which in its turn employs the sword; and it requires a vigilant eye and a well-nerved arm to suppress the virtue, intellect, and moral rights of the subject. Here the foundation of the Government rests upon the affections, loyalty, and admiration of all classes, the rich, the poor, the enlightened, and the illiterate; whilst each citizen holds himself on the alert to catch the slightest breath of treason that may be wafted over the land, that he who utters it may receive the condemnation of the law.

1807.

The exigencies of the times, the impending difficulties with England and France, and the embarrassments likely to gather around the Executive, were the causes of the convocation of Congress, at an earlier day than usual, by the President of the United States.

The President submitted his Message on the 27th of October; Jefferson, with his characteristic prudence and caution, makes no specific recommendation in this Message. He called the attention of Congress to the effort which had been made by our Ministers to effect a liberal and honorable treaty with the English Ministers; that the commissioners, after failing in their purpose to obtain arrangements within the limits of their instructions, signed such as could be obtained, and transmitted them for consideration. The treaty fell so far below every right that might have been expected, that the President decided at once not to submit it to the Senate; he had received it but the day before Congress adjourned from the hands of Mr. Erskine, the British Minister. The President was much censured for rejecting the treaty without sending it to the Senate; the Federal party were of course loud in their clamor against him, and it was much regretted by the commercial community. Yet, upon reflection, it would seem that Jefferson did right; his object was to prolong the negotiation. The treaty had the insuperable objections of containing no provision upon the subject of impressment, but was accompanied by a note from the British Minister, reserving to his Government the right of releasing itself from the stipulations in favor of neutral rights, if the United States submitted to the Berlin decree or other invasion of those rights by France. The treaty was no better than that negotiated by Jay, and the President could not have done otherwise than reject it. It was simply a matter of discretion and right which he had, to submit the treaty to the Senate or not. This course had an injurious impression upon the Bri

tish Government, as indicative of a disposition to prolong the existing difficulties. The matters in controversy were referred back to the Ministers. "On this new reference to amicable discussion, we were reposing in confidence, when, on the 22d day of June last, by a formal order from the British Admiral, the frigate Chesapeake, leaving her port for distant service, was attacked by one of those vessels which had been lying in our harbors under the indulgences of hospitality, was disabled from proceeding, and had several of her crew killed."*

As soon as the news of the capture of the Chesapeake reached the Executive ear, he ordered, by proclamation, our harbors and waters to be closed to all British armed vessels; an armed vessel of the United States was dispatched with instructions to our Ministers to call on the Government at London for the satisfaction required by such an outrage.

Canning, who entered the British Ministry on the death of Fox as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, disavowed the act in reference to the Chesapeake, tendered reparation, and issued an order recalling Berkeley from his command.†

Thus far the prospects of a speedy adjustment of our dif ficulties wore a smiling aspect, though England refused to grant that which a just and liberal policy demanded; and when the question of impressment was brought up in connection with the outrage upon the Chesapeake, we were repulsed for endeavoring to connect the two questions; the former they considered an unquestionable British right and would not negotiate upon it, the latter they would make reparation

for.

The President, satisfied that he was right, would not abate one jot or tittle of the right to stop the impressment of our citizens. The English Government, with much assumption and in the very face of international as well as moral right, issued its proclamation, calling on all British mariners employed in the service of foreign nations to return home, and all commanders of ships of war were authorized to seize and bring away from foreign merchant-vessels all British mariners; all who were found serving on foreign ships of war were to be demanded, and if not returned, the commanders of vessels were to report to the British Minister resident at

* Message of October 27th, 1807.

† Amer. State Papers, vol. vi., and Cor. of Monroe and Pinckney.

1807.

the Court of the nation whose flag floated over the refusing ship. This proclamation was justly objected to by Monroe; yet he received the repulsive reply that it was in obedience to the established law of England.

Monroe came home, leaving Pinckney in London as resident Minister. Previous to his departure, the British Minister had made a final reply to the proposition to open negotiations upon the basis of the treaty which Jefferson had rejected. Canning protested against the course the President had pursued with the late treaty, which had been signed by the contracting parties and sent to Washington for ratification. He would not proceed with the negotiation upon the basis of the treaty which had been rejected.*

Thus was wasted upon the haughty arrogance of England every fair and honorable effort to avert the war which followed. The peaceful relations which ought to have existed were interrupted by the domineering course of that Government from whom we had wrenched our liberties, but who appeared unwilling to extend to us those principles of high national right which belonged to us as a nation; and whilst sternly refusing the simple acknowledgment of rights inseparable from American liberty, little did the British cabinet think they were trying to extinguish those principles of civil liberty which, though they would not recognize as even true or just, were soon destined not only to a world-wide homage, but to an immortal vitality. Not only will the principles of free government exist as long as man will hold his habitation on earth, but those principles of international right, rescued from the iron hand of England, will flourish over the earth in undying youth long after the English throne shall have crumbled to the dust.

