The diplomatic neutrality of the United States was tested during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). The warring nations of Britain and France both imposed trade restrictions in order to weaken each other's economies. These restrictions also disrupted American trade and threatened American neutrality. As time went on, British harassment of American ships increased. Controversial measures included British impressment of American men and seizure of American goods. After the Chesapeake Affair in June 1807, pitting the British warship Leopard against the American frigate Chesapeake, President Thomas Jefferson faced a decision regarding the situation at hand. Ultimately, he chose an economic option to assert American rights: The Embargo Act of 1807.Anchor
Impressment
Although not restricted to the presidential administrations of Jefferson and James Madison, the on-going impressment of American sailors became a key issue for the United States during the Napoleonic Wars. After witnessing the horrors of war with France, many British sailors deserted His Majesty's navy and enlisted in the American merchant marines. In order to retrieve the deserters, British "press gangs" came aboard American ships. The British, however, tended to take anyone who could pass as a British soldier – unless the sailor could prove his American citizenship. Approximately 1,000, out of the estimated 10,000 men taken from American ships, were proven to have British citizenship.[1]
James Madison had summed up the contrasting points of view in an 1804 letter to James Monroe:
[W]e consider a neutral flag on the high seas as a safeguard to those sailing under it. Great Britain on the contrary asserts a right to search for and seize her own subjects; and under that cover, as cannot but happen, are often seized and taken off, citizens of the United States and citizens or subjects of other neutral countries, navigating the high seas, under the protection of the American flag.[2]
In January 1806, President Jefferson delivered a message to Congress concerning impressment:
On the impressment of our Seamen, our remonstrances have never been intermitted. a hope existed, at one moment, of an arrangement which might have been submitted to. but it soon passed away, & the practice, tho' relaxed at times in the distant seas, has been constantly pursued in those in our neighborhood.[3]
Jefferson's statements heightened anti-British sentiment among American citizens.
One DOMESTIC (inside the nation) issue faced by Thomas Jefferson while he was president was: Embargo Act of 1807
He faced this challenge