sir F. Maurice, and Major G. Le M. Gretton,
+of the British Army, for extracts from the official records, from
+which it appears that, excluding provincial corps, not to be accounted
+regulars, the British troops in Canada numbered in January, 1812,
+3,952; in July, 5,004.
+
+[395] Giles, Annals of Congress, 1811-12, p. 51.
+
+[396] June 13, 1812. Works of James Monroe, vol. v. p. 207.
+
+[397] Prevost to Liverpool, July 15, 1812. Canadian Archives, Q. 118.
+
+[398] Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 195.
+
+[399] Ante, p. 71.
+
+[400] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 584.
+
+[401] Niles' Register, vol. ii. p. 119. "Official Returns in the
+Department of State" are alleged as authority for the statement.
+Monroe to Foster, May 30, 1812, mentions "a list in this office of
+several thousand American seamen who have been impressed into the
+British service." American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii.
+p. 454.
+
+[402] Kingsford's History of Canada, vol. viii. p. 111.
+
+[403] Drummond to Prevost, Oct. 20, 1814. Report on Canadian Archives,
+1896, Upper Canada, p. 9.
+
+[404] Ibid., Oct. 15.
+
+[405] Prevost to Bathurst, Aug. 14, 1814. Report on Canadian Archives,
+1896, Lower Canada, p. 36.
+
+[406] Travels, J.M. Duncan, vol. ii. p. 27.
+
+[407] Life of Sir Isaac Brock, p. 127.
+
+[408] Report on Canadian Archives, 1893, Lower Canada, p. 1.
+
+[409] Ibid., p. 75.
+
+[410] Ibid.
+
+[411] Report on Canadian Archives, 1893, Lower Canada, p. 3.
+
+[412] Brackenridge, War of 1812, pp. 57, 63, 65, 66.
+
+[413] Life of Brock, p. 193.
+
+[414] Smyth, Precis of the Wars in Canada, p. 167.
+
+[415] Armstrong to Eustis, Jan. 2, 1812. Armstrong's Notices of the
+War of 1812, vol. i, p. 238.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+EARLY CRUISES AND ENGAGEMENTS: THE "CONSTITUTION" AND
+"GUERRIERE." HULL'S OPERATIONS AND SURRENDER
+
+
+War was declared on June 18. On the 21st there was lying in the lower
+harbor of New York a division of five United States vessels under the
+command of Commodore John Rodgers. It consisted of three frigates, the
+"President" and "United States," rated of 44 guns, the "Congress" of
+38, the ship-rigged sloop of war "Hornet" of 18, and the brig "Argus"
+of 16. This division, as it stood, was composed of two squadrons; that
+of Rodgers himself, and that of Commodore Stephen Decatur, the latter
+having assigned to him immediately the "United States," the
+"Congress," and the "Argus." There belonged also to Rodgers'
+particular squadron the "Essex," a frigate rated at 32 guns. Captain
+David Porter, one of the most distinguished names in American naval
+annals, commanded her then, and until her capture by a much superior
+force, nearly two years later; but at this moment she was undergoing
+repairs, a circumstance which prevented her from accompanying the
+other vessels, and materially affected her subsequent history.
+
+It may be mentioned, as an indication of naval policy, that although
+Rodgers and Decatur each had more than one vessel under his control,
+neither was given the further privilege and distinction, frequent in
+such cases, of having a captain to command the particular ship on
+which he himself sailed. This, when done, introduces a very
+substantial change in the position of the officer affected. He is
+removed from being only first among several equals, and is advanced to
+a superiority of grade, in which he stands alone, with consequent
+enhancement of authority. Rodgers was captain of the "President" as
+well as commodore of the small body of vessels assigned to him;
+Decatur held the same relation to the frigate "United States," and to
+her consorts. Though apparently trivial, the circumstance is not
+insignificant; for it indicates clearly that, so far as the Navy
+Department then had any mind, it had not yet made it up as to whether
+it would send out its vessels as single cruisers, or combine them into
+divisions, for the one operation open to the United States Navy,
+namely, the destruction of the enemy's commerce. With divisions
+permanently constituted as such, propriety and effective action would
+have required the additional dignity for the officer in general
+charge, and they themselves doubtless would have asked for it; but for
+ships temporarily associated, and liable at any moment to be
+scattered, not only was the simple seniority of naval rank sufficient,
+but more would have been inexpedient. The commodores, now such only by
+courtesy and temporary circumstance, would suffer no derogation if
+deprived of ships other than their own; whereas the more extensive
+function, similarly curtailed, would become a mere empty show, a
+humiliation which no office, civil or military, can undergo without
+harm.
+
+This indecision of the Department reflected the varying opinions of
+the higher officers of the service, which in turn but reproduced
+different schools of thought throughout all navies. Historically, as a
+military operation, for the injury of an enemy's commerce and the
+protection of one's own, it may be considered fairly demonstrated that
+vessels grouped do more effective work than the same number scattered.
+This is, of course, but to repeat the general military teaching of
+operations of all kinds. It is not the keeping of the several vessels
+side by side that constitutes the virtue of this disposition; it is
+the placing them under a single head, thereby insuring co-operation,
+however widely dispersed by their common chief under the emergency of
+successive moments. Like a fan that opens and shuts, vessels thus
+organically bound together possess the power of wide sweep, which
+insures exertion over a great field of ocean, and at the same time
+that of mutual support, because dependent upon and controlled from a
+common centre. Such is concentration, reasonably understood; not
+huddled together like a drove of cattle, but distributed with a regard
+to a common purpose, and linked together by the effectual energy of a
+single will.
+
+There is, however, in the human mind an inveterate tendency to
+dispersion of effort, due apparently to the wish to do at once as many
+things as may be; a disposition also to take as many chances as
+possible in an apparent lottery, with the more hope that some one of
+them will come up successful. Not an aggregate big result, and one
+only, whether hit or miss, but a division of resources and powers
+which shall insure possible compensation in one direction for what is
+not gained, or may even be lost, in another. The Navy Department, when
+hostilities were imminent, addressed inquiries to several prominent
+officers as to the best means of employing the very small total force
+available. The question involved the direction of effort, as well as
+the method; but as regards the former of these, the general routes
+followed by British commerce, and the modes of protecting it, were so
+far understood as to leave not much room for differences of opinion.
+
+Rodgers may have been unconsciously swayed by the natural bias of an
+officer whose seniority would insure him a division, if the
+single-cruiser policy did not prevail. Of the replies given, however,
+his certainly was the one most consonant with sound military
+views.[416] Send a small squadron, of two or three frigates and a
+sloop, to cruise on the coast of the British Islands, and send the
+light cruisers to the West Indies; for, though he did not express it,
+in the gentle breezes and smooth seas of the tropics small cruisers
+have a much better chance to avoid capture by big ships than in the
+heavy gales of the North Atlantic. This much may be termed the
+distinctly offensive part of Rodgers' project. For the defensive,
+employ the remainder of the frigates, singly or in squadron, to guard
+our own seaboard; either directly, by remaining off the coast, or by
+taking position in the track of the trade between Great Britain and
+the St. Lawrence. Irrespective of direct captures there made, this
+course would contribute to protect the access to home ports, by
+drawing away the enemy's ships of war to cover their own threatened
+commerce. Alike in the size of his foreign squadron, and in the touch
+of uncertainty as to our own coasts, "singly or in squadron," Rodgers
+reflected the embarrassment of a man whose means are utterly
+inadequate to the work he wishes to do. One does not need to be a
+soldier or a seaman to comprehend the difficulty of making ends meet
+when there is not enough to go round.
+
+Decatur and Bainbridge, whose written opinions are preserved, held
+views greatly modified from those of Rodgers, or even distinctly
+opposed to them. "The plan which appears to me best calculated for our
+little navy to annoy the trade of Great Britain," wrote Decatur,[417]
+"would be to send them out distant from our own coast, singly, or not
+more than two frigates in company, without specific instructions;
+relying upon the enterprise of their officers. Two frigates cruising
+together would not be so easily traced by an enemy as a greater
+number; their movements would be infinitely more rapid; they would be
+sufficiently strong in most instances to attack a convoy, and the
+probability is they would not meet with a superior cruising force. If,
+however, they should meet a superior, and cannot avoid it, we would
+not have to regret the whole of our marine crushed at one blow."
+Bainbridge is yet more absolute. "I am anxious to see us all dispersed
+about various seas. If we are kept together in squadron, or lying in
+port, the whole are scarcely of more advantage than one ship. I wish
+all our public vessels here [Boston] were dispersed in various ports,
+for I apprehend it will draw speedily a numerous force of the enemy to
+blockade or attack."[418] At the moment of writing this, Rodgers'
+squadron was in Boston, having returned from a cruise, and the
+"Constitution" also, immediately after her engagement with the
+"Guerriere."
+
+It will be observed that, in spirit even more than in letter, Rodgers'
+leading conception is that of co-operation, combined action. First, he
+would have a Department general plan, embracing in a comprehensive
+scheme the entire navy and the ocean at large, in the British seas,
+West Indies, and North Atlantic; each contributing, by its particular
+action and impression, to forward the work of the others, and so of
+the whole. Secondly, he intimates, not obscurely, though cautiously,
+in each separate field the concerted action of several ships is better
+than their disconnected efforts. Decatur and Bainbridge, on the
+contrary, implicitly, and indeed explicitly, favor individual
+movement. They would reject even combination by the Department--"no
+specific instructions, rely upon the enterprise of the officers." Nor
+will they have a local supervision or control in any particular; two
+frigates at the most are to act together, singly even is preferable,
+and they shall roam the seas at will.
+
+There can be little doubt as to which scheme is sounder in general
+principle. All military experience concurs in the general rule of
+co-operative action; and this means concentration, under the liberal
+definition before given--unity of purpose and subordination to a
+central control. General rules, however, must be intelligently applied
+to particular circumstances; and it will be found by considering the
+special circumstances of British commerce, under the war conditions of
+1812, that Rodgers' plan was particularly suited to injure it. It is
+doubtless true that if merchant vessels were so dispersed over the
+globe, that rarely more than one would be visible at a time, one ship
+of war could take that one as well as a half-dozen could. But this was
+not the condition. British merchant ships were not permitted so to
+act. They were compelled to gather at certain centres, and thence,
+when enough had assembled, were despatched in large convoys, guarded
+by ships of war, in force proportioned to that disposable at the
+moment by the local admiral, and to the anticipated danger.
+Consequently, while isolated merchant ships were to be met, they were
+but the crumbs that fell from the table, except in the near vicinity
+of the British Islands themselves.
+
+Such were the conditions while Great Britain had been at war with
+France alone; but the declaration of the United States led at once to
+increased stringency. All licenses to cross the Atlantic without
+convoy were at once revoked, and every colonial and naval commander
+lay under heavy responsibility to enforce the law of convoy. Insurance
+was forfeited by breach of its requirements; and in case of parting
+convoy, capture would at least hazard, if not invalidate, the policy.
+Under all this compulsion, concentrated merchant fleets and heavy
+guards became as far as possible the rule of action. With such
+conditions it was at once more difficult for a single ship of war to
+find, and when found to deal effectually with, a body of vessels which
+on the one hand was large, and yet occupied but a small space
+relatively to the great expanse of ocean over which the pursuer might
+roam fruitlessly, missing continually the one moving spot he sought.
+For such a purpose a well-handled squadron, scattering within
+signal-distance from each other, or to meet at a rendezvous, was more
+likely to find, and, having found, could by concerted action best
+overcome the guard and destroy the fleet.
+
+On June 22, 1812, the Navy Department issued orders for Rodgers,[419]
+which are interesting as showing its ideas of operations. The two
+squadrons then assembled under him were to go to sea, and there
+separate. He himself, with the frigates "President," "Essex," and
+"John Adams," sloop "Hornet," and the small brig "Nautilus," was to go
+to the Capes of the Chesapeake, and thence cruise eastwardly, off and
+on. Decatur's two frigates, with the "Argus," would cruise southwardly
+from New York. It was expected that the two would meet from time to
+time; and, should combined action be advisable, Rodgers had authority
+to unite them under his broad pendant for that purpose. The object of
+this movement was to protect the commerce of the country, which at
+this time was expected to be returning in great numbers from the
+Spanish peninsula; whither had been hurried every available ship, and
+every barrel of flour in store, as soon as the news of the approaching
+embargo of April 4 became public. "The great bulk of our returning
+commerce," wrote the secretary, "will make for the ports between the
+Chesapeake and our eastern extremities; and, in the protection to be
+afforded, such ports claim particular attention."
+
+The obvious comment on this disposition is that protection to the
+incoming ships would be most completely afforded, not by the local
+presence of either of these squadrons, but by the absence of the
+enemy. This absence was best insured by beating him, if met; and in
+the then size of the British Halifax fleet it was possible that a
+detachment sent from it might be successfully engaged by the joint
+division, though not by either squadron singly. The other adequate
+alternative was to force the enemy to keep concentrated, and so to
+cover as small a part as might be of the homeward path of the
+scattered American trade. This also was best effected by uniting our
+own ships. Without exaggerating the danger to the American squadrons,
+needlessly exposed in detail by the Department's plan, the object in
+view would have been attained as surely, and at less risk, by keeping
+all the vessels together, even though they were retained between
+Boston Bay and the Capes of the Chesapeake for the local defence of
+commerce. In short, as was to be expected from the antecedents of the
+Government, the scheme was purely and narrowly defensive; there was
+not in it a trace of any comprehension of the principle that offence
+is the surest defence. The opening words of its letter defined the
+full measure of its understanding. "It has been judged expedient so to
+employ our public armed vessels, as to afford to our returning
+commerce all possible protection." It may be added, that to station on
+the very spot where the merchant vessels were flocking in return,
+divisions inferior to that which could be concentrated against them,
+was very bad strategy; drawing the enemy by a double motive to the
+place whence his absence was particularly desirable.
+
+The better way was to influence British naval action by a distinct
+offensive step; by a movement of the combined divisions sufficiently
+obvious to inspire caution, but yet too vague to admit of precision of
+direction or definite pursuit. In accordance with the general ideas
+formulated in his letter, before quoted, Rodgers had already fixed
+upon a plan, which, if successful, would inflict a startling blow to
+British commerce and prestige, and at the same time would compel the
+enemy to concentrate, thus diminishing his menace to American
+shipping. It was known to him that a large convoy had sailed from
+Jamaica for England about May 20. The invariable course of such bodies
+was first to the north-northeast, parallel in a general sense to the
+Gulf Stream and American coast, until they had cleared the northeast
+trades and the belt of light and variable winds above them. Upon
+approaching forty degrees north latitude, they met in full force the
+rude west winds, as the Spanish navigators styled them, and before
+them bore away to the English Channel. That a month after their
+starting Rodgers should still have hoped to overtake them, gives a
+lively impression of the lumbering slowness of trade movement under
+convoy; but he counted also upon the far swifter joint speed of his
+few and well-found ships. To the effective fulfilment of his double
+object, defensive and offensive, however, he required more ships than
+his own squadron, and he held his course dependent upon Decatur
+joining him.[420]
+
+ [Illustration: THE CHASE OF THE _Belvidera_
+ From a drawing by Carlton T. Chapman.]
+
+On June 21 Decatur did join, and later in the same day arrived a
+Department order of June 18 with the Declaration of War. Within an
+hour the division of five ships was under way for sea. In consequence
+of this instant movement Rodgers did not receive the subsequent order
+of the Department, June 22, the purport of which has been explained
+and discussed. Standing off southeasterly from Sandy Hook, at 3 A.M.
+of June 23 was spoken an American brig, which four days before had
+seen the convoy steering east in latitude 36 deg., longitude 67 deg., or about
+three hundred miles from where the squadron then was. Canvas was
+crowded in pursuit, but three hours later was sighted in the northeast
+a large sail heading toward the squadron. The course of all the
+vessels was changed for her; but she, proving to be British,--the
+"Belvidera," rated 32, and smaller than any one of the American
+frigates,--speedily turned and took flight. Pursuit was continued all
+that day and until half an hour before midnight, the "President"
+leading as the fastest ship; but the British vessel, fighting for her
+life, and with the friendly port of Halifax under her lee, could
+resort to measures impossible to one whose plan of distant cruising
+required complete equipment, and full stores of provisions and water.
+Boats and spare spars and anchors were thrown overboard, and fourteen
+tons of drinking water pumped out. Thus lightened, after being within
+range of the "President's" guns for a couple of hours, the "Belvidera"
+drew gradually away, and succeeded in escaping, having received and
+inflicted considerable damage. In explanation of such a result between
+two antagonists of very unequal size, it must be remembered that a
+chasing ship of those days could not fire straight ahead; while in
+turning her side to bring the guns to bear, as the "President" several
+times did, she lost ground. The chased ship, on the other hand, from
+the form of the stern, could use four guns without deviating from her
+course.
+
+After some little delay in repairing, the squadron resumed pursuit of
+the convoy. On June 29, and again on July 9, vessels were spoken which
+reported encountering it; the latter the evening before. Traces of its
+course also were thought to be found in quantities of cocoanut shell
+and orange peel, passed on one occasion; but, though the chase was
+continued to within twenty hours' sail of the English Channel, the
+convoy itself was never seen. To this disappointing result atmospheric
+conditions very largely contributed. From June 29, on the western edge
+of the Great Banks, until July 13, when the pursuit was abandoned, the
+weather was so thick that "at least six days out of seven" nothing was
+visible over five miles away, and for long periods the vessels could
+not even see one another at a distance of two hundred yards. The same
+surrounding lasted to the neighborhood of Madeira, for which the
+course was next shaped. After passing that island on June 21 return
+was made toward the United States by way of the Azores, which were
+sighted, and thence again to the Banks of Newfoundland and Cape Sable,
+reaching Boston August 31, after an absence of seventy days.
+
+Although Rodgers's plan had completely failed in what may properly be
+called its purpose of offence, and he could report the capture of
+"only seven merchant vessels, and those not valuable," he
+congratulated himself with justice upon success on the defensive
+side.[421] The full effect was produced, which he had anticipated from
+the mere fact of a strong American division being at large, but seen
+so near its own shores that nothing certain could be inferred as to
+its movements or intentions. The "Belvidera," having lost sight of it
+at midnight, could, upon her arrival in Halifax, give only the general
+information that it was at sea; and Captain Byron, who commanded her,
+thought with reason that the "President's" action warranted the
+conclusion that the anticipated hostilities had been begun. He
+therefore seized and brought in two or three American merchantmen; but
+the British admiral, Sawyer, thinking there might possibly be some
+mistake, like that of the meeting between the "President" and "Little
+Belt" a year before, directed their release.
+
+A very few days later, definite intelligence of the declaration of war
+by the United States was received at Halifax. At that period, the
+American seas from the equator to Labrador were for administrative
+purposes divided by the British Admiralty into four commands: two in
+the West Indies, centring respectively at Jamaica and Barbados; one
+at Newfoundland; while the fourth, with its two chief naval bases of
+Halifax and Bermuda, lay over against the United States, and embraced
+the Atlantic coast-line in its field of operations. Admiral Sawyer now
+promptly despatched a squadron, consisting of one small ship of the
+line and three frigates, the "Shannon", 38, "Belvidera", 36, and
+"AEolus", 32, which sailed July 5. Four days later, off Nantucket, it
+was joined by the "Guerriere", 38, and July 14 arrived off Sandy Hook.
+There Captain Broke, of the "Shannon", who by seniority of rank
+commanded the whole force, "received the first intelligence of
+Rodgers' squadron having put to sea."[422] As an American division of
+some character had been known to be out since the "Belvidera" met it,
+and as Rodgers on this particular day was within two days' sail of the
+English Channel, the entire ignorance of the enemy as to his
+whereabouts could not be more emphatically stated. The components of
+the British force were such that no two of them could justifiably
+venture to encounter his united command. Consequently, to remain
+together was imposed as a military necessity, and it so continued for
+some weeks. In fact, the first separation, that of the "Guerriere",
+though apparently necessary and safe, was followed immediately by a
+disaster.
+
+Rodgers was therefore justified in his claim concerning his cruise.
+"It is truly unpleasant to be obliged to make a communication thus
+barren of benefit to our country. The only consolation I,
+individually, feel on the occasion is derived from knowing that our
+being at sea obliged the enemy to concentrate a considerable portion
+of his most active force, and thereby prevented his capturing an
+incalculable amount of American property that would otherwise have
+fallen a sacrifice." "My calculations were," he wrote on another
+occasion, "even if I did not succeed in destroying the convoy, that
+leaving the coast as we did would tend to distract the enemy, oblige
+him to concentrate a considerable portion of his active navy, and at
+the same time prevent his single cruisers from lying before any of our
+principal ports, from their not knowing to which, or at what moment,
+we might return."[423] This was not only a perfectly sound military
+conception, gaining additional credit from the contrasted views of
+Decatur and Bainbridge, but it was applied successfully at the most
+critical moment of all wars, namely, when commerce is flocking home
+for safety, and under conditions particularly hazardous to the United
+States, owing to the unusually large number of vessels then out. "We
+have been so completely occupied in looking out for Commodore Rodgers'
+squadron," wrote an officer of the "Guerriere", "that we have taken
+very few prizes."[424] President Madison in his annual message[425]
+said: "Our trade, with little exception, has reached our ports, having
+been much favored in it by the course pursued by a squadron of our
+frigates under the command of Commodore Rodgers."
+
+ [Illustration: THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, SHOWING THE POSITIONS OF THE
+ OCEAN ACTIONS OF THE WAR OF 1812 AND THE MOVEMENTS OF THE
+ SQUADRONS IN JULY AND AUGUST, 1812]
+
+Nor was it only the offensive action of the enemy against the United
+States' ports and commerce that was thus hampered. Unwonted defensive
+measures were forced upon him. Uncertainty as to Rodgers' position and
+intentions led Captain Broke, on July 29, to join a homeward-bound
+Jamaica fleet, under convoy of the frigate "Thalia", some two or three
+hundred miles to the southward and eastward of Halifax, and to
+accompany it with his division five hundred miles on its voyage. The
+place of this meeting shows that it was pre-arranged, and its distance
+from the American coast, five hundred miles away from New York,
+together with the length of the journey through which the additional
+guard was thought necessary, emphasize the effect of Rodgers' unknown
+situation upon the enemy's movements. The protection of their own
+trade carried this British division a thousand miles away from the
+coast it was to threaten. It is in such study of reciprocal action
+between enemies that the lessons of war are learned, and its
+principles established, in a manner to which the study of combats
+between single ships, however brilliant, affords no equivalent. The
+convoy that Broke thus accompanied has been curiously confused with
+the one of which Rodgers believed himself in pursuit;[426] and the
+British naval historian James chuckles obviously over the blunder of
+the Yankee commodore, who returned to Boston "just six days after the
+'Thalia', having brought home her charge in safety, had anchored in
+the Downs." Rodgers may have been wholly misinformed as to there being
+any Jamaica convoy on the way when he started; but as on July 29 he
+had passed Madeira on his way home, it is obvious that the convoy
+which Broke then joined south of Halifax could not be the one the
+American squadron believed itself to be pursuing across the Atlantic a
+month earlier.
