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VI.]

Fefferson's Second Term, 1805-9.

173

He was re-elected President in 1804 by one hundred and sixty-two votes against fourteen cast for Pinckney, the Federalist candidate. Even New Hampshire and Massachusetts gave their votes to Jefferson. Connecticut and Delaware were the only States whose entire vote was given to the Federalists.

Two things attract the student's attention during Jefferson's second administration: Burr's conspiracy, and

Burr's con

trial.

the complicated relations with Great Britain and spiracy and France. Aaron Burr, the late Vice-President, was now thoroughly discredited politically by his doubledealing with both parties. Socially he was an outcast, for the killing of Hamilton in a duel had aroused the moral feelings of the people in the North and may be said to have put an end to duelling in that part of the country. He was in debt and without any means of support, as he could not resume his law practice in New York. He turned his uneasy eyes to the South-west and there saw a field of operations commensurate with his desires and his abilities. What Burr really had in At times he spoke of

mind has never been ascertained. becoming an Emperor with descent to his daughter Theodosia. At another time, the scheme seems to have been to separate the country west of the mountains from the older States on the Atlantic seaboard, and to found a new republic in the wilderness, with Burr, perhaps, as President. It is not unlikely that the real design of the plotters was never disclosed. At all events, the conspiracy ended in complete failure. Wilkinson, the American commander in Louisiana, at the last moment determined to be true to his country and false to his friend. Burr, finding his scheme hopeless, abandoned his comrades and tried to reach Florida through the sparsely settled country between the Mississippi and the peninsula of Florida. He was recognized in a frontier town and taken to Richmond for trial. The end was as ludicrous as any part of the scheme, for Chief

Justice John Marshall, who presided at the trial, ruled that an overt act of treason within the meaning of the Constitution must be first proved and then Burr connected with it. As Burr had never been able to levy war the prosecution for treason stopped at that point. Other prosecutions for misdemeanour shared a similar fate, and many years later Burr died quietly in New York at the advanced age of eighty years.

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Commercial relations, 17831804.

The renewal of the European contest brought in its train new vexations and hardships to the United States, and the War of 1812 was largely the result of the ill-feeling thus aroused. It will be well to go back a few years and to consider as one subject the commercial relations of the United States with foreign powers before 1812. The Americans seem to have expected to enjoy as an independent nation the same rights of trade which they had enjoyed as members of the British Empire. In this they were disappointed. The traffic which they especially desired was that with the English West India Islands. As those islands did not produce sufficient food for their own inhabitants the British government permitted a few commodities to be imported from the United States in British bottoms, provided payment were made in molasses or rum - payment in sugar being forbidden. The Americans moreover carried on a large and profitable trade with the French and Spanish West Indies - whose direct intercourse with the mother lands was now difficult, owing to the vigilance of the British cruisers. Landing these French and Spanish colonial goods on an American wharf and paying duty, the Americans would then place them again on shipboard — perhaps on the same vessel from which they had been unloaded - receive the greater part of the duty back in the shape of a "drawback," and sail away for a French or Spanish port. One of these vessels, the Polly, was seized and carried to Great Britain. Sir William Scott, better known perhaps by his later title of Lord Stowell, decided

VI.]

Commercial Relations, 1783-1804.

175

as Judge in the British Admiralty Court that voyages made under the above circumstances had been broken, and that the Polly and her cargo must be regarded as American. There was also in existence in those days an agreement between certain nations of Europe known as "The Rule of War of 1756." This was to the effect that no nation could enjoy in time of war a trade denied to it in time of peace. Under the operation of this rule, the Americans had no right to enter or leave French or Spanish West India ports. In the winter of 1793-94, the British West India cruisers seized many of the American vessels in the West Indies. President Washington protested, and by Jay's Treaty this matter was settled practically in favour of the Americans, though direct trade between the French Islands and France in American bottoms was prohibited. Under these favourable circumstances, American commerce flourished beyond measure. This was the condition of affairs

