An American history . t forour naval weakness by negotiating with Monroe a treaty so in-sulting to our commercial independence that Jefferson wouldnot even send it to theSenate for , many Brit-ish frigates cruised alongour shores from NewEngland to Georgia,stopping our ships atwill, boarding them, andtaking off scores of sail-ors on the ground thatthey were English de-serters. To be sure, theprovocation of Englandwas great. At a timewhen she needed every man and gun in her desperate struggle with Napoleon, Britishseamen were leaving her ships by hundreds to take advant
An American history . t forour naval weakness by negotiating with Monroe a treaty so in-sulting to our commercial independence that Jefferson wouldnot even send it to theSenate for , many Brit-ish frigates cruised alongour shores from NewEngland to Georgia,stopping our ships atwill, boarding them, andtaking off scores of sail-ors on the ground thatthey were English de-serters. To be sure, theprovocation of Englandwas great. At a timewhen she needed every man and gun in her desperate struggle with Napoleon, Britishseamen were leaving her ships by hundreds to take advantageof the high wages, good food, and humane treatment whichthey found aboard the American vessels. If the British lieu-tenant conducted his examination of an American crew in asummary fashion, and impressed a good many real Ameri-cans among the suspected deserters to serve the guns of theBritish frigates, he thought he was only erring on the rightside. After all. Englishmen and Americans were not so easyto tell Impressing American Seamen 2I( The New Republic 290. TheChesapeakeaffair, 1807 291. Con-gress lays anembargo onAmericanships, Decem-ber 22, 1807 292. Presi-dent Madi-sonsdesperatediplomacy,1809-1810 The climax was reached when the British ship Leopard openedfire on the American frigate Chesapeake off the Virginia coast,June 22, 1807, because the American refused to stop to besearched for deserters. Three of the Chesapeakes men werekilled and eighteen wounded before she surrendered. It was anact of war. The country was stirred as it had not been sincethe news of the battle of Lexington. Resolutions poured iftupon the President pledging the signers to support the mostrigorous measures of resistance. But Jefferson had no more rigorous measures of resistanceto propose, in the absence of a navy, than an embargo on foreigncommerce. By an act of Congress of December 22, 1807, allships were forbidden to leave our harbors for foreign double purpose of the embarg
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