+
+Broke accompanied the merchant ships to the limits of the Halifax
+station. Then, on August 6, receiving intelligence of Rodgers having
+been seen on their homeward path, he directed the ship of the line,
+"Africa", to go with them as far as 45 deg. W., and for them thence to
+follow latitude 52 deg. N., instead of the usual more southerly
+route.[427] After completing this duty the "Africa" was to return to
+Halifax, whither the "Guerriere", which needed repairs, was ordered at
+once. The remainder of the squadron returned off New York, where it
+was again reported on September 10. The movement of the convoy, and
+the "Guerriere's" need of refit, were linked events that brought
+about the first single-ship action of the war; to account for which
+fully the antecedent movements of her opponent must also be traced. At
+the time Rodgers sailed, the United States frigate "Constitution", 44,
+was lying at Annapolis, enlisting a crew. Fearing to be blockaded in
+Chesapeake Bay, a position almost hopeless, her captain, Hull, hurried
+to sea on July 12. July 17, the ship being then off Egg Harbor, New
+Jersey, some ten or fifteen miles from shore, bound to New York,
+Broke's vessels, which had then arrived from Halifax for the first
+time in the war, were sighted from the masthead, to the northward and
+inshore of the "Constitution". Captain Hull at first believed that
+this might be the squadron of Rodgers, of whose actual movements he
+had no knowledge, waiting for him to join in order to carry out
+commands of the Department. Two hours later, another sail was
+discovered to the northeast, off shore. The perils of an isolated
+ship, in the presence of a superior force of possible enemies, imposed
+caution, so Hull steered warily toward the single unknown. Attempting
+to exchange signals, he soon found that he neither could understand
+nor be understood. To persist on his course might surround him with
+foes, and accordingly, about 11 P.M., the ship was headed to the
+southeast and so continued during the night.
+
+ [Illustration: THE FORECASTLE OF THE _Constitution_ DURING THE
+ CHASE
+ From a drawing by Henry Reuterdahl.]
+
+The next morning left no doubt as to the character of the strangers,
+among whom was the "Guerriere"; and there ensued a chase which,
+lasting from daylight of July 18th to near noon of the 20th, has
+become historical in the United States Navy, from the attendant
+difficulties and the imminent peril of the favorite ship endangered.
+Much of the pursuit being in calm, and on soundings, resort was had to
+towing by boats, and to dragging the ship ahead by means of light
+anchors dropped on the bottom. In a contest of this kind, the ability
+of a squadron to concentrate numbers on one or two ships, which can
+first approach and cripple the enemy, thus holding him till their
+consorts come up, gives an evident advantage over the single opponent.
+On the other hand, the towing boats of the pursuer, being toward the
+stern guns of the pursued, are the first objects on either side to
+come under fire, and are vulnerable to a much greater degree than the
+ships themselves. Under such conditions, accurate appreciation of
+advantages, and unremitting use of small opportunities, are apt to
+prove decisive. It was by such diligent and skilful exertion that the
+"Constitution" effected her escape from a position which for a time
+seemed desperate; but it should not escape attention that thus early
+in the war, before Great Britain had been able to re-enforce her
+American fleet, one of our frigates was unable to enter our principal
+seaport. "Finding the ship so far to the southward and eastward,"
+reported Hull, "and the enemy's squadron stationed off New York, which
+would make it impossible to get in there, I determined to make for
+Boston, to receive your further orders."
+
+On July 28 he writes from Boston that there were as yet no British
+cruisers in the Bay, nor off the New England coast; that great numbers
+of merchant vessels were daily arriving from Europe; and that he was
+warning them off the southern ports, advising that they should enter
+Boston. He reasoned that the enemy would now disperse, and probably
+send two frigates off the port. In this he under-estimated the
+deterrent effect of Rodgers' invisible command, but the apprehension
+hastened his own departure, and on August 2 he sailed again with the
+first fair wind. Running along the Maine coast to the Bay of Fundy, he
+thence went off Halifax; and meeting nothing there, in a three or four
+days' stay, moved to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to intercept the trade
+of Canada and Nova Scotia. Here in the neighborhood of Cape Race some
+important captures were made, and on August 15 an American brig
+retaken, which gave information that Broke's squadron was not far
+away. This was probably a fairly correct report, as its returning
+course should have carried it near by a very few days before. Hull
+therefore determined to go to the southward, passing close to Bermuda,
+to cruise on the southern coast of the United States. In pursuance of
+this decision the "Constitution" had run some three hundred miles,
+when at 2 P.M. of August 19, being then nearly midway of the route
+over which Broke three weeks before had accompanied the convoy, a sail
+was sighted to the eastward, standing west. This proved to be the
+"Guerriere," on her return to Halifax, whither she was moving very
+leisurely, having traversed only two hundred miles in twelve days.
+
+As the "Constitution," standing south-southwest for her destination,
+was crossing the "Guerriere's" bows, her course was changed, in order
+to learn the character of the stranger. By half-past three she was
+recognized to be a large frigate, under easy sail on the starboard
+tack; which, the wind being northwesterly, gives her heading from
+west-southwest to southwest. The "Constitution" was to windward. At
+3.45 the "Guerriere," without changing her course, backed her
+maintopsail, the effect of which was to lessen her forward movement,
+leaving just way enough to keep command with her helm (G 1). To be
+thus nearly motionless assured the steadiest platform for aiming the
+guns, during the period most critical for the "Constitution," when, to
+get near, she must steer nearly head on, toward her opponent. The
+disadvantage of this approach is that the enemy's shot, if they hit,
+pass from end to end of the ship, a distance, in those days, nearly
+fourfold that of from side to side; and besides, the line from bow to
+stern was that on which the guns and the men who work them were
+ranged. The risks of grave injury were therefore greatly increased by
+exposure to this, which by soldiers is called enfilading, but at sea a
+raking fire; and to avoid such mischance was one of the principal
+concerns of a captain in a naval duel.
+
+ [Illustration: CAPTAIN ISAAC HULL
+ From the engraving by D. Edwin, after the painting by Gilbert
+ Stuart.]
+
+Seeing his enemy thus challenge him to come on, Hull, who had been
+carrying sail in order to close, now reduced his canvas to topsails,
+and put two reefs into them, bringing by the wind for that object (C
+1). All other usual preparations were made at the same time; the
+"Constitution" during them lying side to wind, out of gunshot,
+practically motionless, like her antagonist. When all was ready, the
+ship kept away again, heading toward the starboard quarter of the
+British vessel; that is, she was on her right-hand side, steering
+toward her stern (C 2). As this, if continued, would permit her to
+pass close under the stern, and rake, Captain Dacres waited until he
+thought her within gunshot, when he fired the guns on the right-hand
+side of the vessel--the starboard broadside--and immediately wore
+ship; that is, turned the "Guerriere" round, making a half circle, and
+bringing her other side toward the "Constitution," to fire the other,
+or port, battery (G 2). It will be seen that, as both ships were
+moving in the same general direction, away from the wind, the American
+coming straight on, while the British retired by a succession of
+semicircles, each time this manoeuvre was repeated the ships would be
+nearer together. This was what both captains purposed, but neither
+proposed to be raked in the operation. Hence, although the
+"Constitution" did not wear, she "yawed" several times; that is,
+turned her head from side to side, so that a shot striking would not
+have full raking effect, but angling across the decks would do
+proportionately less damage. Such methods were common to all actions
+between single ships.
+
+These proceedings had lasted about three quarters of an hour, when
+Dacres, considering he now could safely afford to let his enemy close,
+settled his ship on a course nearly before the wind, having it a
+little on her left side (G 3). The American frigate was thus behind
+her, receiving the shot of her stern guns, to which the bow fire of
+those days could make little effective reply. To relieve this
+disadvantage, by shortening its duration, a big additional sail--the
+main topgallantsail--was set upon the "Constitution," which, gathering
+fresh speed, drew up on the left-hand side of the "Guerriere," within
+pistol-shot, at 6 P.M., when the battle proper fairly began (3). For
+the moment manoeuvring ceased, and a square set-to at the guns
+followed, the ships running side by side. In twenty minutes the
+"Guerriere's" mizzen-mast[428] was shot away, falling overboard on the
+starboard side; while at nearly the same moment, so Hull reported, her
+main-yard went in the slings.[429] This double accident reduced her
+speed; but in addition the mast with all its hamper, dragging in the
+water on one side, both slowed the vessel and acted as a rudder to
+turn her head to starboard,--from the "Constitution." The sail-power
+of the latter being unimpaired would have quickly carried her so far
+ahead that her guns would no longer bear, if she continued the same
+course. Hull, therefore, as soon as he saw the spars of his antagonist
+go overboard, put the helm to port, in order to "oblige him to do the
+same, or suffer himself to be raked by our getting across his
+bows."[430] The fall of the "Guerriere's" mast effected what was
+desired by Hull, who continues: "On our helm being put to port the
+ship came to, and gave us an opportunity of pouring in upon his
+larboard bow several broadsides." The disabled state of the British
+frigate, and the promptness of the American captain, thus enabled the
+latter to take a raking position upon the port (larboard) bow of the
+enemy; that is, ahead, but on the left side (4).
+
+ [Illustration: PLAN OF THE ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE CONSTITUTION
+ AND GUERRIERE]
+
+The "Constitution" ranged on very slowly across the "Guerriere's"
+bows, from left to right; her sails shaking in the wind, because the
+yards could not be braced, the braces having been shot away. From this
+commanding position she gave two raking broadsides, to which her
+opponent could reply only feebly from a few forward guns; then, the
+vessels being close together, and the British forging slowly ahead,
+threatening to cross the American's stern, the helm of the latter was
+put up. As the "Constitution" turned away, the bowsprit of the
+"Guerriere" lunged over her quarter-deck, and became entangled by her
+port mizzen-rigging; the result being that the two fell into the same
+line, the "Guerriere" astern and fastened to her antagonist as
+described. (5) In her crippled condition for manoeuvring, it was
+possible that the British captain might seek to retrieve the fortunes
+of the day by boarding, for which the present situation seemed to
+offer some opportunity; and from the reports of the respective
+officers it is clear that the same thought occurred to both parties,
+prompting in each the movement to repel boarders rather than to board.
+A number of men clustered on either side at the point of contact, and
+here, by musketry fire, occurred some of the severest losses. The
+first lieutenant and sailing-master of the "Constitution" fell
+wounded, and the senior officer of marines dead, shot through the
+head. All these were specially concerned where boarding was at issue.
+This period was brief; for at 6.30 the fore and main-masts of the
+British frigate gave way together, carrying with them all the head
+booms, and she lay a helpless hulk in the trough of a heavy sea,
+rolling the muzzles of her guns under. A sturdy attempt to get her
+under control with the spritsail[431] was made; but this resource, a
+bare possibility to a dismasted ship in a fleet action, with friends
+around, was only the assertion of a sound never-give-up tradition,
+against hopeless odds, in a naval duel with a full-sparred antagonist.
+The "Constitution" hauled off for half an hour to repair damages, and
+upon returning received the "Guerriere's" surrender. It was then dark,
+and the night was passed in transferring the prisoners. When day
+broke, the prize was found so shattered that it would be impossible to
+bring her into port. She was consequently set on fire at 3 P.M., and
+soon after blew up.
+
+ [Illustration: THE BURNING OF THE _Guerriere_
+ From a drawing by Henry Reuterdahl.]
+
+In this fight the American frigate was much superior in force to her
+antagonist. The customary, and upon the whole justest, mode of
+estimating relative power, was by aggregate weight of shot discharged
+in one broadside; and when, as in this case, the range is so close
+that every gun comes into play, it is perhaps a useless refinement to
+insist on qualifying considerations. The broadside of the
+"Constitution" weighed 736 pounds, that of the "Guerriere" 570. The
+difference therefore in favor of the American vessel was thirty per
+cent, and the disparity in numbers of the crews was even greater. It
+is not possible, therefore, to insist upon any singular credit, in the
+mere fact that under such odds victory falls to the heavier vessel.
+What can be said, after a careful comparison of the several reports,
+is that the American ship was fought warily and boldly, that her
+gunnery was excellent, that the instant advantage taken of the enemy's
+mizzen-mast falling showed high seamanlike qualities, both in
+promptness and accuracy of execution; in short, that, considering the
+capacity of the American captain as evidenced by his action, and the
+odds in his favor, nothing could be more misplaced than Captain
+Dacres' vaunt before the Court: "I am so well aware that the success
+of my opponent was owing to fortune, that it is my earnest wish to be
+once more opposed to the 'Constitution,' with the same officers and
+crew under my command, in a frigate of similar force to the
+'Guerriere.'"[432] In view of the difference of broadside weight, this
+amounts to saying that the capacity and courage of the captain and
+ship's company of the "Guerriere," being over thirty per cent greater
+than those of the "Constitution," would more than compensate for the
+latter's bare thirty per cent superiority of force. It may safely be
+said that one will look in vain through the accounts of the
+transaction for any ground for such assumption. A ready acquiescence
+in this opinion was elicited, indeed, from two witnesses, the master
+and a master's mate, based upon a supposed superiority of fire, which
+the latter estimated to be in point of rapidity as four broadsides to
+every three of the "Constitution."[433] But rapidity is not the only
+element of superiority; and Dacres' satisfaction on this score,
+repeatedly expressed, might have been tempered by one of the facts he
+alleged in defence of his surrender--that "on the larboard side of the
+'Guerriere' there were about thirty shot which had taken effect about
+five sheets of copper down,"--far below the water-line.
+
+Captain Hull with the "Constitution" reached Boston August 30, just
+four weeks after his departure; and the following day Commodore
+Rodgers with his squadron entered the harbor. It was a meeting between
+disappointment and exultation; for so profound was the impression
+prevailing in the United States, and not least in New England,
+concerning the irreversible superiority of Great Britain on the sea,
+that no word less strong than "exultation" can do justice to the
+feeling aroused by Hull's victory. Sight was lost of the disparity of
+force, and the pride of the country fixed, not upon those points which
+the attentive seaman can recognize as giving warrant for confidence,
+but upon the supposed demonstration of superiority in equal combat.
+
+Consolation was needed; for since Rodgers' sailing much had occurred
+to dishearten and little to encourage. The nation had cherished few
+expectations from its tiny, navy; but concerning its arms on land the
+advocates of war had entertained the unreasoning confidence of those
+who expect to reap without taking the trouble to sow. In the first
+year of President Jefferson's administration, 1801, the "peace
+establishment" of the regular army, in pursuance of the policy of the
+President and party in power, was reduced to three thousand men. In
+1808, under the excitement of the outrage upon the "Chesapeake" and of
+the Orders in Council, an "additional military force" was authorized,
+raising the total to ten thousand. The latter measure seems for some
+time to have been considered temporary in character; for in a return
+to Congress in January, 1810, the numbers actually in service are
+reported separately, as 2,765 and 4,189; total, 6,954, exclusive of
+staff officers.
+
+General Scott, who was one of the captains appointed under the Act of
+1808, has recorded that the condition of both soldiers and officers
+was in great part most inefficient.[434] Speaking of the later
+commissions, he said, "Such were the results of Mr. Jefferson's low
+estimate of, or rather contempt for, the military character, the
+consequence of the old hostility between him and the principal
+officers who achieved our independence."[435] In January, 1812, when
+war had in effect been determined upon in the party councils, a bill
+was passed raising the army to thirty-five thousand; but in the
+economical and social condition of the period the service was under a
+popular disfavor, to which the attitude of recent administrations
+doubtless contributed greatly, and recruiting went on very slowly.
+There was substantially no military tradition in the country. Thirty
+years of peace had seen the disappearance of the officers whom the War
+of Independence had left in their prime; and the Government fell into
+that most facile of mistakes, the choice of old men, because when
+youths they had worn an epaulette, without regarding the experience
+they had had under it, or since it was laid aside.
+
+Among the men thus selected were Henry Dearborn, for senior major
+general, to command the northern division of the country, from Niagara
+to Boston Bay and New York; and William Hull, a brigadier, for the
+Northwestern frontier, centring round Detroit. The latter, who was
+uncle to Captain Hull of the "Constitution," seems to have been chosen
+because already civil Governor of Michigan Territory. President
+Madison thus reversed the practice of Great Britain, which commonly
+was to choose a military man for civil governor of exposed provinces.
+Hull accepted with reluctance, and under pressure. He set out for his
+new duties, expecting that he would receive in his distant and
+perilous charge that measure of support which results from active
+operations at some other point of the enemy's line, presumably at
+Niagara. In this he was disappointed. Dearborn was now sixty-one, Hull
+fifty-nine. Both had served with credit during the War of
+Independence, but in subordinate positions; and Dearborn had been
+Secretary of War throughout Jefferson's two terms.
+
+Opposed to these was the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Isaac
+Brock, a major-general in the British army. A soldier from boyhood, he
+had commanded a regiment in active campaign at twenty-eight. He was
+now forty-two, and for the last ten years had served in North America;
+first with his regiment, and later as a general officer in command of
+the troops. In October, 1811, he was appointed to the civil government
+of the province. He was thoroughly familiar with the political and
+military conditions surrounding him, and his mind had long been
+actively engaged in considering probable contingencies, in case war,
+threatening since 1807, should become actual. In formulated purpose
+and resolve, he was perfectly prepared for immediate action, as is
+shown by his letters, foreshadowing his course, to his superior, Sir
+George Prevost, Governor General of Canada. He predicted that the
+pressure of the Indians upon the western frontier of the United States
+would compel that country to keep there a considerable force, the
+presence of which would naturally tend to more than mere defensive
+measures. With the numerical inferiority of the British, the
+co-operation of the Indians was essential. To preserve Upper Canada,
+therefore, Michilimackinac and Detroit must be reduced. Otherwise the
+savages could not be convinced that Great Britain would not sacrifice
+them at a peace, as they believed her to have done in 1794, by Jay's
+Treaty. In this he agreed with Hull, who faced the situation far more
+efficiently than his superiors, and at the same moment was writing
+officially, "The British cannot hold Upper Canada without the
+assistance of the Indians, and that they cannot obtain if we have an
+adequate force at Detroit."[436] Brock deemed it vital that
+Amherstburg, nearly opposite Detroit, should be held in force; both to
+resist the first hostile attack, and as a base whence to proceed to
+offensive operations. He apprehended, and correctly, as the event
+proved, that Niagara would be chosen by the Americans as the line for
+their main body to penetrate with a view to conquest. This was his
+defensive frontier; the western, the offensive wing of his campaign.
+These leading ideas dictated his preparations, imperfect from paucity
+of means, but sufficient to meet the limping, flaccid measures of the
+United States authorities.
+
+To this well-considered view the War Department of the United States
+opposed no ordered plan of any kind, no mind prepared with even the
+common precautions of every-day life. This unreadiness, plainly
+manifested by its actions, was the more culpable because the
+unfortunate Hull, in his letter of March 6, 1812, just quoted, a month
+before his unwilling acceptance of his general's commission, had laid
+clearly before it the leading features of the military and political
+situation, recognized by him during his four years of office as
+Governor of the Territory. In this cogent paper, amid numerous
+illuminative details, he laid unmistakable emphasis on the decisive
+influence of Detroit upon the whole Northwest, especially in
+determining the attitude of the Indians. He dwelt also upon the
+critical weakness of the communications on which the tenure of it
+depended, and upon the necessity of naval superiority to secure them.
+This expression of his opinion was in the hands of the Government over
+three months before the declaration of war. As early as January,
+however, Secretary Eustis had been warned by Armstrong, who
+subsequently succeeded him in the War Department, that Detroit,
+otherwise advantageous in position, "would be positively bad, unless
+your naval means have an ascendency on Lake Erie."[437]
+
+Unfortunately for himself and for the country, Hull, upon visiting the
+capital in the spring, did not adhere firmly to his views as to the
+necessity for a lake navy. After the capitulation, President Madison
+wrote to his friend, John Nicholas, "The failure of our calculations
+with respect to the expedition under Hull needs no comment. The worst
+of it was that we were misled by a reliance, authorized by himself, on
+its [the expedition] securing to us the command of the lakes."[438]
+General Peter B. Porter, of the New York militia, a member also of
+the House of Representatives, who served well on the Niagara frontier,
+and was in no wise implicated by Hull's surrender, testified before
+the Court Martial, "I was twice at the President's with General Hull,
+when the subject of a navy was talked over. At first it was agreed to
+have one; but afterwards it was agreed to abandon it, doubtless as
+inexpedient."[439] The indications from Hull's earlier correspondence
+are that for the time he was influenced by the war spirit, and
+developed a hopefulness of achievement which affected his former and
+better judgment.
+
+On May 25, three weeks before the declaration of war, Hull took
+command of the militia assembled at Dayton, Ohio. On June 10, he was
+at Urbana, where a regiment of regular infantry joined. June 30, he
+reached the Maumee River, and thence reported that his force was over
+two thousand, rank and file.[440] He had not yet received official
+intelligence of war having been actually declared, but all
+indications, including his own mission itself, pointed to it as
+imminent. Nevertheless, he here loaded a schooner with military
+stores, and sent her down the river for Detroit, knowing that, twenty
+miles before reaching there, she must pass near the British Fort
+Malden, on the Detroit River covering Amherstburg; and this while the
+British had local naval superiority. In taking this risk, the very
+imprudence of which testifies the importance of water transportation
+to Detroit, Hull directed his aids to forward his baggage by the same
+conveyance; and with it, contrary to his intention, were despatched
+also his official papers. The vessel, being promptly seized by the
+boats of the British armed brig "Hunter," was taken into Malden,
+whence Colonel St. George, commanding the district, sent the captured
+correspondence to Brock. "Till I received these letters," remarked
+the latter, "I had no idea General Hull was advancing with so large a
+force."[441]
+
+When Brock thus wrote, July 20, he was at Fort George, on the shore of
+Ontario, near Niagara River, watching the frontier where he expected
+the main attack. He had already struck his first blow. Immediately
+upon being assured of the declaration of war, on June 28, he had
+despatched a letter to St. Joseph's, directing all preparations to be
+made for proceeding against Mackinac; the final determination as to
+offensive or defensive action being very properly left to the officer
+there in command. The latter, thus aware of his superior's wishes,
+started July 16, with some six hundred men,--of whom four hundred were
+Indians,--under convoy of the armed brig "Caledonia," belonging to the
+Northwestern Fur Company. The next day he appeared before the American
+post, where the existence of war was yet unknown. The garrison
+numbered fifty-seven, including three officers; being about one third
+the force reported necessary for the peace establishment by Mr.
