“Under a heavy cannonade from the surrounding vessels and batteries, the Philadelphia was set on fire, and not abandoned until thoroughly wrapt in flames; when Decatur and his gallant crew succeeded in getting out of the harbour without the loss of a single man. During the month of August, Tripoli was repeatedly bombarded by the American squadron, under Commodore Preble, and a severe action occurred with the Tripolitan gunboats, which resulted in the capture of several, with little loss to the Americans.

“At the time of Commodore Preble’s expedition to the Mediterranean, Hamet, the legitimate sovereign of Tripoli, was an exile, having been deprived of his government by the usurpation of a younger brother. Mr. Eaton, the American consul at Tunis, concocted with Hamet an expedition against the reigning sovereign, and obtained from the government of the United States permission to undertake it.

“With about seventy men from the American squadron, together with the followers of Hamet and some Egyptian troops, Eaton and Hamet set out from Alexandria towards Tripoli, a distance of 1,000 miles across a desert country. After great fatigue and suffering they reached Derne, a Tripolitan city on the Mediterranean, which was taken by assault. After two successful engagements had occurred with the Tripolitan army, the reigning bashaw offered terms of peace, which being considered much more favourable than had before been offered, were accepted by Mr. Lear, the authorised agent of government.”

Sixty thousand dollars were given as a ransom for the unfortunate American prisoners, together with an agreement to withdraw all support from Hamet.

In July, 1804, General Hamilton, the present head of the federalist party, fell in a duel fought with the vice-president, Aaron Burr, who having lost the confidence of the republicans, and despairing of re-election either as president or vice-president, had offered himself as candidate for the office of governor of New York. He was not elected, and attributing his unsuccess to the influence of Hamilton with his party, sent him a challenge, and Hamilton’s death was the result.

This autumn closed Jefferson’s first presidential term, and the general prosperity which prevailed gained for him the national favour. Summing up in short the events of his administration, we find that, by a steady course of economy, although he had considerably reduced the taxes, the public debt was lessened 12,000,000 of dollars; the area of the United States about doubled, and the danger of war with both France and Spain averted; the Tripolitans chastised, and a large and valuable tract of Indian land acquired.[[71]]

Jefferson was re-elected president, and George Clinton, late governor of New York, vice-president.

The wars which raged in Europe in consequence of the French revolution began now to be seriously felt even in America. Napoleon was emperor of France, triumphant and powerful, with most of the European nations under his feet, while England, alone remaining untouched and undaunted, carried on the war against him with more determined resolution than ever. America, profiting by the destruction of the commerce of other nations, entered with her neutral ships into every port, thus maintaining her commercial relations with every country, however hostile to each other. English and American ships were at this time almost the only ones on the ocean.

Already, early in the war, American ships conveying the produce of the French colonies to Europe, were seized and condemned by British cruisers; and now still greater difficulties and impediments were thrown in the way of the neutral trader. In May, 1806, England declared every European port under the control of France, from Brest to the Elbe, in a state of blockade, and every American vessel attempting to enter any of them was captured and condemned. In return, Napoleon declared the British Islands in a state of blockade, by which means the neutral American vessels, trading to any of the British ports, were liable to be seized and condemned by the French. These measures so detrimental to the commerce of the United States, caused loud complaints from the merchants, who demanded from the government redress and protection.

But this was only a portion of the grievance to which this great European war gave birth in America. England assumed “the right of search,” which had long been offensive to the Americans, and by this means citizens of the United States, on the plea of their being British subjects, that is, born Britons though naturalised Americans, were seized under the barbarous law of impressment, dragged from their friends, and compelled to serve as British marines, and fight against nations at peace with their own. The three presidents had, each in his turn, remonstrated against this iniquitous law, but in vain; every year added to its enormity; and at length, in June 1807, an event occurred which brimmed the cup of popular indignation against Great Britain. The frigate Chesapeake being ordered on a cruise to the Mediterranean, when at only a few leagues’ distance from the Virginia coast, was come up with by the Leopard, a British ship of war, commanded by Vice-Admiral Berkeley; and an officer came on board with an order to search her for four deserters from the Melampus, and supposed to be serving among her crew. Commodore Barron, who commanded the Chesapeake, politely replied that he was not aware of such persons being in his crew; that he wished to preserve harmony with the British commander, but that he never allowed the crew of any ship under his command to be mustered by any officers but his own.