EMBARGO IN THE UNITED STATES. Prohibition of foreign commerce, to distress foreign countries and obtain the revocation of hostile measures; "peaceful war,'" intended to be cheaper than actual warfare and equally efficient, but in fact injuring ourselves deeply and the others little, and ending in real war at last. Our embargoes belong exclusively to the French-English wars of 1794-1814. Their ulti mate cause was that the agricultural classes, who controlled the administration, did not be lieve in commerce, and preferred abolishing it to spending anything for its protection; more over, they were mainly Southern and Demo cratic, the commercial interests mainly New England and Federalist, and the former were not loath to spare themselves the cost of war by impoverishing the latter. The first embargo was for 60 days, due to mutual orders of France and England for seizure of neutrals which placed the United States between hammer and anvil. Jay's Treaty (q.v.) of 19 Nov. 1794, for 12 years measurablyprotected our commerce, but near its end conditions became infinitely worse. In 1806-07 the thronging mutual blows of Eng land and Napoleon, ending in the former's Orders in Council of 11 November, and the lat ter's Milan Decree of 7 Dec. 1807, made prac tically every neutral vessel good prize to one or the other. Even more intolerable were the rights of search and impressment claimed by Great Britain, which swept several hundred American sailors every year into the British fleets, and in one massacre (see CHESAPEAKE AND LEOPARD) outraged and humiliated this country beyond forgiveness. But aside from the reasons above given, few landsmen believed till the victory of Old Ironsides (see Cozens TUTION, THE) that American ships could fight English on equal terms, and it was the general conviction that in case of war our entire fleet would at once be (that is, captured bodily and added to the British fleet, as was the Danish). At Jefferson's recom mendation, therefore, The Embargo was passed 22 Dec. 1807, forbidding all foreign cora merce till the obnoxious decrees were repealed. The havoc not only in trade but in the interior life of the people was terrific; the exports fell from $110,084,207 in 1807 to $22,430,960 in 1808. The farming sections were dismayed to find that commerce meant part of their daily bread as well as the carrier's profits and that they raised and sold much of that $87,000,000; but they clung all the more stubbornly to their anti war recipe, though England and France ap proved it highly. Napoleon was glad to see his
enemy drifting into war with a western power; England was glad to regain her carrying trade and see Canada and Nova Scotia receive Amer ican capital. Meantime New England fought it with the fierceness of a struggle for life; evaded it largely by sea and sent armies of smugglers overland to Canada. Congress then extended the act to rivers, lakes and bays, and allowed collectors to seize on suspicion; and the next Congress, 9 Jan. 1809, passed a savage enforcing act with all the fury of baffled doc trinaires, imposing enormous fines, forfeitures and bonds and making the collectors supreme despots of their districts. New England was nearly in insurrection; the collectors were in danger of the fate of those under the Stamp Act, some resigned, others were sued in the State courts; the judges would give no findings against smugglers; finally, the States threatened nullification and John Quincy Adams (a victim to its support) declared that they had resolved to withdraw from the Union at least tempo rarily, if force were used, and had opened nego tiations with •Great Britain. A Federalist de clared in the Senate that blood would flow. The Democrats were frightened and hastily fixed (3 Feb. 1809) 4 March for its discontinu ance. But the next month they had regained courage and passed a gnon-intercourse to take its place; still prohibiting intercourse with France or Great Britain, but restoring it with other countries and allowing free coasting trade. This policy was continued till the War of 1812 opened. The hostility of New England to the war, only less destructive than the embargo and against her political feelings, induced the British government ostentatiously to relieve that section from the blockade, to sow discord and make a base of naval supplies; and on 17 Dec. 1813 a new embargo was laid to 1 Jan. 1815, which, however, was repealed 14 April 1814. Jefferson always asserted that the policy was the best and the embargo would have accomplished its object if New England would only have helped. It is now pretty generally agreed that the laying of the embargo was a great political and economic mistake and it is certain that, as a result of it, American shipping sustained between 1807 and 1815 almost irreparable damage. Consult his tories of the United States through this period, as Schouler, McMaster, etc.; especially Henry Adams' 'History,' covering 1801-15, devoted to the causes and consequences of these measures.