+Jefferson's Secretary of War, in 1801. The place was immediately
+surrendered. Under all the conditions stated there is an entertaining
+ingenuousness in the reference made to this disaster by President
+Madison: "We have but just learned that the important post of
+Michilimackinac has fallen into the hands of the enemy, but from what
+cause remains to be known."[442]
+
+Brock received this news at Toronto, July 29; but not till August 3 did
+it reach Hull, by the arrival of the paroled prisoners. He was then on
+the Canada side, at Sandwich, opposite Detroit; having crossed with
+from fourteen to sixteen hundred men on July 12. This step was taken on
+the strength of a discretionary order from the Secretary of War, that
+if "the force under your command be equal to the enterprise, consistent
+with the safety of your own post, you will take possession of Malden,
+and extend your conquests as circumstances may justify." It must be
+added, however, in justice to the Administration, that the same letter,
+received July 9, three days before the crossing, contained the warning,
+"It is also proper to inform you that an adequate force cannot soon be
+relied on for the reduction of the enemy's posts below you."[443] This
+bears on the question of Hull's expectation of support by diversion on
+the Niagara frontier, and shows that he had fair notice on that score.
+That over-confidence still possessed him seems apparent from a letter
+to the secretary dated July 7, in which he said, "In your letter of
+June 18, you direct me to adopt measures for the security of the
+country, and to await further orders. I regret that I have not larger
+latitude."[444] Now he received it, and his invasion of Canada was the
+result. It is vain to deny his liberty of action, under such
+instructions, but it is equally vain to deny the responsibility of a
+superior who thus authorizes action, and not obscurely intimates a
+wish, under general military conditions perfectly well known, such as
+existed with reference to Hull's communications. Hull's attempt to
+justify his movement on the ground of pressure from subordinates, moral
+effect upon his troops, is admissible only if his decision were
+consistently followed by the one course that gave a chance of success.
+As a military enterprise the attempt was hopeless, unless by a rapid
+advance upon Malden he could carry the works by instant storm. In that
+event the enemy's army and navy, losing their local base of operations,
+would have to seek one new and distant, one hundred and fifty miles to
+the eastward, at Long Point; whence attempts against the American
+positions could be only by water, with transportation inadequate to
+carrying large bodies of men. The American general thus might feel
+secure against attacks on his communications with Ohio, the critical
+condition of which constituted the great danger of the situation,
+whether at Detroit or Sandwich. Hull himself, ten days after crossing,
+wrote, "It is in the power of this army to take Malden by storm, but it
+would be attended, in my opinion, with too great a sacrifice under the
+present circumstances."[445]
+
+Instead of prompt action, two days were allowed to pass. Then, July
+14, a council of war decided that immediate attack was inexpedient,
+and delay advisable. This conclusion, if correct, condemned the
+invasion, and should have been reached before it was attempted. The
+military situation was this: Hull's line of supplies and
+re-enforcements was reasonably secure from hostile interference
+between southern Ohio and the Maumee; at which river proper
+fortification would permit the establishment of an advanced depot.
+Thence to Detroit was seventy-two miles, through much of which the
+road passed near the lake shore. It was consequently liable to attack
+from the water, so long as that was controlled by the enemy; while by
+its greater distance from the centre of American population in the
+West, it was also more exposed to Indian hostilities than the portion
+behind the Maumee. Under these circumstances, Detroit itself was in
+danger of an interruption of supplies and re-enforcements, amounting
+possibly to isolation. It was open to the enemy to land in its rear,
+secure of his own communications by water, and with a fair chance, in
+case of failure, to retire by the way he came; for retreat could be
+made safely in very small vessels or boats, so long as Malden was held
+in force.
+
+The reduction of Malden might therefore secure Detroit, by depriving
+the enemy of a base suitable for using his lake power against its
+communications. Unless this was accomplished, any advance beyond
+Detroit with the force then at hand merely weakened that place, by
+just the amount of men and means expended, and was increasingly
+hazardous when it entailed crossing water. A sudden blow may snatch
+safety under such conditions; but to attempt the slow and graduated
+movements of a siege, with uncertain communications supporting it, is
+to court disaster. The holding of Detroit being imperative, efforts
+external to it should have been chiefly exerted on its rear, and upon
+its front only to prevent the easy passage of the enemy. In short,
+when Detroit was reached, barring the chance of a _coup de main_ upon
+Malden, Hull's position needed to be made more solid, not more
+extensive. As it was, the army remained at Sandwich, making abortive
+movements toward the river Canard, which covered the approach to
+Malden, and pushing small foraging parties up the valley of the
+Thames. The greatest industry was used, Hull reported, in making
+preparations to besiege, but it was not till August 7, nearly four
+weeks after crossing, that the siege guns were ready; and then the
+artillery officers reported that it would be extremely difficult, if
+not impossible, to take them to Malden by land, and by water still
+more so, because the ship of war "Queen Charlotte," carrying eighteen
+24-pounders, lay off the mouth of the Canard, commanding the stream.
+
+The first impression produced by the advance into Canada had been
+propitious to Hull. He himself in his defence admitted that the
+enemy's force had diminished, great part of their militia had left
+them, and many of their Indians.[446] This information of the American
+camp corresponded with the facts. Lieut. Colonel St. George,
+commanding Fort Malden, reported the demoralized condition of his
+militia. Three days after Hull crossed he had left but four hundred
+and seventy-one, in such a state as to be absolutely inefficient.[447]
+Colonel Procter, who soon afterwards relieved him, could on July 18
+muster only two hundred and seventy Indians by the utmost exertion,
+and by the 26th these had rather decreased.[448] Professing to see no
+immediate danger, he still asked for five hundred more regulars. At no
+time before Hull recrossed did he have two hundred and fifty.[449]
+Under Hull's delay these favorable conditions disappeared. British
+re-enforcements, small but veteran, arrived; the local militia
+recovered; and the Indians, with the facile changefulness of savages,
+passed from an outwardly friendly bearing over to what began to seem
+the winning side. Colonel Procter then initiated the policy of
+threatening Hull's communications from the lake side. A body of
+Indians sent across by him on August 4 defeated an American detachment
+marching to protect a convoy from the Maumee. This incident, coming
+upon accumulating adverse indications, and coinciding with the bad
+news received from Mackinac, aroused Hull to the essential danger of
+his situation. August 8 he recrossed to Detroit. August 9 another
+vigorous effort was made by the enemy to destroy a detachment sent out
+to establish communications with the rear. Although the British were
+defeated, the Americans were unable to proceed, and returned to the
+town without supplies. In the first of these affairs some more of
+Hull's correspondence was captured, which revealed his apprehensions,
+and the general moral condition of his command, to an opponent capable
+of appreciating their military significance.
+
+Brock had remained near Niagara, detained partly by the political
+necessity of meeting the provincial legislature, partly to watch over
+what he considered the more exposed portion of his military charge;
+for a disaster to it, being nearer the source of British power, would
+have upon the fortunes of the West an effect even more vital than a
+reverse there would exert upon the East. Being soon satisfied that the
+preparations of the United States threatened no immediate action, and
+finding that Hull's troops were foraging to a considerable distance
+east of Sandwich, along the Thames, he had decided to send against
+them a small body of local troops with a number of Indians, while he
+himself gathered some militia and went direct by water to Malden. To
+his dismay, the Indians declined to assist, alleging their intention
+to remain neutral; upon which the militia also refused, saying they
+were afraid to leave their homes unguarded, till it was certain which
+side the savages would take. On July 25 Brock wrote that his plans
+were thus ruined; but July 29 it became known that Mackinac had
+fallen, and on that day the militia about York [Toronto], where he
+then was, volunteered for service in any part of the province. August
+8 he embarked with three hundred of them, and a few regulars, at Long
+Point, on the north shore of Lake Erie; whence he coasted to Malden,
+arriving on the 13th.
+
+Meanwhile batteries had been erected opposite Detroit, which opened on
+the evening of August 15, the fort replying; but slight harm was done
+on either side. Next day Brock crossed the greater part of his force,
+landing three miles below Detroit. His little column of assault
+consisted of 330 regulars, 400 militia, and 600 Indians, the latter in
+the woods covering the left flank.[450] The effective Americans
+present were by that morning's report 1,060;[451] while their field
+artillery, additional to that mounted in the works, was much superior
+to that of the enemy, was advantageously posted, and loaded with
+grape. Moreover, they had the fort, on which to retire.
+
+Brock's movements were audacious. Some said nothing could be more
+desperate; "but I answer, that the state of Upper Canada admitted of
+nothing but desperate remedies."[452] The British general had served
+under Nelson at Copenhagen, and quoted him here. He knew also, through
+the captured correspondence, that his opponent was a prey to a
+desperation very different in temper from his own, and had lost the
+confidence of his men. He had hoped, by the threatening position
+assumed between the town and its home base, to force Hull to come out
+and attack; but learning now that the garrison was weakened by a
+detachment of three hundred and fifty, despatched two days before
+under Colonel McArthur to open intercourse with the Maumee by a
+circuitous road, avoiding the lake shore, he decided to assault at
+once. When the British column had approached within a mile, Hull
+withdrew within the works all his force, including the artillery, and
+immediately afterward capitulated. The detachment under McArthur, with
+another from the state of Ohio on its way to join the army, were
+embraced in the terms; Brock estimating the whole number surrendered
+at not less than twenty-five hundred. A more important capture, under
+the conditions, was an American brig, the "Adams," not yet armed, but
+capable of use as a ship of war, for which purpose she had already
+been transferred from the War Department to the Navy.
+
+In his defence before the Court Martial, which in March, 1814, tried
+him for his conduct of the campaign, Hull addressed himself to three
+particulars, which he considered to be the principal features in the
+voluminous charges and specifications drawn against him. These were,
+"the delay at Sandwich, the retreat from Canada, and the surrender at
+Detroit."[453] Concerning these, as a matter of military criticism, it
+may be said with much certainty that if conditions imposed the delay
+at Sandwich, they condemned the advance to it, and would have
+warranted an earlier retreat. The capitulation he justified on the
+ground that resistance could not change the result, though it might
+protract the issue. Because ultimate surrender could not be averted,
+he characterized life lost in postponing it as blood shed uselessly.
+The conclusion does not follow from the premise; nor could any
+military code accept the maxim that a position is to be yielded as
+soon as it appears that it cannot be held indefinitely. Delay, so long
+as sustained, not only keeps open the chapter of accidents for the
+particular post, but supports related operations throughout the
+remainder of the field of war. Tenacious endurance, if it effected no
+more, would at least have held Brock away from Niagara, whither he
+hastened within a week after the capitulation, taking with him a force
+which now could be well spared from the westward. No one military
+charge can be considered as disconnected; therefore no commander has a
+right to abandon defence while it is possible to maintain it, unless
+he also knows that it cannot affect results elsewhere; and this
+practically can never be certain. The burden of anxieties, of dangers
+and difficulties, actual and possible, weighing upon Brock, were full
+as great as those upon Hull, for on his shoulders rested both Niagara
+and Malden. His own resolution and promptitude triumphed because of
+the combined inefficiency of Hull and Dearborn. He scarcely could have
+avoided disaster at one end or the other of the line, had either
+opponent been thoroughly competent.
+
+There was yet another reason which weighed forcibly with Hull, and
+probably put all purely military considerations out of court. This
+was the dread of Indian outrage and massacre. The general trend of the
+testimony, and Hull's own defence, go to show a mind overpowered by
+the agony of this imagination. After receiving word of the desertion
+of two companies, he said, "I now became impatient to put the place
+under the protection of the British; I knew that there were thousands
+of savages around us." These thousands were not at hand. Not till
+after September 1 did as many as a hundred arrive from the north--from
+Mackinac.[454] In short, unless what Cass styled the philanthropic
+reason can be accepted,--and in the opinion of the present writer it
+cannot,--Hull wrote the condemnation of his action in his own defence.
+"I shall now state what force the enemy brought, or might bring,
+against me. I say, gentlemen, _might bring_, because it was that
+consideration which induced the surrender, and not the force which was
+actually landed on the American shore on the morning of the 16th. It
+is possible I might have met and repelled that force; and if I had no
+further to look than the event of a contest at that time, I should
+have trusted to the issue of a battle.... The force brought against me
+I am very confident was not less than one thousand whites, and as many
+savage warriors."[455]
+
+The reproach of this mortifying incident cannot be lifted from off
+Hull's memory; but for this very reason, in weighing the
+circumstances, it is far less than justice to forget his years,
+verging on old age, his long dissociation from military life, his
+personal courage frequently shown during the War of Independence, nor
+the fact that, though a soldier on occasion, he probably never had the
+opportunity to form correct soldierly standards. To the credit account
+should also be carried the timely and really capable presentation of
+the conditions of the field of operations already quoted, submitted by
+him to the Government, which should not have needed such
+demonstration. The mortification of the country fastened on his name;
+but had the measures urged by him been taken, had his expedition
+received due support by energetic operations elsewhere, events need
+not have reached the crisis to which he proved unequal. The true
+authors of the national disaster and its accompanying humiliation are
+to be sought in the national administrations and legislatures of the
+preceding ten or twelve years, upon whom rests the responsibility for
+the miserably unprepared condition in which the country was plunged
+into war. Madison, too tardily repentant, wrote, "The command of the
+Lakes by a superior force on the water ought to have been a
+fundamental part in the national policy from the moment the peace [of
+1783] took place. What is now doing for the command proves what may be
+done."[456]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[416] Captains' Letters, June 3, 1812. Navy Department MSS.
+
+[417] Ibid., June 8, 1812.
+
+[418] Captains' Letters, Sept. 2, 1812. Navy Department MSS.
+
+[419] Navy Department MSS.
+
+[420] Captains' Letters, J. Rodgers, Sept. 1, 1812. Navy Department
+MSS.
+
+[421] Letter of Sept. 1, 1812. Navy Department MSS.
+
+[422] James, Naval History (edition 1824), vol. v. p. 283.
+
+[423] Captains' Letters, Sept. 14, 1812. Navy Department MSS.
+
+[424] Naval Chronicle (British), vol. xxviii. p. 426.
+
+[425] Nov. 4, 1812.
+
+[426] Naval Chronicle, vol. xxviii. p. 159; James, vol. v. p. 274.
+
+[427] Sir J.B. Warren to Admiralty, Aug 24, 1812. Canadian Archives
+MSS. M. 389. 1, p. 147.
+
+[428] Of the three masts of a "ship," the mizzen-mast is the one
+nearest the stern.
+
+[429] The middle, where the yard is hung.
+
+[430] Hull's report, Aug. 28, 1812. Captains' Letters, Navy Department
+MSS.
+
+[431] The spritsail was set on a yard which in ships of that day
+crossed the bowsprit at its outer end, much as other yards crossed the
+three upright lower masts. Under some circumstances ships would forge
+slowly ahead under its impulse. It was a survival from days which knew
+not jibs.
+
+[432] Dacres' Defence before the Court Martial. Naval Chronicle, vol.
+xxviii. p. 422.
+
+[433] "Guerriere" Court Martial. MS. British Records Office.
+
+[434] Memoirs of Gen. Winfield Scott, vol. i p. 31.
+
+[435] Ibid., p. 35.
+
+[436] Hull to the War Department, March 6, 1812. Report of Hull's
+Trial, taken by Lieut. Col. Forbes, 42d U.S. Infantry. Hull's Defence,
+p. 31.
+
+[437] Armstrong's Notices of the War of 1812, vol. i. p. 237.
+
+[438] The Writings of Madison (ed. 1865), vol. ii. p. 563. See also
+his letter to Dearborn, Oct. 7, 1812. Ibid., p. 547.
+
+[439] Hull's Trial, p. 127. Porter was a witness for the defence.
+
+[440] Hull's Trial, Appendix, p. 4.
+
+[441] Life of Brock, p. 192.
+
+[442] Writings of James Madison (Lippincott, 1865), vol. ii. p. 543.
+
+[443] Eustis to Hull, June 24, 1812. From MS. copy in the Records of
+the War Department. This letter was acknowledged by Hull, July 9.
+
+[444] Hull's Trial, Appendix, p. 9.
+
+[445] Hull to Eustis, July 22, 1812. Hull's Trial, Appendix, p. 10.
+
+[446] Hull's Trial, Defence, p. 45.
+
+[447] Canadian Archives MSS. C. 676, p. 177.
+
+[448] Ibid., p. 242.
+
+[449] Hull's Trial. Evidence of Lieutenant Gooding, p. 101, and of
+Sergeant Forbush, p. 147 (prisoners in Malden).
+
+[450] Life of Brock, p. 250.
+
+[451] Letter of Colonel Cass to U.S. Secretary of War, Sept. 10, 1812.
+Hull's Trial, Appendix, p. 27.
+
+[452] Life of Brock, p. 267.
+
+[453] Hull's Trial. Defence, p. 20.
+
+[454] Hull's Trial. Testimony of Captain Eastman, p. 100, and of
+Dalliby, Ordnance Officer, p. 84.
+
+[455] Ibid. Hull's Defence, pp. 59-60.
+
+[456] Madison to Dearborn, Oct. 7, 1812. Writings, vol. ii, p. 547.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+OPERATIONS ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER AFTER HULL'S SURRENDER.
+EUROPEAN EVENTS BEARING ON THE WAR
+
+
+By August 25, nine days after the capitulation of Detroit, Brock was
+again writing from Fort George, by Niagara. About the time of his
+departure for Malden, Prevost had received from Foster, late British
+minister to Washington, and now in Nova Scotia, letters foreshadowing
+the repeal of the Orders in Council. In consequence he had sent his
+adjutant-general, Colonel Baynes, to Dearborn to negotiate a
+suspension of hostilities. Like all intelligent flags of truce, Baynes
+kept his eyes wide open to indications in the enemy's lines. The
+militia, he reported, were not uniformed; they were distinguished from
+other people of the country only by a cockade. The regulars were
+mostly recruits. The war was unpopular, the great majority impatient
+to return to their homes; a condition Brock observed also in the
+Canadians. They avowed a fixed determination not to pass the frontier.
+Recruiting for the regular service went on very slowly, though pay and
+bounty were liberal. Dearborn appeared over sixty, strong and healthy,
+but did not seem to possess the energy of mind or activity of body
+requisite to his post. In short, from the actual state of the American
+forces assembled on Lake Champlain, Baynes did not think there was any
+intention of invasion. From its total want of discipline and order,
+the militia could not be considered formidable when opposed to
+well-disciplined British regulars.[457] Of this prognostic the war was
+to furnish sufficient saddening proof. The militia contained excellent
+material for soldiers, but soldiers they were not.
+
+Dearborn declined to enter into a formal armistice, as beyond his
+powers; but he consented to a cessation of hostilities pending a
+reference to Washington, agreeing to direct all commanders of posts
+within his district to abstain from offensive operations till further
+orders. This suspension of arms included the Niagara line, from action
+upon which Hull had expected to receive support. In his defence Hull
+claimed that this arrangement, in which his army was not included, had
+freed a number of troops to proceed against him; but the comparison of
+dates shows that every man present at Detroit in the British force had
+gone forward before the agreement could be known. The letter engaging
+to remain on the defensive only was signed by Dearborn at Greenbush,
+near Albany, August 8. The same day Brock was three hundred and fifty
+miles to the westward, embarking at Long Point for Malden; and among
+his papers occurs the statement that the strong American force on the
+Niagara frontier compelled him to take to Detroit only one half of the
+militia that volunteered.[458] His military judgment and vigor,
+unaided, had enabled him to abandon one line, and that the most
+important, concentrate all available men at another point, effect
+there a decisive success, and return betimes to his natural centre of
+operations. He owed nothing to outside military diplomacy. On the
+contrary, he deeply deplored the measure which now tied his hands at a
+moment when the Americans, though restrained from fighting, were not
+prevented from bringing up re-enforcements to the positions
+confronting him.
+
+Dearborn's action was not approved by the Administration, and the
+armistice was ended September 4, by notification. Meantime, to
+strengthen the British Niagara frontier, all the men and ordnance that
+could now be spared from Amherstburg had been brought back by Brock to
+Fort Erie, which was on the lake of that name, at the upper end of the
+Niagara River. Although still far from secure, owing to the much
+greater local material resources of the United States, and the
+preoccupation of Great Britain with the Peninsular War, which
+prevented her succoring Canada, Brock's general position was immensely
+improved since the beginning of hostilities. His successes in the
+West, besides rallying the Indians by thousands to his support, had
+for the time so assured that frontier as to enable him to concentrate
+his efforts on the East; while the existing British naval superiority
+on both lakes, Erie and Ontario, covered his flanks, and facilitated
+transportation--communications--from Kingston to Niagara, and thence
+to Malden, Detroit, Mackinac, and the Great West. To illustrate the
+sweep of this influence, it may be mentioned here--for there will be
+no occasion to repeat--that an expedition from Mackinac at a later
+period captured the isolated United States post at Prairie du Chien,
+on the Mississippi, on the western border of what is now the state of
+Wisconsin. Already, at the most critical period, the use of the water
+had enabled Brock, by simultaneous movements, to send cannon from Fort
+George by way of Fort Erie to Fort Malden; while at the same time
+replacing those thus despatched by others brought from Toronto and
+Kingston. In short, control of the lakes conferred upon him the
+recognized advantage of a central position--the Niagara
+peninsula--having rapid communication by interior lines with the
+flanks, or extremities; to Malden and Detroit in one direction, to
+Toronto and Kingston in the other.
+
+It was just here, also, that the first mischance befell him; and it
+cannot but be a subject of professional pride to a naval officer to
+trace the prompt and sustained action of his professional ancestors,
+who reversed conditions, not merely by a single brilliant blow, upon
+which popular reminiscence fastens, but by efficient initiative and
+sustained sagacious exertion through a long period of time. On
+September 3, Captain Isaac Chauncey had been ordered from the New York
+navy yard to command on Lakes Erie and Ontario. Upon the latter there
+was already serving Lieutenant Melancthon T. Woolsey, in command of a
+respectable vessel, the brig "Oneida," of eighteen 24-pounder
+carronades. On Erie there was as yet no naval organization nor vessel.
