 Chapter 6 of Jefferson and His Colleagues by Alan Johnson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 6, An American Cataline. With the transfer of Louisiana, the United States entered upon its first experience in governing an alien civilized people. At first view, there is something incongruous in the attempt of the young republic founded upon the consent of the governed to rule over people whose land had been annexed without their consent and whose preferences in the matter of government had never been consulted. The incongruity appears the more striking when it is recalled that the author of the Declaration of Independence was now charged with the duty of appointing all officers, civil and military in the new territory. King George III had never ruled more autocratically over any of his North American colonies than President Jefferson over Louisiana through Governor William Claiborne and General James Wilkinson. The leaders among the Creoles and better class of Americans counted on a speedy escape from this autocratic government which was confessedly temporary. The terms of the treaty indeed encouraged the hope that Louisiana would be admitted at once as a state. The inhabitants of the ceded territory were to be incorporated into the Union. But Congress gave a different interpretation to these words and dashed all hopes by the act of 1804, which while it conceded a legislative council made its members and all officers appointive and divided the province. A delegation of Creoles went to Washington to protest against this inconsiderate treatment. They bore a petition which contained many stiletto-like threats at the President. What about those elemental rights of representation and election which had figured in the glorious contest for freedom? Do political axioms on the Atlantic become problems when transferred to the shores of the Mississippi? Do such arguments, Congress could not remain wholly indifferent? The outcome was a third act, March to 1805, which established the usual form of territorial government and elective legislature, a delegate in Congress and a governor appointed by the President. To a people who had counted on statehood, these concessions were small, pinched back. Their irritation was not allayed and it continued to focus upon Governor Claiborne, the distressed agent of a government which they neither liked nor respected. Strange currents and counter-currents ran through the life of this distant province. Casa Calvo and Morales, the former Spanish officials, continued to reside in this city, like spiders at the center of a web of Spanish intrigue and the threads of their web, extended to West Florida where Governor Fulch watched every movement of Americans up and down the Mississippi and to Texas where Sal Cedo, Captain General of the internal provinces of Mexico, waited for overt aggressions from land-hungry American frontiersmen. All these Spanish agents knew that Monroe had left Madrid empty-handed, yet still asserting claims that were ill-disguised threats. But none of them knew whether the impending blow would fall upon West Florida or Texas. Then, to write under their eyes, was the Mexican Association formed for the avowed purpose of collecting information about Mexico, which would be useful if the United States should become involved in war with Spain. In the city also were adventurous individuals ready for any daring move upon Mexico, where, according to credible reports, a revolution was imminent. The conquest of Mexico was the daydream of many an adventurer. In his memoir, advising Bonaparte to take and hold Louisiana as an impenetrable barrier to Mexico, Pantalba had said with strong conviction, it is the surest means of destroying forever the bold schemes with which several individuals in the United States never cease filling the newspapers by designating Louisiana as the high road to the conquest of Mexico. Into this web of intrigue walked the late Vice President of the United States leisurely journeying through the Southwest in the summer of 1805. Aaron Burr is one of the enigmas of American politics, something of the mystery and romance that shrouded the evil doings of certain Italian despots of the age of the Renaissance, envelops him. Despite the researches of historians, the tangled web of Burr's conspiracy has never been unraveled. It remains the most fascinating, though perhaps the least important episode in Jefferson's administration. Yet Burr himself repays study for his activities touch many sides of contemporary society and illuminate many dark corners in American politics. According to the principles of eugenics, Burr was well-born, and by all the laws of this pseudo-science should have left an honorable name behind him. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman, sound in the faith who presided over the infancy of the College of New Jersey. His maternal grandfather was that mass of divine, Jonathan Edwards. After graduating at Princeton, Burr began to study law but threw aside his law books on hearing the news of Lexington. He served with distinction under Arnold before Quebec, under Washington in the Battle of Long Island, and later at Monmouth and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1779. Before the close of the revolution, he had begun the practice of law in New York and had married the widow of a British Army officer. Entering politics, he became in turn a member of the State Assembly, Attorney General and United States Senator. But a mere enumeration of such details does not tell the story of Burr's life and character, interwoven with the strands of his public career is of a wildering succession of intrigues and adventures in which women have a conspicuous part. For Burr was a fascinating man and disarmed distressed by avoiding any false assumption of virtue. His marriage, however, proved happy. He adored his wife and fairly worshipped his strikingly beautiful daughter Theodosia. Burr threw in the atmosphere of intrigue, New York politics afforded his proper milieu, how he ingratiated himself with politicians of high and low degree, how he unlocked the doors to political preferment, how he became one of the first bosses of the city of New York, how he combined public service with private interest, how he organized the voters, no documents disclose, only now and then the enveloping fog lifts. As for example, during the memorable election of 1800, when the ignorant voters of the Seventh Ward, duly drilled and marshaled, carried the city for the Republicans. And not even Colonel Hamilton, riding on his white horse from precinct to princinct, could stay the route. That election carried New York for Jefferson and made Burr the logical candidate of the party for Vice President. Though these political strokes betoken a brilliant, if not always, a steady and reliable mind, Burr, it must be said, was not trusted even by his political associates. It is significant that Washington, a keen judge of men, refused to appoint Burr as Minister to France to succeed Morris because he was not convinced of his integrity. And Jefferson shared these misgivings, though the exigencies of politics made him dissemble his feelings. It is significant also that Burr was always surrounded by men of more than doubtful intentions, place hunters and self-seeking politicians who had the gambler's instinct, as Vice President Burr could not hope to exert much influence upon the administration since the office in itself conferred little power and did not even, according to custom, make him a member of the Cabinet. But as Republican boss of New York, who had done more than any one man to secure the election of the ticket in 1800, he might reasonably expect Jefferson and his Virginia associates to treat him with consideration in the distribution of patronage. To his intense chagrin, he was ignored, not only ignored but discredited, for Jefferson deliberately allied himself with the Clintons and the Livingstons, the rival factions in New York which were bent upon driving Burr from the party. The treatment filled Burr's heart with malice, but he nursed his wounds in secret and bided his time. Realizing that he was politically bankrupt, Burr made a hazard of new fortunes in 1804 by offering himself as a candidate for Governor of New York, an office then held by George Clinton. Early in the year he had a remarkable interview with Jefferson in which he observed that it was for the interest of the party for him to retire, but that his retirement under existing circumstances would be thought discreditable. He asked some mark of favor from me, Jefferson wrote in his journal, which would declare to the world that he retired with my confidence and executive appointment in short. This was tantamount to an offer of peace or war. Jefferson declined to gratify him and Burr then began an entry with the Federalist leaders of New England. The rise of a Republican Party of challenging, strengthening New England cast Federalist leaders into the deepest gloom, already troubled by the annexation of Louisiana which seemed to them to imperil the ascendancy of New England in the Union, they now saw their own ascendancy in New England imperiled under the depression of impending disaster. Men like Senator Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts and Roger Griswold of Connecticut broached to their New England friends the possibility of withdrawal from the Union and the formation of Northern Confederacy. As the Confederacy shaped itself in Pickering's imagination it would have necessity include New York and the chaotic conditions in New York politics at this time invited intrigue. In therefore a group of Burr's friends in the legislature named him as their candidate for governor, Pickering and Griswold seized the moment to approach him with their treasonable plans. They gave him to understand that as governor of New York he would naturally hold a strategic position and could if he would take the lead in the secession of the Northern States, Federalist support could be given to him in the approaching election, they would be glad to know his views but the shifty Burr would not commit himself further than to promise a satisfactory administration. Though the Federalist intrigues would have been glad of more explicit assurances they counted on his vengeful temper and hatred of the Virginia domination at Washington to make him a pliable tool they were willing to commit the party openly to Burr and trust to events to bind him to their cause. This mad intrigue, one clear-headed individual, resolutely set himself not wholly from disinterested motives. Alexander Hamilton had good reason to know Burr, he declared in private conversation and the remarks speedily became public property that he looked upon Burr as a dangerous man who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government. He pleaded with New York Federalists not to commit the fatal blunder of endorsing Burr in caucus and he finally won his point but he could not prevent his partisans from supporting Burr at the polls. The defeat of Burr dashed the hopes of the Federalists of New England the bubble of Northern Confederacy vanished, it dashed also Burr's personal ambitions he could no longer hope for political rehabilitation in New York and the man who a second time had crossed his path and thwarted his purposes was his old rival, Alexander Hamilton. It is said that Burr was not naturally vindictive, perhaps no man is naturally vindictive, certain it is that bitter disappointment had now made Burr what Hamilton had called him a dangerous man. He took the common course of men of honor at this time he demanded prompt and unqualified acknowledgement or denial of the expression. Well aware of what lay behind this demand Hamilton replied deliberately with half-conciliatory words but he ended with the usual words of those prepared to accept a challenge I can only regret the circumstance and must abide the consequences. A challenge followed. We are told that Hamilton accepted to save his political leadership and influence strange illusion and once so gifted yet public opinion had not yet condemned dueling and men must be judged against the background of their times. On a summer morning July 11, 1804 Burr and Hamilton crossed the Hudson to Weehawken and there faced each other for the last time. Hamilton withheld his fire Burr aimed with murderous intent and Hamilton felt mortally wounded. The shot from Burr's pistol long reverberated it woke public conscience to the horror and uselessness of