Great Britain and the American Civil War | Page 5

governments. First America contested the
British theory of "once a citizen always a citizen[5]"; second, America
denied any right whatever to a foreign naval vessel in time of peace to
stop and search a vessel lawfully flying the American flag. The right of
search in time of war, that is, a belligerent right of search, America
never denied, but there was both then and later much public confusion

in both countries as to the question at issue since, once at war, Great
Britain frequently exercised a legal belligerent right of search and
followed it up by the seizure of sailors alleged to be British subjects.
Nor were British naval captains especially careful to make sure that no
American-born sailors were included in their impressment seizures, and
as the accounts spread of victim after victim, the American irritation
steadily increased. True, France was also an offender, but as the weaker
naval power her offence was lost sight of in view of the, literally,
thousands of bona fide Americans seized by Great Britain. Here, then,
was a third cause of irritation connected with impressment, though not
a point of governmental dispute as to right, for Great Britain professed
her earnest desire to restore promptly any American-born sailors whom
her naval officers had seized through error. In fact many such sailors
were soon liberated, but a large number either continued to serve on
British ships or to languish in British prisons until the end of the
Napoleonic Wars[6].
There were other, possibly greater, causes of the War of 1812, most of
them arising out of the conflicting interests of the chief maritime
neutral and the chief naval belligerent. The pacific presidential
administration of Jefferson sought by trade restrictions, using embargo
and non-intercourse acts, to bring pressure on both England and France,
hoping to force a better treatment of neutrals. The United States,
divided in sympathy between the belligerents, came near to disorder
and disruption at home, over the question of foreign policy. But
through all American factions there ran the feeling of growing
animosity to Great Britain because of impressment. At last, war was
declared by America in 1812 and though at the moment bitterly
opposed by one section, New England, that war later came to be
regarded as of great national value as one of the factors which welded
the discordant states into a national unity. Naturally also, the war once
ended, its commercial causes were quickly forgotten, whereas the
individual, personal offence involved in impressment and right of
search, with its insult to national pride, became a patriotic theme for
politicians and for the press. To deny, in fact, a British "right of search"
became a national point of honour, upon which no American statesman
would have dared to yield to British overtures.

In American eyes the War of 1812 appears as a "second war of
Independence" and also as of international importance in contesting an
unjust use by Britain of her control of the seas. Also, it is to be
remembered that no other war of importance was fought by America
until the Mexican War of 1846, and militant patriotism was thus
centred on the two wars fought against Great Britain. The
contemporary British view was that of a nation involved in a life and
death struggle with a great European enemy, irritated by what seemed
captious claims, developed to war, by a minor power[7]. To be sure
there were a few obstinate Tories in Britain who saw in the war the
opportunity of smashing at one blow Napoleon's dream of empire, and
the American "democratic system." The London Times urged the
government to "finish with Mr. Bonaparte and then deal with Mr.
Madison and democracy," arguing that it should be England's object to
subvert "the whole system of the Jeffersonian school." But this was not
the purpose of the British Government, nor would such a purpose have
been tolerated by the small but vigorous Whig minority in Parliament.
The peace of 1814, signed at Ghent, merely declared an end of the war,
quietly ignoring all the alleged causes of the conflict. Impressment was
not mentioned, but it was never again resorted to by Great Britain upon
American ships. But the principle of right of search in time of peace,
though for another object than impressment, was soon again asserted
by Great Britain and for forty years was a cause of constant irritation
and a source of danger in the relations of the two countries. Stirred by
philanthropic emotion Great Britain entered upon a world crusade for
the suppression of the African Slave Trade. All nations in principle
repudiated that trade and Britain made treaties with various maritime
powers giving mutual right of search to the naval vessels of each upon
the others' merchant vessels. The African Slave Trade was in fact