n sight of a vessel which looked like the
_Guerriere_; but it was half-past eight o'clock at night before he came
within speaking distance. A battle followed and lasted till the stranger
became unmanageable, when the _President_ stopped firing; and the next
morning Rogers found that his enemy was the British twenty-two-gun ship,
_Little Belt_.

%262. The War Congress.%--Another way in which the anger of the
people showed itself was in the election, in the autumn of 1810, of a
Congress which met in December, 1811, fully determined to make war on
Great Britain. In that Congress were two men who from that day on for
forty years were great political leaders. One was John C. Calhoun of
South Carolina; the other was Henry Clay of Kentucky.

Clay was made Speaker of the House of Representatives, and under his
lead preparations were instantly begun for war, which was finally
declared June 18, 1812. There was no Atlantic cable in those days. Had
there been, it is very doubtful if war would have been declared; for on
June 23, 1812, five days after Congress authorized Madison to issue the
proclamation, the Orders in Council were recalled.

The causes of war, as set forth in the proclamation, were:

1. Tampering with the Indians, and urging them to attack our citizens on
the frontier.

2. Interfering with our trade by the Orders in Council.

3. Putting cruisers off our ports to stop and search our vessels.

4. Impressing our sailors, of whom more than 6000 were in the British
service.

SUMMARY

1. One reason which led Napoleon to sell Louisiana was his determination
to go to war with England. This he did in 1803.

2. Renewal of war in Europe made the United States again a neutral
nation, and brought up the old quarrel over neutral rights.

3.In 1806, Napoleon, who was master of nearly all western Europe, cut
off British trade with the continent. Great Britain in return declared,
by an Order in Council, the coast from Brest to the Elbe blockaded; that
is, shut to neutral trade.

4. Later in the year 1806 Napoleon retaliated with the Berlin Decree,
declaring the British Islands blockaded.

5. Great Britain, by another Order in Council (1807), shut all European
ports, under French control, to neutrals.

6. Napoleon struck back with the Milan Decree.

7. Our commerce was now attacked by both powers, and to force them to
repeal their Decrees and Orders in Council, certain commercial
restrictions were adopted by the