A School History of the United States

by John Bach McMaster

CHAPTER XVII

STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS"

%250. France and Great Britain renew the War.%—The war between France and Great Britain, which had been the cause of the sale of Louisiana to us, began in May, 1803. The United States became again a neutral power, but, as in 1793, was soon once more involved in the disputes of France.

Towards the end of the previous war, Great Britain had so changed her ideas of neutrality that the merchants of the United States, according to her rules,

1. Could trade directly between a port of the United States and the ports of the French West Indies.

2. Could trade directly between the United States and ports in France or Europe.

3. But could not trade directly between a French West India island and France, or a Spanish West India island and Spain, or a Dutch colony and Holland.

To evade this last restriction, by combining the voyages allowed in numbers 1 and 2, was easy. A merchant had but to load his ship at New York or Philadelphia, go to some port in the French West Indies, take on a new cargo and bring it to Savannah, enter it at the customhouse and pay the import duties. This voyage was covered by number 1. He could then, without disturbing his cargo in the least, clear his vessel for France, and get back from the collector of customs all the duty he had paid except three per cent. He was now exporting goods from the United States and was protected by number 2. This was called "the broken voyage," and by using it thousands of shipowners were enabled to carry goods back and forth between France and her colonies, by merely stopping a few hours at an American port to clear for Europe. So universal was this practice that in 1804 the customs revenue rose from $16,000,000 to $20,000,000.

In May, 1805, however, the British High Court of Admiralty decided that goods which started from the French colonies in American ships and were on their way to France could be captured even if they had been landed and reshipped in the United States. The moment that decision was made, the old trouble began again. British frigates were stationed off the ports of New York and Hampton Roads, and vessels coming in and going out were stopped, searched, and their sailors impressed. Before 1805 ended, 116 of our ships had been seized and 1000 of our sailors impressed.

%251. Orders in Council, 1806.%—In 1806 matters grew worse. Napoleon was master of Europe, and in order to injure Great Britain he cut off her trade with the continent. For this she retaliated by issuing, in May, 1806, an Order in Council, which declared the whole coast of Europe, from Brest to the mouth of the river Elbe, to be blockaded. This was a mere "paper blockade"; that is, no fleets were off the coast to keep neutrals from running into the blockaded ports. Yet American vessels were captured at sea because they were going to those ports.

%252. The Berlin Decree.%—Napoleon waited to retaliate till November, 1806, when he issued the Berlin Decree,[1] declaring the British Islands to be blockaded.

[Footnote 1: So called because he was at Berlin when he issued it.]

%253. Orders in Council, 1807.%—Great Britain felt that every time Napoleon struck at her she must strike back at him, and in January, 1807, a new Order in Council forbade neutrals to trade from one European port to another, if both were in the possession of France or her allies. Finding it had no effect, she followed it up with another Order in Council in November, 1807, which declared that every port on the face of the earth from which for any reason British ships were excluded was shut to neutrals, unless they first stopped at some British port and obtained a license to trade.

%254. The Milan Decree, 1807.%—It was now Napoleon's turn to strike, which he did in December, 1807, by issuing the Milan Decree.[1] Thenceforth any ship that submitted to be searched by British cruisers or took out a British license, or entered any port from which French ships were excluded, was to be captured wherever found.

[Footnote 1: So called because he was in Milan at the time, and dated it from that city.]

As a result of this series of French Decrees and British Orders in Council,[2] the English took 194 of our ships, and the French almost as many.

[Footnote 2: On the Orders in Council and French Decrees, read Adams's History of the United States, Vol. III., Chap. 16; Vol. IV., Chaps. 4, 5, and 6; McMaster's History, Vol. III., pp. 219-223; 249-250; 272-274.]

%255. Jefferson's Policy; Non-importation Act.%—The policy by which Jefferson proposed to meet this emergency consisted of three parts:

1. Lay up the frigates and defend our coast and harbors by a number of small, swift-sailing craft, each carrying one gun in the stern. In time of peace they were to be hauled up under sheds. In time of war they were to be shoved into the water and manned by volunteers. Between 1806 and 1812, 176 of these gunboats were built.

2. Make a new treaty with Great Britain, because that made by Jay in 1794 was to expire in 1806. Under the instructions of Jefferson, therefore, Monroe and Pinckney signed a new treaty in December, 1806. But it said nothing about the impressment of our sailors, or about the right of our ships to go where they pleased, and was so bad in general that Jefferson would not even send it to the Senate.[3]

[Footnote 3: No treaty can become a law unless approved by the President and two thirds of the Senate.]

3. The third part of his policy consisted in doing what we should call "boycotting." He wanted a law which would forbid the importation into the United States of any article made, grown, or produced in Great Britain or any of her colonies. Congress accordingly, in April, 1806, passed what was called a "Non-importation Act," which prohibited not the importation of every sort of British goods, wares, and merchandise, but only a few which the people could make in this country; as paper, cards, leather goods, etc. This was to go into force at the President's pleasure.

%256. The Chesapeake and the Leopard.%—Such an attempt to punish Great Britain by cutting off a part of her trade was useless, and only made her more insolent than before. Indeed, just a week after the President signed the non-importation bill, as one of our coasting vessels was entering the harbor of New York, a British vessel, wishing to stop and search her, fired a shot which struck the helmsman and killed him at the wheel.

About a year later, June, 1807, an attack more outrageous still was made on our frigate Chesapeake. She was on her way from Washington to the Mediterranean, and was still in sight of land when a British vessel, the Leopard, hailed and stopped her and sent an officer on board with a demand for the delivery of deserters from the English navy. The captain of the Chesapeake refused, the officer returned, and the Leopard opened fire. To return the fire was impossible, for only a few of the guns of the Chesapeake were mounted. At last one was discharged, and as by that time three men had been killed and eighteen wounded, Commander Barron of the Chesapeake surrendered. Four men then were taken from her deck. Three were Americans. One was an Englishman, and he was hanged for desertion.[1]

[Footnote 1: Maclay's History of the Navy, Vol. I., pp. 305-308;
McMaster's History, Vol. III., pp. 255-259.]

