Its troubles took a serious turn in 1806.England,in a determined effort to bring France to her knees by starvation,declared the coast of Europe blockaded from Brest to the mouth of the Elbe River.Napoleon retaliated by his Berlin Decree of November,1806,blockading the British Isles-a measure terrifying to American ship owners whose vessels were liable to seizure by any French rover,though Napoleon had no navy to make good his proclamation.Great Britain countered with a still more irritating decree-the Orders in Council of 1807.It modified its blockade,but in so doing merely authorized American ships not carrying munitions of war to complete their voyage to the Continent,on condition of their stopping at a British port,securing a license,and paying a tax.This,responded Napoleon,was the height of insolence,and he denounced it as a gross violation of international law.He then closed the circle of American troubles by issuing his Milan Decree of December,1807.This order declaredthat any ship which complied with the British rules would be subject to seizure and confiscation by French authorities.
The Impressment of Seamen.-That was not all.Great Britain,in dire need of men for her navy,adopted the practice of stopping American ships,search-ing them,and carrying away British-born sailors found on board.British sailors were so badly treated,so cruelly flogged for trivial causes,and so meanly fed that they fled in crowds to the American marine.In many cases it was difficult to tell whether seamen were English or American.They spoke the same lan-guage,so that language was no test.Rovers on the deep and stragglers in the ports of both countries,they frequently had no papers to show their nativity.Moreover,Great Britain held to the old rule-"Once an Englishman,always an Englishman"-a doctrine rejected by the United States in favor of the principle that a man could choose the nation to which he would give allegiance.British sea captains,sometimes by mistake,and often enough with reckless indiffer-ence,carried away into servitude in their own navy genuine American citizens.The process itself,even when executed with all the civilities of law,was painful enough,for it meant that American ships were forced to "come to,"and com-pelled to rest submissively under British guns until the searching party had pried into records,questioned seamen,seized and handcuffed victims.Saints could not have done this work without raising angry passions,and only saints could have endured it with patience and fortitude.
Had the enactment of the scenes been confined to the high seas and knowledge of them to rumors and newspaper stories,American resentment might not have been so intense;but many a search and seizure was made in sight of land.British and French vessels patrolled the coasts,firing on one another and chasing one another in American waters within the three-mile limit.When,in the summer of 1807,the American frigate Chesapeake refused to surrender men alleged to be deserters from King George's navy,the British warship Leopard opened fire,killing three men and wounding eighteen more-an act which even the British ministry could hardly excuse.If the French were less frequently the offenders,it was not because of their tenderness about American rights but because so few of their ships escaped the hawk-eyed British navy to operate in American waters.
The Losses in American Commerce.-This high-handed conduct on the part of European belligerents was very injurious to American trade.By their enterprise,American shippers had become the foremost carriers on the Atlantic Ocean.In a decade they had doubled the tonnage of American merchant ships under the American flag,taking the place of the French marine when Britain swept that from the seas,and supplying Britain with the sinews of war for thecontest with the Napoleonic empire.The American shipping engaged in for-eign trade embraced 363,110tons in 1791;669,921tons in 1800;and almost 1,000,000tons in 1810.Such was the enterprise attacked by the British and French decrees.American ships bound for Great Britain were liable to be cap-tured by French privateers which,in spite of the disasters of the Nile and Tra-falgar,ranged the seas.American ships destined for the Continent,if they failed to stop at British ports and pay tribute,were in great danger of capture by the sleepless British navy and its swarm of auxiliaries.American sea captains who,in fear of British vengeance,heeded the Orders in Council and paid the tax were almost certain to fall a prey to French vengeance,for the French were vigorous in executing the Milan Decree.
Jefferson's Policy.-The President's dilemma was distressing.Both the bel-ligerents in Europe were guilty of depredations on American commerce.War on both of them was out of the question.War on France was impossible because she had no territory on this side of the water which could be reached by Ameri-can troops and her naval forces had been shattered at the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar.War on Great Britain,a power which Jefferson's followers feared and distrusted,was possible but not inviting.Jefferson shrank from it.A man of peace,he disliked war's brazen clamor;a man of kindly spirit,he was startled at the death and destruction which it brought in its train.So for the eight years Jefferson steered an even course,suggesting measure after measure with a view to avoiding bloodshed.He sent,it is true,Commodore Preble in 1803to punish Mediterranean pirates preying upon American commerce;but a great war he evaded with passionate earnestness,trying in its place every other expedient to protect American rights.