dueling and left Burr an outlaw from respectable society stunned by the recoil and under indictment for murder. Only in the south and west did men treat the incident lightly as an affair of honor. The political career of Burr was now closed when he again met the Senate face-to-face he had been dropped by his own party in favor of George Clinton to whom he surrendered the vice presidency on March 5, 1805. His farewell address is described as one of the most affecting ever spoken in the Senate describing the scene to his daughter. Burr said that tears flowed abundantly but Burr must have described what he wished to see. American politicians are not Homeric heroes who weep on slight provocation and any inclination to pity Burr must have been inhibited by the knowledge that he had made himself the rallying point of every dubious intrigue at the Capitol. The list of Burr's intimates included Jonathan Dayton whose term as senator had just ended and who like Burr sought means of promoting his fortunes. Senator Smith, Senator from Ohio, the notorious Swart-Wouts of New York who were attached to Burr as gangsters to their chief and General James Wilkinson governor of the Northern Territory carved out of Louisiana and commander of the Western Army with headquarters at St. Louis. Wilkinson had a long record of duplicity which was suspected but never proved by his contemporaries. There was hardly a dubious episode from the revolution to this date with which he had not been connected. He was implicated in the Conway Cabal against Washington. He was active in the separatist movement in Kentucky during the confederation. He entered into an irregular commercial agreement with the Spanish authorities at New Orleans. He was suspected and rightly as documents recently unearthed in Spain prove of having taken an oath of allegiance to Spain and of being in the pay of Spain. He was also suspected and justly of using his influence to bring about a separation of the Western states from the Union. Yet in 1791 he was given a Lieutenant Colonel's commission in the Regular Army and served under St. Clair in the Northwest and again as a Brigadier General under Wayne. Even here the atmosphere of intrigue enveloped him and he was accused of inciting discontent among the Kentucky troops in trying to supplant Wayne. When commissioners were trying to run the southern boundary in accordance with the Treaty of 1795 with Spain Wilkinson still at pensioner Spain as documents prove attempted to delay the survey. In the light of these revelations Wilkinson appears as an unscrupulous adventurer whose thirst for lucre made him willing to betray either master the Spaniard who pensioned him or the American who gave him his command. In the spring of 1805 Burr made a leisurely journey across the mountains by way of Pittsburgh to New Orleans where he had friends and personal followers. The Secretary of the Territory was one of his henchmen. A Justice of the Superior Court was his stepson. The Creole petitionists who had come to Washington to secure self-government had been cordially received by Burr and had a lively sense of gratitude. On his way down the Ohio Burr landed at Blenner-Hassett's Island where an eccentric Irishman of that name owned an estate. Harmon Blenner-Hassett was to rue the day that he entertained this fascinating guest. At Cincinnati he was the guest of Senator Smith and there he also met Dayton at Nashville. He visited General Andrew Jackson who was thrilled with the prospect of war with Spain. At Fort Massac he spent four days in close conference with General Wilkinson and at New Orleans he consulted with Daniel Clark, a rich merchant and the most uncompromising opponent of Governor Claiborne and with members of the Mexican Association and every would-be adventurer and filibuster. In November Burr was again in Washington. What was the purpose of this journey and what did it accomplish? It is far easier to tell what Burr did after this mysterious Western expedition than what he planned to do. There is danger of reading too great consistency into his designs. At one moment if we may believe Anthony Mary the British Minister who lent an ear to Burr's proposals he was plotting a revolution which should separate the Western states from the Union. To accomplish this design he needed British funds and a British naval force. Jonathan Dayton revealed to Iruyo much the same plot which he thought was worth 30 or 40 thousand dollars to the Spanish government. To such urgent necessity for funds were the conspirators driven. But Dayton added further details to the story which may have been intended only to intimidate Iruyo. The revolution affected by British age said Dayton gravely in expedition would be undertaken against Mexico. Subsequently Dayton unfolded a still more remarkable tale. Burr had been disappointed in the expectation of British aid and he was now bent upon an almost insane plan which was nothing less than the seizure of the government at Washington. With the government funds thus obtained and with the necessary frigates the conspirators would sail for New Orleans and proclaimed the independence of Louisiana and the Western states. The kernel of truth in these accounts is not easily separated from the chaff. The supposition that Burr seriously contemplated a separation of the Western states from the Union may be dismissed from consideration. The loyalty of the Mississippi Valley at this time is beyond question. And Burr was too keen and observer not to recognize the temper of the people with whom he sojourned. But there is reason to believe that he and his confederates may have planned an enterprise against Mexico for such a project was quite to the taste of Westerners who hated Spain as artfully as they loved the Union. Circumstances favored a filibustering expedition. The President's Bellicose message of December had prepared the people of the Mississippi Valley for war. The Spanish plotters had been expelled from Louisiana. Spanish forces had crossed the Sabine. American troops had been sent to repel them if need be. The South American Revolutionist Miranda had sailed with vessels fitted out in New York to start a revolt against Spanish rule in Caracas. Every revolutionist in New Orleans was on that key viva. What better time could there be to launch a filibustering expedition against Mexico? If it succeeded in a republic were established, the American government might be expected to recognize a fat, calm plea. The success of Burr's plans, whatever they may have been, depended on his procuring funds, and it was doubtless the hope of extracting aid from Blenner Hassett that drew him to the island in mid-summer of 1806. Burr was accompanied by his daughter Theodosia and her husband Joseph Alston, a wealthy South Carolina planter who was either the dupe or the accomplice of Burr. Together they persuaded the credulous Irishman to purchase attractive land on the Washita River in the heart of Louisiana, which would ultimately net him a profit of a million dollars when Louisiana became an independent state with Burr as ruler and England as protector. They even assured Blenner Hassett that he should go as minister to England. He was so dazzled at the prospect that he not only made the initial payment for the lands, but advanced all his property for Burr's use on receiving a guarantee from Alston. Having landed his fish, Burr set off down the river to visit General Jackson at Nashville and to procure boats and supplies for his expedition. Meanwhile, Theodosia, the brilliant, fascinating Theodosia, and her husband played the game at Blenner Hassett's island. Blenner Hassett's head was completely turned. He babbled almost indiscreetly about the approaching coup d'état. Colonel Burr would be king of Mexico, he told his gardener, and Mrs. Alston would be queen when Colonel Burr died, who could resist the charms of this young princess. Blenner Hassett and his wife were impatient to exchange their little isle for marble halls in far away Mexico. He was not growing well with the future emperor of Mexico. Ugly rumors were afloat. The active preparations at Blenner Hassett's island, the building of boats at various points along the river, the enlistment of recruits coupled with hints of secession, disturbed such loyal citizens as the district attorney at Frankfurt, Kentucky. He took it upon himself to warn the president, and then in open court charged Burr with violating the laws of the United States by setting on foot a military expedition against Mexico and with inciting citizens to rebellion in the western states. At the meeting of the grand jury Burr appeared surrounded by his friends and with young Henry Clay for counsel, the grand jury refused to indict him and he left the court in triumph. Some weeks later the district attorney renewed his motion, but again Burr was discharged by the grand jury amid popular applause, enthusiastic admirers in Frankfurt even gave a ball in his honor. Notwithstanding these warnings of conspiracy, President Jefferson exhibited a singular indifference and composure. To all alarmists he made the same reply, the people of the west were loyal and could be trusted. It was not until disquieting and ambiguous messages from Wilkinson reached Washington disquieting because ambiguous that the president was persuaded to act. On the 27th of November he issued a proclamation warning all good citizens that sundry persons were conspiring against Spain and in joining all federal officers to apprehend those engaged in the unlawful enterprise. The appearance of this proclamation at Nashville should have led to Burr's arrest, for he was still detained there, but mysterious influences seemed to paralyze the arm of the government. On the 22nd of December Burr set off with two boats, which Jackson had built then some supplies down the Cumberland. At the mouth of the river he joined forces with Glenner Hassett who had left his island in haste just as the Ohio militia was about to descend upon him. The combined strength of the flotilla was 9-bato carrying less than 60 men. There was still time to intercept the expedition at Fort Massac, but again delays that have never been explained prevented the president's proclamation from arriving in time and Burr's little fleet floated peacefully by downstream. The scene now shifts to the lower Mississippi and the heavy villain of the melodrama appears on the stage in the uniform of a United States military officer, General James Wilkinson. He had been under orders since May 6, 1806 to repair to the territory of Orleans with as little delay as possible and to repel any invasion east of the river Sabine. But he was now September and he had only just reached Natchitoches where the American volunteers and militiamen from Louisiana and Mississippi were concentrating. Much water had flowed under the bridge since Aaron Burr visited New Orleans. After President Jefferson's bellicose message of the previous December war with Spain seemed inevitable and when Spanish troops crossed the Sabine in July and took up their post only 17 miles from Natchitoches Western Americans awaited only the word to begin hostilities. The Orleans Gazette declared that the time to repel Spanish aggression had come. The enemy must be driven beyond the Sabine. The route from Natchitoches to Mexico is clear, plain and open. The occasion was at hand for conferring on our oppressed Spanish brethren in Mexico those in estimable blessings of freedom which we ourselves enjoy. Gallant Louisianians, now is the time to distinguish yourselves should the generous efforts of our government to establish a free independent republican empire Mexico be successful how fortunate how enviable would be the situation in New Orleans. The editor who sounded this clarion call was a co-adjector of Burr on the flood tide of a popular war against Spain. They proposed to float their own expedition. Much depended on General Wilkinson but he had already written privately observating the Spanish government in Mexico and carrying our conquest to California and the isthmus of Darien. With much swagger and braggadocio Wilkinson advanced to the center of the stage. He would drive the Spaniards over the Sabine though they outnumbered him three to one. I believe my friend he wrote I shall be obliged to fight and to flog them. Magnificent stage thunder but to Wilkinson's chagrin the Spaniards withdrew of their own accord not a Spaniard remained to contest his advance to the border yet oddly enough he remained idle in camp. Why? Some