%257. The Long Embargo.%—The attack on the Chesapeake ought to have been followed by war. But Jefferson merely demanded reparation from Great Britain, and when Congress met in December, 1807, asked for an embargo. The request was granted, and merchant vessels in all the ports of the United States were forbidden to sail for a foreign country till the President saw fit to suspend the law. The restriction was so sweeping and the damage done to American farmers, merchants, and shipowners so great, that the people began to evade it at once. They would send their vessels to New Orleans and stop at the West Indies on the way. They would send their flour, pork, rice, and lumber to St. Marys in Georgia and smuggle it over the river to Florida, or take it to the islands near Eastport in Maine and then smuggle it into New Brunswick. Because of this, more stringent embargo laws were passed, and finally, in 1809, a "Force Act," to compel obedience. But smuggling went on so openly that there was nothing to do but use troops or lift the embargo. In February, 1809, accordingly, the embargo laws, after fourteen months' duration, were repealed. Instead of them the Republicans enacted a Non-intercourse law which allowed the people to trade with all nations except England and France.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's History, Vol. III., pp. 279-338; Adams's History, Vol. IV., Chaps. 7, 11, 13, 15.]

%258. Jefferson refuses a Third Term.%—During 1806, the states of New Jersey, Vermont,[2] Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, Georgia, and North Carolina invited Jefferson to be President a third time. For a while he made no reply, but in December, 1807, he declined, and gave this reason: "That I should lay down my charge at a proper period is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some termination to the services of the Chief Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance." This wise answer was heartily approved by the people all over the country, and with Washington's similar action established a custom which has been generally followed ever since.

[Footnote 2: Vermont was admitted into the Union in 1791 (p. 243).]

As Jefferson would not accept a third term, a caucus of Republican members of Congress met one evening at the Capitol in Washington and nominated James Madison and George Clinton. The Federalists held no caucus, but agreed among themselves to support C.C. Pinckney and Rufus King. Madison and Clinton were easily elected, and were sworn into office March 4, 1809.

[Illustration: James Madison]

%259. The Macon Bill; Non-intercourse.%—When Congress met in 1809 one more effort was made to force France and England to respect our rights on the sea. Non-importation had failed. The embargo had failed. Non-intercourse had failed, and now in desperation they passed a law which at the time was called the "Macon Bill," from the member of Congress who introduced it. This restored trade with France and England, but declared that if either would withdraw its Decrees or Orders, the United States would stop all trade with the other.

%260. Trickery of Napoleon.%—And now Napoleon came forward and assured the American minister that the Berlin and Milan Decrees should be recalled on November 1, 1810, provided the United States would restore non-intercourse with England. To this Madison agreed, and on November 1, 1810, issued a proclamation saying that unless Great Britain should, before February 1, 1811, recall her Orders in Council, trade with her should stop on that day. Great Britain did not recall her Orders, and in February, 1811, we once more ceased to trade with her.

Trade with France was resumed on November 1, 1810, and of course a great fleet of merchants went off to French ports. But they were no sooner there than the villainy of Napoleon was revealed, for on December 25, by general order, every American ship in the French ports was seized, and $10,000,000 worth of American property was confiscated. He had not recalled his Decrees, but pretended to do so in order to get the American goods and provisions which he sorely needed.

It is surprising how patient the Americans of those days were. But their patience as to Great Britain now gave out, and our minister at London was recalled in 1811. This alarmed the British, who promptly began to take steps to keep the peace, and offered to make amends for the Leopard-Chesapeake outrage which had occurred four years before (June, 1807). They agreed to replace the three American sailors on the deck of the Chesapeake and did so (June, 1812). But the day for peaceful settlement was gone. The people were aroused and angry, and this feeling showed itself in many ways.

%261. The President and the Little Belt.%—In the early part of May, 1811, a British frigate was cruising off the harbor of New York with her name Guerrière painted in large letters on her fore-topsail, and one day her captain stopped an American vessel as it was about to enter New York, and impressed a citizen of the United States. Three years earlier this outrage would have been made the subject of a proclamation. Now, the moment it was known at Washington, an order was sent to Captain Rogers of the frigate President to go to sea at once, search for the Guerrière, and demand the delivery of the man, Rogers was only too glad to go, and soon came in sight of a vessel which looked like the Guerrière; but it was half-past eight o'clock at night before he came within speaking distance. A battle followed and lasted till the stranger became unmanageable, when the President stopped firing; and the next morning Rogers found that his enemy was the British twenty-two-gun ship, Little Belt.

%262. The War Congress.%—Another way in which the anger of the people showed itself was in the election, in the autumn of 1810, of a Congress which met in December, 1811, fully determined to make war on Great Britain. In that Congress were two men who from that day on for forty years were great political leaders. One was John C. Calhoun of South Carolina; the other was Henry Clay of Kentucky.

Clay was made Speaker of the House of Representatives, and under his lead preparations were instantly begun for war, which was finally declared June 18, 1812. There was no Atlantic cable in those days. Had there been, it is very doubtful if war would have been declared; for on June 23, 1812, five days after Congress authorized Madison to issue the proclamation, the Orders in Council were recalled.

The causes of war, as set forth in the proclamation, were:

1. Tampering with the Indians, and urging them to attack our citizens on the frontier.

2. Interfering with our trade by the Orders in Council.

3. Putting cruisers off our ports to stop and search our vessels.

4. Impressing our sailors, of whom more than 6000 were in the British service.