counterbalanced by the increased cost of his imported necessaries. It is notorious that these causes led to the bankruptcy of many, and the serious pecuniary embarrassment of multitudes of previously opulent Southern planters. Not even the commercial class in New England probably suffered more in proportion to their capital.

The New England agriculturist, on his small farm, hiring little, purchasing little, used to rigid economies, frequently manufacturing his homespuns and some other necessaries, near the best markets which remained, and favored indirectly by a smuggling trade of considerable extent,' suffered much less. In the aggregate, there can be but little doubt that the landholders of Virginia lost twice as much from the effects of the Embargo as the landholders of Massachusetts.

The right by which the Federal leaders claimed that New England enjoyed such a preponderance in commercial and navigation interests that an injury to those interests constituted a special and "sectional" attack on her, is exemplified by the statistics contained in the following table of exports:

Total of six Southern States and Dist. of Columbia,.. 509,089,000

This remark will find an explanation in facts to be subsequently stated.

CHAP. VI.]

THEIR CONSEQUENCES.

261

The following exhibits the tonnage of some of the principal ports of the Union during the year in which the Embargo was repealed, and the succeeding one :'

The President thus alluded to the conduct of the Federalists in a letter to Dr. Leib, June 23d, 1808:

"They are now playing a game of the most mischievous tendency, without perhaps being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring to convince England that we suffer more by the Embargo than they do, and if they will but hold out awhile, we must abandon it. It is true, the time will come when we must abandon it. But if this is before the repeal of the orders of council, we must abandon it only for a state of war. The day is not distant, when that will be preferable to a longer continuance of the Embargo. But we can never remove that, and let our vessels go out and be taken under these orders, without making reprisal. Yet this is the very state of things which these Federal monarchists are endeavoring to bring about; and in this it is but too possible they may succeed. But the fact is, that if we have war with England, it will be solely produced by their manœuvres. I think that in two

or three months we shall know what will be the issue."

In August he wrote the Secretary of War that "the infractions in the Embargo in Maine and Massachusetts were open." Smuggling into and from Canada, especially through Lake Champlain, was common, and was so openly carried on that parties went armed to resist the government officers. The President wrote Dearborn, August 9th, that insurrection was threatened in Boston if the importation of flour was stopped, and that the "next post would stop it"-that he feared the/ governor "was not up to the tone of the parricides "—and he

1 The table of exports is arranged from sums and statements purporting to be derived from official sources, which we find already collected in Matthew Carey's Olive Branch, and the general accuracy of that statistician is presumed to be a sufficient guaranty of their correctness. Sums of less than a thousand dollars, it will be observed, are not taken into account. The tonnage statistics are from the same source.

desired his correspondent, on the first symptom of a forcible opposition to the law, to "fly to the scene and aid in suppressing any commotion." He advised Governor Tompkins, of New York, August 15th, to call out a body of militia to put down combinations of armed men who had resisted the execution of the embargo laws on the Canada frontier, fired upon the public guards, and wounded at least one of them dangerously. He ordered General Wilkinson, August 30th, to send all the recruits for the army in the State of New York to Sackett's Harbor, Oswegatchie, and Plattsburgh. Military force became necessary to support the authority of the revenue officers in several of the Eastern ports, and gunboats were sent into those ports for that purpose.

West of Lake Champlain, the refractory manifestations were prevented from spreading, and they were ultimately quelled by the energy of the Executive of New York-the patriotic and gallant Daniel D. Tompkins. Most of the New England Executives, on the other hand, entered reluctantly and tardily on measures of suppression, and some of them fostered the popular discontents, by personally acting with, and even taking the lead of the most violent denouncers of the measures of the Government. The collectors, in various instances, evinced "worse than negligence" in the execution of their duties, and it became necessary for the President to remove them.'

The Cabinet passed the summer amidst constant harassments—and much of the President's time was taken up in deciding on individual applications for exemptions from the provisions of the Embargo. Whoever will take the pains to glance into his decisions on these, will be astonished at the extent of investigation they display, if not at the rigorous impartiality they manifest."

1 See President to Secretary of War, August 9th.

For example, William Gray, of Salem, the first ship-owner of the United Stateswho had come out almost alone from among the great Federal merchants of New England, to support the Embargo-who had recently succeeded in defeating the Salem resolutions against that measure-was refused the privilege of sending a vessel to carry some important testimony to a distant country. Here is the clear, brief and decisive response:

Mr. Gray's case.