It was our aim, as it has been our policy, to steer clear of the entangling relations then existing in Europe. We were placed geographically beyond the reach or policy of European affairs; peace evidently was the great object with us; we were a young and vigorous people, designed at that time to till the soil, to build up a navy, and reap the bountiful results of a commerce that should ride over every sea, with a trade that should reach the ports of the world. Had not this war, which was fast approaching, been fastened upon us by the very first

Amer. State Papers, vol. vi.; Hild. Hist. of the U. S., second series, vol. ii. p. 684.

law of human nature, obstructed for a season the bright path we were pursuing to unbounded commercial wealth, the magnificent position we would have occupied would, at an earlier day, have dazzled the eyes of the world.

As it happened, we were forced to fight England or submit to degradations that would have ended only with our extinction as a nation. But I will not anticipate the periods and events which are yet before me, and are to be approached through the many trials and storms that gathered around the vessel of State.

The commerce of the country, and its financial operations, had been conducted with great skill and talent, and commands our especial admiration, when it is remembered how many interruptions and vexatious harassments beset it on every side.

When the President communicated his Annual Message of the 27th of October, 1807, the receipts of the Government had amounted to nearly sixteen millions of dollars, which, added to the five millions and a half in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, enabled the Government, after meeting its current demands and paying interest on its debts, to pay more than four millions of the funded debt.

These payments, with those made in the five years preceding, had extinguished twenty-five and a half millions of the funded debt, which was the whole that could be paid or purchased within the limits of the law and our contracts; and which left us in the Treasury eight millions and a half of dollars.*

It is painful to turn from the bright picture of commercial wealth and power, which would have rapidly flowed over the land, to the devastation which was spreading throughout the fairest portions of Europe. The Executive did all that prudence and skill could require to avert the storm from pouring a portion of its fury upon our own land, but it was in vain. The mind of man is astonished and distressed, as he looks across the troubled waters and beholds the dreadful carnage, and the destructive influences of European war and bloodshed, at this period. After the treaty of peace, which had been negotiated by Jay, our shipping interest received scarcely an impediment. European warfare had enriched our merchantmen beyond example. It was a national millennium, which

* Jefferson's Seventh Annual Message, Stat. Man., vol. i. p. 203.

continued until about the year 1804, when those violent flames of war, which the peace of Amiens had smothered for a season, broke forth with an inveteracy which shook the old thrones of Europe to their very centre. Britain alone seemed to stand unsubdued amidst the mighty conquest of Napoleon; and it was this man who made the first encroachments upon neutral rights. It was on the 21st of November, 1806, that Napoleon defeated the Prussians, and from the capital of their kingdom, from the very walls of the royal palace, issued his Berlin decree, declaring the British Isles in a state of blockade, subjecting every American or neutral vessel of other nations going or coming from those isles, to capture. It further declared merchandise coming from England or its Colonies, belonging to neutrals, to be lawful prize on land.

Our Minister at Paris regarded the Berlin decree as inapplicable to us, being grossly violative of the existing treaty between the United States and France. But, in 1807, General Armstrong was informed by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs of the condemnation of American vessels.

A bold and reckless spirit, utterly careless of right and justice, had occupied the cabinets of Europe, and that of England was not exempt from the violence of the fever. On the 11th of November, 1807, the well-remembered orders in council were issued, the object of which was to destroy all direct trade from America to any port of Europe at war with Great Britain, or which excluded the British flag; or if the merchants of America or other neutrals chose to pay exorbitant tribute to England, this haughty Leviathan of the deep allowed goods to be landed, required a heavy duty to be paid, and then permitted them to be reshipped to other parts of the globe.

Napoleon, increasing in wrath not only towards England, and wishing to destroy her commerce, but aiming a still more effective injury towards the United States, issued from the royal palace at Milan, on the 17th day of December, 1807, his famous Milan decree, which not only declared the British Islands in a state of blockade both by sea and land, but every ship sailing from English ports as good and lawful prize, and liable to capture by the French ships-of-war or privateers.*

This, in the language of the decree, done "only in just retaliation of the barbarous system adopted by England,

* American State Papers, vol. vi. p. 471.