two weeks later an emissary appeared at Natchitoches with a letter from Burr dated the 29th of July in Seifler. What this letter may have originally contained probably never been known for only Wilkinson's version survives and that underwent frequent revision. It is quite as remarkable for its omissions as for anything that it contains. In it there is no mention of a western uprising nor of a revolution in New Orleans but only the intimation that an attack is to be made upon Spanish possessions presumably Mexico with possibly Baton Rouge as the immediate objective. Whether or no this letter changed Wilkinson's plans in the Conjecture. Certainly it is however that about this time Wilkinson determined to denounce Burr and his associates and to play a double game posing on the one hand as the savior of his country and on the other as a secret friend to Spain. After some hesitation he wrote to President Jefferson warning him in general terms of an expedition preparing against Vera Cruz but omitting all mention of Burr. Subsequently he wrote a confidential letter about this deep dark and widespread conspiracy and meshed all classes and conditions in New Orleans and might bring 7,000 men from the Ohio. The contents of Burr's mysterious letter were to be communicated orally to the President by the messenger Hebor this precious warning. It was on the strength of these communications that the President issued his proclamation on the 27th of November. While Wilkinson was indicting these misleading misses to the President he was preparing the way for his entry at New Orleans to the perplexed and alarmed Governor he wrote you are surrounded by dangers of which you dream not and the destruction of the American government is seriously menaced. The storm will probably burst in New Orleans where I shall meet it and triumph or perish. Just five days later he wrote a letter to the Vice Roy of Mexico which proves in beyond doubt the most contemptible rascal who ever wore an American uniform. A storm, a revolutionary tempest and infernal plot threatens the destruction of the empire he wrote. The next effective attack would be New Orleans, then Veracruz, then Mexico City scenes of violence and pillage would follow let his excellency be on his guard to ward off these calamities I will hurl myself like a Leonidas into the breach but let his excellency remember what risks the writer of this letter incurs by offering without orders this communication to a foreign power and let him reimburse the bearer of this letter to the amount of 121,000 pesos which will be spent to shed the plans of these bandits from the Ohio. The arrival of Wilkinson in New Orleans was awaited by friends and foes with bated breath. The conspirators had as yet no intimation of his intentions. Governor Claiborne was torn by suspicion of this would be saviour for at the very time he was reading Wilkinson's gas canade he received a cryptic letter from Henry Jackson which ran keep a watchful eye on our general and beware of an attack as well from your own country as Spain you could not trust our general whom could he trust. The stage was now set for the last act in the drama Wilkinson arrived in the city deliberately set Claiborne aside and established a species of martial law not without opposition to justify his course Wilkinson swore to an outfit David based on Burr's letter of the 29th of July and proceeded with his arbitrary arrests one by one Burr's confederates were taken into custody the city was kept in a state of alarm thousands were said to be on the way the Negroes were to be incited to revolt only the actual appearance of Burr's expedition or some extraordinary happening could maintain this high pitch of popular excitement and save Wilkinson from becoming the ridiculous victim of his own folly. On the 10th of January 1807 after uneventful voyage down the Mississippi Burr's flotilla reached the mouth of Bayou Pierre some 30 miles above Natchez here at length was the huge armada which was to shadow the union nine boats and 60 men tension began to give way people began to recover their sense of humor Wilkinson was never in greater danger in his life for he was about to appear ridiculous it was at Bayou Pierre that Burr going ashore learned that Wilkinson had betrayed him his first instinct was to flee for if he should proceed to the new audience he would fall into Wilkinson's hands and doubtless be court marshalled and shot but if he teared he would be arrested and sent to Washington decision and despair seized him and while Blenner Hassett and other devoted followers waited for their emperor to declare his intention he found himself facing the acting governor of the Mississippi territory with a warrant for his arrest to the chagrin of his fellow conspirators Burr surrendered tamely even Pusa unanimously the end of the drama was near at hand Burr was brought before a grandeur and though he once more escaped indictment he was put under bounds quite illegally he thought to appear when summoned on the 1st of February he abandoned his followers to the tender mercies of the law and fled in disguise into the wilderness a month later he was arrested near the Spanish border above Mobile by Lieutenant Gaines in command at Fort Stoddart and taken to Richmond the trial that followed did not prove Burr's guilt but it did prove Thomas Jefferson's credulity and cast grave doubts on James Wilkinson's loyalty Burr was acquitted of the charge of treason in court but he remained under popular indictment and his memory has never been wholly cleared of the suspicion of treason End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of Jefferson and his Colleagues by Alan Johnson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 7 An Abuse of Hospitality while Captain Bain Bridge is eating his heart out in the poshest prison at Tripoli his thoughts reverting constantly to his lost frigate he reminded Commodore Preble with whom he was allowed to correspond that the greater part of our crew consists of English subjects not naturalized in America this incidental remark comes with all the force of a revelation to those who have finally imagined that the sturdy tractors who man the first frigates were genuine American sea dogs still more disconcerting is the information contained in a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury to President Jefferson some years later to the effect that after 1803 American tonnage increased at the rate of 70,000 a year but that of the 4,000 seamen required to man this growing mercantile marine fully one half were British subjects presumably deserters how are these uncomfortable facts to be explained let a third piece of information be added in a report of Admiral Nelson dated 1803 in which he broaches a plan for manning the British Navy it is soberly stated that 42,000 British seamen deserted in the late war whenever a large convoy assembled at Portsmouth added the Admiral not less than 1,000 seamen usually deserted from the Navy the slightest acquaintance with the British Navy when Nelson was winning immortal glory by his victory at Trafalgar must convince the most skeptical that his seamen for the most part were little better than galley slaves life on board these frigates was well nigh unbearable the average life of a seamen Nelson reckoned was 45 years in this age before as of refrigeration had been invented food could not be kept edible on long voyages even in merchant men still worse was the fare on men of war the health of a crew was left to providence little or no forethought was exercised to prevent disease the commonest matters of personal hygiene were neglected and when disease came the remedies applied were scarcely to be preferred to the disease discipline always brutal in cat and ant tales small wonder that the Navy was avoided like the plague by every man and seamen yet a Navy had to be maintained it was the cornerstone of the empire and in all the history of that empire the need of a Navy was never stronger than in these opening years of the 19th century the practice of impressing able men for the Royal Navy was as old as the reign of Elizabeth the press gang was an odious institution of long standing a terror not only to rogue and vagabond but to every able-bodied seafaring man and watermen on rivers who was not exempted by some special act it ransacked the prisons and carried to the Navy not only its victims but the germs of fever which infested public places of detention but the press gang harvested its greatest crop of semen on the seas, merchant men were stopped at sea, robbed of their able sailors and left to limp shorthanded into port a British East India man homeward bound in 1802 was stripped of so many of her crew in the Bay of Biscay that she was unable to offer resistance to a French privateer and fell a rich victim into the hands of the enemy the necessity of the Royal Navy knew no law and often defeated its own purpose death or desertion was the only way of escape to the victim of the press gang and the commander of a British frigate dreaded making port almost as much as an epidemic of typhus the deserter always found American merchant and ready to harbor him fair wages, relatively comfortable quarters and decent treatment made him quite ready to take any measures to force where his allegiance drew Britannia naturalization papers were easily procured by a few months residence in any state of the Union the certificates of citizenship could be bought for a song in any American seaport where sheisters drove a thrifty traffic in bogus documents provided the English Navy took the precaution to have the description in a certificate tally with his personal appearance and did not let his tongue betray him he was reasonably safe from capture basing the probable fact that British seamen were deserting just when they were most needed and were making American merchant men the British naval commanders with no very nice regard for legal distinctions extended their search for deserters to the decks of American vessels whether in British waters or on the high seas if in time of war they reasoned they could stop a neutral ship on the high seas searcher for contraband of war and condemns ship and cargo in a prize court if carrying contraband why might they not buy the same token search of vessel for British deserters to come into service again two considerations seem to justify this reasoning the trickiness of the smart Yankees who forged citizenship papers and the indelible character of British allegiance once an Englishman always an Englishman by Joe your hound of a sea dog might try to talk through his nose like a Yankee you know and he might shove a dirty bit of paper at you but he couldn't shake off his British citizenship if he wanted to this was good English law as by other nations so much the worse for them as one of these redoubtable British captains put it years later might makes right is the guiding practical maximum among nations and ever will be so long as powder and shot exist with money to back them and energy to wield them of course there were hair splitting fellows plenty of them in England and the states who told you that it was one thing to seize a vessel carrying contraband and have them condemned by judicial process in a court of admiralty quite another thing to carry British subjects off the decks of a merchant flying a neutral flag but if you knew the blasted rascals were deserters what difference did it make besides what would become of the British Navy if you listened to all the fine spun arguments of landsmen and if these stalwart blue water Britishers could have read what Thomas Jefferson was writing at this very time they would have clasped him with the armchair critics who had no proper conception of a sailor's duty I hope the right of expatriation wrote to president to be inherent in every man by the laws of nature and incapable of being rightfully taken away from him even by the united will of every other person in the nation in the year 1805 while president Jefferson was still the victim of his over-mastering passion and disposed to cultivate the goodwill of England if thereby he might obtain the Florida's unforeseen commercial complications arose which not only blocked the way to a better understanding of Spanish affairs but strained diplomatic relations to the breaking point news reached Atlantic seaports that American merchant men which had hitherto engaged with impunity in the carrying trade between Europe and the West Indies had been seized and condemned in