thought him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine whose aim or stroke you could never be sure of. Still, while he possessed the confidence of the nation, I thought it my duty to respect in him their confidence, and to treat him as if he deserved it."

The hearing on the indictment of Burr began on the date set. Richmond was crowded with men attracted thither by a variety of motives. Most of them made no concealment of sympathy with Burr, and every social and class influence was exerted in his favor. The course of the Chief Justice alarmed all Republicans. Still refusing to commit Burr for treason, he granted the motion of Burr's counsel, and issued a subpoena calling for the presence of the President as a witness in the case. Jefferson had hitherto borne the insults and sneers of Luther Martin, Burr's leading counsel, with something like patience, but this ruling of Marshall stirred him to anger. He defied the summons of the court, basing his refusal to obey it upon the fundamental independence of the three departments of government. In the first flush of his resentment he wished to have Luther Martin committed as particeps criminis with Burr. Nothing, however, was done in this direction.

A new source of irritation now arose. Gen. Wilkinson came on from the West to take the stand as the chief witness for the prosecution. The world knew that Wilkinson had long been engaged with Burr, had been the recipient of his confidence, and had basely used this intimacy to ingratiate himself with the government. He was the object of universal loathing at Richmond. Yet Jefferson was forced to stand sponsor for him. On the witness stand Wilkinson was worse than useless to Jefferson. John Randolph, of Roanoke, was foreman of the grand jury. Bitterly as he hated Jefferson, as between Jefferson and Burr he was for aiding the former; but when Jefferson stooped to rely on Wilkinson, Randolph's aid was at an end. With Burr's counsel he was for indicting Wilkinson along with Burr, but his effort to do this failed: Burr alone was indicted on a charge of treason, and his trial was set for August 3rd. Thus far

the President's successes had more than counterbalanced the defeats he had met.

When the third stage of this remarkable trial began, the government put numerous witnesses on the stand. Nothing, however, proved the overt treason charged in the indictment. The case went to the jury, and, after a day's deliberation, Burr was pronounced not guilty of the charge of treason.

The charge of high misdemeanor yet remained. Burr gave new bail; a new jury was sworn; and the new indictment was read on September 9th. The question of jurisdiction was now raised. By the consent of both sides, Burr and one of his colleagues, Blennerhassett, were committed for preparing an expedition against a foreign nation with whom the United States were at peace, and were bound over to appear before the Circuit court of the United States to be held at Chillicothe, Ohio, in January, 1808. Neither appeared. Their bonds were forfeited and they fled abroad.

The government welcomed such a solution of the matter. Jefferson had no cause for self-congratulations on any part of the whole Burr episode. During its latter stages he had raised questions as to the relative power of the departments of government impossible of solution. The chasm between the Executive and Judicial* branches was widened; and this was the only permanent result of the conspiracy and trial of Burr.

While Jefferson was thus absorbed in domestic events, there was no improvement in our relations with England. A year had passed and the outrage perpetrated off Sandy Hook was not once explained or apologized for. Monroe and Pinckney had negotiated a treaty, and the State Department at Washington had received it in March, 1807. Its provisions were extremely unsatisfactory and the tone of England was haughty. To have presented it to Congress would have meant war. Jefferson, therefore, in his sincere desire to preserve peace, did not lay it before that body, but allowed it to disperse without a word

*See Judiciary, Federal, page 273. Also Supreme Court, page 401.

on the subject. Jefferson wrote Monroe that the treaty could not be ratified; but urged him to delay negotiations to gain time "the most precious of all things to us."

In the midst of the tension (for rumors of the nature of the treaty had spread through the country) the outrage of the previous year was repeated, with even more exasperating and humiliating particulars, when in June, 1807, the Chesapeake was fired into by the Leopard, a British man-of-war, outside the Capes at Norfolk. The Chesapeake, though a frigate intended for fighting, was totally unprepared for action. Three of her crew were killed and eighteen wounded. After having been severely crippled she surrendered and was searched. The British commander refused to receive her as a prize, and with difficulty she made her way back to Hampton Roads.