+Chauncey consequently, on September 7, ordered thither Lieutenant
+Jesse D. Elliott to select a site for equipping vessels, and to
+contract for two to be built of three hundred tons each. Elliott, who
+arrived at Buffalo on the 14th, was still engaged in this preliminary
+work, and was fitting some purchased schooners behind Squaw Island,
+three miles below, when, on October 8, there arrived from Malden, and
+anchored off Fort Erie, two British armed brigs, the "Detroit"--lately
+the American "Adams," surrendered with Hull--and the "Caledonia,"
+which co-operated so decisively in the fall of Mackinac. The same day
+he learned the near approach of a body of ninety seamen, despatched by
+Chauncey from New York on September 22.[459] He sent to hasten them,
+and they arrived at noon. The afternoon was spent in preparations,
+weapons having to be obtained from the army, which also supplied a
+contingent of fifty soldiers.
+
+The seamen needed refreshment, having come on foot five hundred
+miles, but Elliott would not trifle with opportunity. At 1 A.M. of
+October 9 he shoved off with a hundred men in two boats, and at 3 was
+alongside the brigs. From Buffalo to Fort Erie is about two miles; but
+this distance was materially increased by the strong downward current
+toward the falls, and by the necessity of pulling far up stream in
+order to approach the vessels from ahead, which lessened the chance of
+premature discovery, and materially shortened the interval between
+being seen and getting alongside. The enemy, taken by surprise, were
+quickly overpowered, and in ten minutes both prizes were under sail
+for the American shore. The "Caledonia" was beached at Black Rock,
+where was Elliott's temporary navy yard, just above Squaw Island; but
+the wind did not enable the "Detroit," in which he himself was, to
+stem the downward drift of the river. After being swept some time, she
+had to anchor under the fire of batteries at four hundred yards range,
+to which reply was made till the powder on board was expended. Then,
+the berth proving too hot, the cable was cut, sail again made, and the
+brig run ashore on Squaw Island within range of both British and
+American guns. Here Elliott abandoned her, she having already several
+large shot through her hull, with rigging and sails cut to pieces, and
+she was boarded in turn by a body of the enemy. Under the conditions,
+however, neither side could remain to get her off, and she was finally
+set on fire by the Americans.[460] Besides the vessel herself, her
+cargo of ordnance was lost to the British. American seamen afterward
+recovered from the wreck by night four 12-pounders, and a quantity of
+shot, which were used with effect.
+
+The conduct of this affair was of a character frequent in the naval
+annals of that day. Elliott's quick discernment of the opportunity to
+reverse the naval conditions which constituted so much of the British
+advantage, and the promptness of his action, are qualities more
+noticeable than the mere courage displayed. "A strong inducement," he
+wrote, "was that with these two vessels, and those I have purchased, I
+should be able to meet the remainder of the British force on the Upper
+Lakes." The mishap of the "Detroit" partly disappointed this
+expectation, and the British aggregate remained still superior; but
+the units lost their perfect freedom of movement, the facility of
+transportation was greatly diminished, and the American success held
+in it the germ of future development to the superiority which Perry
+achieved a year later. None realized the extent of the calamity more
+keenly than Brock. "This event is particularly unfortunate," he wrote
+to the Governor General, "and may reduce us to incalculable distress.
+The enemy is making every exertion to gain a naval superiority on both
+lakes; which, if they accomplish, I do not see how we can retain the
+country. More vessels are fitting for war on the other side of Squaw
+Island, which I should have attempted to destroy but for your
+Excellency's repeated instructions to forbear. Now such a force is
+collected for their protection as will render every operation against
+them very hazardous."[461] To his subordinate, Procter, at Detroit, he
+exposed the other side of the calamity.[462] "This will reduce us to
+great distress. You will have the goodness to state the expedients you
+possess to enable us to replace, as far as possible, the heavy loss we
+have sustained in the 'Detroit'.... A quantity of provisions was ready
+to be shipped; but as I am sending you the flank companies of the
+Newfoundland Regiment by the 'Lady Prevost,' she cannot take the
+provisions." Trivial details these may seem; but in war, as in other
+matters, trivialities sometimes decide great issues, as the touching
+of a button may blow up a reef. The battle of Lake Erie, as before
+said, was precipitated by need of food.
+
+Brock did not survive to witness the consequences which he
+apprehended, and which, had he lived, he possibly might have done
+something to avert. The increasing strength he had observed gathering
+about Elliott's collection of purchased vessels corresponded to a
+gradual accumulation of American land force along the Niagara line;
+the divisions of which above and below the Falls were under two
+commanders, between whom co-operation was doubtful. General Van
+Rensselaer of the New York militia, who had the lower division,
+determined upon an effort to seize the heights of Queenston, at the
+head of navigation from Lake Ontario. The attempt was made on October
+13, before daybreak. Brock, whose headquarters were at Fort George,
+was quickly on the ground; so quickly, that he narrowly escaped
+capture by the advance guard of Americans as they reached the summit.
+Collecting a few men, he endeavored to regain the position before the
+enemy could establish himself in force, and in the charge was
+instantly killed at the head of his troops.
+
+In historical value, the death of Brock was the one notable incident
+of the day, which otherwise was unproductive of results beyond an
+additional mortification to the United States. The Americans gradually
+accumulated on the height to the number of some six hundred, and, had
+they been properly re-enforced, could probably have held their ground,
+affording an opening for further advance. It was found impossible to
+induce the raw, unseasoned men on the other side to cross to their
+support, and after many fruitless appeals the American general was
+compelled to witness the shameful sight of a gallant division driven
+down the cliffs to the river, and there obliged to surrender, because
+their comrades refused to go betimes to their relief.
+
+Van Rensselaer retired from service, and was succeeded by General
+Smyth, who now held command of the whole line, thirty miles, from
+Buffalo to Fort Niagara, opposite Fort George, where the river enters
+Lake Ontario. A crossing in force, in the upper part of the river,
+opposite Black Rock, was planned by him for November 28. In
+preparation for it an attack was to be made shortly before daylight by
+two advance parties, proceeding separately. One was to carry the
+batteries and spike the guns near the point selected for landing; the
+other, to destroy abridge five miles below, by which re-enforcements
+might arrive to the enemy.
+
+To the first of these was attached a party of seventy seamen, who
+carried out their instructions, spiking and dismounting the guns. The
+fighting was unusually severe, eight out of the twelve naval officers
+concerned being wounded, two mortally, and half of the seamen either
+killed or wounded. Although the bridge was not destroyed, favorable
+conditions for the crossing of the main body had been established;
+but, upon viewing the numbers at his disposal, Smyth called a council
+of war, and after advising with it decided not to proceed. This was
+certainly a case of useless bloodshed. General Porter of the New York
+militia, who served with distinguished gallantry on the Niagara
+frontier to the end of the war, was present in this business, and
+criticised Smyth's conduct so severely as to cause a duel between
+them. "If bravery be a virtue," wrote Porter, "if the gratitude of a
+country be due to those who gallantly and desperately assert its
+rights, the government will make ample and honorable provision for the
+heirs of the brave tars who fell on this occasion, as well as for
+those that survive."[463] Another abortive movement toward crossing
+was made a few days later, and with it land operations on the Niagara
+frontier ended for the year 1812. Smyth was soon afterward dropped
+from the rolls of the army.
+
+In the eastern part of Dearborn's military division, where he
+commanded in person, toward Albany and Champlain, less was attempted
+than at Detroit or Niagara. To accomplish less would be impossible;
+but as nothing was seriously undertaken, nothing also disastrously
+failed. The Commander-in-Chief gave sufficient disproof of military
+capacity by gravely proposing to "operate with effect at the same
+moment against Niagara, Kingston, and Montreal."[464] Such divergence
+of effort and dissemination of means, scanty at the best, upon points
+one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles apart, contravened all
+sound principle; to remedy which no compensating vigor was
+discoverable in his conduct. In all these quarters, as at Detroit, the
+enemy were perceptibly stronger in the autumn than when the war began;
+and the feebleness of American action had destroyed the principal
+basis upon which expectation of success had rested--the disaffection
+of the inhabitants of Canada and their readiness to side with the
+invaders. That this disposition existed to a formidable extent was
+well known. It constituted a large element in the anxieties of the
+British generals, especially of Brock; for in his district there were
+more American settlers than in Lower Canada.[465] On the Niagara
+peninsula, especially, climatic conditions, favorable to farming, had
+induced a large immigration. But local disloyalty is a poor reed for
+an assailant to rest upon, and to sustain it in vigorous action
+commonly requires the presence of a force which will render its
+assistance needless. Whatever inclination to rebel there might have
+been was effectually quelled by the energy of Brock, the weakness of
+Hull, and the impotence of Dearborn and his subordinates.
+
+In the general situation the one change favorable to the United
+States was in a quarter the importance of which the Administration had
+been slow to recognize, and probably scarcely appreciated even now.
+The anticipated military laurels had vanished like a dream, and the
+disinclination of the American people to military life in general, and
+to this war in particular, had shown itself in enlistments for the
+army, which, the President wrote, "fall short of the most moderate
+calculation." The attempt to supplement "regulars" by "volunteers,"
+who, unlike the militia, should be under the General Government
+instead of that of the States--a favorite resource always with the
+Legislature of the United States--was "extremely unproductive;" while
+the militia in service were not under obligation to leave their state,
+and might, if they chose, abandon their fellow-countrymen outside its
+limits to slaughter and capture, as they did at Niagara, without
+incurring military punishment. The governors of the New England
+States, being opposed to the war, refused to go a step beyond
+protecting their own territory from hostilities, which they declared
+were forced upon them by the Administration rather than by the
+British. For this attitude there was a semblance of excuse in the
+utter military inefficiency to which the policy of Jefferson and
+Madison had reduced the national government. It was powerless to give
+the several states the protection to which it was pledged by the
+Constitution. The citizens of New York had to fortify and defend their
+own harbor. The reproaches of New England on this score were seconded
+somewhat later by the outcries of Maryland; and if Virginia was silent
+under suffering, it was not because she lacked cause for complaint. It
+is to be remembered that in the matter of military and naval
+unpreparedness the great culprits were Virginians. South of Virginia
+the nature of the shore line minimized the local harrying, from which
+the northern part of the community suffered. Nevertheless, there also
+the coasting trade was nearly destroyed, and even the internal
+navigation seriously harassed.
+
+Only on the Great Lakes had the case of the United States improved,
+when winter put an end to most operations on the northern frontier. As
+in the Civil War a half century later, so in 1812, the power of the
+water over the issues of the land not only was not comprehended by the
+average official, but was incomprehensible to him. Armstrong in
+January, and Hull in March, had insisted upon a condition that should
+have been obvious; but not till September 3, when Hull's disaster had
+driven home Hull's reasoning, did Captain Chauncey receive orders "to
+assume command of the naval force on lakes Erie and Ontario, and to use
+every exertion to obtain control of them this fall." All preparations
+had still to be made, and were thrown, most wisely, on the man who was
+to do the work. He was "to use all the means which he might judge
+essential to accomplish the wishes of the government."[466] It is only
+just to give these quotations, which indicate how entirely everything
+to be done was left to the energy and discretion of the officer in
+charge, who had to plan and build up, almost from the foundation, the
+naval force on both lakes. Champlain, apparently by an oversight, was
+not included in his charge. Near the end of the war he was directed to
+convene a court-martial on some occurrences there, and then replied
+that it had never been placed under his command.[467]
+
+Chauncey, who was just turned forty, entered on his duties with a
+will. Having been for four years in charge of the navy yard at New
+York, he was intimately acquainted with the resources of the principal
+depot from which he must draw his supplies. On September 26, after
+three weeks of busy collecting and shipping, he started for his
+station by the very occasional steamboat of those days, which required
+from eighteen to twenty hours for the trip to Albany. On the eve of
+departure, he wrote the Government that he had despatched "one hundred
+and forty ship-carpenters, seven hundred seamen and marines, more than
+one hundred pieces of cannon, the greater part of large caliber, with
+muskets, shot, carriages, etc. The carriages have nearly all been
+made, and the shot cast, in that time. Nay, I may say that nearly
+every article that has been sent forward has been made."[468] The
+words convey forcibly the lack of preparation which characterized the
+general state of the country; and they suggest also the difference in
+energy and efficiency between a man of forty, in continuous practice
+of his profession, and generals of sixty, whose knowledge of their
+business derived over a disuse of more than thirty years, and from
+experience limited to positions necessarily very subordinate. From the
+meagreness of steamer traffic, all this provision of men and material
+had to go by sail vessel to Albany; and Chauncey wrote that his
+personal delay in New York was no injury, but a benefit, for as it was
+he should arrive well before the needed equipment.
+
+On October 6 he reached Sackett's Harbor, "in company with his
+Excellency the Governor of New York, through the worst roads I ever
+saw, especially near this place, in consequence of which I have
+ordered the stores intended for this place to Oswego, from which place
+they will come by water." Elliott had reported from Buffalo that "the
+roads are good, except for thirteen miles, which is intolerably bad;
+so bad that ordnance cannot be brought in wagons; it must come when
+snow is on the ground, and then in sleds." All expectation of
+contesting Lake Erie was therefore abandoned for that year, and
+effort concentrated on Ontario. There the misfortune of the American
+position was that the only harbor on their side of the lake,
+Sackett's, close to the entrance of the St. Lawrence, was remote from
+the highways of United States internal traffic. The roads described by
+Chauncey cut it off from communications by land, except in winter and
+the height of summer; while the historic water route by the Mohawk
+River, Lake Oneida, and the outlet of the latter through the Oswego
+River, debouched upon Ontario at a point utterly insecure against
+weather or hostilities. It was necessary, therefore, to accept
+Sackett's Harbor as the only possible navy yard and station, under the
+disadvantage that the maintenance of it--and through it, of the naval
+command of Ontario--depended upon this water transport of forty miles
+of open lake from the Oswego River. The danger, when superiority of
+force lapsed, as at times it did, was lessened by the existence of
+several creeks or small rivers, within which coasting craft could take
+refuge and find protection from attack under the muskets of the
+soldiery. Sackett's Harbor itself, though of small area, was a safe
+port, and under proper precautions defensible; but in neither point of
+view was it comparable with Kingston.
+
+While in New York, Chauncey's preparations had not been limited to
+what could be done there. By communication with Elliott and Woolsey,
+he had informed himself well as to conditions, and had initiated the
+purchase and equipment of lake craft, chiefly schooners of from forty
+to eighty tons, which were fitted to carry one or two heavy guns; the
+weight of battery being determined partly by their capacity to bear
+it, and partly by the guns on hand. Elliott's report concerning Lake
+Erie led to his being diverted, at his own suggestion, to the mouth of
+the Genesee and to Oswego, to equip four schooners lying there; for
+arming which cannon before destined to Buffalo were likewise turned
+aside to those points. When Chauncey reached Sackett's, he found there
+also five schooners belonging mainly to the St. Lawrence trade, which
+had been bought under his directions by Woolsey. There was thus
+already a very fair beginning of a naval force; the only remaining
+apprehension being that, "from the badness of the roads and the
+lowness of the water in the Mohawk, the guns and stores will not
+arrive in time for us to do anything decisive against the enemy this
+fall."[469] Should they arrive soon enough, he hoped to seek the
+British in their own waters by November. Besides these extemporized
+expedients, two ships of twenty-four guns were under construction at
+Sackett's, and two brigs of twenty, with three gunboats, were ordered
+on Lake Erie--all to be ready for service in the spring, their
+batteries to be sent on when the snow made it feasible.
+
+After some disappointing detention, the waters of the inlet and outlet
+of Lake Oneida rose sufficiently to enable guns to reach Oswego,
+whence they were safely conveyed to Sackett's. On November 2 the
+report of a hostile cruiser in the neighborhood, and fears of her
+interfering with parts of the armaments still in transit, led Chauncey
+to go out with the "Oneida," the only vessel yet ready, to cut off the
+return of the stranger to Kingston. On this occasion he saw three of
+the enemy's squadron, which, though superior in force, took no notice
+of him. This slackness to improve an evident opportunity may
+reasonably be ascribed to the fact that as yet the British vessels on
+the lakes were not in charge of officers of the Royal Navy, but of a
+force purely provincial and irregular. Returning to Sackett's,
+Chauncey again sailed, on the evening of November 6, with the "Oneida"
+and six armed schooners. On the 8th he fell in with a single British
+vessel, the "Royal George," of twenty-one guns, which retreated that
+night into Kingston. The Americans followed some distance into the
+harbor on the 9th, and engaged both the ship and the works; but the
+breeze blowing straight in, and becoming heavy, made it imprudent
+longer to expose the squadron to the loss of spars, under the fire of
+shore guns, when retreat had to be effected against the wind. Beating
+out, a British armed schooner was sighted coming in from the westward;
+but after some exchange of shots, she also, though closely pressed,
+escaped by her better local knowledge, and gained the protection of
+the port. The squadron returned to Sackett's, taking with it two lake
+vessels as prizes, and having destroyed a third--all three possible
+resources for the enemy.[470]
+
+Nothing decisive resulted from this outing, but it fairly opened the
+campaign for the control of the lakes, and served to temper officers
+and men for the kind of task before them. It gave also some experience
+as to the strength of the works at Kingston, which exceeded Chauncey's
+anticipations, and seems afterward to have exerted influence upon his
+views of the situation; but at present he announced his intention, if
+supported by a military force, to attack the enemy's vessels at their
+anchorage. Although several shot had been seen to strike, Chauncey
+himself entertained no doubt that all their damages could readily be
+repaired, and that they would put out again, if only to join their
+force to that already in Toronto. Still, on November 13, he reported
+his certainty that he controlled the water, an assurance renewed on
+the 17th; adding that he had taken on board military stores, with
+which he would sail on the first fair wind for Niagara River, and that
+he was prepared to effect transportation to any part of the lake,
+regardless of the enemy, but not of the weather. The last reservation
+was timely, for, sailing two days later, the vessels were driven back,
+one schooner being dismasted. As navigation on Erie opened usually
+much later than that upon Ontario, there was reasonable certainty that
+stores could reach the upper lake before they were needed in the
+spring, and the attempt was postponed till then. Meantime, however,
+four of the schooners were kept cruising off Kingston, to prevent
+intercourse between it and the other ports.[471]
+
+On December 1 Chauncey wrote that it was no longer safe to navigate
+the lake, and that he would soon lay up the vessels. He ascertained
+subsequently that the recent action of the squadron had compelled
+troops for Toronto to march by land, from Kingston, and had prevented
+the transport of needed supplies to Fort George, thus justifying his
+conviction of control established over the water communications. A few
+days before he had had the satisfaction of announcing the launch, on
+November 26, of the "Madison," a new ship of the corvette type, of 590
+tons, one third larger than the ocean cruisers "Wasp" and "Hornet," of
+the same class, and with proportionately heavy armament; she carrying
+twenty-four 32-pounder carronades, and they sixteen to eighteen of the
+like weight. "She was built," added Chauncey, "in the short time of
+forty-five days; and nine weeks ago the timber that she is composed of
+was growing in the forest."[472] It seems scarcely necessary to point
+the moral, which he naturally did not draw for the edification of his
+superiors in the Administration, that a like energy displayed on Lake
+Erie, when war was contemplated, would have placed Hull's enterprise
+on the same level of security that was obtained for his successor by
+Perry's victory a year later, and at much less cost.
+
+With the laying up of the fleet on the lakes operations on the
+northern frontier closed, except in the far West, where General
+Harrison succeeded to the command after Hull's capitulation. The loss
+of Detroit had thrown the American front of operations back upon the
+Maumee; nor would that, perhaps, have been tenable, had conditions in
+Upper Canada permitted Brock to remain with the most of his force
+through August and September. As it was, just apprehension for the
+Niagara line compelled his return thither; and the same considerations
+that decided the place of the Commander-in-Chief, dictated also that
+of the mass of his troops. The command at Detroit and Malden was left
+to Colonel Procter, whose position was defensively secured by naval
+means; the ship "Queen Charlotte" and brig "Hunter" maintaining local
+control of the water. He was, however, forbidden to attempt operations
+distinctively offensive. "It must be explicitly understood," wrote
+Brock to him, "that you are not to resort to offensive warfare for the
+purposes of conquest. Your operations are to be confined to measures
+of defence and security."[473] Among these, however, Brock included,
+by direct mention, undertakings intended to destroy betimes
+threatening gatherings of men or of stores; but such action was merely
+to secure the British positions, on the principle, already noted, that
+offence is the best defence. How far these restrictions represent
+Brock's own wishes, or reflect simply the known views of Sir George
+Prevost, the Governor General, is difficult to say. Brock's last
+letter to Procter, written within a week of his death, directed that
+the enemy should be kept in a state of constant ferment. It seems
+probable, however, that Procter's force was not such as to warrant
+movement with a view to permanent occupation beyond Detroit, the more
+so as the roads were usually very bad; but any effort on the part of
+the Americans to establish posts on the Maumee, or along the lake,
+must be promptly checked, if possible, lest these should form bases
+whence to march in force upon Detroit or Malden, when winter had
+hardened the face of the ground.[474]
+
+The purpose of the Americans being to recover Detroit, and then to
+renew Hull's invasion, their immediate aim was to establish their line
+as far to the front as it could for the moment be successfully
+maintained. The Maumee was such a line, and the one naturally
+indicated as the advanced base of supplies upon which any forward
+movement by land must rest. The obstacle to its tenure, when summer
+was past and autumn rains had begun, was a great swamp, known locally
+as the Black Swamp, some forty miles wide, stretching from the
+Sandusky River on the east to the Indiana line on the west, and
+therefore impeding the direct approach from the south to the Maumee.
+Through this Hull had forced his way in June, building a road as he
+went; but by the time troops had assembled in the autumn progress here
+proved wholly impossible.
+
+On account of the difficulties of transportation, Harrison divided his
+force into three columns, the supplies of each of which in a new
+country could be more readily sustained than those of the whole body,
+if united; in fact, the exigencies of supply in the case of large
+armies, even in well-settled countries, enforce "dissemination in
+order to live," as Napoleon expressed it. It is of the essence of such
+dissemination that the several divisions shall be near enough to
+support each other if there be danger of attack; but in the case of
+Harrison, although his dispositions have been severely censured on
+this score, south of the Maumee no such danger existed to a degree
+which could not be safely disregarded. The centre column, therefore,
+was to advance over the road opened by Hull; the right by the east of
+the Sandusky River to its mouth on Lake Erie, east of the swamp,
+whence it could move to the Maumee; while the left, and the one most
+exposed, from its nearness to the Indian country, was to proceed by
+the Auglaize River, a tributary of the Maumee navigable for boats of
+light draught, to Fort Defiance, at the junction of the two streams.