British Admiralty courts every American shipmaster and owner had once lifted up his voice in indignant protest in all the latent hostility to their old enemy revived here were new orders and counsel said they the leopard cannot change his spots England is still England the implacable enemy of neutral shipping which will be perfectly safe till free goods make free ships or till England loses two or three great naval battles declared the Salem register the recent seizures were not made by orders and counsel however but in accordance with a decision recently handed down by the Court of Appeals in the case of ship Essex following a practice which should become common in recent years the Essex had sailed with a cargo from Barcelona to Salem and then to Havana on the high seas she'd been captured by the British port where ship and cargo were condemned because the voyage from Spain to her colony had been virtually continuous and by the so-called rule of 1756 direct trade between a European state and its colony was forbidden to neutrals in time of war when such trade had not been permitted in time of peace hitherto the British courts had inclined to the view that when goods had been landed in a neutral country and duties paid the voyage had been broken direct had been countenanced because the payment of duties seemed evidence enough that the cargo became a part of the stock of the neutral country and if reshipped was then a bona fide neutral cargo suddenly English merchants and shipwers woke to the fact that they were often victims of deception cargoes would be landed in the United States duties ostensibly paid and the goods ostensibly imported only to be reshipped in the same bottoms with the connivance of port officials either without paying any real duties or withdraw backs in the case of the Essex the court of appeals cut directly a thwart these practices by going behind the prima facie payment and inquiring into the intent of the voyage the mere touching at a port without actually importing the cargo into the common stock of the country did not alter the nature of the voyage the crucial point was the intent which the court was now and hereafter determined to ascertain by examination of facts the court reached the indubitable conclusion that the cargo of the Essex had never been intended for American markets the open minded historian must admit that this was a fair application of the rule of 1756 but he may still challenge the validity of the rule as all neutral countries did and the wisdom of the monopolistic impulse which moved the commercial classes and the courts of England to this decision had the impressment of semen and the spilliation of neutral commerce that only on the high seas public resentment would have mounted to a high pitch in the United States but when British cruisers ran into American waters to capture or burn French vessels and when British men of war blockaded ports detaining and searching at times capturing American vessels indignation rose to fever heat the blockade of New York Harbor by two British frigates the Cambrian and the Leander exasperated merchants beyond measure on board the Leander was a young midshipman who in after years described the activities of this execrated frigate every morning at daybreak we set about arresting the progress of all the vessels we saw firing of guns to the right and left to make every ship that was running in heave to or wait until we had leisure to send a boat and board to sea in our lingo where she was made of I've frequently known a dozen and sometimes a couple of dozen ships lying a leaguer to off the port losing their fair wind their tide to the market for many hours sometimes the whole day before our search was completed one day in April 1806 the Leander trying to halt a merchantman that she meant to search for her shop which killed the helmsman of a passing sloop the boat sailed on to New York with the mangled body and the captain brother the murdered man lashed the populace into a rage by his mad words supplies for the frigates were intercepted personal violence was threatened by the nation officers caught on shore the captain of the leander was indicted for murder and the funeral of the murdered sailor was turned into a public demonstration yet nothing came of this incident beyond a proclamation by the president closing the ports of the united states to the offending frigates and ordering the arrest of the captain of the leander wherever found after all the death of a common semen did not fire the hearts of farmers peacefully tilling their fields far beyond hearing of the leander's guns there was a troublesome happenings past scores of american vessels were condemned in british admiralty courts and american semen were impressed with increasing frequency until in the early summer of 1807 these manifold grievances culminated in an outrage that shook even jefferson out of his composure and evoked a passionate outcry for war from all parts of the country while a number of british war vessels were lying in hampton roads watching for certain french frigates which had taken refuge up chesapeake bay where a number of semen by desertion under peculiarly annoying circumstances in one instance a whole boat's crew made off under cover of night to norfolk and there publicly defied their commander three deserters from the british frigate malampus had enlisted on the american frigate chesapeake which had just been fitted out for service in the mediterranean but on inquiry these three were proven to be native americans who had been impressed into british service and they had disclosed one british deserter who had enlisted on the chesapeake a loudmouth tar by the name of jenkin ratford these irritating facts stirred admiral barkley at halifax to high handed measures without waiting for instruction she issued an order to all commanders in the north advantage squadron to search the chesapeake for deserters if she should be encountered on the high seas this order of the first of june should be shown to the captain of the chesapeake as sufficient authority for searching her on june 22, 1807 the chesapeake passed unsuspecting between the capes on her way to the mediterranean she was a stanch frigate carrying 40 guns and a crew of 375 men and boys but she was at this time in a distressing state of unreadiness owing to the deleteriness and incompetence of the naval authorities at washington the gun deck was littered with lumber and odds and ends of rigging the guns though loaded were not all fitted to their carriages and the crew was untrained as the guns had to be fired by slow matches or by loggerheads and the ammunition was stored in the magazine the frigate was totally unprepared for action Commodore Barron who commanded the chesapeake counted on putting her into fighting on the long voyage across the atlantic just ahead of the chesapeake as she passed out to sea was the leopard a british frigate of 52 guns which was apparently on the lookout for a suspicious merchantman it was not until both vessels were 8 miles or more southeast of Cape Henry that the movements of the leopard began to attract attention at about half past three in the afternoon she came within hailing distance and hoved to announcing that she had dispatches for the commander the chesapeake also hoved to and answered the hail a risky move considering that she was unprepared for action and that the leopard laid to that windward but why should the commander of the American frigate have entertained suspicions a boat put out from the leopard bearing a petty officer who delivered a note in closing Commodore Barclay's order and expressing the hope that every circumstance may be adjusted in a manner that the harmony subsisting between the two countries may remain undisturbed Commodore Barron replied that he knew of no british deserters on his vessel and declined in courty's terms to permit his crew to be mustered by any other officers but their own the messenger departed and then for the first time entertaining serious misgivings Commodore Barron ordered his decks cleared for action but before the crew could bestow themselves the leopard drew near her men at quarters the british commander shouted a warning but Barron now thoroughly alarmed replied I don't hear what you say the warning was repeated but again Barron to gain time shouted that he could not hear the leopard then fired two shots across the bow of the Chesapeake and almost immediately without parlaying further she was now within 200 feet of her victim poured a broadside into the American vessel confusion reigned on the Chesapeake the crew for the most part showed courage but they were helpless they had no matches or loggerheads they crowded about the magazine clamoring in vain for a chance to defend the vessel they yelled with rage at their predicament only one gun was discharged and that was by means of a live coal brought up from the galley after the Chesapeake had received a third broadside on Commodore Barron had ordered the flag to be hauled down to spare further slaughter three of his crew had already been killed and 18 wounded himself among the number the whole action lasted only 15 minutes boarding crews now approached the British officers climbed to the deck of the Chesapeake and mustered her crew among the ship's company they found the alleged deserters and hiding in the coal hole the notorious Jenkins Rattford these four men they took with them and the leopard having fulfilled her instructions now suffered the Chesapeake to limp back to Hampton Roads for the first time in their history writes Henry Adams the people of the United States learned in June 1807 the feeling of a true national emotion either to every public passion had been more or less partial and one-sided but the outrage committed on the Chesapeake stung through high-bound prejudices and made Democrat and Aristocrat ride alive had President Jefferson chosen to go to war at this moment he would have had a united people behind him and he was well aware that he possessed the power of choice the affair of the Chesapeake put war into my hand he wrote some years later I don't need to open it and let havoc loose but Thomas Jefferson was not a martial character the state governors to be sure were requested to have their militia readiness and the governor of Virginia was desired to call such companies into service as were needed for the defense of Norfolk the president referred in indignant terms to the abuse of the laws of hospitality and the outrage committed by the British commander but his proclamation only ordered all British armed vessels out of American waters and forbade all intercourse with them if they remained the tone of the proclamation was so moderate as to seem pusillanimous John Randolph called it an apology Thomas Jefferson did not mean to have war with that extraordinary confidence in his own powers which in smaller men would be called smug conceit he believed that he could secure disavow an honorable reparation for the wrong committed but he chose a frail intermediary when he committed this delicate mission to James Monroe End of Chapter 7 Chapter 8 of Jefferson and his colleagues by Alan Johnson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 8 the pacifists of 1807 it is one of the strange paradoxes of our time that the author of the Declaration of Independence to whose principle of self-determination the world seems again to be turning should now be regarded as a self-confessed pacifist with all the derogatory implications that lurk in that epithet the circumstances which made him a revolutionist in 1776 and a passionate advocate of peace in 1807 deserve some consideration the charge made by contemporaries of Jefferson that his aversion to war sprang from personal cowardice may be dismissed at once as it was by him with contempt nor was his hatred of war merely an instinctive appearance of bloodshed he had not hesitated to wage naval war on the Barbary corsairs it is true that he was temperamentally averse to the use of force under ordinary circumstances he did not belong to that type who find self-expression in adventurous activity mere physical effort without conscious purpose never appealed to him he was at the opposite pole of life from a man like Aaron Burr he never so far as history records had an affair of honor he never fought a duel he never performed active military service he never took human life yet he was not non-resistant my hope of preserving peace for our country he wrote on one occasion is not founded in