of France, and Napoleon from his camp at Berlin and his
palace at Milau retaliated by making British products contraband of war
and subjecting to confiscation all vessels destined for British ports.
Between these two mighty millstones the American carrying trade was
sorely ground, and conditions were made far worse by the very means which
the American government, in its comparative impotency, adopted to compel
redress. The embargo was intended to inflict such injury on both France
and England as to drive them into a recognition of America's rights as a
neutral. Its only serious effect was to inflict an almost fatal wound on
American commerce, and the repeal of the first embargo came too late to
undo the injury it had done. It was not as clearly apparent then as now
that all restrictions on exportation chiefly injure the nation which
imposes them. The embargo played into the hands of the British by
effecting through our own agency what England had vainly sought to
accomplish through others. England commanding every sea with her fleets
suffered but slight inconvenience by the withdrawal of American shipping
from her ports, while Americans suffered most severely.

The British blockade of continental Europe would not, however, have led
to the conflict which broke out in 1812. Other aggressions, offensive to
American independence, and in grievous violation of American national
rights, obliged Congress reluctantly to declare war, after years of
irritation and provocation on the part of England. The British stopped
American vessels on the high seas, and impressed American seamen into the
British naval service. American merchantmen were halted in mid-ocean and
deprived of the best men in their crews, who were forced to serve in the
British navy.[1]

[1] In the famous sea-fight between the American frigate United
States and the British frigate Macedonian several American seamen on
the British vessel, through their spokesman, John Card, who was
described by one of his shipmates as being "as brave a seamen as
ever trod a plank," frankly told Captain Garden their objections to
fighting the American flag. The British commander savagely ordered
them back to their quarters, threatening to shoot them if they again
made the request. Half an hour later Jack Card was stretched out on
the Macedonian's deck weltering in his blood, slain by a shot from
his countrymen.--_Maclay's Hi