dislike of England, his impartiality between them is rather
remarkable. But his aim was still to keep the peace while he abated
nothing of the well-founded complaints he had against both powers. When
a new Congress assembled in the autumn he was careful to point out in
his message the delinquencies of France as well as the offenses of
England. He insisted that while England should have acknowledged the
Berlin and Milan decrees to be revoked and have acted accordingly,
France showed no disposition to repair the many wrongs she had inflicted
upon American merchants, and had lately imposed such "rigorous and
unexpected restrictions" upon commerce that it would be necessary,
unless they were speedily discontinued, to meet them by "corresponding
restrictions on importations from France."

This tone is even more pronounced in his letters for some following
months. If anything, it is France rather than England that seems to be
looked upon as the chief offender, with whom there was the greater
danger of armed collision. A fortnight after Congress had assembled he
wrote to Barlow, the new minister to France, that though justified in
assuming the French decrees to be so far withdrawn that a withdrawal of
the British orders might be looked for, "yet the manner in which the
French government has managed the repeal of the decrees, and evaded a
correction of other outrages, has mingled with the conciliatory tendency
of the repeal as much of irritation and disgust as possible." "In fact,"
he adds, "without a systematic change from an appearance of crafty
contrivance and insatiate cupidity, for an open, manly, and upright
dealing with a nation whose example demands it, it is impossible that
good-will can exist; and that the ill-will which her policy aims at
directing against her enemy should not, by her folly and iniquity, be
drawn off against herself." French depredations upon American commerce
in the Baltic were "kindling a fresh flame here," and, if they were not
stopped, "hostile collisions will as readily take place with one nation
as the other;" nor would there be any hesitation in sending American
frigates to that sea, "with orders to suppress by force the French and
Danish depredations," were it not for the "danger of rencounters with
British ships of superior force in that quarter."

By this time, however, Congress, under the lead of younger, vigorous
men--chief among them Clay and Calhoun--panting for leadership and
distinc