could be returned; and after being severely bruised by repeated broadsides, she was surrendered to the assailant. Her crew was mustered by British officers; the deserters were carried away, and the Chesapeake was left to pursue her voyage or return. The "vice-admiral's command had been obeyed. One of the deserters, who was a British subject, was hung at Halifax, and the three Americans were spared from the gallows only on the condition that they should re-enter the British service. The indignation of the American people was hot because of this outrage. The President issued a proclamation at the beginning of July, ordering all British armed vessels to leave the waters of the United States, and forbidding any to enter them until ample satisfaction should be given. A demand for redress was made upon the British government, when an envoy extraordinary was sent to Washington city to settle the difficulty. He was instructed to do nothing until the President's proclamation should be withdrawn. So the matter stood for more than four years, when, in 1811, the British government disavowed the act. Meanwhile Commodore Barron had been tried on a charge of neglect of duty in not being prepared for action, found guilty, and suspended from service for five years without pay or emolument. During the year 1807, American genius and enterprise achieved a great triumph in science and art, by the successful and permanent establishment of navigation by the power of steam. This was accomplished by Robert Fulton and Chancellor Livingston. At the beginning of September, 1807, the Clermont, the first steamboat built by these gentlemen, made a voyage from New York to Albany, one hundred and sixty miles, in thirty-six hours, against wind and tide; and from that time until now navigation by steam, for travel and commerce, has been steadily increasing in volume and perfection, until such vessels may now be seen on every ocean and in almost every harbor of the globe, even among the ice-pack of polar seas. This was the second of the great and beneficent achievements which have distinguished American inventors during the last eighty years. The cotton-gin, invented by Eli Whitney, was the first; an implement that can do the work of a thousand persons in cleaning cotton-wool of the seeds. That machine has been one of the most important aids in the accumulation of our national wealth. Another heavy blow was struck at American commerce late in 1807. A British order in council issued on the 11th of November, forbade all neutral nations to trade with France or her allies, except upon the payment of a tribute to Great Britain. Napoleon retaliated by issuing a decree at Milan, in Italy, on the 17th of December, forbidding all trade with England and CHAP. VI. A COMMERCIAL EMBARGO. 1189 her colonies; and authorizing the confiscation of any vessel found in his ports which had submitted to English search, or paid the tribute exacted. These edicts almost stopped the commercial operations of the civilized world. American foreign commerce was annihilated. The President had called Congress together at an earlier day (October 25) than usual, to consider the critical state of public affairs; and in a confidential message, he recommended that body to pass an act levying a commercial embargo. Such an act was passed on the 22d of December, 1807, by which all American and foreign vessels in our ports were detained and all American vessels abroad were ordered home immediately, that the seamen might be trained for the impending war in defence of sacred rights. This act caused widespread distress in commercial communities, and the firmness of the government and the patriotism of the people were severely tried for more than a year, under aggravated insults by the British government which exacted tribute in a form more odious than that of the North African robbers. In the spring of 1808, the British Parliament, with an air of condescension, passed an act permitting Americans to trade with France and her dependencies, on the condition that vessels engaged in such trade should first enter some British port, pay a transit duty, and take out a license. In other words, Great Britain said to the United States, with as much insolence as the Dey of Algiers, "Pay me tribute, and my cruisers (or corsairs) will be instructed not to plunder you.” The embargo was denounced by the opposition with great vehemence as an unwise provocative of war. Josiah Quincy, the leader of the Federalists in Congress, said in debate: "Let us once declare to the world that, before our embargo policy be abandoned, the French decrees and the British orders in council must be revoked, and we league against us whatever spirit of honor and pride exists in both those nations. No nation will be easily brought to acknowledge such a dependence on another as to be made to abandon, by a withholding of intercourse, a settled line of policy.' It drew from William Cullen Bryant the poet, then a lad only thirteen years of age, a sharp, satirical poem. It was called a "Terrapin policy "-the policy”—the policy that would shut up the nation in its own shell-and it was caricatured as such by the pencil of Jarvis and the burin of Dr. Anderson. The wise words of Quincy were justified when he said: "A nation mistakes its relative importance and consequence in thinking that its countenance, or its intercourse, or its existence, is all important to the rest of mankind." The embargo failed to obtain from France or Great Britain the slightest acknowledgment of American rights, and it was repealed on the first day of March, 1809-three days before Mr. Jefferson left the Presidential chair to make room for James Madison, who had been elected to succeed him as chief magistrate of the republic. On the same day Congress passed an act forbidding all commercial intercourse with France and Great Britain until