The truth is, the whole negotiation was a trial of skill at diplomatic
fence, in which England would not yield an inch to the United States or
to France. Madison and his party were more than willing to aid Napoleon;
and Napoleon hoped to defeat both his antagonists by turning their
swords against each other. A quite different result would have followed
had France been as willing as England apparently was that the commercial
edicts should be considered without regard to other questions; or if the
American Executive had insisted that it would accept their unconditional
revocation, pure and simple and not otherwise, from either power, as was
contemplated in the act of May, 1810. But instead, when Congress rose in
March, 1811, it left behind it an act renewing non-intercourse with
England, in accordance with Napoleon's demand that the United States
should "cause their rights to be respected by the English." This meant
war.

CHAPTER XIX

WAR WITH ENGLAND

In May, 1811, there occurred one of those accidents which happen on
purpose, and often serve as a relief when the public temper is in an
exasperated and almost dangerous condition. This was the fight between
the American frigate President, of forty-four guns, and the English
sloop-of-war Little Belt, of eighteen guns. This vessel belonged to the
British squadron which was ordered to the American coast to break up the
trade from the United States to France; and the President was one of the
few ships the government had for the protection of its commerce. The
ships met a few miles south of Sandy Hook, chased each other in turn,
then fired into each other without any reasonable pretext for the first
shot, which each accused the other of having fired. The loss on board
the English ship, in an encounter which lasted only a few minutes, was
over thirty in killed and wounded, while only a single man was slightly
wounded on board the President. It was, as Mr. Madison said, an
"occurrence not unlikely to bring on repetitions," and that these would
"probably end in an open rupture or a better understanding, as the
calculations of the British government may prompt or dissuade from war."
This certainly was obvious enough; though it would be a great deal
easier for England to bring on a war than to avert it, in the angry mood
in which the majority of the Democratic party then was. But Mr. Madison
preserved his equanimity. Considering his old proclivity for France, and
his old