n Eppes, he wrote: "Reason and the usage of
civilized nations require that we should give them an opportunity of
disavowal and reparation. Our own interests, too, the very means of making
war, require that we should give time to our merchants to gather in their
vessels and property and our seamen now afloat."

Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, even criticised the President's
annual message at this time as being too warlike and "not in the style of
the proclamation, which has been almost universally approved at home and
abroad." It cannot truly be said, therefore, that Jefferson had any
unconquerable aversion to war.

Mr. Canning, the British Foreign Minister, went through the form of
expressing his regrets for the Chesapeake affair, and sent a special envoy
to Washington to settle the difficulty. Reparation was made at last, but
not till the year 1811.

In the mean time, both Great Britain and France had given other causes of
offense, which may be summarized as follows: In May, 1806, Great Britain
declared the French ports from Brest to the Elbe closed to American as to
all other shipping. In the following November, Napoleon retorted with a
decree issued from Berlin, prohibiting all commerce with Great Britain.
That power immediately forbade the coasting trade between one port and
another in the possession of her enemies. And in November, 1807, Great
Britain issued the famous Orders in Council, which forbade all trade
whatsoever with France and her allies, except on payment of a tribute to
Great Britain, each vessel to pay according to the value of its cargo.
Then followed Napoleon's Milan decree prohibiting trade with Great
Britain, and declaring that all vessels which paid the tribute demanded
were lawful prizes to the French marine.

Such was the series of acts which assailed the foreign commerce of the
United States, and wounded the national honor by attempting to prostrate
the country at the mercy of the European powers. Diplomacy had been
exhausted. The Chesapeake affair, the right of impressment, the British
decrees and orders directed against our commerce,--all these causes of
offense had been tangled into a complication which no man could unravel.
Retaliation on our part had become absolutely necessary. What form should
it take? Jefferson rejected war, and proposed an embargo which prohibited
commerce between the United States and Europe. The measure was bitterly
opposed by the New England Federalists