ation for Mr.
Jefferson's gunboats could not get that naval arm ready for effective
service much before the year 1815, even if it could then be of use; and
there was, moreover, this further difficulty in the way of its
efficiency at the time,--that, as it could not go to the enemy, it must
wait for the enemy to come to it; the conflagration would have to be
brought to the fire-engines. A war with England must be a naval war; and
the United States not only had no navy of any consequence, but it was a
part of Mr. Jefferson's policy, in contrast with the policy of the
preceding administrations, that there should be none, except these
gunboats kept on wheels and under cover in readiness to repel an
invasion. But there was no fear of invasion, for by that England could
gain nothing. "She is renewing," Madison wrote in the autumn of 1805,
"her depredations on our commerce in the most ruinous shapes, and has
kindled a more general indignation among our merchants than was ever
before expressed."

These depredations were not confined to the seizing and confiscating
American ships under the pretense that their cargoes were contraband.
Seamen were taken out of them on the charge of being British subjects
and deserters, not only on the high seas in larger numbers than ever
before, but within the waters of the United States. No doubt these
seamen were often British subjects and their seizure was justifiable,
provided England could rightfully extend to all parts of the globe and
to the ships of all nations the merciless system of impressment to which
her own people were compelled to submit at home. Monroe, in a note to
Madison, said that the British minister had informed him that "great
abuses were committed in granting protections" in America, and
acknowledged that "he gave me some examples which were most shameful."
But even if it could be granted that English naval officers might seize
such men without recourse to law, wherever they should be found and
without respect for the flag of another nation, it was a national insult
and outrage, calling for resentment and resistance, to impress American
citizens under the pretense that they were British subjects. But what
was the remedy? As a last resort in such cases, nations have but one.
Diplomacy and legislation may be first tried, but, if these fail, war
must be the final ordeal. For this the administration made no
preparation, and the more evident the unreadiness the less was the
ch