redit, and are
embarrassed with debts."[258] No wonder the privateers got the seamen.

The decision to abandon the leading contention of the war had been
reached long before.[259] In an official letter, dated June 27, 1814,
to the commissioners appointed to treat for peace, after enumerating
the threatening conditions confronting the country, now that the
European conflict was at an end, Monroe wrote, "On mature
consideration it has been decided that, under all the circumstances
above alluded to, incident to a prosecution of the war, _you may omit
any stipulation on the subject of impressment_, if found indispensably
necessary to terminate it. You will of course not recur to this
expedient until all your efforts to adjust the controversy in a more
satisfactory manner have failed."[260] The phraseology of this
instruction disposes completely of the specious plea, advanced by
partisans of the Administration, that the subject was dropped because
impressment was no longer a live issue; the maritime war of Europe
being over. It was dropped because it had to be dropped; because the
favorable opportunities presented in 1812 and 1813 had been lost by
the incompetency of the national Government, distributed over a period
of nearly a dozen years of idle verbal argumentation; because in 1814
there stood between it and disastrous reverse, and loss of territory
in the north, only the resolution and professional skill of a yet
unrecognized seaman on the neglected waters of Lake Champlain.

Before concluding finally the subject of the offensive maritime
operations against the enemy's commerce, it may be mentioned that in
the last six months of the war, that is within one fifth of its
duration, were made one third of the total captures. Duly to weigh
this result, regard must be had to the fact that, when the navy is
adequate, the most numerous seizures of commercial shipping are
usually effected at the beginning, because the scattered merchantmen
are taken unawares. The success of the last few months of this war
indicates the stimulus given to privateering, partly by the conditions
of the country, imperiously demanding some relief from the necessity,
and stagnancy of occupation, caused by the blockade; partly by the
growing appreciation of the fact that a richer harvest was to be
reaped by seeking the most suitable fields with the most suitable
vessels. In an energetic and businesslike people it will be expected
that the experience o