Napoleon then issued a decree appointing "his dearly beloved brother Joseph, King of Naples and Sicily, to the Crowns of Spain and the Indies." By another decree he bestowed the vacant Crown of Naples and Sicily on his "dearly beloved cousin, Joachim Murat." Thus having distributed the Crowns of Europe he turned his attention with redoubled energy to the humbling of his great enemy, England. "Great Britain shall be destroyed," he said at Fontainebleau, "I have the means of doing it and they shall be employed."
In the United States, President Jefferson had determined on a scheme of non-intercourse and had laid an embargo on American shipping. "The whole world," he said, "is laid under an interdict by these two nations (England and France) and our vessels, their cargoes and crews, are to be taken by one or the other, for whatever place they may be destined out of our limits. If, therefore, on leaving our harbours we are certain to lose them, is it not better for vessels, cargoes and seamen to keep them at home?" Gallatin, secretary of the navy, wished to limit the duration of the embargo, as he said he preferred war to a permanent embargo, but Jefferson was obstinate and said it should continue until the return of peace in Europe. He had not counted the cost.
Effect of embargo
The embargo continued in force all through 1808 in spite of its extreme unpopularity throughout the United States. As a substitute for war it proved a failure. By it every citizen was tempted to evade or defy the law. "It made men smugglers or traitors but not a single hero."
The embargo reacted in favour of the British provinces in America, partly by calling forth the energies of the population and making them acquainted with their own resources, and partly by means of the indirect trade that was carried on from Eastport in Maine, across the border, and by way of Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence. In order to avoid the embargo on the coasts, goods were smuggled over the frontier to be sent to the West Indies and Halifax. In spite of new regulations and restrictions put forth by the American government, smuggling flourished. Craft of all sorts and sizes crowded the river St. Lawrence, and Canadian merchants prospered. Immense rafts were collected near the boundary line on Lake Champlain. These rafts were said to be loaded with the surplus products of Vermont for a year, consisting of wheat, potash, pork and beef. The coasting vessels, which were the means of commerce between the states, used to try to evade the law by putting into some port in Nova Scotia or the West Indies on pretence of stress of weather, and then leaving their cargo.
Fresh and stricter regulations were now made. At first the embargo was not felt in the United States, but when supplies were consumed the outcry against it became violent. As the year went on it was found to have paralyzed the country. A reign of idleness was established, demoralizing to everybody. A traveller (Lambert) writes that the harbour of New York was full of shipping, but the ships were dismantled and laid up. "Not a box or a bale to be seen on the wharves. Counting-houses all shut up, and merchants, clerks, porters and labourers walking about with their hands in their pockets."
New England was in a worse plight. The people believed that Jefferson was sold to France. Wheat in the Middle States fell from two dollars to seventy-five cents a bushel. The chief burden however fell on the Southern States, especially on Jefferson's own state—Virginia. Tobacco there was worthless. Planters were beggared. The country was deprived of tea, coffee, sugar, salt, molasses and rum.
During 1808, the feeling in the country against France became stronger. By Napoleon's Milan decree, which reached America in March, "every ship which should have been searched by a British vessel, or should have paid any duty to the British government, or should come from or be destined to any port in the British possessions in any part of the world should be good prize." It was after the Milan decree that the question was mooted in the United States of an alliance with England, and it was announced by Secretary Madison that an order had been issued to discharge all British subjects from national ships. The non-intercourse and embargo had done England immense harm and were working havoc among certain classes of the population. The artizans of Staffordshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire were reduced to the verge of famine, while quantities of sugar, coffee, etc., overfilled the warehouses of London. Under the orders-in-council the whole produce of the West Indies, shut out from Europe by Napoleon's decrees, and from America by the embargo, came to England, until the market was overstocked. English merchants sent their goods to Brazil until the beach at Rio de Janeiro was covered with property perishing for want of buyers and warehouses.
The war of trade
While this war of trade was going on, Napoleon, by every means in his power, by taunts, and threats, and cajolery, was trying to force America into a declaration of war against England. He said, "The United States, more than any other power, have to complain of the aggressions of England. In the situation in which England has placed the continent, His Majesty has no doubt of a declaration of war against her by the United States." He wrote to his secretary of war, Champagny, "In my mind, I regard war as declared between England and America from the day when England published her decrees." Again he wrote, "Let the American minister know verbally that whenever war shall be declared with England, and whenever, in consequence, the Americans shall send troops into the Floridas to help the Spaniards and repulse the English, I shall much approve of it. You will even let him perceive that in case America shall be disposed to enter into a treaty of alliance and make common cause with me, I shall not be unwilling to intercede with the court of Spain to obtain the cession of these same Floridas in favour of the Americans." So the tempting bait of Florida was held dangling before Jefferson, whose cherished hope it was to see that territory added to the United States.