the Quaker principle of non-resistance under every wrong the true sources of Jefferson's pacifism must be sought in his rationalistic philosophy which accorded the whitoscope to the principle of self-direction and determination whether on the part of the individual or of groups of individuals to impose one's will upon another was to enslave according to his notion to coerce by war was to enslave a community and to enslave a community was to revoke revolution Jefferson's thought gravitated inevitably to the center of the rational universe to the principle of enlightened self-interest men and women are not to be permanently moved by force but by appeals to their interests he completed his thought as follows in the letter already quoted but my hope of preserving peace is founded in the belief that a just and friendly conduct on our part will procure justice and others in the existing contest each of the combatants will find an interest in our friendship it was a chaotic world in which this philosopher statesman was called upon to act a world in which international law and neutral rights had been well nigh submerged in 12 years of almost continuous war yet with amazing self-assurance President Jefferson believed he held in his hand a master key which would unlock all doors that had been shut to the commerce of neutrals he called this master key peaceable coercion and he explained its magic potency in this wise our commerce is so valuable to them the European belligerents that they will be glad to purchase it and the advice we ask is to do us justice I believe that we have in our hands the means of peaceable coercion and at the moment they see our government so united as that they can make use of it they will for their own interest be disposed to do us justice the idea of using commercial restrictions as a weapon to secure recognition of rights was of course not original with Jefferson but it was now to be given a trial without parallel in the history of the nation non importation agreements had proved efficacious in the struggle of the colonies with the mother country it seemed not unreasonable to suppose that a well sustained refusal to traffic in English goods would meet the emergency seven when the ruling of British Admiralty courts threatened to cut off the lucrative commerce between Europe and the West Indies with this theory in view the president and his secretary of state advocated the non importation bill of April 18 1806 which forbade the entry of certain specified goods of British manufacture the opposition found a leader in Randolph who now broke once and for all with the administration never in the course of my life he exclaimed have I witnessed such a scene of indignity and inefficiency as this measure holds forth to the world what is it a milk and water bill a dose of chicken broth to be taken nine months hence it is too contemptible to be the object of consideration or to excite the feelings of the pettiest state in Europe the administration carried the bill through Congress but Randolph had the satisfaction of seeing his characterization of the measure amply justified by the course of events with the non importation act as a weapon the president was covenant that Monroe who had once more returned to his post in London could force a settlement of all outstanding differences with Great Britain to his annoyance and to Monroe's chagrin however he was obliged to send a special envoy to act with Monroe factious opposition in the Senate forced the president to placate the Federalists by appointing William Pinckney of Maryland the American commissioners were instructed to insist upon three concessions the treaty which they were to negotiate restoration of trade with enemies colonies indemnity for captures made since the Essex decision and express repudiation of the right of impressment in return for these concessions they might hold out the possible repeal of the non importation act only confirmed optimists could believe that the mistress of the seas flushed with the victory of Trafalgar would consent to yield these points for so slight a compensation the mission was indeed doomed from the outset and nothing more need be said of it than that in the end to secure any treaty at all Monroe and Pinckney broke their instructions and set aside the three Altamata what they obtained in return seemed so insignificant and doubtful that they paid for even the slender compensations seemed so exorbitant that the president would not even submit the treaty to the senate the first application of the theory of peaceable coercion thus ended in humiliating failure Jefferson thought it best to let the negotiation take a friendly nap the Madison who felt that his political future depended on a diplomatic triumph over England drafted new instructions for the two commissioners hoping that the treaty might yet be put into acceptable form it was while these new instructions were crossing the ocean that the Chesapeake struck her colors James Monroe is one of the most unlucky diplomats in American history from those early days when he had received the fraternal embraces of the Jacobins in Paris and had been recalled by President Washington to the ill-fated Spanish mission circumstances seemed to have conspired against him the honor of negotiating the purchase of Louisiana should have been his alone but he arrived just a day too late and was obliged to divide the glory with Livingston on his mission to England he was not permitted to conduct negotiations alone but was associated with William Pinckney a Federalist no wonder he suspected Madison or at least Madison's friends of wishing to discredit him in now another impossible task was laid upon him he was instructed to demand not only disavowal and reparation for the attack on the Chesapeake and the restoration of the American semen but also as an indispensable part of the satisfaction an entire abolition of impressments if the Secretary of State had deliberately contrived to deliver Monroe into the hands of George Canning he could not have been more successful for Monroe had already protested against the Chesapeake outrage as an act of aggression which should be promptly disavowed without reference to the larger question of impressment he was now obliged to eat his own words and inject into the discussion put it the irrelevant matters which they had agreed to separate from the present controversy Canning was quick to see his opportunity Mr Monroe must be aware that he that on several recent occasions his majesty had firmly declined to wave the ancient and prescriptive usages of Great Britain founded on the soundest principles of natural law simply because they might come in contact with the interests or the feelings of the American people if Mr Monroe's instructions left him powerless to adjust this regrettable incident of that leopard and the Chesapeake without raising the other question of the right of search and impressment then his majesty could only send a special envoy to the United States to terminate the controversy in a manner satisfactory to both countries but added Canning with sarcasm which was not lost on Monroe in order to avoid the inconvenience which had arisen from the mixed nature of your instructions that minister will not be empowered to entertain any proposition respecting the search of merchant vessels one more humiliating experience was reserved for Monroe before his diplomatic career closed following Madison's new set of instructions Ian Pinckney attempted to reopen negotiations for the revision of the discredited treaty of the preceding year but Canning had reasons of his own for wishing to be rid of a treaty which had been drawn by the late Wig ministry he informed the American commissioners arrogantly that the proposal of the president of the United States for proceeding to negotiate a new upon the basis of a treaty already solemnly concluded and signed is a proposal wholly inadmissible his majesty could therefore only acquiesce in the refusal of the president to ratify the treaty one week later James Monroe departed from London never again to set foot on British soil leaving Pinckney to assume the duties of minister at the court of St. James for the second time Monroe returned to his own country discredited by the president who had appointed him in both instances he felt himself the victim of injustice in spite of his friendship for Jefferson he was embittered against the administration and in this mood lent himself all too readily to the schemes of John Randolph who had already picked him as the one candidate who could beat Madison in the next presidential election from the point of view of George Canning and the Tory squirarchy whose mouth piece he was the Chesapeake affair was but an incident an unhappy incident to be sure but still only an incident in the worldwide struggle with Napoleon what was at stake was nothing less than the commercial supremacy of Great Britain the astounding growth of Napoleon's empire was a standing menace of the British trade the overthrow of Prussia in the fall of 1806 left the Corsican in control of central Europe and in a position to deal his long premeditated blow a fortnight after the battle of Gena he entered Berlin and there issued the famous decree which was his answer to the British blockade of the French channel ports since England does not recognize the national law universally observed by all civilized nations so the preamble read but by a monstrous abuse of the right of blockade has determined to destroy neutral trade and to raise her commerce and industry upon the ruins of that of the continent and since whoever deals on the continent in English goods there by favors and renders himself an accomplice of her designs the British isles are declared to be in a state of blockade henceforth all English goods were to be lawful prize in any territory held by the troops of France or her allies and all vessels which had come from English ports or from English colonies were to be confiscated together with their cargoes this challenge was too much for the moral equilibrium of the squires the ship owners and the merchants who dominated parliament it dulled their sense of justice and made them impatient under the pinpricks which came from the United States a few short months of war declared the morning post would convince these desperate American politicians of the folly of measuring the strength of a rising but still infant and puny nation with the colossal power right said the times another organ of the Tory government is power sanctioned by usage concession to Americans that this crisis was not to be entertained for a moment for after all said the times they possess all the vices of their Indian neighbors without their virtues in this temper the British government was prepared to ignore the United States and declare that no vessel shall be permitted to trade from one port to another both which port shall belong to or be in possession of France or her allies the peculiar hardship of this order for American ship owners is revealed by the papers of Stephen Gerard of Philadelphia who's shrewdness and the fact that the ship owners whose shrewdness and enterprise were making him one of the merchant princes of his time one of his ships the liberty of some 250 tons was sent to Lisbon with a cargo of 2052 barrels and 220 half barrels of flour which cost the owner $10.68 a barrel her captain on entering port learned that flour commanded a better price than it is took it is accordingly he set sail and sold his cargo for $22.50 a barrel winning for the owner a goodly profit of $25,000 less commission it was such trading ventures as this of the British Order and Council doomed what American ship masters had now to fear was made startlingly clear by the fate of the ship Horizon which had sailed from Charleston, South Carolina with a cargo for Zanzibar on the way she touched at various South American ports and disposed of most of her cargo then changing her destination and taking on a cargo for the English market she set sail for London on the way she was forced at Lisbon to refit as she left to resume her voyage she was seized by an English frigate and brought in as a fair prize since according to the rule of 1756 she had been apprehended in an illegal traffic between an enemy country and its colony the British Prize Court condemned the cargo but released the ship the unlucky Horizon then loaded with an English cargo and sailed again to Lisbon but misfortune overtook her and she was wrecked off the French