that there was no
market for it. Along the docks the ships lay idly tugging at their
cables, or stranded on the flats as the tide went out. Merchants
discharged their clerks, and great warehouses were locked up and
deserted. For nearly a year the ports were closed, and commerce thus
languished. Then Congress substituted for the embargo the
Non-intercourse Act, which simply prohibited commerce with France and
England; and again the American flag appeared upon the ocean. But the
two warring nations had learned neither wisdom nor justice, and began
again their depredations upon the unoffending Americans. Envoys were
sent to France to protest against the outrageous action of that
nation; but they were told that no audience could be granted them,
unless they paid into the French treasury two hundred and forty
thousand dollars. This last insult was too great. The envoys returned
home, told of their treatment, and the war party in the United States
rallied to the defence of their nation's honor, shouting Pinckney's
noble sentiment, "_Millions for defence, but not one cent for
tribute_."

CHAPTER II.

WAR WITH FRANCE. -- THE BUILDING OF A NAVY. -- FIRST SUCCESS
FOR THE AMERICANS. -- CUTTING OUT THE "SANDWICH." -- THE
"CONSTELLATION" AND "L'INSURGENTE." -- THE "CONSTELLATION"
AND "LA VENGEANCE."

While France and England were waging a desperate and bloody war, the
United States was like a shuttlecock, being struck repeatedly by the
diplomatic battledores of each nation. Between the British "Orders in
Council" and the French "Milan Decree," American commerce was in a
fair way of being obliterated. To declare war against both nations,
would have been absurd in so young a people; and for months, and even
years, the fierce contests of political parties in the United States
made a declaration of war against either aggressor impracticable. Now
the Franco-maniacs were in the ascendency, and the country rang with
praises of France,--the nation which had cast off aristocrats, and,
like America, was devoted to republican principles; the nation which
had aided the Colonies in their war for freedom. What though a French
privateer did occasionally seize an American ship? The Americans alone
were to blame for that; for was not their attitude toward England,
their natural foe, enough to inflame the French? And were not the
British aggressions more oppressive than those of France? War there
must be, but let it b