[Footnote 1:  Maclay’s History of the Navy, Vol.  I., pp. 305-308; McMaster’s History, Vol.  III., pp. 255-259.]

%257.  The Long Embargo.%—­The attack on the Chesapeake ought to have been followed by war.  But Jefferson merely demanded reparation from Great Britain, and when Congress met in December, 1807, asked for an embargo.  The request was granted, and merchant vessels in all the ports of the United States were forbidden to sail for a foreign country till the President saw fit to suspend the law.  The restriction was so sweeping and the damage done to American farmers, merchants, and shipowners so great, that the people began to evade it at once.  They would send their vessels to New Orleans and stop at the West Indies on the way.  They would send their flour, pork, rice, and lumber to St. Marys in Georgia and smuggle it over the river to Florida, or take it to the islands near Eastport in Maine and then smuggle it into New Brunswick.  Because of this, more stringent embargo laws were passed, and finally, in 1809, a “Force Act,” to compel obedience.  But smuggling went on so openly that there was nothing to do but use troops or lift the embargo.  In February, 1809, accordingly, the embargo laws, after fourteen months’ duration, were repealed.  Instead of them the Republicans enacted a Non-intercourse law which allowed the people to trade with all nations except England and France.[1]

[Footnote 1:  McMaster’s History, Vol.  III., pp. 279-338; Adams’s History, Vol.  IV., Chaps. 7, 11, 13, 15.]

%258.  Jefferson refuses a Third Term.%—­During 1806, the states of New Jersey, Vermont,[2] Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, Georgia, and North Carolina invited Jefferson to be President a third time.  For a while he made no reply, but in December, 1807, he declined, and gave this reason:  “That I should lay down my charge at a proper period is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully.  If some termination to the services of the Chief Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance.”  This wise answer was heartily approved by the people all over the country, and with Washington’s similar action established a custom which has been generally followed ever since.

[Footnote 2:  Vermont was admitted into the Union in 1791 (p. 243).]

As Jefferson would not accept a third term, a caucus of Republican members of Congress met one evening at the Capitol in Washington and nominated James Madison and George Clinton.  The Federalists held no caucus, but agreed among themselves to support C.C.  Pinckney and Rufus King.  Madison and Clinton were easily elected, and were sworn into office March 4, 1809.

[Illustration:  James Madison]