ferson, and a party of adherents had sought to press his candidacy against Madison. Out of this had been engendered a coolness between the two Virginians, but no break in their friendship had occurred. Soon thereafter Monroe had been elected governor of Virginia, and was filling that important office when Madison approached him with old-time cordiality and frankness, and asked him to accept the vacancy in the Department of State. The critical condition of our affairs with England was such that he could not resist the call. He was a man of a different mould from Smith, and the President suffered no longer from intrigues and unfaithfulness in his Cabinet. Monroe was well fitted by political training and diplomatic experience for the post. We have already had occasion to refer to his two missions to France, his mission to Spain and to England. Although he had not achieved much success in these courts, his failure is to be attributed more to adverse circumstances than to his own shortcomings. Lord Holland, who was brought much in contact with him, both officially and socially, during his residence in London, gives this estimate of him: "He was plain in his manners and somewhat slow in his apprehension; but he was a diligent, earnest, sensible, and even profound man." As secretary under President Madison he henceforth bore the burden of the diplomatic controversy which led up to the war of 1812. It would be a tedious work to attempt a narration of the causes and circumstances which occasioned that conflict, but the questions of international law involved, and which were finally submitted to the arbitrament of arms, may be briefly stated as the right of search and impressment of seamen, the principles of blockade, the rights of nutrals in war, and free ships and free goods. The subject of impressment was one of long standing. As early as 1792, Mr. Jefferson, as Secretary of State, had urged upon the British government its injustice, and stated the correct doctrine, finally accepted, that the flag of the vessel protects its crew. Mr. Jay had sought to abolish it in his negotiation of 1794. The treaty of Monroe and Pinkney in 1806 was rejected by President Jefferson mainly because it contained no provision on the subject. The practice was for the British naval officers to stop American vessels on the high seas, in British or even in neutral ports, compel a muster of all the crew on deck, by personal inspection decide on their own motion and without proof that certain of the crew were either British subjects or deserters, and carry them off in irons to the British warships. The naturalization of British subjects in the United States was disregarded, and the inspection of American crews was so hasty and arbitrary that many native born American citizens, some of whom had been soldiers of the Revolution, were carried off and forced to serve in the British navy. It was stated in Congress in 1806 that at that date between 2500 and 3000 American citizens were in enforced service in the British navy. During the Napoleonic wars the British authorities were so emboldened by the necessity of a larger supply of men for their navy that New York harbor was made a base 13 For. Rel. 574. of operations for the British squadron, which occupied itself in cruising just outside the coast line, lying in wait to overhaul and search American merchant vessels for forced recruits to its navy. These high-handed outrages seemed to have reached their climax in the attack upon the Chesapeake, a frigate of the United States navy, in 1807. She had on board three colored native-born American seamen who were alleged to be deserters from the British navy. Their surrender had been demanded, but refused by the Secretary of State on the ground, first, that the British government had declined to enter into treaty stipulations for the surrender of deserters, and, second, because they were American citizens. The Chesapeake, not suspecting any violence on the part of the British squadron lying in Hampton Roads, passed out to sea for drill practice. She was followed by the British man-of-war Leopard, greatly her superior in armament. When outside the coast line the Chesapeake was overhauled and a demand was made for the surrender of the deserters. The demand was refused. Without an opportunity being afforded for getting the Chesapeake into a state of defense, the Leopard opened fire, and in twelve minutes the Chesapeake was rendered helpless, the crew was mustered by the British officers, and three Americans and one British subject was taken off, and the disabled American frigate was left to find her way back into port as best she could. The affair occasioned intense excitement, and a demand for instant war was raised, notwithstanding the utter unpreparedness of the country. The British min istry, however, disavowed the act as unauthorized, recalled the commanding officer, tendered indemnity for the killed and wounded and a surrender of the three Americans. The government of the United States sought to couple with these a relinquishment of the right of impressment, and this affair remained a source of negotiation and irritation for some time.1 Madison, writing just before the affair of the Chesapeake, said of visitation and impressment: "That an officer from a foreign ship should pronounce any person he pleased on board an American ship, on the high seas, not to be an American citizen, but a British subject, and carry his interested decision, on the most important of all questions to a freeman, into execution on the spot, is so anomalous in principle, so grievous in practice, and so abominable in abuse, that the pretension must finally yield to sober discussion and friendly expostulation.” 2 But so far from yielding to discussion and expostulation, it survived a bloody war, and was not surrendered as to visitation till many years afterwards. Equally among the causes of the war were the paper blockades decreed by France, and by Great Britain in retaliation, in utter disregard of neutral rights, and to the great damage of American commerce. They began with the Berlin Decree, issued by Napoleon, declaring the British Isles in a state of blockade, and prohibiting all commerce with them. This was followed by the British Orders in Council, forbidding all neutral trade with France or her allies, unless through Great Britain. 1 For affair of the Chesapeake, see 2 Schouler, Hist. U. S. 164. Napoleon retaliated with his Milan Decree, by which every vessel which submitted to search by British cruisers, or paid tax, duty, or license money to the British government, or was found on the high sea bound to or from a British port, was denationalized and forfeited.1 These measures meant death to American commerce, and Jefferson sought to overcome them by his embargo act,2 which brought prostration and ruin to trade in our home ports, and seems to have had little effect abroad. For the next five years our government devoted its energies unceasingly to securing a relaxation on the part of Great Britain of the offensive practice of visitation and impressment, and on the part of the contending European nations of their war upon American neutral vessels. But in the mighty conflict of Europe the interests or the rights of the young nation across the sea received little consideration, and the current of events was fast drifting us into open war with one or both contestants. In referring to this period, Secretary Everett, in a letter to Lord John Russell, wrote: "From the breaking out of the wars of the French Revolution to the year 1812, the United States knew the law of nations only as the victim of its systematic violation by the great maritime powers of Europe. "3 Developments in the West made it appear that Great Britain, in addition to its outrages upon the sea, was contributing to stir up the hostility of the Indian tribes and furnishing them with military supplies from the government stores 1 2 Schouler, 156, 170, 174. 2 Ib. 178; 1 Richardson's Messages, 433. |