+Had this plan been carried out, the army would have held a line from
+Fort Defiance to the Rapids of the Maumee, a distance of about forty
+miles, on which fortified depots could be established prior to further
+operations; and there would have been to it three chains of supply,
+corresponding to the roads used by the divisions in their march. Fort
+Defiance, with a work at the Rapids, afterward built and called Fort
+Meigs, would sustain the line proper; while a subsidiary post,
+subsequently known as Fort Stephenson, on the Lower Sandusky, was
+essential to the defence of that road as it approached the lake, and
+thence westward, where it skirted the lake shore, and was in measure
+open to raids from the water. The western line of supplies, being
+liable to attack from the neighboring Indians, was further
+strengthened by works adequate to repel savages.
+
+Fort Defiance on the left was occupied by October 22, and toward the
+middle of December some fifteen hundred men had assembled on the
+right, on the Sandusky, Upper and Lower; but the centre column could
+not get through, and the attempt to push on supplies by that route
+seems to have been persisted in beyond the limits of reasonable
+perseverance. Under these conditions, Harrison established his
+headquarters at Upper Sandusky about December 20, sending word to
+General Winchester, commanding at Defiance, to descend the Maumee to
+the Rapids, and there to prepare sleds for a dash against Malden
+across the lake, when frozen. This was the substitution, under the
+constraint of circumstances, of a sudden blow in place of regulated
+advance; for it abandoned, momentarily at least, the plan of
+establishing a permanent line. Winchester moved as directed, reaching
+the Rapids January 10, 1813, and fixing himself in position with
+thirteen hundred men on the north bank, opposite Hull's road. Early in
+the month the swamp froze over, and quantities of supplies were
+hurried forward. The total disposable force now under Harrison's
+command is given as sixty-three hundred.
+
+Preparations and concentration had progressed thus far, when an
+impulsive outburst of sympathy evoked a singularly inconsiderate and
+rash movement on the part of the division on the Maumee, the commander
+of which seems to have been rather under the influence of his troops
+than in control of them. Word was brought to the camp that the
+American settlement of Frenchtown, beyond the River Raisin, thirty
+miles away toward Detroit, and now within British control, was
+threatened with burning by Indians. A council of war decided that
+relief should be attempted, and six hundred and sixty men started on
+the morning of January 17. They dispossessed the enemy and established
+themselves in the town, though with severe losses. Learning their
+success, Winchester himself went to the place on the 19th, followed
+closely by a re-enforcement of two-hundred and fifty. More than half
+his command was now thirty miles away from the position assigned it,
+without other base of retreat or support than the remnant left at the
+Rapids. In this situation a superior force of British and Indians
+under Procter crossed the lake on the ice and attacked the party thus
+rashly advanced to Frenchtown, which was compelled to surrender by 8
+A.M. of January 22.
+
+ [Illustration: MAP OF LAKE FRONTIER TO ILLUSTRATE CAMPAIGNS OF
+ 1812-1814]
+
+Winchester had notified Harrison of his proposed action, but not in
+such time as to permit it to be countermanded. Receiving the news on
+the morning of January 19, Harrison at once recognized the hazardous
+nature of the step, and ordered forward troops from Upper and Lower
+Sandusky; proceeding himself to the latter place, and thence to the
+Rapids, which he reached early on the 20th, ahead of the
+re-enforcements. There was nothing to do but await developments until
+the men from Sandusky arrived. At noon of the 22d he received
+intelligence of the surrender, and saw that, through the imprudence of
+his subordinate, his project of crossing the ice to attack the enemy
+had been crushed by Procter, who had practically annihilated one of
+his principal divisions, beating it in detail.
+
+The loss of so large a part of the force upon which he had counted,
+and the spread of sickness among the remainder, arrested Harrison's
+projects of offensive action. The Maumee even was abandoned for a few
+days, the army falling back to Portage River, toward the Sandusky. It
+soon, however, returned to the Rapids, and there Fort Meigs was built,
+which in the sequel proved sufficient to hold the position against
+Procter's attack. The army of the Northwest from that time remained
+purely on the defensive until the following September, when Perry's
+victory, assuring the control of the lake, enabled it to march secure
+of its communications.
+
+Whatever chance of success may attend such a dash as that against
+Malden, planned by Harrison in December, or open to Hull in August,
+the undertaking is essentially outside the ordinary rules of warfare,
+and to be justified only by the special circumstances of the case,
+together with the possibility of securing the results obtained.
+Frenchtown, as a particular enterprise, illustrates in some measure
+the case of Malden. It was victoriously possessed, but under
+conditions which made its tenure more than doubtful, and the loss of
+the expeditionary corps more than probable. Furthermore, if held, it
+conferred no advantage. The position was less defensible than the
+Maumee, more exposed because nearer the enemy, more difficult to
+maintain because the communications were thirty miles longer, and,
+finally, it controlled nothing. The name of occupation, applied to it,
+was a mere misnomer, disguising a sham. Malden, on the contrary, if
+effectually held, would confer a great benefit; for in the hands of an
+enemy it menaced the communications of Detroit, and if coupled with
+command of the water, as was the case, it controlled them, as Hull
+found to his ruin. To gain it, therefore, justified a good deal of
+risk; yet if seized, unless control of the water were also soon
+established, it would, as compared with Detroit, entail upon the
+Americans the additional disadvantage that Frenchtown incurred over
+the Maumee,--an increase of exposure, because of longer and more
+exposed lines of communication. Though Malden was valuable to the
+British as a local base, with all the benefits of nearness, it was not
+the only one they possessed on the lakes. The loss of it, therefore,
+so long as they possessed decided superiority in armed shipping,
+though a great inconvenience, would not be a positive disability. With
+the small tonnage they had on the lake, however, it would have become
+extremely difficult, if not impossible, to transport and maintain a
+force sufficient seriously to interrupt the road from the Maumee, upon
+which Detroit depended.
+
+In short, in all ordinary warfare, and in most that is extraordinary
+and seems outside the rules, one principle is sure to enforce itself
+with startling emphasis, if momentarily lost to sight or forgotten,
+and that is the need of secured communications. A military body, land
+or sea, may abandon its communications for a brief period, strictly
+limited, expecting soon to restore them at the same or some other
+point, just as a caravan can start across the desert with food and
+water which will last until another base is reached. There is no
+surrender of certainty in such a case; but a body of troops thrown
+into a position where it has no security of receiving supplies, incurs
+a risk that needs justification, and can receive it only from special
+circumstances. No position within striking distance of the lake shore
+was permanently secure unless supported by naval power; because all
+that is implied by the term "communications"--facility for
+transporting troops, supplies, and ammunition, rapidity of movement
+from point to point, central position and interior lines--all depended
+upon the control of the water, from Mackinac to the rapids of the St.
+Lawrence.
+
+This truth, announced before the war by Hull and Armstrong, as well as
+by Harrison somewhat later, and sufficiently obvious to any thoughtful
+man, was recognized in act by Harrison and the Government after the
+Frenchtown disaster. The general was not responsible for the blunder
+of his subordinate, nor am I able to see that his general plans for a
+land campaign, considered independent of the water, lacked either
+insight, judgment, or energy. He unquestionably made very rash
+calculations, and indulged in wildly sanguine assurances of success;
+but this was probably inevitable in the atmosphere in which he had to
+work. The obstacles to be overcome were so enormous, the people and
+the Government, militarily, so ignorant and incapable, that it was
+scarcely possible to move efficiently without adopting, or seeming to
+adopt, the popular spirit and conviction. Facts had now asserted
+themselves through the unpleasant medium of experience, and henceforth
+it was tacitly accepted that nothing could be done except to stand on
+the defensive, until the navy of Lake Erie, as yet unbuilt, could
+exert its power. Until that day came, even the defensive positions
+taken were rudely shaken by Procter, a far from efficient officer,
+but possessed still of the power of the lakes, and following, though
+over-feebly, the spirit of Brock's instructions, to attack the enemy's
+posts and keep things in a ferment.
+
+With the Frenchtown affair hostilities on the Canada frontier ceased
+until the following April; but the winter months were not therefore
+passed in inactivity. Chauncey, after laying up his ships at Sackett's
+Harbor, and representing to the Government the danger to them and to
+the navy yard, now that frost had extended over the waters the
+solidity of the ground, enabling the enemy to cross at will, departed
+to visit his hitherto neglected command on Lake Erie. He had already
+seen cause to be dissatisfied with Elliott's choice of a navy yard,
+known usually by the name Black Rock, a quarter of a mile above Squaw
+Island. The hostile shores were here so close together that even
+musketry could be exchanged; and Elliott, when reporting his decision,
+said "the river is so narrow that the soldiers are shooting at each
+other across." There was the further difficulty that, to reach the
+open lake, the vessels would have to go three miles against a current
+that ran four knots an hour, and much of the way within point-blank
+range of the enemy. Nevertheless, after examining all situations on
+Lake Erie, Elliott had reported that none other would answer the
+purpose; "those that have shelters have not sufficient water, and
+those with water cannot be defended from the enemy and the violence of
+the weather."[475] Here he had collected materials and gathered six
+tiny vessels; the largest a brig of ninety tons, the others schooners
+of from forty to eighty. These he began to equip and alter about the
+middle of October, upon the arrival of the carpenters sent by
+Chauncey; but the British kept up such a fire of shot and shell that
+the carpenters quitted their work and returned to New York, leaving
+the vessels with their decks and sides torn up.[476]
+
+They were still in this condition when Chauncey came, toward the end
+of December; and although then hauled into a creek behind Squaw
+Island, out of range, there were no workmen to complete them. He
+passed on to Presqu'Isle, now Erie, on the Pennsylvania shore, and
+found it in every way eligible as a port, except that there were but
+four or five feet of water on the bar. Vessels of war within could
+reach the lake only by being lightened of their guns and stores, a
+condition impracticable in the presence of a hostile squadron; but the
+local advantages were much superior to those at Black Rock, and while
+it could be hoped that a lucky opportunity might insure the absence of
+the enemy's vessels, the enemy's guns on the Niagara shore were
+fixtures, unless the American army took possession of them. Between
+these various considerations Chauncey decided to shift the naval base
+from Black Rock to Erie; and he there assembled the materials for the
+two brigs, of three hundred tons each, which formed the backbone of
+Perry's squadron nine months later.[477] For supplies Erie depended
+upon Philadelphia and Pittsburg, there being from the latter place
+water communication by the Alleghany River, and its tributary the
+French River, to within fifteen miles, whence the transportation was
+by good road. Except timber, which grew upon the spot, the
+materials--iron, cordage, provisions, and guns--came mainly by this
+route from Pennsylvania; a number of guns, however, being sent from
+Washington. By these arrangements the resources of New York, relieved
+of Lake Erie, were concentrated upon Lakes Ontario and Champlain.
+
+Chauncey further provided for the defence of Black Rock by its own
+resources against sudden attack; the army, except a local force of
+three hundred men, having gone into winter quarters ten miles back
+from the Niagara. He then returned to Sackett's Harbor January 19,
+where he found preparations for protection even less satisfactory than
+upon Lake Erie,[478] although the stake was far greater; for it may
+safely be said that the fall of either Kingston or Sackett's would
+have decided the fate of Lake Ontario and of Upper Canada, at once and
+definitively. It had now become evident that, in order to decide
+superiority on the water, there was to be between these neighboring
+and hostile stations the race of ship-building, which became and
+continued the most marked feature of the war on this lake. Chauncey
+felt the increasing necessity thus entailed for his presence on the
+scene. He was proportionately relieved by receiving at this time an
+application from Commander Oliver H. Perry to serve under him on the
+lakes, and immediately, on January 21, applied for his orders, stating
+that he could "be employed to great advantage, particularly on Lake
+Erie, where I shall not be able to go so early as I expected, owing to
+the increasing force of the enemy on this lake." This marks the
+official beginning of Perry's entrance upon the duty in which he won a
+distinction that his less fortunate superior failed to achieve. At
+this time, however, Chauncey hoped to attain such superiority by the
+opening of spring, and to receive such support from the army, as to
+capture Kingston by a joint operation, the plan for which he submitted
+to the Department. That accomplished, he would be able to transfer to
+Lake Erie the force of men needed to destroy the enemy's fleet
+there.[479] This expectation was not fulfilled, and Perry remained in
+practically independent command upon the upper lakes.
+
+The season of 1812 may be said, therefore, to have closed with the
+American squadron upon Lake Ontario concentrated in Sackett's Harbor,
+where also two new and relatively powerful ships were building. Upon
+Lake Erie the force was divided between Black Rock, where Elliott's
+flotilla lay, and Erie, where the two brigs were laid down, and four
+other gunboats building. The concentration of these two bodies could be
+effected only by first taking possession of the British side of the
+Niagara River. This done, and the Black Rock vessels thus released,
+there still remained the bar at Erie to pass. The British force on
+Ontario was likewise divided, between Toronto and Kingston, the vessels
+afloat being at the latter. Neither place, however, was under such
+fetters as Black Rock, and the two divisions might very possibly be
+assembled despite the hostile fleet. On the upper lake their navy was at
+Amherstburg, where also was building a ship, inferior in force, despite
+her rig, to either of the brigs ordered by Chauncey at Erie. The
+difficulties of obtaining supplies, mechanics, and seamen, in that then
+remote region, imposed great hindrances upon the general British
+preparations. There nevertheless remained in their hands, at the opening
+of the campaign, the great advantages over the Americans--first, of the
+separation of the latter's divisions, enforced by the British holding
+the bank of the Niagara; and secondly, of the almost insuperable
+difficulty of crossing the Erie bar unarmed, if the enemy's fleet kept
+in position near it. That the British failed to sustain these original
+advantages condemns their management, and is far more a matter of
+military criticism than the relative power of the two squadrons in the
+battle of September 10. The principal business of each commander was to
+be stronger than the enemy when they met. That the American accomplished
+this, despite serious obstacles, first by concentrating his force, and
+second by crossing the bar unimpeded, so that when he encountered his
+opponent he was in decisively superior force, is as distinctly to his
+credit as it would have been distinctly to his discredit had the odds
+been reversed by any fault of his. Perry by diligent efficiency overcame
+his difficulties, combined his divisions, gained the lake, and, by
+commanding it, so cut off his enemy's supplies that he compelled him to
+come out, and fight, and be destroyed. To compare the force of the two
+may be a matter of curious interest; but for the purpose of making
+comparisons of desert between them it is a mere waste of ink, important
+only to those who conceive the chief end of war to be fighting, and not
+victory.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The disaster at Frenchtown, with the consequent abandonment of all
+project of forward movement by the Army of the Northwest, may be
+regarded as the definite termination of the land campaign of 1812.
+Before resuming the account of the ocean operations of the same
+period, it is expedient here to give a summary of European conditions
+at the same time, for these markedly affected the policy of the
+British Government towards the United States, even after war had been
+formally declared.
+
+The British Orders in Council of 1807, modified in 1809 in scope,
+though not in principle, had been for a long while the grievance
+chiefly insisted upon by the United States. Against them mainly was
+directed, by Jefferson and Madison, the system of commercial
+restrictions which it was believed would compel their repeal.
+Consequently, when the British Government had abolished the obnoxious
+Orders, on June 23, 1812, with reservations probably admissible by
+the United States, it was unwilling to believe that war could still
+not be avoided; nor that, even if begun in ignorance of the repeal, it
+could not be stopped without further concession. Till near the end of
+the year 1812 its measures were governed by this expectation,
+powerfully re-enforced by momentous considerations of European events,
+the effect of which upon the United States requires that they be
+stated.
+
+In June, 1812, European politics were reaching a crisis, the issue of
+which could not then be forecast. War had begun between Napoleon and
+Russia; and on June 24 the Emperor, crossing the Niemen, invaded the
+dominion of the Czar. Great Britain, already nine years at war with
+France, had just succeeded in detaching Russia from her enemy, and
+ranging her on her own side. The accession of Sweden to this alliance
+conferred complete control of the Baltic, thus releasing a huge
+British fleet hitherto maintained there, and opening an important
+trade, debarred to Great Britain in great measure for four years past.
+But on the other hand, Napoleon still, as during all this recent
+period, controlled the Continent from the Pyrenees to the Vistula,
+carrying its hosts forward against Russia, and closing its ports to
+British commerce to the depressing injury of British finance. A young
+Canadian, then in England, in close contact with London business life,
+wrote to his home at this period: "There is a general stagnation of
+commerce, all entrance to Europe being completely shut up. There was
+never a time known to compare with the present, nearly all foreign
+traders becoming bankrupt, or reduced to one tenth of their former
+trade. Merchants, who once kept ten or fifteen clerks, have now but
+two or three; thousands of half-starved discharged clerks are skulking
+about the streets. Customhouse duties are reduced upwards of one half.
+Of such dread power are Bonaparte's decrees, which have of late been
+enforced in the strictest manner all over the Continent, that it has
+almost ruined the commerce of England."[480]
+
+A month before the United States declared war the perplexities of the
+British Government were depicted by the same writer, in terms which
+palpably and graphically reflect the contemporary talk of the
+counting-house and the dinner-table: "If the Orders in Council are
+repealed, the trade of the United States will flourish beyond all
+former periods. They will then have the whole commerce of the
+Continent in their hands, and the British, though blockading with
+powerful armaments the hostile ports of Europe, will behold fleets of
+American merchantmen enter in safety the harbors of the enemy, and
+carry on a brisk and lucrative trade, whilst Englishmen, who command
+the ocean and are sole masters of the deep, must quietly suffer two
+thirds of their shipping to be dismantled and lie useless in little
+rivers or before empty warehouses. Their seamen, to earn a little salt
+junk and flinty biscuits, must spread themselves like vagabonds over
+the face of the earth, and enter the service of any nation. If, on the
+contrary, the Government continue to enforce the Orders, trade will
+still remain in its present deplorable state; an American war will
+follow, and poor Canada will bear the brunt." Cannot one see the fine
+old fellows of the period shaking their heads over their wine, and
+hear the words which the lively young provincial takes down almost
+from their lips? They portray truly, however, the anxious dilemma in
+which the Government was living, and explain concisely the conflicting
+considerations which brought on the war with the United States. From
+this embarrassing situation the current year brought a double relief.
+The chance of American competition was removed by the declaration of
+war, and exclusion from the Continent by Napoleon's reverses.
+
+While matters were thus in northern and central Europe, in the far
+southwest the Spanish peninsula had for the same four dreary years
+been the scene of desolating strife, in which from the beginning Great
+Britain had taken a most active part, supporting the insurgent people
+with armies and money against the French legions. The weakening effect
+of this conflict upon the Emperor, and the tremendous additional
+strain upon his resources now occasioned by the break with Russia,
+were well understood, and hopes rose high; but heavy in the other
+scale were his unbroken record of success, and the fact that the War
+in the Peninsula, the sustenance of which was now doubly imperative in
+order to maintain the fatal dissemination of his forces between the
+two extremities of Europe, depended upon intercourse with the United
+States. The corn of America fed the British and their allies in the
+Peninsula, and so abundantly, that flour was cheaper in Lisbon than in
+Liverpool. In 1811, 802 American vessels entered the Tagus to 860
+British; and from all the rest of the outside world there came only
+75. The Peninsula itself, Spain and Portugal together, sent but
+452.[481] The merchants of Baltimore, petitioning against the
+Non-Intercourse Act, said that $100,000,000 were owing by British
+merchants to Americans, which could only be repaid by importations
+from England; and that this debt was chiefly for shipments to Spain
+and Portugal.[482] The yearly export thither, mainly for the armies,
+was 700,000 barrels of flour, besides grain in other forms.[483] The
+maintenance of this supply would be endangered by war.
+
+Upon the continuance of peace depended also the enjoyment of the
+relatively tranquil conditions which Great Britain, after years of
+vexation, had succeeded at last in establishing in the western basin
+of the Atlantic, and especially in the Caribbean Sea. In 1808 the
+revolt of the Spanish people turned the Spanish West Indies once more
+to her side; and in 1809 and 1810 the conquest of the last of the
+French islands gave her control of the whole region, depriving French
+privateers of every base for local operations against British
+commerce. In 1812, by returns to September 1, the Royal Navy had at
+sea one hundred and twenty ships of the line and one hundred and
+forty-five frigates, besides four hundred and twenty-one other
+cruisers, sixteen of which were larger and the rest smaller than the
+frigate class--a total of six hundred and eighty-six.[484] Of these
+there were on the North American and West India stations only three of
+the line, fifteen frigates, and sixty-one smaller--a total of
+seventy-nine.[485] The huge remainder of over six hundred ships of war
+were detained elsewhere by the exigencies of the contest, the naval
+range of which stretched from the Levant to the shores of Denmark and
+Norway, then one kingdom under Napoleon's control; and in the far
+Eastern seas extended to the Straits of Sunda, and beyond. From
+Antwerp to Venice, in various ports, when the Empire fell, Napoleon
+had over a hundred ships of the line and half a hundred frigates. To
+hold these in check was in itself a heavy task for the British sea
+power, even though most of the colonial ports which might serve as
+bases for their external action had been wrested from France. A
+hostile America would open to the French navy a number of harbors
+which it now needed; and at the will of the Emperor the United States
+might receive a division of ships of a class she lacked entirely, but
+could both officer and man. One of Napoleon's great wants was seamen,
+and it was perfectly understood by intelligent naval officers, and by
+appreciative statesmen like John Adams and Gouverneur Morris, that a
+fleet of ships of the line, based upon American resources, would
+constitute for Great Britain a more difficult problem than a vastly
+larger number in Europe. The probability was contemplated by both the
+British Commander-in-Chief and the Admiralty, and was doubtless a
+chief reason for the comparatively large number of ships of the
+line--eleven--assigned on the outbreak of hostilities to a station
+where otherwise there was no similar force to encounter.[486] To bring
+the French ships and this coast-line together was a combination
+correct in conception, and not impracticable. It was spoken of at the
+time--rumored as a design; and had not the attention and the means of
+the Emperor been otherwise preoccupied, probably would have been
+attempted, and not impossibly effected.
