e British subjects from the merchant ships of the
United States:

"And whereas, during the administration of General Washington and
President Adams, this claim of Great Britain was not considered a
reasonable cause of war; and under the administration of President
Jefferson, the Government of Great Britain did offer to make an
arrangement with the United States, which in the opinion of Messrs.
Montrose and Pinkey, their Ministers, placed this subject on a ground
that was both honourable and advantageous to the United States, and
highly favourable to their interests, and was, at the same time, a
concession which had never before been made; and it is highly probable
that the Government of Great Britain would still be willing to make an
arrangement on this subject which should be alike honourable and
advantageous to the United States:

"And whereas, under the administration of President Madison, when the
arrangement of matters in controversy between the United States and
Great Britain was made with his Britannic Majesty's Minister, David
Montague Erskine, Esq., the impressment of seamen was not considered of
sufficient importance to make it a condition of that arrangement:

"And whereas _the European powers, as well as the United States,
recognize the principle that their subjects have no right to expatriate
themselves, and that the nation has a right to the services of all its
citizens, especially in time of war; and none of those powers respect
the neutralization laws of others so far as to admit their operation in
contravention of that principle--and it is manifestly unjust for a
neutral power to make war upon one nation in order to compel it to
relinquish a principle which is maintained by the others, etc_."]

[Footnote 181: Holmes' American Annals, Vol. II., pp. 434, 435.

The manner in which this affair was presented to the public by the
President and American writers may be inferred from the following:

"This vessel (the _Chesapeake_) was suddenly attacked within our waters
in the time of profound peace, compelled to surrender, and several
seamen, alleged to be British, were then forcibly taken from her. The
burst of indignation which followed was even more violent than that
which was produced by the Orders in Council in 1793 [1807]. Party
animosity was suspended; meetings were assembled in every village; the
newspapers were filled with formal addresses; volunteer companies were
everywhere set on foot; and, in