"His late rational and patriotic conduct would merit any indulgence consistent with our duty but the reason and the rule against permitting long voyages at present, are insurmountable obstacles. It is to be hoped some circuitous means of sending his proofs can be found. A vessel may go from England as well as from here."

But at about the same time. a Chinese Mandarin, who had been staying at New York,

CHAP. VI.]

GERM OF MONROE DOCTRINE.

263

General Armstrong wrote home from France, advising an immediate occupation of the Floridas. The President thus commented on the recommendation in a letter to the Secretary of State, of September 13th (1808):

"This letter of June 15th, is written after the cession by Carlos to Bonaparte of all his dominions, when he supposed England would at once pounce on the Floridas as a prey, or Bonaparte occupy it as a neighbor. His next will be written after the people of Spain will have annihilated the cession, England become the protector of Florida, and Bonaparte without title or means to plant himself there as our neighbor."

He wrote the Governor of Louisiana, October 29th:

"The patriots of Spain have no warmer friends than the Administration of the United States, but it is our duty to say nothing and to do nothing for or against either. If they succeed, we shall be well satisfied to see Cuba and Mexico remain in their present dependence; but very unwilling to see them in that of either France or England, politically or commercially. We consider their interests and ours as the same, and that the object of both must be to exclude all European influence from this hemisphere. We wish to avoid the necessity of going to war, till our revenue shall be entirely liberated from debt. Then it will suffice for war, without creating new debt or taxes."

Here is the germ of what has been termed the "Monroe doctrine." We shall find it taking its definite and ultimate form among the political maxims of Mr. Jefferson-and that it was proposed by him to Monroe before the latter (some years from the date of which we write) officially proclaimed it a policy of his administration.

1

The whole tenor of the President's correspondence, during the summer, shows that he was sincerely anxious for a friendly adjustment with England-that "to nobody would a repeal" of the orders in council "be so welcome as to himself." Mr. Pinkney wrote from London, June 5th, that he was to have a free conference with Mr. Canning in a few days. On the 29th of June, he informed the Government that he had had a long interview with Mr. Canning that day, which had given him hopes of a repeal of the orders in council, if he would authorize an expectation of the repeal of the Embargo; and he also

was permitted to hire a vessel to take him and his property home, the President basing: his permission on the ground of national comity, and that the case came fairly within. the view of the first section of the embargo law!

Letter to Lieper, May 25th.

thought satisfaction would be made for the attack on the Chesapeake. The results of these expected negotiations will be hereafter given.

On receiving this intelligence, the President directed a snspension of orders which he had authorized for calling out a hundred thousand militia, and he wrote the Secretary of State, "if they repeal their orders, we must repeal our Embargo. If they make satisfaction for the Chesapeake, we must revoke our proclamation, and generalize its operation by a law. If they keep up impressments, we must adhere to nonintercourse, manufacturers' and a navigation act.”

But the President's anticipations of a speedy adjustment, if he entertained any, were very transient. It is not, indeed, probable that he expected anything more favorable than another period of temporizing. His views of the real nature of our relations with both England and France, are disclosed in the following hitherto unpublished letter:

TO JOHN W. EPPES.

DEAR SIR:

MONTICELLO, Sept. 20th, '08.

Your letter of the 5th, mentioning that you should be at Eppington till the 14th and then proceed to Cumberland, did not get here till the 15th; it had either been put into the post-office at Richmond after the mail hour, or loitered there a week. I thank you for your attention to the purchase of a horse. I now send for him, and the bearer goes first to Cumberland, and if yourself or the horse should not be there, he will go on as shall be necessary. I will thank you to inform me by him of what blood he is by the dam, if you know it. I shall leave this for Washington on the 28th. We had a marriage in our family on the 17th, between Anne and Mr. Bankhead. All are well here.

A letter from Mr. Pinkney expresses a hope that the British Government will repeal their orders on his engagement that we will repeal our embargo. He infers this from a conversation with Canning; but I have little faith in diplomatic inferences, and less in Canning's good faith. Bonaparte being absent from Paris, we can get nothing important from thence. His beginning now for the first time to condemn our vessels augurs nothing friendly. I hope Spain will give him serious employment; for although nothing in the newspapers, except the public documents, is at all to be believed as to details, yet the information from our consuls shows a determined resistance. I am happy to hear of your own confirmed health as well as Francis's, and shall hope to see you both at Washington as usual. I salute you with affection and respect. TH. JEFFERSON.

The following letters in regard to Indian affairs explain themselves and the occasions under which they were written;