the "orders in council" and the "decrees" should be repealed. In the debates on the embargo, the most violent attacks upon the administration and its supporters were sometimes indulged in, upon the floor of Congress. In this course, Barent Gardinier, of New York, was most conspicuous, making sweeping charges of corruption. His violence and abuse was such that severe personal allusion to Gardinier was elicited from Campbell of Tennessee. Gardinier challenged him to mortal combat. They met at Bladensburg, when Gardinier was severely wounded in the side, and was borne, fainting, from the field. He soon recovered; and when he reappeared in the House, he was as violent as ever. It was at this troublous period in our history that Mr. Madison of Virginia began his administration of eight years as President of the republic, CHAP. VI. INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT MADISON. 1191 with George Clinton of New York as Vice-President. The general aspect of national affairs then was fairly drawn (though somewhat highly-colored) in a report of a committee of the Massachusetts legislature in January, 1809, which said: "Our agriculture is discouraged; the fisheries abandoned; navigation forbidden; our commerce at home restrained, if not annihilated; our commerce abroad cut off; our navy sold, dismantled, or degraded to the service of cutters or gun-boats; the revenue extinguished; the course of justice interrupted; and the nation weakened by internal animosities and. divisions, at the moment when it is unnecessarily and improvidently exposed to war with Great Britain, France, and Spain." It was believed that the new President would perpetuate the policy of Jefferson; but when, dressed in a suit of plain black cloth, he modestly pronounced his inaugural address before a multitude of eager spectators, on the 4th of March, 1809, the tone and temper of that speech fell like oil upon troubled waters. His most placable political enemies who heard him, and those who read the address, could not refrain from uttering words of approbation ; and the whole nation entertained hopes that his measures might change the gloomy aspect of public affairs. He had able constitutional advisers in Robert Smith as Secretary of State; Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury; William Eustis, Secretary of War; Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy, and Cæsar Rodney, Attorney-General. There was a powerful party in the nation hostile to his political creed and opposed to war with Great Britain, which then seemed to be an event in the near future. JAMES MADISON. At the beginning of his administration, Madison was assured by the British minister at Washington (Mr. Erskine) that such portions of the orders in council as affected the United States would be repealed by the 10th of June; and that a special envoy would be sent by his government to adjust all matters in dispute. Regarding these assurances as official, the event seemed like a ray of sunlight among the tempestuous clouds. The President issued a proclamation on the 19th of April (1809) permitting a renewal of commercial intercourse with Great Britain from that day; but the British government disavowed Erskine's act, and in August the President, by proclamation, renewed the restrictions. This event produced intense excitement throughout our country; and had the President then proclaimed war against Great Britain, it would undoubtedly have been a popular measure. In the spring of 1810 (March 23) Bonaparte issued a decree at Rambouillet more destructive in its consequences to American commerce than any measure yet employed. It declared forfeit every American vessel which had entered French ports since March 1, or that might thereafter enter; and authorized the sale of the same together with their cargoes, and the proceeds to be placed in the French treasury. Under this decree many American vessels were lost, for which even partial remuneration was not obtained until almost thirty years afterward. It was justified by Bonaparte by the plea that it was made in retaliation for the American decree of non-intercourse. In May following, Congress offered to resume commercial intercourse with either France or England, or both, on condition that they should repeal their obnoxious "orders" and "decrees" before the 3d of March, 1811. Napoleon, a man of expediency and not of principle, feigned compliance. He assured our government that the repeal of the decrees should take effect in November following. On this assurance the President proclaimed a resumption of commercial intercourse with France. The monarch intended to break the solemn promise at any moment when policy should so dictate. American vessels were seized by French cruisers and confiscated as freely as ever. In March, 1811, Napoleon declared the decrees of Berlin and Milan to be a part of the fundamental laws of the empire; and a new envoy sent from France gave official notice to our government, that no remuneration would be allowed for property seized and confiscated. Great Britain not only continued her hostile orders, but sent ships-of-war to cruise off the principal ports of the United States to intercept American merchant-vessels and send them to England as lawful prizes. In this business the Little Belt, Captain Bingham, a British sloop-of-war, was engaged in the spring of 1811 off the coast of Virginia, where she was met on the 16th of April by the American frigate President, Captain Ludlow, bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Rodgers. The latter hailed the commander of the sloop, asking-“ What ship is that?" and received a cannonshot in reply. 'Equally determined," said Rodgers in his report, "not to be the aggressor, or suffer the flag of my country to be insulted with impunity, I gave a general order to fire." After a very brief action. Captain |