ight with the greatest caution and
courtesy, and only in regard to vessels on board of which, from specific
information, there was reason to believe there were English deserters.
These deserters, on getting smuggled on board of American vessels, would
forthwith take the oath of allegiance to the United States, and be
recognized and claimed as American citizens.[180]

An event now occurred which enabled President Madison to excite his
partizans throughout the United States to a flame of indignation
against England. Information had been received that there were English
deserters on board the American ship _Chesapeake_; the British warship
_Leopard_ sought their restoration, and on being refused fired into the
_Chesapeake_, and recovered the four deserters claimed. The attendant
circumstances being omitted, the simple fact announced by the President
to Congress, that the English warship _Leopard_ had fired into the
American ship _Chesapeake_, and in American waters, killing several
persons, and had seized and carried off four American citizens, produced
the excitement he was anxious to create against England, preparatory to
the war on which he was then determined--in the zenith of Napoleon's
success and power, and in the extremity of England's struggle for her
own existence and the liberties of mankind. The statement of the
American President as to the affair of the ships _Leopard_ and
_Chesapeake_ has been repeated to this day by American historians, and
is used in American school books to illustrate England's arrogance and
cruelty; whereas all the facts of the case prove directly the reverse.
We give the account of the affair from one American writer, who, though
partial, was too honest to omit essential facts, much less to pervert
them; we refer to Dr. Holmes, author of _American Annals_, and quote at
length his account of the affair. He says:

"The frigate _Chesapeake_, being ordered to cruise in the Mediterranean
Sea, under the command of Commodore Barron, sailing from Hampton Roads,
was come up with by the British ship-of-war _Leopard_, one of a
squadron then at anchor within the limits of the United States. An
officer was sent from the _Leopard_ to the _Chesapeake_ with a note from
the captain respecting some deserters from his Britannic Majesty's
ships, supposed to be serving as part of the crew of the _Chesapeake_
and enclosing a copy of an order from Vice-Admiral Berkeley requiring
and directing the commanders o