The War with the United States | Page 4

as Napoleon tried to blockade the British Isles by
enforcing his Berlin Decree, just so long would the British Navy be
employed in blockading him and his allies. Such decisive action, of
course, brought neutral shipping more than ever under the power of the
British Navy, which commanded all the seaways to the ports of Europe.
It accentuated the differences between the American and British
governments, and threw the shadow of the coming storm over the
exposed colony of Canada.
Not having succeeded in his struggle for 'Sailors' Rights,' Jefferson now
took up the cudgels for 'Free Trade'; but still without a resort to arms.
His chosen means of warfare was an Embargo Act, forbidding the
departure of vessels from United States ports. This, although nominally
aimed against France as well, was designed to make Great Britain
submit by cutting off both her and her colonies from all intercourse
with the United States. But its actual effect was to hurt Americans, and
even Jefferson's own party, far more than it hurt the British. The
Yankee skipper already had two blockades against 'Free Trade.' The
Embargo Act added a third. Of course it was evaded; and a good deal
of shipping went from the United States and passed into Canadian ports
under the Union Jack. Jefferson and his followers, however, persisted
in taking their own way. So Canada gained from the embargo much of
what the Americans were losing. Quebec and Halifax swarmed with
contrabandists, who smuggled back return cargoes into the New
England ports, which were Federalist in party allegiance, and only too

ready to evade or defy the edicts of the Democratic administration.
Jefferson had, it is true, the satisfaction of inflicting much temporary
hardship on cotton-spinning Manchester. But the American
cotton-growing South suffered even more.
The American claims of 'Free Trade and Sailors' Rights' were opposed
by the British counter-claims of the Orders-in-Council and the Right of
Search. But 'Down with the British' and 'On to Canada' were without
exact equivalents on the other side. The British at home were a good
deal irritated by so much unfriendliness and hostility behind them while
they were engaged with Napoleon in front. Yet they could hardly be
described as anti-American; and they certainly had no wish to fight,
still less to conquer, the United States. Canada did contain an
anti-American element in the United Empire Loyalists, whom the
American Revolution had driven from their homes. But her general
wish was to be left in peace. Failing that, she was prepared for defence.
Anti-British feeling probably animated at least two-thirds of the
American people on every question that caused international friction;
and the Jeffersonian Democrats, who were in power, were anti-British
to a man. So strong was this feeling among them that they continued to
side with France even when she was under the military despotism of
Napoleon. He was the arch-enemy of England in Europe. They were
the arch-enemy of England in America. This alone was enough to
overcome their natural repugnance to his autocratic ways. Their
position towards the British was such that they could not draw back
from France, whose change of government had made her a more
efficient anti-British friend. 'Let us unite with France and stand or fall
together' was the cry the Democratic press repeated for years in
different forms. It was strangely prophetic. Jefferson's Embargo Act of
1808 began its self-injurious career at the same time that the Peninsular
War began to make the first injurious breach in Napoleon's Continental
System. Madison's declaration of war in 1812 coincided with the
opening of Napoleon's disastrous campaign in Russia.
The Federalists, the party in favour of peace with the British, included
many of the men who had done most for Independence; and they were

all, of course, above suspicion as patriotic Americans. But they were
not unlike transatlantic, self-governing Englishmen. They had been
alienated by the excesses of the French Revolution; and they could not
condone the tyranny of Napoleon. They preferred American statesmen
of the type of Washington and Hamilton to those of the type of
Jefferson and Madison. And they were not inclined to be more
anti-British than the occasion required. They were strongest in New
England and New York. The Democrats were strongest throughout the
South and in what was then the West. The Federalists had been in
power during the Accommodation period. The Democrats began with
Unfriendliness, continued with Hostility, and ended with War.
The Federalists did not hesitate to speak their mind. Their loss of power
had sharpened their tongues; and they were often no more generous to
the Democrats and to France than the Democrats were to them and to
the British. But, on the whole, they made for goodwill on both sides; as
well as for a better understanding of each