The Leopard, on this manly reply, ranged alongside of the Chesapeake, and commenced firing upon her. The Chesapeake was unprepared for action, and lost three of her men, and eighteen more being wounded, Commodore Barron ordered his colours to be struck. The commander of the Leopard sent an officer on board, mustered the crew, found the men whom he wanted, and then abandoned the ship.

The Chesapeake returned immediately to Hampton Roads, whence she had sailed, and carried with her intelligence which set the whole United States in a flame, more especially as it was proved that three of the men thus seized were American citizens, who had been impressed for the British service and afterwards escaped. The president, on this information, interdicted by proclamation the entrance of any armed British vessel within the harbours or waters of the United States; and an envoy was sent to London to demand satisfaction for this outrage, and security against any further aggression. Vice-Admiral Berkeley was in consequence recalled; two of the men who had been taken as deserters were sent back to America, and a proclamation issued forbidding any further search in national ships of neutral nations for deserters. But this did little, as the celebrated orders in council were published by the British government in November, which prohibited neutrals, except on humiliating terms, from trading with France or her allies; which, in fact, was equivalent to excluding them from almost every port in Europe. Napoleon retaliated, of course, by his Milan decree, which rendered every vessel trading with Britain, or submitting to search by her, liable to confiscation if found near his ports or by his cruisers. Thus were the neutral ships of America still endangered by both belligerent powers.

In return for these vexatious measures, congress, in December, passed a bill laying an embargo; “so that all American vessels were prohibited from sailing to foreign ports, all foreign vessels from taking out cargoes, and all coasting vessels were required to give bond to land their cargoes in the United States. This embargo was strongly opposed by the federalist party, and great were the complaints of a total stop being thus put to foreign commerce. All, however, hoped for a favourable result from a measure which, if it were seriously felt by the United States, would, it was believed, be still more seriously felt by their enemies.”[[72]]

This embargo failed to obtain any concession from France and England, and being in itself so injurious to the commercial interests of the United States, was repealed in 1809, at which time, however, congress interdicted all commercial intercourse with France and England.

Such was the situation of the country when Jefferson, having been eight years in office, and following the example of Washington, refused to accept of re-election, prepared to retire from the administration. But before we speak of this event, we must briefly return to a cause of anxiety and agitation, originating in the designs of the late vice-president, Aaron Burr.

Burr, while in office, offended both prevailing parties. The federalists by his fatal encounter with Hamilton, who was the idol of that party; and the republicans by his supposed intrigues against Jefferson. Under these circumstances, finding himself everywhere unpopular, he retired as a private citizen to the newer western states. Here, restless, scheming and ambitious, he engaged in an enterprise the full scope and intention of which seems never to have been completely fathomed. With the ostensible design of forming a large agricultural settlement on the banks of the Washita in Louisiana, he put himself at the head of a great number of people, who were armed and organised, and for whose use boats were purchased and built on the Ohio. The nature of his preparations, which had a warlike rather than a peaceful character, and the disclosures of some of his associates, led to the supposition that his real object was of a very different character—was, in fact, no less than to separate the western states from the Union, to add Mexico to them, and place himself at their head. “Nothing,” says the President Jefferson, writing on this subject to La Fayette, “has more strongly proved the innate force of our form of government than this conspiracy. Burr had probably engaged 1,000 men to follow his fortunes, without letting them know his projects, otherwise than by assuring them that the government approved of them. The moment a proclamation was issued, undeceiving them, he found himself left with about thirty desperadoes only. The people rose in a mass wherever he went, and by their own energy the thing was crushed in an instant, without its having been necessary to employ the military excepting to take care of their respective stations. His first enterprise would have been to seize New Orleans, which he supposed would powerfully bridle the upper country, and place him at the door of Mexico.”

“Burr was arrested in the Mississippi territory, in January 1807, and brought before the highest court in the territory. Here making a favourable impression on the grand jury, he moved to be discharged, but this being refused, he made his escape with a single companion, and was again taken on his way to Florida. Carried now to Richmond, in Virginia, for trial, the whole United States waited with intense interest for the result. The former character and station of the accused, the novelty and boldness of his enterprise, the air of mystery in which it was involved, all contributed to the excitement. Nor was party-spirit inactive, the federalists, spite of his offences against them, wishing to prove him innocent, for the sake of thwarting the executive and proving the president vindictive and tyrannical.”[[73]]

The trial commenced in May, and on the 23rd of June the grand jury found him and several of his associates guilty of treason. He was then committed to prison, but on the plea of such close confinement being likely to affect his health, he was removed to a publichouse with a guard over him. On the 3rd of August, the court having adjourned so long, he was put on his trial, and on the last day of that month was discharged, on the plea that there was not sufficient evidence to prove his guilt. The republican party attributed this result to the interest of the faction which chose to support him for political purposes, and the case probably might not have ended here, had not the public mind been at that very time diverted by subjects of yet greater interest. These were the British interference with American commerce and shipping, and the affair of the Chesapeake, which electrified the nation to its remotest extremities, and fused all party animosities for the moment into one general indignation; and Burr, taking advantage of this removal of public attention from himself, sailed for England, where he was afterwards suspected of being an agent of mischief to the United States.[[74]]

CHAPTER XIX.
ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES MADISON—WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

On March 4th, 1809, James Madison was elected president, and George Clinton re-elected vice-president. The embargo, as we have said, was repealed, though commercial intercourse with France and England was still prohibited. It was, however, provided that if either nation revoked her hostile edicts, the prohibition should cease by proclamation from the president to that effect. Soon after the accession of the new president, therefore, Mr. Erskine, the British minister plenipotentiary to the United States, having informed him that the British orders in council should be repealed by the 10th of June, the renewal of commercial intercourse with Britain was proclaimed for the same day. But the British government disavowed the acts of its representative; the orders in council remained unrepealed, and non-intercourse was again proclaimed.