+
+To avert such a conjuncture by the restoration of peace was
+necessarily an object of British policy. More than that, however, was
+at stake. The Orders in Council had served their turn. In conjunction
+with Napoleon's Continental System, by the misery inflicted upon all
+the countries under his control, they had brought about the
+desperation of Russia and the resistance of the Czar, who at first had
+engaged in the Emperor's policy. Russia and France were at war, and it
+was imperative at once to redouble the pressure in the Peninsula, and
+to recuperate the financial strength of Great Britain, by opening
+every possible avenue of supply and of market to British trade, in
+order to bring the whole national power, economical and military, to
+bear effectively upon what promised to be a death struggle. The repeal
+of the Orders, with the consequent admission of American merchant
+ships to every hostile port, except such, few as might be effectively
+blockaded in accordance with the accepted principles of International
+Law, was the price offered for the preservation of peace, and for
+readmission to the American market, closed to British manufacturers
+and merchants by the Non-Importation Acts. This extension of British
+commerce, now loudly demanded by the British people, was an object to
+be accomplished by the same means that should prevent the American
+people from constituting themselves virtually the allies of Napoleon
+by going to war. Should this dreaded alternative, however, come to
+pass, not only would British trade again miss the market, the loss of
+which had already caused widespread suffering, but, in common with it,
+British navigation, British shipping, the chief handmaid of commerce,
+would be exposed in a remote quarter, most difficult to guard, to the
+privateering activity of a people whose aptitude for such occupation
+had been demonstrated in the fight for independence and the old French
+wars. Half a century before, in the years 1756-58, there had been
+fitted out in the single port of New York, for war against the French,
+forty-eight privateers, carrying six hundred and ninety-five guns and
+manned by over five thousand men.[487]
+
+The conditions enumerated constituted the principal important military
+possibilities of the sea frontier of the United States, regarded as an
+element in the general international situation when the year 1812
+opened. Its importance to France was simply that of an additional
+weight thrown into the scale against Great Britain. France, being
+excluded from the sea, could not be aided or injured by the United
+States directly, but only indirectly, through their common enemy; and
+the same was substantially true of the Continent at large. But to
+Great Britain a hostile seaboard in America meant the possibility of
+all that has been stated; and therefore, slowly and unwillingly, but
+surely, the apprehension of war with its added burden forced the
+Government to a concession which years of intermittent commercial
+restrictions by the United States, and of Opposition denunciation at
+home, had not been able to extort. The sudden death of Spencer
+Perceval, the prime minister identified with the Orders in Council,
+possibly facilitated the issue, but it had become inevitable by sheer
+pressure of circumstances as they developed. It came to pass, by a
+conjuncture most fortunate for Great Britain, and most unfavorable to
+the United States, that the moment of war, vainly sought to be avoided
+by both parties, coincided with the first rude jar to Napoleon's
+empire and its speedy final collapse; leaving the Union, weakened by
+internal dissension, exposed single-handed to the full force of the
+British power. At the beginning, however, and till toward the end of
+1812, it seemed possible that for an indefinite period the efforts of
+the Americans would receive the support derived from the inevitable
+preoccupation of their enemy with European affairs; nor did many doubt
+Napoleon's success against Russia, or that it would be followed by
+Great Britain's abandoning the European struggle as hopeless.
+
+For such maritime and political contingencies the British Admiralty
+had to prepare, when the near prospect of war with America threatened
+to add to the extensive responsibilities entailed by the long strife
+with Napoleon. Its measures reflected the double purpose of the
+Government: to secure peace, if possible, yet not to surrender
+policies considered imperative. On May 9, 1812, identical instructions
+were issued to each of the admirals commanding the four transatlantic
+stations,--Newfoundland, Halifax, Jamaica, and Barbados,--warning them
+of the imminent probability of hostilities, in the event of which, by
+aggressive action or formal declaration on the part of the United
+States, they were authorized to resort at once to all customary
+procedures of war; "to attack, take or sink, burn or destroy, all
+ships or vessels belonging to the United States or to the citizens
+thereof." At the same time, however, special stress was laid upon the
+urgent wish of the Government to avoid occasions which might induce a
+collision. "You are to direct the commanders of his Majesty's ships to
+exercise, except in the events hereinbefore specified, all possible
+forbearance toward the United States, and to contribute, as far as may
+depend upon them, to that good understanding which it is his Royal
+Highness's[488] most earnest wish to maintain."[489] The spirit of
+these orders, together with caution not to be attacked unawares,
+accounts for the absence of British ships of war from the neighborhood
+of the American coast noted by Rodgers' cruising squadron in the
+spring of 1812. Decatur, indeed, was informed by a British naval agent
+that the admiral at Bermuda did not permit more than two vessels to
+cruise at a time, and these were instructed not to approach the
+American coast.[490] The temper of the controlling element in the
+Administration, and the disposition of American naval officers since
+the "Chesapeake" affair, were but too likely to afford causes of
+misunderstanding in case of a meeting.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[457] Baynes to Prevost. Canadian Archives, C. 377, pp. 27-37.
+
+[458] Life of Brock, p. 258. Brock first heard of the suspension
+August 23, at Fort Erie, on his return toward Niagara. Life, p. 274.
+See also a letter from Brock to the American General Van Rensselaer,
+in the Defence of General Dearborn, by H.A.S. Dearborn, p. 8.
+
+[459] Chauncey to the Secretary of the Navy, Sept. 26, 1812. Captains'
+Letters, Navy Department MSS.
+
+[460] Elliott's report of this affair will be found in the Captains'
+Letters, Navy Department MSS., forwarded by Chauncey Oct. 16, 1812.
+
+[461] Life of Brock, p. 315.
+
+[462] Ibid., p. 316.
+
+[463] Porter's Address to the Public. Niles' Register, vol. iii. p.
+284.
+
+[464] See Eustis's Letter to Dearborn, Aug. 15, 1812. Hall's Memoirs
+of the Northwestern Campaign, p. 87.
+
+[465] Life of Brock, pp. 106, 130, 181.
+
+[466] Chauncey to Secretary, Sept. 26, 1812. Captains' Letters, Navy
+Department MSS.
+
+[467] Chauncey to Secretary, Feb. 24, 1815. Ibid.
+
+[468] The details of Chauncey's actions are appended to his letter of
+Sept. 26, 1812.
+
+[469] Chauncey to Secretary of the Nary, Oct. 8, 12, 21, 1812.
+Captains' Letters.
+
+[470] Chauncey to Secretary, October 27, November 4, 6, 13. Captains'
+Letters. Those for November 6 and 13 can be found in Niles, vol. iii,
+pp. 205, 206.
+
+[471] Chauncey to Secretary, November 17. Captains' Letters.
+
+[472] Chauncey to Secretary, Nov. 26, 1812. Ibid.
+
+[473] Life of Brock, p. 293.
+
+[474] In the Canadian Archives frequent mention is made of expeditions
+by Procter's forces about the American lines, as of the British
+shipping on the Lake front during the autumn of 1812.
+
+[475] Elliott to Chauncey, Sept. 14, 1812. Captains' Letters, Navy
+Department.
+
+[476] Chauncey to the Secretary, Oct. 22, 1812. Captains' Letters,
+Navy Department.
+
+[477] Chauncey to the Secretary, Dec. 25, 1812; Jan. 1 and 8, and Feb.
+16, 1813. Captains' Letters.
+
+[478] See Chauncey's letters of Dec. 1, 1812, and Jan. 20, 1813.
+Captains' Letters.
+
+[479] Chauncey to the Secretary, Jan. 21, Feb. 22, 1813. Captains'
+Letters.
+
+[480] Ridout, "Ten Years in Upper Canada," pp. 52, 58, 115.
+
+[481] Niles' Register, vol ii. p. 42.
+
+[482] Ibid., p. 119.
+
+[483] Ibid., p. 303.
+
+[484] Naval Chronicle, vol. xxviii. p. 248.
+
+[485] Quoted from Steele's List (British) by Niles' Register, vol. ii.
+p. 356.
+
+[486] Croker to Warren, Nov. 18, 1812, and March 20, 1813. British
+Admiralty MSS. Out-Letters.
+
+[487] Niles' Register, vol. iii. p. 111. Quoted from a publication of
+1759.
+
+[488] The Prince Regent. George III. was incapacitated at this time.
+
+[489] Admiralty Out-Letters, British Records Office.
+
+[490] Rodgers to the Secretary, April 29, 1812. Decatur, June 16,
+1812. Captains' Letters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+OCEAN WARFARE AGAINST COMMERCE--PRIVATEERING--BRITISH
+LICENSES--NAVAL ACTIONS: "WASP" AND "FROLIC"; "UNITED STATES"
+AND "MACEDONIAN"
+
+
+In anticipation of war the British Admiralty took the military measure
+of consolidating their transatlantic stations, with the exception of
+Newfoundland. The Jamaica, Leeward Islands, and Halifax squadrons,
+while retaining their present local organizations, were subordinated
+to a single chief; for which position was designated Admiral Sir John
+Borlase Warren, an officer of good fighting record, but from his
+previous career esteemed less a seaman than a gallant man. This was
+apparently his first extensive command, although he was now
+approaching sixty; but it was foreseen that the British minister might
+have left Washington in consequence of a rupture of relations, and
+that there might thus devolve upon the naval commander-in-chief
+certain diplomatic overtures, which the Government had determined to
+make before definitely accepting war as an irreversible issue. Warren,
+a man of courtly manners, had some slight diplomatic antecedents,
+having represented Great Britain at St. Petersburg on one occasion.
+There were also other negotiations anticipated, dependent upon
+political conditions within the Union; where bitter oppositions of
+opinion, sectional in character, were known to exist concerning the
+course of the Administration in resorting to hostilities. Warren was
+instructed on these several points.
+
+It was not until July 25, 1812, that a despatch vessel from Halifax
+brought word to England of the attack upon the "Belvidera" by Rodgers'
+squadron on June 24. By the same mail Admiral Sawyer wrote that he had
+sent a flag of truce to New York to ask an explanation, and besides
+had directed all his cruisers to assemble at Halifax.[491] The
+Government recognized the gravity of the news, but expressed the
+opinion that there was no evidence that war had been decided upon, and
+that the action of the American commodore had been in conformity with
+previous orders not to permit foreign cruisers within the waters of
+the United States. Some color was lent to this view by the
+circumstance that the "Belvidera" was reported to have been off Sandy
+Hook, though not in sight of land.[492] In short, the British Cabinet
+officially assumed that facts were as they wished them to continue;
+the course best adapted to insure the maintenance of peace, if
+perchance not yet broken.
+
+On July 29, however, definite information was received that the United
+States Government had declared that war existed between the two
+countries. On the 31st the Cabinet took its first measures in
+consequence.[493] One order was issued forbidding British merchant
+vessels to sail without convoy for any part of North America or the
+West Indies; while another laid an embargo on all American merchant
+ships in British ports, and directed the capture of any met at sea,
+unless sailing under British licenses, as many then did to Continental
+ports. No other hostile steps, such as general reprisals or commercial
+blockade, were at this time authorized; it was decided to await the
+effect in the United States of the repeal of the obnoxious Orders in
+Council. This having taken place only on June 23, intelligence of its
+reception and results could not well reach England before the middle
+of September. When Parliament was prorogued on July 30, the speech
+from the throne expressed a willingness still "to hope that the
+accustomed relations of peace and amity between the two countries may
+yet be restored."
+
+It is a coincidence, accidental, yet noteworthy for its significance,
+that the date of the first hostile action against the United States,
+July 31, was also that of the official promulgation of treaties of
+peace between Great Britain, Russia, and Sweden.[494] Accompanied as
+these were with clauses embodying what was virtually a defensive
+alliance of the three Powers against Napoleon, they marked that turn
+of the tide in European affairs which overthrew one of the most
+important factors in the political and military anticipations of the
+United States Administration. "Can it be doubted," wrote Madison on
+September 6, "that if, under the pressure added by our war to that
+previously felt by Great Britain, her Government declines an
+accommodation, it will be owing to calculations drawn from our
+internal divisions?"[495] Of the approaching change, however, no sign
+yet appeared. The reverses of the French were still in the far future.
+Not until September 14 did they enter Moscow, and news of this event
+was received in the United States only at the end of November. A
+contemporary weekly, under date of December 5, remarked: "Peace before
+this time has been dictated by Bonaparte, as ought to have been
+calculated upon by the dealers (_sic_) at St. Petersburg, before they,
+influenced by the British, prevailed upon Alexander to embark in the
+War.... All Europe, the British Islands excepted, will soon be at the
+feet of Bonaparte."[496] This expectation, generally shared during the
+summer of 1812, is an element in the American situation not to be
+overlooked. As late as December 4, Henry Clay, addressing the House of
+Representatives, of which he then was Speaker, said: "The British
+trade shut out from the Baltic--excluded from the Continent of
+Europe--possibly expelled the Black Sea--perishing in South America;
+its illicit avenue to the United States, through Canada, closed--was
+this the period for throwing open our own market by abandoning our
+restrictive system? Perhaps at this moment the fate of the north of
+Europe is decided, and the French Emperor may be dictating the law
+from Moscow."[497] The following night Napoleon finally abandoned his
+routed army and started on his return to Paris.
+
+War having been foreseen, the British Government took its first step
+without hesitation. On August 6 the Foreign Office issued Warren's
+secret instructions, which were substantially the repetition of those
+already addressed on July 8 to its representative in Washington. It
+being probable that before they could be received he would have
+departed in consequence of the rupture, Warren was to submit the
+proposition contained in them, that the United States Government, in
+view of the revocation of the Orders in Council, so long demanded by
+it, should recall the hostile measures taken. In case of acceptance,
+he was authorized to stop at once all hostilities within his command,
+and to give assurance of similar action by his Government in every
+part of the world. If this advance proved fruitless, as it did, no
+orders instituting a state of war were needed, for it already existed;
+but for that contingency Warren received further instructions as to
+the course he was to pursue, in case "a desire should manifest itself
+in any considerable portion of the American Union, more especially in
+those States bordering upon his Majesty's North American dominions, to
+return to their relations of peace and amity with this country." The
+admiral was to encourage such dispositions, and should they take shape
+in formal act, making overtures to him for a cessation of hostilities
+for that part of the country, he was directed to grant it, and to
+enter into negotiations for commercial intercourse between the section
+thus acting and the British dominions. In short, if the General
+Government proved irreconcilable, Great Britain was to profit by any
+sentiment of disunion found to exist.[498]
+
+Warren sailed from Portsmouth August 14, arriving in Halifax September
+26. On the 30th, he despatched to the United States Government the
+proposal for the cessation of hostilities. Monroe, the Secretary of
+State, replied on October 27. The President, he said, was at all times
+anxious to restore peace, and at the very moment of declaring war had
+instructed the _charge_ in London to make propositions to that effect
+to the British Ministry. An indispensable condition, however, was the
+abandonment of the practice of impressment from American vessels. The
+President recognized the embarrassment under which Great Britain lay,
+because of her felt necessity to control the services of her native
+seamen, and was willing to undertake that hereafter they should be
+wholly excluded from the naval and merchant ships of the United
+States. This should be done under regulations to be negotiated between
+the two countries, in order to obviate the injury alleged by Great
+Britain; but, meanwhile, impressing from under the American flag must
+be discontinued during any armistice arranged. "It cannot be presumed,
+while the parties are engaged in a negotiation to adjust amicably this
+important difference, that the United States would admit the right,
+or acquiesce in the practice of the opposite party, or that Great
+Britain would be unwilling to restrain her cruisers from a practice
+which would have the strongest tendency to defeat the negotiation."
+The Orders in Council having been revoked, impressment remained the
+only outstanding question upon which the United States was absolute in
+its demand. That conceded, upon the terms indicated, all other
+differences might be referred to negotiation. Upon this point Warren
+had no powers, for his Government was determined not to yield. The
+maritime war therefore went on unabated; but it may be mentioned here
+that the President's undertaking to exclude British-born seamen from
+American ships took effect in an Act of Congress, approved by him
+March 3, 1813. He had thenceforth in hand a pledge which he considered
+a full guarantee against whatever Great Britain feared to lose by
+ceasing to take seamen from under the American flag. It was not so
+regarded in England, and no formal agreement on this interesting
+subject was ever reached.
+
+The conditions existing upon his arrival, and the occurrences of the
+past three months, as then first fully known to Warren, deeply
+impressed him with the largeness of his task in protecting the
+commerce of Great Britain. He found himself at once in the midst of
+its most evident perils, which in the beginning were concentrated
+about Halifax, owing to special circumstances. Although long seemingly
+imminent, hostilities when they actually came had found the mercantile
+community of the United States, for the most part, unbelieving and
+unprepared. The cry of "Wolf!" had been raised so often that they did
+not credit its coming, even when at the doors. This was especially the
+case in New England, where the popular feeling against war increased
+the indisposition to think it near. On May 14, Captain Bainbridge,
+commanding the Boston navy yard, wrote: "I am sorry to say that the
+people here do not believe we are going to war, and are too much
+disposed to treat our national councils with contempt, and to consider
+their preparations as electioneering."[499] The presidential election
+was due in the following November. A Baltimore newspaper of the day,
+criticising the universal rush to evade the embargo of April 4,
+instituted in order to keep both seamen and property at home in
+avoidance of capture, added that in justice it must be said that most
+people believed that the embargo, as on former occasions, did not mean
+war.[500]
+
+Under the general sense of unpreparedness, it seemed to many
+inconceivable that the Administration would venture to expose the
+coasts to British reprisals. John Randolph, repeating in the House of
+Representatives in secret session a conversation between the Committee
+on Foreign Relations and the Secretary of State, said: "He was asked
+whether any essential changes would be made in the sixty days (of the
+proposed embargo) in the defence of our maritime frontier and
+seaports. He replied, pretty considerable preparations would be made.
+He said New York was in a pretty respectable state, but not such as to
+resist a formidable fleet; but that it was not to be expected that
+that kind of war would be carried on." The obvious reply was, "We must
+expect what commonly happens in wars." "As to the prepared state of
+the country, the President, in case of a declaration, would not feel
+bound to take more than his share of the responsibility. The
+unprepared state of the country was the only reason why ulterior
+measures should be deferred."[501] Randolph's recollections of this
+interview were challenged by members of the Committee in other
+points, but not in these. The Administration had then been in office
+three years, and the causes of war had been accumulating for at least
+seven; but so notorious was the unreadiness that a great part of the
+community even now saw only bluster.
+
+For these reasons the first rush to privateering, although feverishly
+energetic, was of a somewhat extemporized character. In consequence of
+the attempt to elude the embargo, by a precipitate and extensive
+export movement, a very large part of the merchant ships and seamen
+were now abroad. Hence, in the haste to seize upon enemy's shipping,
+anything that could be sent to sea at quick notice was utilized.
+Vessels thus equipped were rarely best fitted for a distant voyage, in
+which dependence must rest upon their own resources, and upon crews
+both numerous and capable. They were therefore necessarily directed
+upon commercial highways near at hand, which, though not intrinsically
+richest, nor followed by the cargoes that would pay best in the United
+States, could nevertheless adequately reward enterprise. In the near
+vicinity of Halifax the routes from the British West Indies to New
+Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the St. Lawrence, met and crossed the
+equally important lines of travel from the British Islands to the same
+points. This circumstance contributed to the importance of that place
+as a naval and commercial centre, and also focussed about it by far
+the larger part of the effort and excitement of the first privateering
+outburst from the United States. As Rodgers' bold sortie, and
+disappearance into the unknown with a strong squadron had forced
+concentration upon the principal British vessels, the cruisers
+remaining for dispersion in search of privateers were numerically
+inadequate to suppress the many and scattered Americans. Before
+Warren's arrival the prizes reported in the United States were one
+hundred and ninety, and they probably exceeded two hundred. An
+analysis of the somewhat imperfect data which accompany these returns
+indicates that about three fourths were seized in the Bay of Fundy and
+in the off-lying waters from thence round to Newfoundland. Of the
+remainder, half, probably, were taken in the West Indies; and the rest
+out in the deep sea, beyond the Gulf Stream, upon the first part of
+the track followed by the sugar and coffee traders from the West
+Indies to England.[502] There had not yet been time to hear of prizes
+taken in Europe, to which comparatively few privateers as yet went.
+
+One of the most intelligent and enterprising of the early privateers
+was Commodore Joshua Barney, a veteran of the American Navy of the
+Revolution. He commissioned a Baltimore schooner, the "Rossie," at the
+outbreak of the war; partly, apparently, in order to show a good
+example of patriotic energy, but doubtless also through the promptings
+of a love of adventure, not extinguished by advancing years. The
+double motive kept him an active, useful, and distinguished public
+servant throughout the war. His cruise on this occasion, as far as can
+be gathered from the reports,[503] conformed in direction to the
+quarters in which the enemy's merchant ships might most surely be
+expected. Sailing from the Chesapeake July 15, he seems to have stood
+at once outside the Gulf Stream for the eastern edge of the Banks of
+Newfoundland. In the ensuing two weeks he was twice chased by an
+enemy's frigate, and not till July 31 did he take his first prize.
+From that day, to and including August 9, he captured ten other
+vessels--eleven in all. Unfortunately, the precise locality of each
+seizure is not given, but it is inferable from the general tenor of
+the accounts that they were made between the eastern edge of the
+Great Banks and the immediate neighborhood of Halifax; in the
+locality, in fact, to which Hull during those same ten days was
+directing the "Constitution," partly in pursuit of prizes, equally in
+search of the enemy's ships of war, which were naturally to be sought
+at those centres of movement where their national traders accumulated.
+
+On August 30 the "Rossie," having run down the Nova Scotia coast and
+passed by George's Bank and Nantucket, went into Newport, Rhode
+Island. It is noticeable that before and after those ten days of
+success, although she saw no English vessels, except ships of war
+cruising on the outer approaches of their commerce, she was
+continually meeting and speaking American vessels returning home.
+These facts illustrate the considerations governing privateering, and
+refute the plausible opinion often advanced, that it was a mere matter
+of gambling adventure. Thus Mr. Gallatin, the Secretary of the
+Treasury, in a communication to Congress, said: "The occupation of
+privateers is precisely of the same species as the lottery, with
+respect to hazard and to the chance of rich prizes."[504] Gallatin
+approached the subject from the standpoint of the financier and with
+the abstract ideas of the political economist. His temporary
+successor, the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Jones, had been a merchant
+in active business life, and he viewed privateering as a practical
+business undertaking. "The analogy between privateering and lotteries
+does not appear to me to be so strict as the Secretary seems to
+consider it. The adventure of a privateer is of the nature of a
+commercial project or speculation, conducted by commercial men upon
+principles of mercantile calculation and profit. The vessel and her
+equipment is a matter of great expense, which is expected to be
+remunerated by the probable chances of profit, after calculating the
+outfit, insurance, etc., as in a regular mercantile voyage."[505] Mr.