when the Peace of Amiens (1802) put a period to the first part of the great war. Great Britain entered on the second part of that struggle in a stern frame of mind. There was especially strong feeling against the continuance of the favours shown to the Americans. The English merchants protested, and Sir James Stephen, one of the ablest men in England, wrote a remarkable book, entitled War in Disguise, or the Frauds of the Neutral Flag. Under this pressure from the merchants, and provided with such a good statement of the British side of the case, Mr Pitt decided to enforce the "Rule of War of 1756." Sir William Scott also at about the same time changed his mind, and in the case of the Essex decided that much more was required to break a voyage than he had thought necessary at the time of the decision in the case of the Polly. Seizures were now made right and left, and war against the United States existed in all but name by the act of England. The reply of the United States was a Non-importation Act, to take effect after nine months - "a dose of chicken-broth," as one member

of Congress described it, "to be taken nine months hence." Before that time came, the matter had assumed a much more serious phase.

Great Britain and Napoleon, 1804-1806.

On October 21st, 1805, the English won the memorable victory off Cape Trafalgar. In the following December, Napoleon defeated England's allies in the great battle of Austerlitz. It was now evident that Napoleon could not attack Great Britain directly; but, on the other hand, neither Great Britain nor her allies could accomplish much against Napoleon on land. The two combatants thereupon seemed to have determined to starve one another into submission. In the carrying out of this policy, American ship-owners were the principal sufferers. The sympathies of the modern student of American history are somewhat divided as between the two belligerents. On the one hand, the Napoleonic earthquake made possible social and political reforms with which he is in full accord. On the other hand, the heroic resistance of the British people saved the New World as well as the Old World from the evils of a military despotism.

The first step in this three-cornered contest - for the United

"Fox's blockade and the Berlin Decree, 1806.

States soon became an active participant, was the issuing an Order in Council (May 16th, 1806), declaring a blockade of the coast of the Continent from Brest to the Elbe. This blockade was enforced only between the Seine and Ostend, and was repealed as to the German coasts on September 27th of the same year. It is sometimes known as Fox's blockade, and was an effective blockade between the two points above named. Napoleon began his part of the campaign of starvation by the Berlin Decree (November 21st, 1806). In this decree the British Islands are declared to be “in a state of blockade,” no commerce whatever being allowed with them. Furthermore, all trade in British merchandise was forbidden. On the first day

VI.]

The Belligerents and the Neutrals.

177

of the next month (December, 1806) a treaty was signed at London between the United States and Great Britain, which was designed to take the place of Jay's Treaty, soon to expire by limitation. This new treaty was very unfavourable to the United States. Among other things, it contained a provision that the "Rule of 1756" would not be regarded as in force in respect to goods upon which a two per cent. ad valorem duty had been paid in the United States provided it should not be returned as a drawback. There was no mention of impressment in the treaty, nor was indemnity for spoliations committed by the British provided for. It is difficult to see what reasons could have induced Monroe and Pinckney, the American negotiators, to sign such a treaty. It is even more difficult to discover why they should have consented to receive a supplementary note to the effect that the British government would not carry out this treaty unless America should resist the Berlin Decree. Jefferson consulted with a few Senators and sent the treaty back to England without submitting it to the Senate.

The British Orders in

Council.

On January 7th, 1807, Great Britain's answer to the Berlin Decree appeared in the form of an Order in Council closing the coasting trade of the Continent to neutrals — so far as ports under French control were concerned. Late in the same year (November 11th, 1807) another Order in Council was issued, the effect of which was to secure the condemnation of any American vessel seized while on a voyage to any European port closed to British vessels, unless such vessel had first touched at a British port. Napoleon, on his part, in the Milan Decree (December 17th, 1807) declared that any ship which had obeyed the above order was good prize if seized in any port under his control. At this time, Napoleon was the virtual master of all the continental ports except those of Sweden, Norway, and Turkey, and the British were supreme on the ocean. These orders and decrees, therefore, provided for the speedy annihilation of American shipping and

C. A.

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