The Eagle, the
Tiger, and the Shark
|
I |
n 1804, Jefferson was
easily reelected, carrying every state except Connecticut and Delaware. His
second term began, he later wrote, ``without a cloud on the horizon.'' But
storm clouds soon gathered as result of a war between Britain and France.
In May 1803, just two
weeks after Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States, France declared war
on Britain. The war lasted 12 years. In
1805, France defeated the armies of Austria and Russia and gained control of
much of continental Europe. Napoleon
then massed his troops for an invasion of England. But at the battle of Trafalgar off the Spanish coast, the British
fleet captured 14,000 French and Spanish sailors. Britain was now master of the
seas; but France remained supreme on the land.
As part of his overall
strategy to bring Britain to its knees, Napoleon closed European ports to
British goods and ordered the seizure of any vessel that carried British goods
or stopped in a British port. Britain retaliated in 1807 by issuing Orders in
Council, which required all ships to land at a British port to obtain a license
and pay a tariff. United States shipping was caught in the crossfire. France
seized 500 ships and Britain nearly 1000.
The most outrageous
violation of America's rights was the British practice of impressment. The
British navy desperately needed sailors. Unable to get enough volunteers, the
British navy seized‑‑impressed‑‑men on streets and in
taverns. When these efforts failed to muster sufficient men, the British began
to stop foreign ships and remove seamen alleged to be British subjects. By
1811, nearly 10,000 American sailors had been forced into the British navy. Some
were actually deserters from British ships who made more money sailing on U.S.
ships.
Outrage over impressment reached a fever pitch in 1807 when the British man‑of‑war Leopard fired at the American naval frigate Chesapeake, killing three American sailors. British authorities then boarded the American ship and removed 4 sailors, only 1 of whom was really a British subject.