to defy it," he wrote, "not only by remaining
within our waters, but by chasing merchant vessels arriving and
departing." Some preparation was made for war, but it was only to call
upon the militia to be in readiness, and to order Mr. Jefferson's
gunboats to the most exposed ports. Great Britain was not alarmed. The
captain of the Leopard, indeed, was removed from his command, as having
exceeded his duty; but a proclamation on that side was also issued,
requiring all ships of war to seize British seamen on board foreign
merchantmen, to demand them from foreign ships of war, and if the demand
was refused to report the fact to the admiral of the fleet. It was not
till after four years of irritating controversy that any settlement was
reached in regard to the affair of the Chesapeake.

New perils all the while were besetting American commerce. In November,
1806, Napoleon's Berlin decree was promulgated, forbidding the
introduction into France of the products of Great Britain and her
colonies, whether in her own ships or those of other nations. This was
in violation of the convention between France and the United States, if
it was meant that American vessels should come under the prohibition;
but for a time there was some hope that they might be excepted. In the
course of the year, however, it was officially declared in Paris that
the treaty would not be allowed to weaken the force of a war measure
aimed at Great Britain. Under this decision, cargoes already seized were
confiscated and the trade of the United States faced a new calamity. The
decree, it was declared, was a rightful retaliation of a British order
in council of six months before, which had established a partial
blockade of a portion of the French coast. In the kidnaping business,
France could not, of course, compete with England; for there were few of
her citizens to be found on board of American vessels, and to seize a
Yankee sailor, under the pretense that he was a Frenchman, was an
absurdity never thought of. But hundreds of Americans, the crews of
ships seized for violation of the terms of the Berlin decree, were
thrown into French prisons. So far, therefore, as the United States had
good ground of complaint on any score against either power, there was
little to choose between them. Mr. Jefferson's repugnance to war was
sufficient to hold him back from one with England, though he might have
had France for an ally; still more unwilling was he, by a war with