+Jones would doubtless have admitted what Gallatin alleged, that the
+business was liable to be overdone, as is the case with all promising
+occupations; and that many would engage in it without adequate
+understanding or forethought.
+
+The elements of risk which enter into privateering are doubtless very
+great, and to some extent baffle calculation. In this it only shares
+the lot common to all warlike enterprise, in which, as the ablest
+masters of the art repeatedly affirm, something must be allowed for
+chance. But it does not follow that a reasonable measure of success
+may not fairly be expected, where sagacious appreciation of well-known
+facts controls the direction of effort, and preparation is
+proportioned to the difficulties to be encountered. Heedlessness of
+conditions, or recklessness of dangers, defeat effort everywhere, as
+well as in privateering; nor is even the chapter of unforeseen
+accident confined to military affairs. In 1812 the courses followed by
+the enemy's trade were well understood, as were also the
+characteristics of their ships of war, in sailing, distribution, and
+management.[506] Regard being had to these conditions, the pecuniary
+venture, which privateering essentially is, was sure of fair
+returns--barring accidents--if the vessels were thoroughly well found,
+with superior speed and nautical qualities, and if directed upon the
+centres of ocean travel, such as the approaches to the English
+Channel, or, as before noted, to where great highways cross, inducing
+an accumulation of vessels from several quarters. So pursued,
+privateering can be made pecuniarily successful, as was shown by the
+increasing number and value of prizes as the war went on. It has also
+a distinct effect as a minor offensive operation, harassing and
+weakening the enemy; but its merits are more contestable when regarded
+as by itself alone decisive of great issues. Despite the efficiency
+and numbers of American privateers, it was not British commerce, but
+American, that was destroyed by the war.
+
+From Newport the "Rossie" took a turn through another lucrative field
+of privateering enterprise, the Caribbean Sea. Passing by Bermuda,
+which brought her in the track of vessels from the West Indies to
+Halifax, she entered the Caribbean at its northeastern corner, by the
+Anegada Passage, near St. Thomas, thence ran along the south shore of
+Porto Rico, coming out by the Mona Passage, between Porto Rico and
+Santo Domingo, and so home by the Gulf Stream. In this second voyage
+she made but two prizes; and it is noted in her log book that she here
+met the privateer schooner "Rapid" from Charleston, fifty-two days
+out, without taking anything. The cause of these small results does
+not certainly appear; but it may be presumed that with the height of
+the hurricane season at hand, most of the West India traders had
+already sailed for Europe. Despite all drawbacks, when the "Rossie"
+returned to Baltimore toward the end of October, she had captured or
+destroyed property roughly reckoned at a million and a half, which is
+probably an exaggerated estimate. Two hundred and seventeen prisoners
+had been taken.
+
+While the "Rossie" was on her way to the West Indies, there sailed
+from Salem a large privateer called the "America," the equipment and
+operations of which illustrated precisely the business conception
+which attached to these enterprises in the minds of competent business
+men. This ship-rigged vessel of four hundred and seventy-three tons,
+built of course for a merchantman, was about eight years old when the
+war broke out, and had just returned from a voyage. Seeing that
+ordinary commerce was likely to be a very precarious undertaking, her
+owners spent the months of July and August in preparing her
+deliberately for her new occupation. Her upper deck was removed, and
+sides filled in solid. She was given larger yards and loftier spars
+than before; the greatly increased number of men carried by a
+privateer, for fighting and for manning prizes, enabling canvas to be
+handled with greater rapidity and certainty. She received a battery of
+very respectable force for those days, so that she could repel the
+smaller classes of ships of war, which formed a large proportion of
+the enemy's cruisers. Thus fitted to fight or run, and having very
+superior speed, she was often chased, but never caught. During the two
+and a half years of war she made four cruises of four months each;
+taking in all forty-one prizes, twenty-seven of which reached port and
+realized $1,100,000, after deducting expenses and government charges.
+As half of this went to the ship's company, the owners netted $550,000
+for sixteen months' active use of the ship. Her invariable cruising
+ground was from the English Channel south, to the latitude of the
+Canary Islands.[507]
+
+The United States having declared war, the Americans enjoyed the
+advantage of the first blow at the enemy's trade. The reduced numbers
+of vessels on the British transatlantic stations, and the perplexity
+induced by Rodgers' movement, combined to restrict the injury to
+American shipping. A number of prizes were made, doubtless; but as
+nearly as can be ascertained not over seventy American merchant ships
+were taken in the first three months of the war. Of these,
+thirty-eight are reported as brought under the jurisdiction of the
+Vice-Admiralty Court at Halifax, and twenty-four as captured on the
+Jamaica station. News of the war not being received by the British
+squadrons in Europe until early in August, only one capture there
+appears before October 1, except from the Mediterranean. There Captain
+Usher on September 6 wrote from Gibraltar that all the Americans on
+their way down the Sea--that is, out of the Straits--had been
+taken.[508] In like manner, though with somewhat better fortune,
+thirty or forty American ships from the Baltic were driven to take
+refuge in the neutral Swedish port of Gottenburg, and remained
+war-bound.[509] That the British cruisers were not inactive in
+protecting the threatened shores and waters of Nova Scotia and the St.
+Lawrence is proved by the seizure of twenty-four American privateers,
+between July 1 and August 25;[510] a result to which the inadequate
+equipment of these vessels probably contributed. But American
+shipping, upon the whole, at first escaped pretty well in the matter
+of actual capture.
+
+It was not in this way, but by the almost total suppression of
+commerce, both coasting and foreign, both neutral and American, that
+the maritime pressure of war was brought home to the United States.
+This also did not happen until a comparatively late period. No
+commercial blockade was instituted by the enemy before February, 1813.
+Up to that time neutrals, not carrying contraband, had free admission
+to all American ports; and the British for their own purposes
+encouraged a licensed trade, wholly illegitimate as far as United
+States ships were concerned, but in which American citizens and
+American vessels were largely engaged, though frequently under flags
+of other nations. A significant indication of the nature of this
+traffic is found in the export returns of the year ending September
+30, 1813. The total value of home produce exported was $25,008,152,
+chiefly flour, grain, and other provisions. Of this, $20,536,328 went
+to Spain and Portugal with their colonies; $15,500,000 to the
+Peninsula itself.[511] It was not till October, 1813, when the British
+armies entered France, that this demand fell. At the same time Halifax
+and Canada were being supplied with flour from New England; and the
+common saying that the British forces in Canada could not keep the
+field but for supplies sent from the United States was strictly true,
+and has been attested by British commissaries. An American in Halifax
+in November, 1812, wrote home that within a fortnight twenty thousand
+barrels of flour had arrived in vessels under Spanish and Swedish
+flags, chiefly from Boston. This sort of unfaithfulness to a national
+cause is incidental to most wars, but rarely amounts to as grievous a
+military evil as in 1812 and 1813, when both the Peninsula and Canada
+were substantially at our mercy in this respect. With the fall of
+Napoleon, and the opening of Continental resources, such control
+departed from American hands. In the succeeding twelvemonth there was
+sent to the Peninsula less than $5,000,000 worth.
+
+Warren's impressions of the serious nature of the opening conflict
+caused a correspondence between him and the Admiralty somewhat
+controversial in tone. Ten days after his arrival he represented the
+reduced state of the squadron: "The war assumes a new, as well as more
+active and inveterate aspect than heretofore." Alarming reports were
+being received as to the number of ships of twenty-two to thirty-two
+guns fitting out in American ports, and he mentions as significant
+that the commission of a privateer officer, taken in a recaptured
+vessel, bore the number 318. At Halifax he was in an atmosphere of
+rumors and excitement, fed by frequent communication with eastern
+ports, as well as by continual experience of captures about the
+neighboring shores; the enemies' crews even landing at times. When he
+went to Bermuda two months later, so many privateers were met on the
+line of traffic between the West Indies and the St. Lawrence as to
+convince him of the number and destructiveness of these vessels, and
+"of the impossibility of our trade navigating these seas unless a very
+extensive squadron is employed to scour the vicinity." He was crippled
+for attempting this by the size of the American frigates, which
+forbade his dispersing his cruisers. The capture of the "Guerriere"
+had now been followed by that of the "Macedonian;" and in view of the
+results, and of Rodgers being again out, he felt compelled to
+constitute squadrons of two frigates and a sloop. Under these
+conditions, and with so many convoys to furnish, "it is impracticable
+to cut off the enemy's resources, or to repress the disorder and
+pillage which actually exist to a very alarming degree, both on the
+coast of British America and in the West Indies, as will be seen by
+the copies of letters enclosed," from colonial and naval officials. He
+goes on to speak, in terms not carefully weighed, of swarms of
+privateers and letters-of-marque, their numbers now amounting to six
+hundred; the crews of which had landed in many points of his Majesty's
+dominions, and even taken vessels from their anchors in British
+ports.[512]
+
+The Admiralty, while evidently seeing exaggeration in this language,
+bear witness in their reply to the harassment caused by the American
+squadrons and private armed ships. They remind the admiral that there
+are two principal ways of protecting the trade: one by furnishing it
+with convoys, the other by preventing egress from the enemy's ports,
+through adequate force placed before them. To disperse vessels over
+the open sea, along the tracks of commerce, though necessary, is but
+a subsidiary measure. His true course is to concentrate a strong
+division before each chief American port, and they intimate
+dissatisfaction that this apparently had not yet been done. As a
+matter of fact, up to the spring of 1813, American ships of war had
+little difficulty in getting to sea. Rodgers had sailed again with his
+own squadron and Decatur's on October 8, the two separating on the
+11th, though this was unknown to the British; and Bainbridge followed
+with the "Constitution" and "Hornet" on the 26th. Once away, power to
+arrest their depredations was almost wholly lost, through ignorance of
+their intentions. With regard to commerce, they were on the offensive,
+the British on the defensive, with the perplexity attaching to the
+latter role.
+
+Under the circumstances, the Admiralty betrays some impatience with
+Warren's clamor for small vessels to be scattered in defence of the
+trade and coasts. They remind him that he has under his flag eleven
+sail of the line, thirty-four frigates, thirty-eight sloops, besides
+other vessels, making a total of ninety-seven; and yet first Rodgers,
+and then Bainbridge, had got away. True, Boston cannot be effectively
+blockaded from November to March, but these two squadrons had sailed
+in October. Even "in the month of December, though it was not possible
+perhaps to have maintained a permanent watch on that port, yet having,
+as you state in your letter of November 5, precise information that
+Commodore Bainbridge was to sail at a given time, their Lordships
+regret that it was not deemed practicable to proceed off that port at
+a reasonable and safe distance from the land, and to have taken the
+chance at least of intercepting the enemy." "The necessity for sending
+heavy convoys arises from the facility and safety with which the
+American navy has hitherto found it possible to put to sea. The
+uncertainty in which you have left their Lordships, in regard to the
+movements of the enemy and the disposition of your own force, has
+obliged them to employ six or seven sail of the line and as many
+frigates and sloops, independent of your command, in guarding against
+the possible attempts of the enemy. Captain Prowse, with two sail of
+the line, two frigates, and a sloop, has been sent to St. Helena.
+Rear-Admiral Beauclerk, with two of the line, two frigates, and two
+sloops, is stationed in the neighborhood of Madeira and the Azores,
+lest Commodore Bainbridge should have come into that quarter to take
+the place of Commodore Rodgers, who was retiring from it about the
+time you state Commodore Bainbridge was expected to sail. Commodore
+Owen, who had preceded Admiral Beauclerk in this station, with a ship
+of the line and three other vessels, is not yet returned from the
+cruise on which the appearance of the enemy near the Azores had
+obliged their Lordships to send this force; while the 'Colossus' and
+the 'Elephant' [ships of the line], with the 'Rhin' and the 'Armide,'
+are but just returned from similar services. Thus it is obvious that,
+large as the force under your orders was, and is, it is not all that
+has been opposed to the Americans, and that these services became
+necessary only because the chief weight of the enemy's force has been
+employed at a distance from your station."[513]
+
+The final words here quoted characterize exactly the conditions of the
+first eight or ten months of the war, until the spring of 1813. They
+also define the purpose of the British Government to close the coast
+of the United States in such manner as to minimize the evils of widely
+dispersed commerce-destroying, by confining the American vessels as
+far as possible within their harbors. The American squadrons and
+heavy frigates, which menaced not commerce only but scattered ships of
+war as well, were to be rigorously shut up by an overwhelming division
+before each port in which they harbored; and the Admiralty intimated
+its wish that a ship of the line should always form one of such
+division. This course of policy, initiated when the winter of 1812-13
+was over, was thenceforth maintained with ever increasing rigor;
+especially after the general peace in Europe, in May, 1814, had
+released the entire British navy. It had two principal results. The
+American frigates were, in the main, successfully excluded from the
+ocean. Their three successful battles were all fought before January
+1, 1813. Commodore John Rodgers, indeed, by observing his own precept
+of clinging to the eastern ports of Newport and Boston, did succeed
+after this in making two cruises with the "President;" but entering
+New York with her on the last of these, in February, 1814, she was
+obliged, in endeavoring to get to sea when transferred to Decatur, to
+do so under circumstances so difficult as to cause her to ground, and
+by consequent loss of speed to be overtaken and captured by the
+blockading squadron. Captain Stewart reported the "Constitution"
+nearly ready for sea, at Boston, September 26, 1813. Three months
+after, he wrote the weather had not yet enabled him to escape. On
+December 30, however, she sailed; but returning on April 4, the
+blockaders drove her into Salem, whence she could not reach Boston
+until April 17, 1814, and there remained until the 17th of the
+following December. Her last successful battle, under his command, was
+on February 20, 1815, more than two years after she captured the
+"Java." When the war ended the only United States vessels on the ocean
+were the "Constitution," three sloops--the "Wasp," "Hornet," and
+"Peacock "--and the brig "Tom Bowline." The smaller vessels of the
+navy, and the privateers, owing to their much lighter draft, got out
+more readily; but neither singly nor collectively did they constitute
+a serious menace to convoys, nor to the scattered cruisers of the
+enemy. These, therefore, were perfectly free to pursue their
+operations without fear of surprise.
+
+On the other hand, because of this concentration along the shores of
+the United States, the vessels that did escape went prepared more and
+more for long absences and distant operations. On the sea "the weight
+of the enemy's force," to use again the words of the Admiralty, "was
+employed at a distance from the North American station." Whereas, at
+the first, most captures by Americans were made near the United
+States, after the spring of 1813 there is an increasing indication of
+their being most successfully sought abroad; and during the last nine
+months of the war, when peace prevailed throughout the world except
+between the United States and Great Britain, when the Chesapeake was
+British waters, when Washington was being burned and Baltimore
+threatened, when the American invasion of Canada had given place to
+the British invasion of New York, when New Orleans and Mobile were
+both being attacked,--it was the coasts of Europe, and the narrow seas
+over which England had claimed immemorial sovereignty, that witnessed
+the most audacious and successful ventures of American cruisers. The
+prizes taken in these quarters were to those on the hither side of the
+Atlantic as two to one. To this contributed also the commercial
+blockade, after its extension over the entire seaboard of the United
+States, in April, 1814. The practically absolute exclusion of American
+commerce from the ocean is testified by the exports of 1814, which
+amounted to not quite $7,000,000;[514] whereas in 1807, the last full
+year of unrestricted trade, they had been $108,000,000.[515] Deprived
+of all their usual employments, shipping and seamen were driven to
+privateering to earn any returns at all.
+
+From these special circumstances, the period from June, 1812, when the
+war began, to the end of April, 1813, when the departure of winter
+conditions permitted the renewal of local activity on sea and land,
+had a character of its own, favoring the United States on the ocean,
+which did not recur. Some specific account of particular transactions
+during these months will serve to illustrate the general conditions
+mentioned.
+
+When Warren reached Halifax, there were still in Boston the
+"Constitution" and the ships that had returned with Rodgers on August
+31. From these the Navy Department now constituted three squadrons.
+The "Hornet," Captain James Lawrence, detached from Rodgers' command,
+was attached to the "Constitution," in which Captain William
+Bainbridge had succeeded Hull. Bainbridge's squadron was to be
+composed of these two vessels and the smaller 32-gun frigate "Essex,"
+Captain David Porter, then lying in the Delaware. Rodgers retained his
+own ship, the "President," with the frigate "Congress;" while to
+Decatur was continued the "United States" and the brig "Argus." These
+detachments were to act separately under their several commodores; but
+as Decatur's preparations were only a few days behind those of
+Rodgers, the latter decided to wait for him, and on October 8 the two
+sailed in company, for mutual support until outside the lines of
+enemies, in case of meeting with a force superior to either singly.
+
+In announcing his departure, Rodgers wrote the Department that he
+expected the British would be distributed in divisions, off the ports
+of the coast, and that if reliable information reached him of any such
+exposed detachment, it would be his duty to seek it. "I feel a
+confidence that, with prudent policy, we shall, barring unforeseen
+accidents, not only annoy their commerce, but embarrass and perplex
+the commanders of their public ships, equally to the advantage of our
+commerce and the disadvantage of theirs." Warren and the Admiralty
+alike have borne witness to the accuracy of this judgment. Rodgers was
+less happy in another forecast, in which he reflected that of his
+countrymen generally. As regards the reported size of British
+re-enforcements to America, "I do not feel confidence in them, as I
+cannot convince myself that their resources, situated as England is at
+present, are equal to the maintenance of such a force on this side of
+the Atlantic; and at any rate, if such an one do appear, it will be
+only with a view to bullying us into such a peace as may suit their
+interests."[516] The Commodore's words reflected often an animosity,
+personal as well as national, aroused by the liberal abuse bestowed on
+him by British writers.
+
+ [Illustration: THE CRUISES OF THE THREE AMERICAN SQUADRONS IN
+ THE AUTUMN OF 1812]
+
+On October 11 Decatur's division parted company, the "President" and
+"Congress" continuing together and steering to the eastward. On the
+15th the two ships captured a British packet, the "Swallow," from
+Jamaica to Falmouth, having $150,000 to $200,000 specie on board; and
+on the 31st, in longitude 32 deg. west, latitude 33 deg. north, two hundred
+and forty miles south of the Azores, a Pacific whaler on her homeward
+voyage was taken. These two incidents indicate the general direction
+of the course held, which was continued to longitude 22 deg. west,
+latitude 17 deg. north, the neighborhood of the Cape Verde group. This
+confirms the information of the British Admiralty that Rodgers was
+cruising between the Azores and Madeira; and it will be seen that
+Bainbridge, as they feared, followed in Rodgers' wake, though with a
+different ulterior destination. The ground indeed was well chosen to
+intercept homeward trade from the East Indies and South America.
+Returning, the two frigates ran west in latitude 17 deg., with the trade
+wind, as far as longitude 50 deg., whence they steered north, passing one
+hundred and twenty miles east of Bermuda. In his report to the Navy
+Department Rodgers said that he had sailed almost eleven thousand
+miles, making the circuit of nearly the whole western Atlantic. In
+this extensive sweep he had seen only five enemy's merchant vessels,
+two of which were captured. The last four weeks, practically the
+entire month of December, had been spent upon the line between Halifax
+and Bermuda, without meeting a single enemy's ship. From this he
+concluded that "their trade is at present infinitely more limited than
+people imagine."[517] In fact, however, the experience indicated that
+the British officials were rigorously enforcing the Convoy Law,
+according to the "positive directions," and warnings of penalties,
+issued by the Government. A convoy is doubtless a much larger object
+than a single ship; but vessels thus concentrated in place and in time
+are more apt to pass wholly unseen than the same number sailing
+independently, and so scattered over wide expanses of sea.
+
+Shortly before his return Rodgers arrested and sent in an American
+vessel, from Baltimore to Lisbon, with flour, sailing under a
+protection from the British admiral at Halifax. This was a frequent
+incident with United States cruisers, national or private, at this
+time; Decatur, for example, the day after leaving Rodgers, reported
+meeting an American ship having on board a number of licenses from the
+British Government to American citizens, granting them protection in
+transporting grain to Spain and Portugal. The license was issued by a
+British consular officer, and ran thus:[518]
+
+ "To the commanders of His Majesty's ships of war, or of private
+ armed ships belonging to subjects of His Majesty.
+
+ "Whereas, from the consideration of the great importance of
+ continuing a regular supply of flour and other dried provisions,
+ to the allied armies in Spain and Portugal, it has been deemed
+ expedient by His Majesty's Government that, notwithstanding the
+ hostilities now existing between Great Britain and the United
+ States, every degree of encouragement and protection should be
+ given to American vessels laden with flour and other dry
+ provisions, and _bona fide_ bound to Spain or Portugal, and
+ whereas, in furtherance of the views of His Majesty's
+ Government, Herbert Sawyer, Esq., Vice Admiral and
+ commander-in-chief on the Halifax station, has addressed to me a
+ letter under the date of the 5th of August, 1812 (a copy whereof
+ is hereunto annexed) wherein I am instructed to furnish a copy
+ of his letter certified under my consular seal to every American
+ vessel so laden and bound, destined to serve as a perfect
+ safeguard and protection of such vessel in the prosecution of
+ her voyage: Now, therefore, in obedience to these instructions,
+ I have granted to the American ship ----, ----, Master," etc.
+
+To this was appended the following letter of instructions from Admiral
+Sawyer:
+
+ "Whereas Mr. Andrew Allen, His Majesty's Consul at Boston, has
+ recommended to me Mr. Robert Elwell, a merchant of that place,
+ and well inclined toward the British Interest, who is desirous
+ of sending provisions to Spain and Portugal for the use of the
+ allied armies in the Peninsula, and whereas I think it fit and
+ necessary that encouragement and protection should be afforded
+ him in so doing,
+
+ "These are therefore to require and direct all captains and
+ commanders of His Majesty's ships and vessels of war which may
+ fall in with any American or other vessel bearing a neutral
+ flag, laden with flour, bread, corn, and pease, or any other
+ species of dry provisions, bound from America to Spain or
+ Portugal, and having this protection on board, to suffer her to
+ proceed without unnecessary obstruction or detention in her
+ voyage, provided she shall appear to be steering a due course
+ for those countries, and it being understood this is only to be
+ in force for one voyage and within six months from the date
+ hereof.
+
+ "Given under my hand and seal on board His Majesty's Ship
+ 'Centurion,' at Halifax this fourth day of August, one thousand
+ eight hundred and twelve.
+
+ "(Sig.) H. SAWYER, Vice Admiral."