As before, Jefferson issued a proclamation calling for the departure from American waters of all armed vessels belonging to Great Britain, and, in the event of their refusal to depart, forbidding them to be supplied with the necessaries of life. A special messenger was sent to England to demand satisfaction. But the futility of these two measures was everywhere recognized. Republicans as well as Federalists called upon the President for action-for action that should show a spirit worthy of respect from a foreign nation. Congress was called to meet in special session in October, when the President hoped to be able to announce from England a more conciliatory policy. But the hope was vain. Monroe's career in England had been a succession of failures, and he had returned to America in no cordial mood towards Jefferson, the author of the innumerable humiliations which he had been made to suffer. The contemptuous attitude of England culminated in November, 1807, when the King approved new orders in Council for the suppression of American interests on the sea. Napoleon's successes on land had broken down all semblance of neutrality among the powers of Europe. He forced every country to take the side either of France or of England. England had only her naval power with which to oppose this coercion. According to the new orders, American shipping was held to be no longer

neutral, for it had not observed impartiality toward belligerents, and had obeyed Napoleon's paper blockades established by the Berlin Decree a year before.

The new British orders threw the country into an uproar. Jefferson had called Congress to meet in special session, but he had no solution to propose for the troubles which beset the country. He dwelt on the necessity of preparations for coast defense, but was feeble and halting in his recommendations for a land force. His most ardent admirers could not but feel the inadequacy of every measure suggested.

Nothing was done for two months after the assembling of Congress, save to wait for some possible news from England of a favorable character. All hopes of an amicable adjustment of the trouble were swept away when, in December, England's Orders in Council reached the President. It was now thought that Jefferson must take a stand. He must give up his lifelong dream of peace and accept war. But neither Europe nor his own country knew the extraordinary tenacity with which Jefferson adhered to an idea. He now adopted the most extraordinary 'course ever devised to avoid war. With the aid of Madison he formulated a brief message to Congress recommending to it the advantages which might be expected from an inhibition of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States. Despite the vehement remonstrance of Gallatin, the one adviser for whose opinion he had profound respect, he sent the message with a packet of documents to both Houses. The Senate at once went into secret session. Now ensued a process of legislation as extraordinary as was the purpose underlying it. In a few minutes a bill was drawn up embodying the President's wishes. The rule of three separate readings on three separate days was suspended. No debate was allowed. Within four hours a bill had been passed which laid an embargo for an indefinite period on all shipping within the ports of the United States. But the House was less subservient than the Senate. Though it went immediately into secret session, the passage of the bill was delayed three days. John Randolph, of Roanoke, leading the Quids and Federalists, eagerly welcomed

the opportunity to embarrass and alarm the President. As fast as one modification of the Senate Bill was voted down, he presented another. No limitation was allowed to the time for which the embargo was to prevail, nor was any class of vessels, except at the discretion of the President, to be exempted. Five days after the Orders in Council reached Jefferson, he signed the act for an absolute embargo and thus became master of the commerce of his country-a power to which neither George III nor Napoleon had ever approached. The reason assigned for the measure was that a lack of trade with the United States would bring England to her knees.

The effects of the Embargo Act were almost immediately felt, and they were felt first by that section of country always most inimical to Republicanism—that is, by New England and the parts of New York adjacent to Canada, where the shipping trade was the chief source of revenue. To suspend this trade even for a day would produce results of inconvenience in thousands of homes. To suspend it indefinitely meant starvation for the laboring classes and ruin for the wealthy and the moderately well-to-do. Smuggling was inevitable. At first, it was engaged in by the bold and lawless. As the pinch of necessity became greater, it was taken up by citizens usually law abiding. To enforce the law in great seaports and centers of population was not difficult, but to enforce it along the Canadian border was impossible. Jefferson issued a proclamation directed against the people around Lake Champlain as conspirators and insurgents. The proclamation was not heeded, and acts of violence became frequent along the whole border. More serious for the President than these insurrections was the steady opposition developed in the thickly settled sections of New England, where town after town passed resolutions denouncing the act and even threatening a dissolution of the Union. The election in many of those States had in the spring gone overwhelmingly Anti-Republican. When Congress met in November, 1808, the Federalists felt bold enough to move the repeal of the Embargo Act. The administration had nothing to show as its results but suffering at home and failure abroad. The President