versal conquest. France, he said, would be the tyrant of
the ocean if the British navy should be driven from it. The commerce,
moreover, which it was proposed to protect, was not the "honest trade of
America," but "a mushroom, a fungus of war,--a trade which, so soon as
the nations of Europe are at peace, will no longer exist." It was only
"a carrying trade which covers enemy's property;" and he did not believe
in plunging a great agricultural country into war for the benefit of the
shipping merchants of a few seaports. There were many who agreed with
him; for it was one of the cardinal principles of the Jeffersonian
school of politics that between commerce and agriculture there was a
natural antagonism.

But the administration did not rely upon legislation alone in this
emergency. The President followed up the act prohibiting the
introduction of British goods by sending William Pinkney to England in
the spring of 1806 to join Monroe, the resident minister, in an attempt
at negotiation. These commissioners soon wrote that there was good
reason for hoping that a treaty would be concluded, and thereupon the
non-importation act was for a time suspended. In December came the
news that a treaty was agreed upon, and soon after it was received by
the President. The most serious difficulty in the way of negotiation had
been the question of impressment. The British government claimed the
right to arrest deserters from its service anywhere outside the
jurisdiction of other nations, and that jurisdiction, it was maintained,
could not extend beyond the coast limit over the open sea, the highway
of all nations. There was an evident disposition, however, to come to
some compromise. The English commissioners proposed that their
government should prohibit, under penalty, the seizure of American
citizens anywhere, and that the United States should forbid, on her
part, the granting of certificates of citizenship to British subjects,
of which deserters took advantage. But as this would be an
acknowledgment virtually of the right of search on board American ships,
and the denial of citizenship in the United States to foreigners, the
American commissioners could not entertain that proposition. They were
willing, however, if the assumed right to board American ships were
given up, to agree, on behalf of their government, to aid in the arrest
and return of British deserters when seeking a refuge in the United
States. But to this the British c