The Oregon Country.—Jefferson also laid the basis for a further acquisition in the future by sending an expedition under Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the territory north of the then Spanish territory of California and west of the Rocky Mountains—the "Oregon country" as it was afterwards called. The explorations of this party (1804-06), with Capt. Robert Gray's discovery of the Columbia river (1792), made the best part of the claims of the United States to the country 4o years later.
Election of 1804.—Jefferson was re-elected in 1804. His great success as President was the acquisition of Louisiana, which was a violation of his party principles; but all his minor successes were, like this, recognitions of the national sovereignty which he disliked so much. After a short and brilliant naval war the Barbary pirates were reduced to submission (1805). The long-continued control of New Orleans by Spain, and the persistent intrigues of the Spanish authorities, looking towards a separation of the whole western country from the United States, had been ended by the acquisition of Louisiana. There still existed a dangerous ignorance of Federal power and control, of which Aaron Burr took advantage (1806-07). Organizing an expedition in Kentucky and Tennessee, probably for the conquest of the Spanish colony of Mexico, he was arrested on the lower Mississippi and brought back to Virginia. He was acquitted ; but the incident opened up a vaster view of the national authority than democracy had yet been able to take.
Jefferson and his party persistently refused to recognize the inherent power of the nation in international affairs. The Jay treaty expired in 1806 and American commerce was left to the course of events, Jefferson refusing to accept the only treaty which the British Government was willing to make. All the difficulties which followed may be summed up in a few words: the British Government was then the representative of the ancient system of restriction of commerce, and had a powerful Navy to enforce its ideas ; the American Government was endeavouring to force into international recognition the system of neutral rights and unre stricted commerce, but its suspicious democracy refused to give it a navy sufficient to command respect.
Neutral Commerce.—Great Britain was now at war, from time to time, with almost every other nation of Europe. In time of peace European nations followed generally the old restrictive principle of allowing another nation, like the United States, no commercial access to their colonies; but, when they were at war with Great Britain, whose Navy controlled the ocean, they were very willing to allow the neutral American merchantmen to carry away their surplus colonial produce. Great Britain had insisted
for so years that the neutral nation, in such cases, was really inter vening in the war as an ally of her enemy; but she had so far modified her claim as to admit that "transhipment," or breaking bulk, in the United States was enough to qualify the commerce for recognition. The neutral nation thus gained a double freight, and grew rich in the traffic; the belligerent nations no longer had com merce afloat for British vessels to capture; and the "frauds of the neutral flags" became a standing subject of complaint among British merchants and naval officers. About 18o5 British prize courts began to disregard transhipment and to condemn American vessels which made the voyage from a European colony to the mother country by way of the United States.
Impressment.—The question of expatriation, too, furnished a good many burning grievances. Great Britain maintained the old German rule of perpetual allegiance, though she had modified it by allowing the right of emigration. The United States, founded by immigration, was anxious to establish the right of the subject to divest himself of allegiance by naturalization under a foreign jurisdiction. Four facts thus tended to break off friendly rela tions: (I) Great Britain's claim to allegiance over American naturalized subjects; (2) her claim to the belligerent right of search of neutral vessels; (3) her claim of right to impress for her vessels of war her subjects who were seamen wherever found; and (4) the difficulty of distinguishing native-born American from British subjects, even if the right to impress naturalized American subjects were granted. British naval officers even under took to consider all who spoke the English language as British subjects, unless they could produce proof that they were native born Americans. The American sailor who lost his papers was thus open to impressment. A particularly flagrant case of seizure of Americans occurred in 1807. On June 27 the British ship "Leopard" fired upon the American frigate "Chesapeake," which, of ter having lost three men killed and 18 wounded, hauled down its flag; the British commander then seized four of the "Chesa peake's" crew. This action aroused intense anger throughout the country, and but for the impotence of the Government would undoubtedly have led to immediate war. The American Govern ment in 18io published the cases of such impressments since 1803 as numbering over 4,000, about one-third of the cases result ing in the discharge of the impressed man.