rations of Jefferson and
Madison, under which these events ran their course to their
culmination in war, that impressment was not a cause of the break
between the two countries, but was adduced subsequently to swell the
array of injuries, in which the later Orders in Council were the real
determinative factor. The drift of this argument was, that the Repeal
of the Orders, made almost simultaneously with the American
Declaration of War, and known in the United States two months later,
should have terminated hostilities. The British Government, in an
elaborate vindication of its general course, published in January,
1813, stated that, "in a manifesto, accompanying their declaration of
hostilities, in addition to the former complaints against the Orders
in Council, a long list of grievances was brought forward; but none of
them such as were ever before alleged by the American Government to be
grounds for war." In America itself similar allegations were made by
the party in opposition. The Maryland House of Delegates, in January,
1814, adopted a memorial, in which it was said that "The claim of
impressment, which has been so much exaggerated, but which was never
deemed of itself a substantive cause of war, has been heretofore
considered susceptible of satisfactory arrangement in the judgment of
both the commissioners, who were selected by the President then in
office to conduct the negotiation with the English ministry in the
year 1806."[167] The words of the commissioners in their official
letters of November 11, 1806,[168] and April 22, 1807,[169] certainly
sustain this statement as to their opinion, which was again
deliberately affirmed by Monroe in a justificatory review of their
course, addressed to Madison in February, 1808,[170] after his return.
Gaston, speaking in the House in February, 1814, said: "Sir, the
question of seamen was not a cause of this war. More than five years
had passed over since an arrangement on this question, perfectly
satisfactory to our ministers, [Monroe and Pinkney] had been made with
Great Britain; but it pleased not the President, and was rejected.
Yet, during the whole period that afterwards elapsed until the
declaration of war, no second effort was made to adjust this cause of
controversy."[171]

Gaston here is slightly in error as to fact, for the attack upon the
"Chesapeake" was made by the Government the occasion for again
demanding an abandonment of the practice of impressment from