coast her cargo was salvaged however and what was not of English origin was restored to her owners by decree of a French Prize Court the rest of her cargo was confiscated under the terms of the Berlin Decree when the American Minister protested at this decision he was told that since America suffers her ships to be searched the principle that the flag does not cover the goods since she recognizes the absurd blockades laid by England consents to having her vessels incessantly stopped sent to England and so turned aside from their course why should the Americans not suffer the blockade laid by France certainly France recognizes that these measures are unjust illegal and subversive of national sovereignty but it is the duty of nations to dishonor them and disgrace their independence but an invitation to enter the European Maelstrom and battle for neutral rights made no impression upon the mild tempered president it is as clear as day that the British Government was now determined under pretense of retaliating upon France to promote British trade with the continent by every means and at the expense of neutrals another order in Council November 1787 proposed to neutrals all European ports under French control as if the same were actually blockaded but permitted vessels which first entered a British port and obtained a British license to sail to any continental port it was an order which as Henry Adams has said could have but one purpose to make American commerce English this was precisely the contemporary opinion of the historian's grandfather who declared that the orders in the Council if submitted to would have degraded us to the condition of colonists only one more blow was needed it was seen to complete the ruin of American commerce it fell a month later when Napoleon having overrun the Spanish Peninsula and occupied Portugal issued his Milan decree of December 17 1807 hence forth any vessel which submitted to search by English cruisers or paid any tonnage duty to the English government or sail to or from any English port would be captured and condemned as lawful prize such was to be the maritime code of France until England should return to the principles of international law which are also those of justice and honor never was a commercial nation less prepared to defend itself against depredations than the United States of America in this year 1807 for this unpreparedness many must bear the blame but President Jefferson has become the scapegoat this Virginia farmer and landsman was not only ignorant and distrustful of all the implements of war but utterly unfamiliar with the ways of the sea and with the first principles of sea power the tripolitan war seems to have inspired him with a single fixed idea that for defensive purposes gun boats were superior to frigates and less costly he set forth this idea in a special message to Congress February 10 1807 claiming to have the support of professional men among whom he mentioned Generals Wilkinson and Gates he proposed the construction of 200 of these gun boats which would be distributed among the various exposed harbors where in time of peace they would be hauled up on shore under sheds for protection against sun and storm as emergency arose these floating batteries were to be manned by the semen and militia of the port what appealed particularly to the president in this program was the immunity it offered from an excitement to engage in offensive rare time war Gallatin would have modified even this plan for economy's sake he would have constructed only one half of the proposed fleet since the large seaports could probably build 30 gun boats in as many days if an emergency arose in extenduation of Gallatin's it should be remembered that he was a native of Switzerland whose navy has never plowed many seas it is less easy to excuse the rest of the president's advisors and the congress which was beguiled into accepting this naive project nor did the Chesapeake outrage teach either congress or the administration a salutary lesson on the contrary when in October the news of the bombardment of Copenhagen had shattered the nerves of statesmen in all neutral countries and while differences with England were still unsettled Jefferson and his colleagues decided to hold four of the best frigates in port and use them as receptacles for enlisting seamen to fill the gun boats occasionally whom the gods would punish they first make mad the 17th of December was a memorable day in the annals of this administration favorable trade winds had brought into American ports a number of packets with news from Europe the revenge had arrived in New York with Armstrong's batches announcing Napoleon's purpose to enforce the Berlin decree the Edward had reached Boston with British newspapers forecasting the order in council of the 11th of November this news burst like a bomb in Washington where the genial president was observing with scientific detachment the operation of his policy of commercial coercion the non importation act had just gone into effect Jefferson immediately called his cabinet together all were of one mind order in council it was agreed left but one alternative commerce must be totally suspended until the full scope of these new aggressions could be ascertained the president took out loose sheet of paper and drafted hastily a message to Congress recommending an embargo in anticipation of the offensive British order but the prudent Madison urged that it was better not to refer explicitly to the order and propose a substitute which simply recommended an immediate inhibition of the departure of vessels from the force of the United States on the ground that shipping was likely to be exposed to greater dangers only Gallatin demurred he would have preferred an embargo for a limited time I prefer to a permanent embargo he wrote next day government prohibitions he added significantly do always more mischief than had been calculated but Gallatin was overruled and the message of Madison's form was sent to Congress on the following day the Senate immediately passed the desired bill through three readings in a single day the House confirmed this action after only two days of debate and on the 22nd of December the president signed the embargo act what was this measure which was passed by Congress almost without discussion ostensibly it was an act for the protection of American ships merchandise and semen it forbade the departure of all ships for foreign ports except vessels under the immediate direction of the president and vessels in ballast or already loaded with goods foreign armed vessels were exempted also as a matter of course coasting ships were to give bonds double the value of vessel and cargo to reland their freight in some port of the United States historians have discovered a degree of duplicity in the alleged motives for this act how it is asked could protection of ships and semen be the motive when all of Jefferson's private letters were terminated to put his theory of peaceable coercion to a practical test by this measure the criticism is now altogether fair for as Jefferson would himself have replied peaceable coercion was designed to force the withdrawal of orders and counsel and decrees that menace the safety of ships and cargoes the policy might entail some incidental hardships to be sure but the end in view was protection of American lives and property Madison was not quite candid and assured the British minister that the embargo was a precautionary measure only and not conceived with hostile intent chimerical this policy seemed to many contemporaries chimerical it has seemed to historians and to us who have passed through the world war yet in the world war it was the possession of food stuffs and raw materials by the United States which gave her a dominating position in the councils of the allies had her commerce in 1807 been as necessary to England and France as it was at the very peak of the world war Thomas Jefferson might have proved that peaceable coercion is an effective alternative to war but he overestimated the magnitude and importance of that carrying trade of the United States and urged more grievously and assuming that a public conscience existed which would prove superior to the temptation to evade the law Jefferson dreaded war quite as much because of its concomitance as because of its inevitable brutality quite as much because it tended to exalt government and to produce corruption as because it maimed bodies and sacrificed human lives yet he never took fully into account the possible accompaniments of his alternative to war that the embargo would debauch public morals and make government arbitrary he was to learn only by bitter experience and personal humiliation just after the passage of this momentous act counting special convoy George Rose arrived in the United States a British diplomat of a better sort with much dignity of manner and suave courtesy he was received with more than ordinary consideration by the administration he was commissioned every once supposed to offer reparation for the Chesapeake Affair even after he had notified Madison that his instructions bait him insist as an indispensable preliminary on the recall of the President's Chesapeake proclamation he was treated with deference and assured that the President was prepared to comply if he could do so without incurring the charge of inconsistency in disregard of national honor Madison proposed to put a proclamation of recall in Rose's hands duly signed by the President and dated so as to correspond with the day on which all differences should be adjusted Rose consented to this course and the proclamation was delivered into his hands he then divulged by little his further instructions which were such as no self respecting administration could listen to with composure canning demanded a formal disavowal of Commodore Barron's conduct and encouraging deserters from his majesty's service and harboring them onboard his ship you will state read Rose's instructions that such disavows solemnly expressed would afford to his majesty a satisfactory pledge on the part of the American government that the recurrence of similar causes will not on any occasion impose on his majesty the necessity of authorizing those means of force to which Admiral Barkley has resorted without authority but which the continued repetition of such provocations as unfortunately led to the attack upon the Chesapeake might render it necessary as a just reprisal on the part of his majesty no doubt Rose did his best to soften the turn of these instructions but he could not fail to make them clear to the citizen who had conducted these informal interviews slowly awoke to the real nature of what he was asked to do he closed further negotiations with the comment that the United States could not be expected to make as it were an expiatory sacrifice to obtain redress or beg for reparation the administration determined to let the disavowal of Barkley suffice for the president to allow the matter of reparation to await further developments the coercive policy in which the ship launched would it was confidently believed bring his majesty's government to terms the very suggestion of an embargo had an unexpected effect upon American ship masters to avoid being shut up in port fleets of ships put out to sea half man half laden and often without clearance papers with freight rates and soaring to unheard of altitudes ship owners were willing to assume all the risks of the sea British frigates included so little did they appreciate the protection offered by a benevolent government that they assumed an attitude of hostility to authority and evaded the exactions of the law in every conceivable way under guise of engaging in the coasting trade many a ship landed her cargo in a foreign port a brisk traffic also spring up across the Canadian border and Amelia Island in St. Mary's River Florida became notorious mark for illicit commerce almost at once congress was forced to pass supplementary acts conferring upon collectors of ports powers of inspection and regulation which Gallatin unhesitatingly pronounced both odious and dangerous the president of fixed his signature ruefully to acts which increase the army multiplied the number of gunboats under construction and appropriated a million and a quarter dollars to the construction of coast defenses and the equipment of militia this embargo act he confessed is certainly the most embarrassing we ever had to execute I did not expect a crop of so sudden and right growth