+
+This practice soon became perfectly known to the American Government,
+copies being found not only on board vessels stopped for carrying
+them, but in seaports. Nevertheless, it went on, apparently tolerated,
+or at least winked at; although, to say the least, the seamen thus
+employed in sustaining the enemies' armies were needed by the
+state.[519] When the commercial blockade of the Chesapeake was
+enforced in February, 1813, and Admiral Warren announced that licenses
+would no longer enable vessels to pass, flour in Baltimore fell two
+dollars a barrel. The blockade being then limited to the Chesapeake
+and Delaware, the immediate effect was to transfer this lucrative
+traffic further north, favoring that portion of the country which was
+considered, in the common parlance of the British official of that
+day, "well inclined towards British interests."
+
+On October 13, two days after Rodgers and Decatur parted at sea, the
+United States sloop of war "Wasp," Captain Jacob Jones, left the
+Capes of the Delaware on a cruise, steering to the eastward. On the
+16th, in a heavy gale of wind, she lost her jib-boom. At half-past
+eleven in the night of the 17th, being then in latitude 37 deg. north,
+longitude 65 deg. west, between four and five hundred miles east of the
+Chesapeake, in the track of vessels bound to Europe from the Gulf of
+Mexico, half a dozen large sail were seen passing. These were part of
+a convoy which had left the Bay of Honduras September 12, on their way
+to England, under guard of the British brig of war "Frolic," Captain
+Whinyates. Jones, unable in the dark to distinguish their force, took
+a position some miles to windward, whence he could still see and
+follow their motions. In the morning each saw the other, and
+Whinyates, properly concerned for his charges chiefly, directed them
+to proceed under all sail on their easterly course, while he allowed
+the "Frolic" to drop astern, at the same time hoisting Spanish colors
+to deceive the stranger; a ruse prompted by his having a few days
+before passed a Spanish fleet convoyed by a brig resembling his own.
+
+It still blowing strong from the westward, with a heavy sea, Captain
+Jones, being to windward, and so having the choice of attacking, first
+put his ship under close-reefed topsails, and then stood down for the
+"Frolic," which hauled to the wind on the port tack--that is, with the
+wind on the left side--to await the enemy. The British brig was under
+the disadvantage of having lost her main-yard in the same gale that
+cost the American her jib-boom; she was therefore unable to set any
+square sail on the rearmost of her two masts. The sail called the boom
+mainsail in part remedied this, so far as enabling the brig to keep
+side to wind; but, being a low sail, it did not steady her as well as
+a square topsail would have done in the heavy sea running, a condition
+which makes accurate aim more difficult.
+
+The action did not begin until the "Wasp" was within sixty yards of
+the "Frolic." Then the latter opened fire, which the American quickly
+returned; the two running side by side and gradually closing. The
+British crew fired much the more rapidly, a circumstance which their
+captain described as "superior fire;" in this reproducing the illusion
+under which Captain Dacres labored during the first part of his fight
+with the "Constitution." "The superior fire of our guns gave every
+reason to expect a speedy termination in our favor," wrote Whinyates
+in his official report. Dacres before his Court Martial asked of two
+witnesses, "Did you understand it was not my intention to board whilst
+the masts stood, in consequence of our superior fire and their great
+number of men?" That superior here meant quicker is established by the
+reply of one of these witnesses: "Our fire was a great deal quicker
+than the enemy's." Superiority of fire, however, consists not only in
+rapidity, but in hitting; and while with very big ships it may be
+possible to realize Nelson's maxim, that by getting close missing
+becomes impossible, it is not the same with smaller vessels in
+turbulent motion. It was thought on board the "Wasp" that the enemy
+fired thrice to her twice, but the direction of their shot was seen in
+its effects; the American losing within ten minutes her maintopmast
+with its yard, the mizzen-topgallant-mast, and spanker gaff. Within
+twenty minutes most of the running rigging was also shot away, so as
+to leave the ship largely unmanageable; but she had only five killed
+and five wounded. In other words, the enemy's shot flew high; and,
+while it did the damage mentioned, it inflicted no vital injury. The
+"Wasp," on the contrary, as evidently fired low; for the loss of the
+boom mainsail was the only serious harm received by the "Frolic's"
+motive power during the engagement, and when her masts fell,
+immediately after it, they went close to the deck. Her loss in men,
+fifteen killed and forty-three wounded, tells the same story of aiming
+low.
+
+The "Frolic" having gone into action without a main-yard, the loss of
+the boom mainsail left her unmanageable and decided the action. The
+"Wasp," though still under control, was but little better off; for she
+was unable to handle her head yards, the maintopmast having fallen
+across the head braces. There is little reason therefore to credit a
+contemporary statement of her wearing twice before boarding. Neither
+captain mentions further manoeuvring, and Jones' words, "We gradually
+lessened the space till we laid her on board," probably express the
+exact sequence. As they thus closed, the "Wasp's" greater remaining
+sail and a movement of her helm would effect what followed: the
+British vessel's bowsprit coming between the main and the mizzen
+rigging of her opponent, who thus grappled her in a position favorable
+for raking. A broadside or two, preparatory for boarding, followed,
+and ended the battle; for when the Americans leaped on board there was
+no resistance. In view of the vigorous previous contest, this shows a
+ship's company decisively beaten.[520]
+
+Under the conditions of wind and weather, this engagement may fairly
+be described as an artillery duel between two vessels of substantially
+equal force. James' contention of inferior numbers in the "Frolic" is
+true in the letter; but the greater rapidity of her firing shows it
+irrelevant to the issue. The want of the mainyard, which means the
+lack of the maintopsail, was a more substantial disadvantage. So long
+as the boom mainsail held, however, it was fairly offset by the fall
+of the "Wasp's" maintopmast and its consequences. Both vessels carried
+sixteen 32-pounder carronades, which gave a broadside of two hundred
+and fifty-six pounds. The "Wasp" had, besides, two 12-pounder long
+guns. The British naval historian James states that the "Frolic" had
+in addition to her main battery only two long sixes; but Captain Jones
+gives her six 12-pounders, claiming that she was therefore superior to
+the "Wasp" by four 12-pounders. As we are not excusing a defeat, it
+may be sufficient to say that the fight was as nearly equal as it is
+given to such affairs to be. The action lasted forty-three minutes;
+the "Frolic" hauling down her colors shortly after noon. Almost
+immediately afterward the British seventy-four "Poietiers" came in
+sight, and in the disabled condition of the two combatants overhauled
+them easily. Two hours later she took possession of both "Wasp" and
+"Frolic," and carried them into Bermuda. The "Wasp" was added to the
+British navy under the name of "Loup Cervier" (Lynx).
+
+When Rodgers and Decatur separated, on October 11, the former steered
+rather easterly, while the latter diverged to the southward as well as
+east, accompanied by the "Argus." These two did not remain long
+together. It is perhaps worth noticing by the way, that Rodgers
+adhered to his idea of co-operation between ships, keeping his two in
+company throughout; whereas Decatur, when in control, illustrated in
+practice his preference for separate action. The brig proceeded to
+Cape St. Roque, the easternmost point of Brazil, and thence along the
+north coast of South America, as far as Surinam. From there she passed
+to the eastward of the West India Islands and so toward home;
+remaining out as long as her stores justified, cruising in the waters
+between Halifax, Bermuda, and the Continent. These courses, as those
+of the other divisions, are given as part of the maritime action,
+conducive to understanding the general character of effort put forth
+by national and other cruisers. Of these four ships that sailed
+together, the "Argus" alone encountered any considerable force of the
+enemy; falling in with a squadron of six British vessels, two of them
+of the line, soon after parting with the "United States." She escaped
+by her better sailing. Her entire absence from the country was
+ninety-six days.
+
+Decatur with the "United States" kept away to the southeast until
+October 25. At daybreak of that day the frigate was in latitude 29 deg.
+north, longitude 29 deg. 30' west, steering southwest on the port tack,
+with the wind at south-southeast. Soon after daylight there was
+sighted a large sail bearing about south-southwest; or, as seamen say,
+two points on the weather bow. She was already heading as nearly as
+the wind permitted in the direction of the stranger; but the latter,
+which proved to be the British frigate "Macedonian," Captain John S.
+Carden, having the wind free, changed her course for the "United
+States," taking care withal to preserve the windward position,
+cherished by the seamen of that day. In this respect conditions
+differed from those of the "Constitution" and "Guerriere," for there
+the American was to windward. Contrary also to the case of the "Wasp"
+and "Frolic," the interest of the approaching contest turns largely on
+the manoeuvres of the antagonists; for, the "United States" being
+fully fifty per cent stronger than the "Macedonian" in artillery
+power, it was only by utilizing the advantage of her windward
+position, by judicious choice of the method of attack, that the
+British ship could hope for success. She had in her favor also a
+decided superiority of speed; and, being just from England after a
+period of refit, was in excellent sailing trim.
+
+When first visible to each other from the mastheads, the vessels were
+some twelve miles apart. They continued to approach until 8.30, when
+the "United States," being then about three miles distant,
+wore--turned round--standing on the other tack. Her colors,
+previously concealed by her sails, were by this manoeuvre shown to the
+British frigate, which was thus also placed in the position of
+steering for the quarter of her opponent; the latter heading nearer
+the wind, and inclining gradually to cross the "Macedonian's" bows
+(1). When this occurred, a conversation was going on between Captain
+Carden, his first lieutenant, and the master;[521] the latter being
+the officer who usually worked the ship in battle, under directions
+from the captain. These officers had been in company with the "United
+States" the year before in Chesapeake Bay; and, whether they now
+recognized her or not, they knew the weight of battery carried by the
+heavy American frigates. The question under discussion by them, before
+the "United States" wore, was whether it was best to steer direct upon
+the approaching enemy, or to keep farther away for a time, in order to
+maintain the windward position. By the first lieutenant's testimony
+before the Court, this was in his opinion the decisive moment, victory
+or defeat hinging upon the resolution taken. He favored attempting to
+cross the enemy's bows, which was possible if the "United States"
+should continue to stand as she at the moment was--on the port tack;
+but in any event to close with the least delay possible. The master
+appears to have preferred to close by going under the enemy's stern,
+and hauling up to leeward; but Captain Carden, impressed both with the
+advantage of the weather gage and the danger of approaching exposed to
+a raking fire, thought better to haul nearer the wind, on the tack he
+was already on, the starboard, but without bracing the yards, which
+were not sharp. His aim was to pass the "United States" at a distance,
+wear--turn round from the wind, toward her--when clear of her
+broadside, and so come up from astern without being raked. The
+interested reader may compare this method with that pursued by Hull,
+who steered down by zigzag courses. The Court Martial censured
+Carden's decision, which was clearly wrong, for the power of heavy
+guns over lighter, of the American 24's over the British 18's, was
+greatest at a distance; therefore, to close rapidly, taking the
+chances of being raked--if not avoidable by yawing--was the smaller
+risk. Moreover, wearing behind the "United States," and then pursuing,
+gave her the opportunity which she used, to fire and keep away again,
+prolonging still farther the period of slow approach which Carden
+first chose.
+
+ [Illustration: PLAN OF THE ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES
+ AND MACEDONIAN]
+
+The "United States" wearing, while this conversation was in progress,
+precipitated Carden's action. He interpreted the manoeuvre as
+indicating a wish to get to windward, which the "Macedonian's" then
+course, far off the wind, would favor. He therefore hurriedly gave the
+order to haul up (2), cutting adrift the topmast studdingsail; a
+circumstance which to seamen will explain exactly the relative
+situations. That he had rightly interpreted Decatur's purpose seems
+probable, for in fifteen or twenty minutes the "United States" again
+wore (_a_), resuming her original course, by the wind on the port
+tack, the "Macedonian" continuing on the starboard; the two now
+running on lines nearly parallel, in opposite directions (_b b_). As
+they passed, at the distance of almost a mile, the American frigate
+discharged her main-deck battery, her spar-deck carronades not ranging
+so far. The British ship did not reply, but shortly afterward wore
+(_c_), and, heading now in the same general direction as the "United
+States," steered to come up on her port side. She thus reached a
+position not directly behind her antagonist, but well to the left,
+apparently about half a mile away. So situated, if steering the same
+course, each ship could train its batteries on the opponent; but the
+increased advantage at a distance was with the heavier guns, and when
+the "Macedonian," to get near, headed more toward the "United States,"
+most of hers ceased to bear, while those of her enemy continued their
+fire. A detailed description of the "United States's" manoeuvres by
+her own officers has not been transmitted; but in the searching
+investigation made by Carden's Court Martial we have them probably
+well preserved. The master of the British ship stated that when the
+"Macedonian" wore in chase, the "United States" first kept off before
+the wind, and then almost immediately came back to it as before (_c_),
+bringing it abeam, and immediately began firing. By thus increasing
+her lateral distance from the line of the enemy's approach, she was
+able more certainly to train her guns on him. After about fifteen
+minutes of this, the "Macedonian" suffering severely, her foresail was
+set to close (_e_), upon which the "United States," hauling out the
+spanker and letting fly the jib-sheet, came up to the wind and backed
+her mizzen-topsail, in order not to move too fast from the
+advantageous position she had, yet to keep way enough to command the
+ship (_e_).
+
+Under these unhappy conditions the "Macedonian" reached within half
+musket-shot, which was scarcely the ideal close action of the day; but
+by that time she had lost her mizzen-topmast, mainyard, and
+maintopsail, most of her standing rigging was shot away, the lower
+masts badly wounded, and almost all her carronade battery, the
+principal reliance for close action, was disabled. She had also many
+killed and wounded; while the only visible damage on board the "United
+States" was the loss of the mizzen-topgallant-mast, a circumstance of
+absolutely no moment at the time. In short, although she continued to
+fight manfully for a half-hour more, the "Macedonian," when she got
+alongside the "United States," was already beaten beyond hope. At the
+end of the half-hour her fore and main topmasts fell, upon which the
+"United States" filled her mizzen-topsail and shot ahead, crossing the
+bows of the "Macedonian,"[522] and thus ending the fight. Surprise was
+felt on board the British vessel that a raking broadside was not at
+this moment poured in, and it was even believed by some that the
+American was now abandoning the contest. She was so, in the sense that
+the contest was over; a ship with all her spars standing, "in perfect
+condition," to use the expression of the enemy's first lieutenant,
+would be little less than brutal to use her power upon one reduced to
+lower masts, unless submission was refused. Upon her return an hour
+later, the "Macedonian's" mizzenmast had gone overboard, and her
+colors were hauled down as the "United States" drew near.
+
+ [Illustration: CAPTAIN STEPHEN DECATUR
+ From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in Independence Hall,
+ Philadelphia.]
+
+This action was fought by the "United States" with singular wariness,
+not to say caution. Her change to the starboard tack, when still some
+three miles distant, seems to indicate a desire to get the weather
+gage, as the "Macedonian" was then steering free. It was so
+interpreted on board the British vessel; but as Carden also at once
+hauled up, it became apparent that he would not yield the advantage of
+the wind which he had, and which it was in his choice to keep, for the
+"United States" was a lumbering sailer. Decatur, unable to obtain the
+position for attacking, at once wore again, and thenceforth played the
+game of the defensive with a skill which his enemy's mistake seconded.
+By the movements of his ship the "Macedonian's" closing was
+protracted, and she was kept at the distance and bearing most
+favorable to the American guns. But when her foresail was set, the
+"United States," by luffing rapidly to the wind--flowing the jib-sheet
+and hauling out the spanker to hasten this movement--and at the same
+time backing the mizzen-topsail to steady her motions and position,
+was constituted a moving platform of guns, disposed in the very best
+manner to annihilate an opponent obliged to approach at a pretty broad
+angle.
+
+This account, summarized from the sworn testimony before the British
+court, is not irreconcilable with Decatur's remark, that the enemy
+being to windward engaged at his own distance, to the greatness of
+which was to be ascribed the unusual length of the action. Imbued with
+the traditions of their navy, the actions of the "United States"
+puzzled the British extremely. Her first wearing was interpreted as
+running away, and her shooting ahead when the "Macedonian's" topmasts
+fell, crossing her bows without pouring a murderous broadside into a
+beaten ship, coupled with the previous impression of wariness, led
+them to think that the American was using the bad luck by which alone
+they could have been beaten, in order to get away. Three cheers were
+given, as though victorious in repelling an attack. They had expected,
+so the testimony ran, to have her in an hour.[523] Judged by this
+evidence, the handling of the "United States" was thoroughly skilful.
+Though he probably knew himself superior in force, Decatur's object
+necessarily should be to take his opponent at the least possible
+injury to his own ship. She was "on a cruise"; hence haste was no
+object, while serious damage might cripple her further operations. The
+result was, by his official statement, that "the damage sustained was
+not such as to render return to port necessary; and I should have
+continued her cruise, had I not deemed it important that we should see
+our prize in."[524]
+
+In general principle, the great French Admiral Tourville correctly
+said that the best victories are those which cost least in blood,
+timber, and iron; but, in the particular instance before us, Decatur's
+conduct may rest its absolute professional justification on the
+testimony of the master of the British ship and two of her three
+lieutenants. To the question whether closing more rapidly by the
+"Macedonian" would have changed the result, the first lieutenant
+replied he thought there was a chance of success. The others differed
+from him in this, but agreed that their position would have been more
+favorable, and the enemy have suffered more.[525] Carden himself had
+no hesitation as to the need of getting near, but only as to the
+method. To avoid this was therefore not only fitting, but the bounden
+duty of the American captain. His business was not merely to make a
+brilliant display of courage and efficiency, but to do the utmost
+injury to the opponent at the least harm to his ship and men. It was
+the more notable to find this trait in Decatur; for not, only had he
+shown headlong valor before, but when offered the new American
+"Guerriere" a year later, he declined, saying that she was overmatched
+by a seventy-four, while no frigate could lie alongside of her. "There
+was no reputation to be made in this."[526]
+
+The "United States" and her prize, after repairing damages sufficiently
+for a winter arrival upon the American coast, started thither; the
+"United States" reaching New London December 4, the "Macedonian," from
+weather conditions, putting into Newport. Both soon afterward went to
+New York by Long Island Sound. It is somewhat remarkable that no one of
+Warren's rapidly increasing fleet should have been sighted by either.
+There was as yet no commercial blockade, and this, coupled with the
+numbers of American vessels protected by licenses, and the fewness of
+the American ships of war, may have indisposed the admiral and his
+officers to watch very closely an inhospitable shore, at a season
+unpropitious to active operations. Besides, as appears from letters
+already quoted, the commander-in-chief's personal predilection was more
+for the defensive than the offensive; to protect British trade by
+cruisers patrolling its routes, rather than by preventing egress from
+the hostile ports.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[491] Naval Chronicle, vol. xxviii. p. 73.
+
+[492] Ibid.
+
+[493] Ibid., pp. 138, 139.
+
+[494] Naval Chronicle, vol. xxviii. p. 139.
+
+[495] Writings of Madison (ed. 1865), vol. ii. p. 545.
+
+[496] Niles' Register, vol. iii. p. 220.
+
+[497] Annals of Congress, 1812-13, p. 301.
+
+[498] Castlereagh to the Admiralty, Aug. 6 and 12, 1812. British
+Record Office MSS. Warren's Letter to the United States Government and
+Monroe's reply are in American State Papers, vol. iii. pp. 595, 596.
+
+[499] Captains' Letters. Navy Department MSS.
+
+[500] Niles' Register, vol. ii. p. 101.
+
+[501] Annals of Congress, 1811-12, p. 1593.
+
+[502] These data are summarized from Niles' Register, which throughout
+the war collected, and periodically published, lists of prizes.
+
+[503] A synopsis of the "Rossie's" log is given in Niles' Register,
+vol. iii p. 158.
+
+[504] Gallatin, Dec. 8, 1812. American State Papers, Finance, vol. ii.
+p. 594.
+
+[505] Jones, July 21, 1813. American State Papers, Finance, vol. ii.
+p. 645.
+
+[506] In the memoir of Commodore Barney (p. 252), published by his
+daughter, it is said that, successful though the "Rossie's" cruise was
+in its issue, he was dissatisfied with the course laid down for him by
+his owners, who did not understand the usual tracks of British
+commerce.
+
+[507] Account of the Private Armed Ship "America," by B.B.
+Crowninshield. Essex Institute Historical Collections, vol. xxxvii.
+
+[508] Naval Chronicle, vol. xxviii. p. 431.
+
+[509] Niles' Register, vol. iii. p. 320.
+
+[510] Naval Chronicle, vol. xxviii. p. 257.
+
+[511] American State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, vol. i. p. 992.
+
+[512] Warren to Croker, Dec. 28 and 29, 1812. Records Office MSS.
+
+[513] Croker to Warren, Jan. 9, Feb. 10, and March 20, 1813. Records
+Office MSS.
+
+[514] American State Papers. Commerce and Navigation, vol. i. p. 1021.
+
+[515] American State Papers. Commerce and Navigation, vol. i. p. 718.
+
+[516] Captains' Letters. Navy Department, Oct. 3, 1812.
+
+[517] Captains' Letters, Navy Department, Dee. 31, 1812, and Jan. 2,
+1813.
+
+[518] From the file of Captains' Letters, Jan. 1, 1813. Found in the
+American licensed brig "Julia," captured by United States frigate
+"Chesapeake," Captain Samuel Evans. The vessel was condemned in the
+United States Courts.
+
+[519] Besides the obvious impropriety, the practice was expressly
+forbidden by law. It was reprobated in strong terms by Justice Joseph
+Story, of Massachusetts, of the Supreme Court of the United States,
+affirming the condemnation of the "Julia." His judgment is given in
+full in Niles' Register, vol. iv. pp. 393-397.
+
+[520] Captain Jones' Report of this action can be found in Niles'
+Register, vol. iii. p. 217; that of Captain Whinyates in Naval
+Chronicle, vol. xxix. p. 76.
+
+[521] Macedonian Court Martial. British Records Office MSS.
+
+[522] James states that this was in order to fill fresh cartridges,
+which is likely enough; but it is most improbable that the movement
+was deferred till the last cartridge ready was exhausted--that the
+battery could not have been fired when crossing the bows.
+
+[523] "Macedonian" Court Martial.
+
+[524] Decatur's Report. Niles' Register, vol. iii. p. 253.
+
+[525] "Macedonian" Court Martial.
+
+[526] Captains' Letters, April 9, 1814. Navy Department MSS.
+
+
+ * * * * *
+
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+ | Typographical errors corrected in text: |
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+ | Page 16: handdlers replaced with handlers |
+ | Page 127: diference replaced with difference |
+ | |
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
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+
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+
+
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