[Footnote 1:  So called because he was in Milan at the time, and dated it from that city.]

As a result of this series of French Decrees and British Orders in Council,[2] the English took 194 of our ships, and the French almost as many.

[Footnote 2:  On the Orders in Council and French Decrees, read Adams’s History of the United States, Vol.  III., Chap. 16; Vol.  IV., Chaps. 4, 5, and 6; McMaster’s History, Vol.  III., pp. 219-223; 249-250; 272-274.]

%255.  Jefferson’s Policy; Non-importation Act.%—­The policy by which Jefferson proposed to meet this emergency consisted of three parts: 

1.  Lay up the frigates and defend our coast and harbors by a number of small, swift-sailing craft, each carrying one gun in the stern.  In time of peace they were to be hauled up under sheds.  In time of war they were to be shoved into the water and manned by volunteers.  Between 1806 and 1812, 176 of these gunboats were built.

2.  Make a new treaty with Great Britain, because that made by Jay in 1794 was to expire in 1806.  Under the instructions of Jefferson, therefore, Monroe and Pinckney signed a new treaty in December, 1806.  But it said nothing about the impressment of our sailors, or about the right of our ships to go where they pleased, and was so bad in general that Jefferson would not even send it to the Senate.[3]

[Footnote 3:  No treaty can become a law unless approved by the President and two thirds of the Senate.]

3.  The third part of his policy consisted in doing what we should call “boycotting.”  He wanted a law which would forbid the importation into the United States of any article made, grown, or produced in Great Britain or any of her colonies.  Congress accordingly, in April, 1806, passed what was called a “Non-importation Act,” which prohibited not the importation of every sort of British goods, wares, and merchandise, but only a few which the people could make in this country; as paper, cards, leather goods, etc.  This was to go into force at the President’s pleasure.

%256.  The Chesapeake and the Leopard.%—­Such an attempt to punish Great Britain by cutting off a part of her trade was useless, and only made her more insolent than before.  Indeed, just a week after the President signed the non-importation bill, as one of our coasting vessels was entering the harbor of New York, a British vessel, wishing to stop and search her, fired a shot which struck the helmsman and killed him at the wheel.

About a year later, June, 1807, an attack more outrageous still was made on our frigate Chesapeake.  She was on her way from Washington to the Mediterranean, and was still in sight of land when a British vessel, the Leopard, hailed and stopped her and sent an officer on board with a demand for the delivery of deserters from the English navy.  The captain of the Chesapeake refused, the officer returned, and the Leopard opened fire.  To return the fire was impossible, for only a few of the guns of the Chesapeake were mounted.  At last one was discharged, and as by that time three men had been killed and eighteen wounded, Commander Barron of the Chesapeake surrendered.  Four men then were taken from her deck.  Three were Americans.  One was an Englishman, and he was hanged for desertion.[1]