of fraud and open opposition by force could have grown up in the United States the worst feature of the experiment was its ineffectiveness the inhibition of commerce had so slight an effect upon England that when pink the approach came in with the proposal of a quid pro quo the United States to rescind the embargo England to revoke her orders in council he was told with biting sarcasm that if it were possible to make any sacrifice for the repeal of the embargo without appearing to deprecate it as a measure of hostility he would gladly have facilitated his removal as a measure of inconvenient restriction upon the American people by licensing American vessels indeed which had either slipped out of port before the embargo or evaded the collectors the British government was even profiting by this measure of restriction it was these vagrant vessels which gave Napoleon his excuse for the Bayonne decree of April 17 1808 when with a stroke of the pen he ordered the seizure of all American ships in French ports and swept property to the value of ten million dollars into the imperial exchequer since these vessels were abroad in violation of the embargo he argued they could not be American craft but must be British ships in disguise General Armstrong writing from Paris warned the secretary of state not to expect that the embargo would do more than keep the United States at peace with the belligerence as a coercive measure its effect was nil here it is not felt and in England it is forgotten before the end of the year the failure of the embargo was patent to every fair-minded observer men might differ ever so much as to the harm brought by the embargo abroad but all agreed that it was not bringing either France or England to terms and that it was working real hardship at home Federalists in New England were nearly one-third of the ships in the curian trade were owned pointed to the schooners rotting at their wharves to the empty shipyards and warehouses to the idle sailors wandering in the streets of port towns and asked passionately how long they must be sacrificed to the theories of this charlatan in the White House even southern Republicans were asking uneasily when the president would realize that the embargo was ruining planters who could not market their cotton and tobacco and Republicans whose pockets were not properly questioning whether a policy that reduced the annual value of exports from 108 million dollars to 22 million dollars and cut the national revenue in half had not been tested long enough indications multiplied that the dictatorship of Mr. Jefferson was drawing to a close in 1808 after the election of Madison as his successor he practically abdicated as leader of his party partly out of an honest conviction that he ought not to commit the president elect by any positive course of action and partly no doubt out of a less praiseworthy desire not to admit the defeat of his cherished principal his abdication left the party without resolute leadership at a critical moment Madison and Gallatin tried to persuade their party associates to continue the embargo until June and then if concessions were not forthcoming to declare war but they were powerless to hold the Republican majority together on this program setting aside the embargo and returning to the earlier policy of non-intercourse Congress adopted a measure which excluded all English and French vessels and imports but which authorized the president to renew trade with either country if it should mend its ways March 1809 with much bitterness of spirit Thomas Jefferson signed the bill which ended his great experiment Martha Jefferson once said of her father that he never gave up a friend or an opinion a few months before his death he alluded to the embargo with a pathetic insistence of old age as a measure which persevered in a little longer would have affected its object completely end of chapter 8 chapter 9 of Jefferson and his colleagues by Alan Johnson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 9 the last phase of peaceable coercion three days after Jefferson gave his consent to the repeal of the embargo the presidency passed in succession to the second of the Virginia dynasty it was not an impressive figure that stood beside Jefferson and faced the great crowd gathered in the new hall of representatives at the Capitol James Madison was a pale, extremely nervous and obviously unhappy person on this occasion for a masterful character this would have been the day of days from Madison it was a fearful ordeal which sapped every ounce of energy he trembled violently as he began to speak and his voice was almost inaudible those who could not hear him but who afterward read the inaugural address doubtless understood themselves with the reflection that they had not missed much the new president indeed had nothing new to say no new policy to advocate he could only repeat the old platitudes about preferring amicable discussion and reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an appeal to arms evidently no strong assertion of national rights was to be expected from this plain homespun president at the inaugural ball however people forgot their president in admiration of the president's wife Dolly Madison she looked a queen Mrs. Margaret Bayard Smith she had on a pale buff colored velvet made plain with a very long train but not the least trimming beautiful pearl necklace earrings and bracelets her headdress was a turban of the same colored velvet and white satin from Paris with two superb plumes the bird of paradise feathers it would be absolutely impossible for anyone to behave with more perfect propriety than she did unassuming dignity sweetness, grace Madison on the contrary continued this same warm hearted observer seemed spiritless and exhausted while he was standing by me I said I wish with all my heart I had a little bit of seat to offer you I wish so too said he with a most woe begone face and looking as if he could hardly stand the managers came up to ask him to stay to supper he assented and turning to me but I would much rather be in bed he said quite different was Mr. Jefferson on this occasion he seemed to be in high spirits and his countenance beamed with a benevolent joy it seemed to this ardent admirer that every demonstration of respect to Mr. M gave Mr. J more pleasure than if paid to himself no wonder that Mr. Jefferson was in good spirits was he not now free from all the anxieties and worries of politics already he was counting on retiring to the Elysium of domestic affections and the irresponsible direction of his own affairs a week later he set out for Monticello on horseback never again to set foot in the city which had as his strength and his humiliation the election of Madison had disclosed wide rifts in his party Monroe had lent himself to the designs of John Randolph and had entered the lists of candidates for the presidency and vice president Clinton had also been put forward by other malcontents it was this division in the ranks of the opposition which had ensured Madison's election but factional differences pursued Madison into the White House even in the choice of his official family he was forced to consider the preferences of politicians whom he despised for when he would have appointed Gallatin Secretary of State he found Giles of Virginia and Samuel Smith of Maryland bent upon defeating the nomination but a Smith faction was indeed too influential to be ignored with a right face Madison stooped to a bargain which left Gallatin at the head of the treasury but which settled his administration with Robert Smith who proved to be quite unequal to the exacting duties of the department of state the administration began with what appeared to be a great diplomatic triumph in April the president issued a proclamation announcing that the British orders in council would be withdrawn on the 10th of June after which date commerce with Great Britain might be renewed in the newspapers appeared with this welcome proclamation a note drafted by the British minister Erskine expressing the confident hope that all differences between the two countries would be adjusted by a special envoy as majesty had determined to send to the United States the republican press was jubilant at last the sage of Monticella was vindicated it may be boldly alleged said the national intelligentser that the revocation of the British orders is attributable to the embargo forgotten now were all the grievances against Great Britain every shipping port awoke to new life merchants hastened to consign the merchandise long stored in their warehouses ship masters sent out runners for crews and ships were soon winging their way out into the open sea for three months American vessels crossed the ocean unmolested and then came the bitter the incomprehensible news that Erskine's arrangement had been repudiated and the overzealous diplomat recall the one brief moment of triumph in Madison's administration had passed slowly and painfully the public learned the truth Erskine had exceeded his instructions canning had not been averse to concessions it is true but he had named as an indispensable condition of any concession that the United States should bind itself to exclude French ships of war from its ports instead of holding to the letter of his instructions that allowed himself to be governed by the spirit of concession and had ignored the essential prerequisite nothing remained but to renew the non intercourse act against Great Britain this the president did by proclamation on August 9 1809 and the country settled back into commercial inactivity another scarcely less feudal chapter in diplomacy began with the arrival of Francis James Jackson as British minister in September those who knew this Britain were justified in concluding that conciliation had no important place in the program of the foreign office for it was he who two years before had conducted those negotiations with Denmark which culminated in the bombardment and destruction of Copenhagen it is rather a prevailing notion here wrote Pinkney from London that this gentleman's conduct will not and cannot be what it is and this impression was so fully shared by Madison that he would not hasten his departure from Montpelier but left Jackson to his own devices at the capital for a full month this interval of enforced inactivity had one unhappy consequence not finding employment for all his idle hours Jackson said himself to read the correspondence of his predecessor and from that he drew the conclusion that Erskine was a greater fool than he had thought possible and that the American government had been allowed to use language of which every third word was a declaration of war the further he read the greater his ire so that when the president arrived in Washington October 1 Jackson was fully resolved to let the American government know what Jackson was to do to a British minister with most of the sovereigns of Europe though neither the president nor Gallatin to whose mature judgment he constantly turned believed that Jackson had any proposals to make they were willing to let Robert Smith carry on informal conversations with him it speedily appeared that so far from making overtures Jackson was disposed to await proposals the president then instructed the secretary of state to announce that further discussions would be in the written form and henceforth himself took direct charge of negotiations the exchange of letters which followed reveals Madison at his best is rapier like thrust soon pierced even the thick hide of this conceited Englishman the stupid Smith who signed these letters appeared to be no mean adversary after all in one of his rejoinders the British minister yielded to a flash of temper and insinuated as canning in his instructions had done that the American government had known Erskine's instructions and had encouraged him to set them aside had connived in short of his wrongdoing such insinuations replied Madison sharply are inadmissible in the intercourse of a foreign minister with a government that understands what it owes itself you will find that in my correspondence with you wrote Jackson angrily 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 a fatal outburst of temper which delivered the writer into the hands of his adversary sir wrote the president still using the pen of his docile secretary finding that you have used a language which cannot be understood but as reiterating and even aggravating the same gross insinuation that only remains in order to