opponents were disposed to take his part. He was acquitted for want of proof; and for the same reason he was again acquitted when tried for undertaking to invade the Spanish territories.

Difficul

Frowning high above all these domestic dangers ties with were those from abroad which sank in one direcGreat tion only to rise the more threateningly in another. Britain. Great Britain was now extending impressment even to the American navy, whose vessels were once and again plundered of their seamen by British men-of-war. Another subject on which Great Britain set herself against the claims of the United States, was the neutral trade, of which the latter nation engrossed a large and constantly increasing share during the European wars. France was equally adverse to American commerce. If Great Britain led off by declaring the French ports, from Brest to the Elbe, closed to American as to all other shipping, (May 16, 1806,) France retorted by the Berlin decree, so called because issued from Prussia, prohibiting any commerce with Great Britain, (November 21.) That power immediately forbade the coasting trade between one port and another in the possession of her enemies, (January 7, 1807.) Not satisfied with this, she went on to forbid all trade whatsoever with France and her allies, except on payment of a tribute to Great Britain, each vessel to pay in proportion to its cargo, (November 11.) Then followed the Milan decree of Napoleon, prohibiting all trade whatsoever with Great Britain, and declaring such vessels as paid the recently demanded tribute to be lawful prizes to the French marine, (December 17.)

Affair of

The heaviest blow was struck by Great Britain. the Ches- The American frigate Chesapeake, sailing from apeake. Hampton Roads, was hailed off the capes of Chesapeake Bay by the British frigate Leopard, the captain of

which demanded to search the Chesapeake for deserters. Captain Barron, the commander of the Chesapeake, refused; whereupon the Leopard opened fire. As Barron and his crew were totally unprepared for action, they fired but a single gun, to save their honor; then, having lost several men, struck their flag. The British commander took those of whom he was in search, three of the four being Americans, and left the Chesapeake to make her way back dishonored, (June 22, 1807.) The president issued a proclamation, ordering British men-of-war from the waters of the United States. Instructions were sent to the American envoys at London, directing them, not merely to seek reparation for the wrong that had been done, but to obtain the renunciation of the pretensions to a right of search and of impressment, from which the wrong had sprung. The British government recognized their responsibility, by sending a special minister to settle the difficulty at Washington. It was four years, however, before the desired reparation was procured, (1811.) The desired renunciation was never made. One can scarcely credit his eyes, when he reads that the affair of the Chesapeake was made a party point. But so it was. friends of Great Britain, the capitalists and commercial classes, generally, murmured at the course of their government, as too decided, too French, they sometimes called it; as if resistance to Great Britain were subordination to France.

tion

war.

The

The ad- "In the present maniac state of Europe," wrote ministra- Jefferson, a little later, "I should not estimate the against point of honor by the ordinary scale. I believe we shall, on the contrary, have credit with the world for having made the avoidance of being engaged in the present unexampled war our first object." To this end, the president hit upon the most self-denying of plans. The

aggressions of the European powers were directed against the rights of owners and of crews. That these might be secured, the president recommended, and Congress adopted, an embargo upon all United States vessels, and upon all foreign vessels with cargoes shipped after the passage of the act in United States ports, (December 22, 1807). In other words, as commerce led to injuries from foreign nations, commerce was to be abandoned. France, on whose side the violent federalists declared the embargo to be, answered by a decree of Napoleon's from Bayonne, ordering the confiscation of all American vessels in French ports, (April 17, 1808.) Great Britain soon after made her response, by an order prohibiting the exportation of American produce, whether paying tribute or not, to the European continent, (December 21.) So ineffective abroad, so productive of discontent at home, even amongst the supporters of the administration, did the embargo prove, that it was repealed, (March, 1809.) But its place was taken by non-intercourse or non-importation acts as restrictive as the embargo, so far as the designated nations were concerned, but leaving free the trade with other countries. The administration, now Madison's, amused itself with suspending the restrictions, in favor first of Great Britain, (1809,) and then of France, (1810,) hoping to induce those powers to reciprocate the compliment by a suspension of their own aggressive orders. There was a show of doing so. Napoleon had recently issued a decree from Rambouillet, ordering the sale of more than a hundred American vessels as condemned prizes, (March 23, 1810.) But on the news from America, eager to involve another nation in hostilities, he intimated his readiness to retract the decrees of which the United States complained. But not, he made it known, except on one of two conditions; either the British orders must be recalled, or else, if they

were not, the United States must enforce their claims, To this Great Britain replied, that when the French decrees were actually, and not conditionally, revoked, her orders should be revoked likewise. It was but a mockery on both sides; and America, mortified, but not yet enlight、 ened, returned to her prohibitions. They were scoffed at by her own people.

Oppo

sition.

It is difficult to catch the hue and cry, on the part of the opposition, against the embargo and the subsequent acts. Whatever discontent, whatever nullification had been expressed by the republicans against the war measures of Adams, was rivalled, if not outrivalled, by the federalists against the so-called peace measures of Jefferson and Madison. Town meetings, state legislatures, even the courts in some places, declared against the constitutionality of the embargo. The federalists of Massachusetts were charged with the design of dissolving the Union. It was not their intention, but their language had warranted its being imputed to them. "Choose, then, fellow-citizens," their legislature exclaimed, " between the condition of a free state, possessing its equal weight and influence in the general government, or that of a colony, free in name, but in fact enslaved by sister states."

Indian

While affairs, domestic and foreign, were thus hostili- agitated, there came a fresh outbreak of Indian ties. hostilities. It was under Jefferson that the plan of removing the Indians westward was begun, (1804,) but the first effect was disastrous. Two chiefs of the Shawanoes, Tecumseh and his twin brother, styled the Prophet, for some time settled on the Tippecanoe River, in the Indiana Territory, had set themselves at the head of a sort of confederacy among the western races. One great point was to secure the title of the Indians, as a whole, to the lands of which the whites were getting possession, by

bargains with individuals or with individual tribes. Another was the prohibition of the ardent spirits with which the traders were destroying the Indians, body and soul. But to support these principles, the confederates, or their leaders, relied upon treachery and terror, superstition and blasphemy. The governor of Indiana Territory, William H. Harrison, marched against them with a force of a few hundred. Tecumseh was absent at the time, but his brother and his confederates were overtaken. To the last, they professed peace, then fell upon the camp of the Americans. They were expected, however, and were routed, (November 7, 1811.)

Louisi

The steel was glistening upon the southern fronana and tier. An insurrection against the Spanish auFlorida. thority in West Florida had been followed by a presidential proclamation declaring the territory on the east bank of the Mississippi a portion of Louisiana, (October, 1810.) Soon after, (January, 1811,) Congress authorized the acquisition of the entire province of Florida, provided either that Spain consented to it, or that any other power attempted to take possession. The next year, Louisiana, with a large portion of Florida, according to the Spanish claim, was admitted a state, (April 8, 1812.) Another slice of Florida was annexed to the Mississippi Territory, while an insurrection within the remaining Florida limits was stimulated by an American functionary; a demonstration being made against St. Augustine. This was promptly disavowed by the government at Washington; but the troops were not withdrawn until the following year, nor then entirely, Mobile being retained by way of compensation for what was surrendered, (1813.)

It was plain that war was becoming popular in the United States. As for that, it had long been so; when Washington opposed it, he was abused; when Adams