American
merchant ships; but, accepting the statements otherwise, nothing more
could be required of the Administration, so far as words went, than
its insistence upon this relinquishment as a _sine qua non_ to any
treaty. Its instructions to its ministers in 1806 had placed this
demand first, not only in order, but in importance, coupling with it
as indispensable only one other condition, the freedom of trade; the
later and more extreme infringements of which were constituted by the
Orders in Council of 1807. After protracted discussion, the American
requirement as to impressment had been refused by Great Britain,
deliberately, distinctly, and in the most positive manner; nor does it
seem possible to concur with the opinion of our envoys that the
stipulations offered by her representatives, while not sacrificing the
British principle, did substantially and in practice secure the
American demands. These could be satisfactorily covered only by the
terms laid down by the Administration. Thereafter, any renewal of the
subject must come from the other side; it was inconsistent with
self-respect for the United States again to ask it, unless with arms
in her hands. To make further advances in words would have been, not
to negotiate, but to entreat. This, in substance, was the reply of the
Government to its accusers at home, and it is irrefutable.

It is less easy--rather, it is impossible--to justify the
Administration for refraining from adequate deeds, when the impotence
of words had been fully and finally proved. In part, this was due to
miscalculation, in itself difficult to pardon, from the somewhat
sordid grounds and estimates of national feeling upon which it
proceeded. The two successive presidents, and the party behind them,
were satisfied that Great Britain, though standing avowedly and
evidently upon grounds considered by her essential to national honor
and national safety, could be compelled to yield by the menace of
commercial embarrassment. That there was lacking in them the elevated
instinct, which could recognize that they were in collision with
something greater than a question of pecuniary profits, is in itself a
condemnation; and their statesmanship was at fault in not appreciating
that the enslaved conditions of the European continent had justly
aroused in Great Britain an exaltation of spirit, which was prepared
to undergo every extreme, in resistance to a like subjection, till
exhaustion itself should c