preclude opportunities which are thus abused to inform you that no further communications will be received from you therewith terminated the American mission of Francis James Jackson following this diplomatic episode Congress Wayne sought a way of escape from the consequences of total non intercourse it finally enacted a bill known as Macon's bill number two which in a sense reverse the formal policy since it left commerce everywhere free and authorized the president in case either great Britain or France shall before the third day of March next so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States to cut off trade with the nation which continued to offend the act thus gave the president an immense discretionary power which might bring the country face to face with war it was the last act in that extraordinary series of restrictive measures which began with the non intercourse active 1806 policy of peaceful coercion entered on its last phase and now once again the shadow of the course again fell across the seas with the unerring shrewdness of an intellect never vexed by ethical considerations Napoleon announced that he would meet the desires of the American government I'm authorized to declare to you sir wrote the Duke de Cador minister of foreign affairs to Armstrong that the decrees of Berlin and Milan are revoked and that after November 1 they will cease to have effect it being understood that in consequence of this declaration the English are to 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 you have just communicated the Megan act caused their rights to be respected by the English it might be supposed that President Madison knowing with whom he had to deal would have hesitated to accept Napoleon's actions at their face value yet indeed no assurances beyond Cador's letter that the French decrees have been repealed but he could not let slip this opportunity to force Great Britain's hand it seemed to be a last chance to test the effectiveness of peaceable coercion on November 2 1810 he issued the momentous proclamation which eventually made Great Britain rather than France the object of attack it has been officially made known to this government said the president the edicts of France have been so revoked as that they ceased on the first day of the present month to violate the neutral commerce of the United States thereupon the secretary of the treasury instructed collectors of customs that commercial intercourse with Great Britain would be suspended after the second of February of the following year the next three months were full of painful experiences for President Madison he waited and waited in vain for authentic news of the formal repeal of the French decrees and while he waited he was distressed and amazed to learn that American vessels were still being confiscated in French ports in the midst of these uncertainties occurred the biennial congressional elections the outcome of which only deepened his perplexities nearly one half of those who sat in the existing congress failed every election yet by a vicious custom the new house which presumably reflected the popular mood in 1810 would not meet for 13 months while the old discredited congress weirdly dragged out its existence in a last session vigorous presidential leadership at his drew might have saved the expiring congress from the reproach of incapacity but such leadership was not to be expected from James Madison so it was that the president's message to this moribund congress was simply our council of prudence and patience he pointed out to be sure the uncertainties of the situation but it did not summon congress certainly to face the alternatives it alluded mildly to the need of a continuance of our defensive and precautionary arrangements and suggested further organization and training of the militia it contemplated with satisfaction the improvement of a quantity and quality of the output of cannon and small arms it set the seal of the president's approval upon the new military academy but nowhere did it sound a trumpet call to real preparedness even to these mild suggestions congress responded indifferently it slightly increased the naval appropriations but it actually reduced the appropriations for the army and it adjourned without acting on the bill authorizing the president to enroll 50,000 volunteers personal animosity and prejudice combined to defeat the proposals of the secretary of the treasury a bill to recharge the national bank which Gallatin regarded as an indispensable fiscal agent was defeated and a bill providing for a general increase of duties on imports to meet the deficit was laid aside congress would authorize a loan $1 million but no new taxes only one bill was enacted which could be said to sustain the president's policy that reviving certain parts of the non intercourse active 1809 against Great Britain with this last helpless gasp 11th congress expired the defeat of measures which the administration had made its own amounted to a vote of no confidence under similar circumstances an English ministry would have either resigned or tested the sentiment of the country but the American executive possesses no such means of appealing immediately and directly to the electorate president and congress must live out their allotted terms of office even though their antagonism paralyzes the operation of government what then could be done to restore confidence in the administration of president Madison and to establish a modus vivendi between executive and legislative it seemed to the secretary of treasury smarting under the defeat of his bank bill that he had become a burden to the administration an obstacle in the way of cordial cooperation between the branches of the federal government the factions which had defeated his appointment to the department of state seemed bent upon discrediting him and his policies I clearly perceive he wrote to the president that my continuing a member of the president administration is no longer of any public utility invigorates the opposition against yourself and must necessarily be attended with an increased loss of reputation by myself under those impressions not without reluctance and after perhaps hesitating too long in the hopes of a favorable change I beg leave to tend to my resignation this timely letter probably saved the administration not for an instant could the president consider sacrificing the man who for ten years had been the main state of republican power Madison acted with unwanted promptitude he refused to accept Gallatin's resignation and determined to break once for all with the faction which had hounded Gallatin from the day of his appointment and which had foisted upon the president an unwelcome secretary of state not Gallatin but Robert Smith should go still more surprising was Madison's quick decision to name Monroe as Smith's successor if he could be prevailed upon to accept both Virginians understood the deeper personal and political significance of this appointment Madison sought an alliance with a faction which had challenged his administrative policy Monroe inferred that no opposition would be interposed to his eventual elevation to the presidency when Madison should retire what neither for the moment understood was the effect which the appointment would have upon the foreign policy of the administration Monroe hesitated for he and his friends have been open critics of the president's pro-french policy was the new secretary of state to be bound by this policy or was the president prepared to reverse his course and effect a reconciliation with England these very natural misgivings the president brushed aside by assuring Monroe's friends that he was very hopeful of settling all differences with both France and England certainly he had in no wise committed himself to a course which would prevent a renewal of negotiation with England he had always desired a cordial accommodation thus reassured Monroe accepted the invitation never once doubting that he would reverse the policy of the administration achieve a diplomatic triumph and so appear logical successor to president Madison had the new secretary of state known the instructions which the British foreign office was drafting at this moment for Mr. Augustus J. Foster Jackson successor he would have been less sanguine the very gentleman like young man as Jackson called him was told to make some slight concessions to American sentiment he might make proper amends for the Chesapeake affair but on the crucial matter of the French decrees he was bitten to hold rigidly to the organizing position taken by the foreign office from the beginning that the president was mistaken in thinking that they had been repealed the British government could not modify its orders in council on unsubstantiated rumors that the offensive French decrees have been revoked secretly Foster was informed that the ministry was prepared to retaliate if the American government persisted in shutting out British importations no one in the ministry or for that matter in the British Isles seems to believe that the moment had come for concession and not retaliation if peaceful relations were to continue it was most unfortunate that while Foster was on his way to the United States British cruises would have renewed the blockade of New York to forgets the blampers in that courier lay off Sandy Hook and resumed the old irritating practice of holding up American vessels and searching them for deserters in the existing state of American feeling with the Chesapeake outrage still unredressed the behavior of the British commanders was as perilous as walking through a powder magazine with a live coal the American Navy had suffered severely from Jefferson's chased reformation but it had not lost its fighting spirit officers who had served in the war with Tripoli prayed for a fair chance to avenge the Chesapeake and the secretary of the Navy had abetted the spirit in his orders to Commodore John Rogers who was patrolling the coast with us caught in a frigates in sloops what has been perpetrated Rogers was warned 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 duping spirit of the nation under the circumstances that would have been little short of a miracle if an explosion had not occurred yet for a year Rogers sailed up and down the coast without encountering the British frigates on May 16, 1811 however Rogers and his frigate the president cited a suspicious vessel some 50 miles off Cape Henry from her general appearance he judged her to be a man of war and probably the guerilla he decided to approach her he relates in order to ascertain whether a certain semen alleged to have been impressed was aboard but the vessel made off and he gave chase by dusk the two ships were abreast exactly what then happened will probably never be known but all accounts agreed that a shot was fired and that a general engagement followed within 15 minutes the strange vessel was disabled by the guns of the president with nine of her crew dead and 23 wounded then to his intense disappointment Rogers learned that his adversary was not the guerilla but the British sleep of war little belt a craft greatly inferior to his own however little of this one-sided seafront may have salved the pride of the American Navy it gave huge satisfaction to the general public the Chesapeake was avenged when Foster disembarked he found little interest in the reparations he had been prepared to settle grievance in a good-natured way he now felt himself obliged to demand explanations the blue was on the other leg and the American public lost none of the humor of the situation eventually he offered to disavow Admiral Barclay's act to restore the semen taken from the Chesapeake and to compensate them and their families in the course of time the two unfortunates who had survived were brought from their prison at Halifax and restored to the decks of the but as for the little belt Foster had to rest content with the findings of an American court of inquiry which held that the British sleep had fired the first shot as yet there were invisible signs that Monroe had affected a change in the foreign policy of the administration though he had given the president a momentary advantage over the opposition another crisis was fast approaching when Congress met a month earlier than usual pursuant to the call of the president the leadership passed from the administration to a group of all faith and commercial restrictions as a weapon of defense against foreign aggression into chapter nine