Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812. Volume 1

1

Order in Council was a general term applied to all orders touching affairs, internal as well as external, issued by the King in Council. The particular orders here in question, by their extraordinary character and wide application, came to have a kind of sole title to the expression in the diplomatic correspondence between the two countries.

2

Instructions of Madison, Secretary of State, to Monroe, Minister to Great Britain, January 5, 1804. Article I. American State Papers, vol. iii. p. 82.

3

Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. ii. pp. 508, 546.

4

Annals of Congress. Thirteenth Congress, vol. ii. pp. 1563; 1555-1558.

5

Niles' Register, vol. iv. p. 234. Author's italics.

6

Diary and Letters, vol. ii. p. 553.

7

Ibid., p. 560. Those unfamiliar with the subject should be cautioned that the expression "right of search" is confined here, not quite accurately, to searching for British subjects liable to impressment. This right the United States denied. The "right of search" to determine the nationality of the vessel, and the character of the voyage, was admitted to belligerents then, as it is now, by all neutrals.

8

King John, Act II. Scene 1.

9

King Richard II., Act II. Scene 1.

10

Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by J.E. Thorold Rogers. Oxford, 1880, pp. 35-38. In a subsequent passage (p. 178), Smith seems disposed somewhat to qualify the positive assertion here quoted, on the ground that the Navigation Act had not had time to exert much effect, at the period when some of the most decisive successes over the Dutch were won. It is to be observed, however, that a vigorous military government, such as Cromwell's was, can assert itself in the fleet as well as in the army, creating an effective organization out of scanty materials, especially when at war with a commercial state of weak military constitution, like Holland. It was the story of Rome and Carthage repeated. Louis XIV. for a while accomplished the same. But under the laxity of a liberal popular government, which England increasingly enjoyed after the Restoration, naval power could be based securely only upon a strong, available, and permanent maritime element in the civil body politic; that is, on a mercantile marine.

As regards the working of the Navigation Act to this end, whatever may be argued as to the economical expediency of protecting a particular industry, there is no possible doubt that such an industry can be built up, to huge proportions, by sagacious protection consistently enforced. The whole history of protection demonstrates this, and the Navigation Act did in its day. It created the British carrying trade, and in it provided for the Royal Navy an abundant and accessible reserve of raw material, capable of being rapidly manufactured into naval seamen in an hour of emergency.

11

Works of John Adams, vol. viii. pp. 389-390.

12

This primary meaning of the word "staple" seems to have disappeared from common use, in which it is now applied to the commercial articles, the concentration of which at a particular port made that port a "staple."

13

Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 448.

14

Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 443.

15

Reeves, History of the Law of Navigation, Dublin, 1792, p. 37.

16

Macpherson, vol. ii. p. 444.

17

Reeves, writing in 1792, says that there seemed then no distinction of meaning between "plantation" and "colony." Plantation was the earlier term; "'colony' did not come much into use till the reign of Charles II., and it seems to have denoted the political relation." (p. 109.) By derivation both words express the idea of cultivating new ground, or establishing a new settlement; but "plantation" seems to associate itself more with the industrial beginnings, and "colony" with the formal regulative purpose of the parent state.

18

The Navigation Acts of 1651, 1660, 1662, and 1663, as well as other subsequent measures of the same character, can be found, conveniently for American readers, in MacDonald's Select Charters Illustrative of American History. Macmillan, New York. 1899.

19

Reeves, History of the Law of Navigation, p. 162.

20

For instance, in 1769, eighteen hundred and forty vessels passed the Sound in the British trade. Of these only thirty-five were Russian. Considerably more than half of the trade of St. Petersburg with Europe at large was done in British ships. Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 493.

21

Opinion of Chief Baron Parker, quoted by Reeves, pp. 187-189.

22

Chalmers, Opinions on Interesting Subjects of Public Law and Commercial Policy Arising from American Independence, p. 32.

23

Ibid., p. 55.

24

A French naval historian supports them, speaking of the year 1781: "The considerable armaments made since 1778 had exhausted the resources of personnel. To remedy the difficulty the complements were filled up with coast-guard militia, with marine troops until then employed only to form the guards of the ships, and finally with what were called 'novices volontaires,' who were landsmen recruited by bounties. It may be imagined what crews were formed with such elements."—Troude, Batailles Navales, vol. ii. p. 202.

25

Raynal, Histoire Philosophique des deux Indes, vol. vii. p. 287 (Edition 1820). Raynal's reputation is that of a plagiarist, but his best work is attributed to far greater names of his time. He died in 1796.

26

Reeves, pp. 430-434.

27

Macpherson, vol. iv. p. 10.

28

Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 485-486.

29

Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 450.

30

Officially, Statute of 15 Charles II.

31

Reeves, p. 50.

32

Chalmers, Opinions on Interesting Subjects, p. 28.

33

Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 443-444 (3d Edition).

34

Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 228.

35

Compare with Sheffield, Observations on the Commerce of the American States (Edition February, 1784), p. 137, note; from which, indeed, these figures seem to have been taken, or from some common source.

36

Coxe's View of the United States of America, Philadelphia, 1794, p. 330.

37

Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 341. Adams says again, himself: "It is more and more manifest every day that there is, and will continue, a general scramble for navigation. Carrying trade, ship-building, fisheries, are the cry of every nation."—Vol. viii. p. 342.

38

From an official statement, made public in 1784, it appears that in the year 1770 the total trade, inward and outward, of the colonies on the American Continent, amounted to 750,546 tons. Of this 32 per cent was coastwise, to other members of the group; 30 with the West Indies; 27 with Great Britain and Ireland; and 11 with Southern Europe. Bermuda and the Bahamas, inconsiderable as to trade, were returned among continental colonies by the Custom House.—Sheffield, Commerce of the American States, Table VII.

39

Chalmers, Opinions, p. 73.

40

Ibid., p. 18.

41

Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 317.

42

Report of Committee of Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, pp. 21-23.

43

Ante, p. 31 (note).

44

Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 486.

45

Chalmers, Opinions, p. 133.

46

See, for instance, the Colden Papers, Proceedings N.Y. Historical Society, 1877. There is in these much curious economical information of other kinds.

47

A comparison of the figures just quoted, as to the British West Indies, with Sheffield's Table VII., indicates that the trade of the Continent with the foreign islands about equalled that with the British. The trade with the French West Indies, "open or clandestine, was considerable, and wholly in American vessels."—Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 584.

48

Sheffield, Commerce of the American States, p. 108.

49

That is, for the navy.

50

Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. iii. p. 472.

51

Macpherson, vol. iv. p. 11. The great West India cargo of 1772, an especial preserve of the Navigation Act, was carried to England in 679 ships, of which one-third were built in America.

52

"The contraband trade carried on by plantation ships in defiance of the Act of Navigation was a subject of repeated complaint." "The laws of Navigation were nowhere disobeyed and contemned so openly as in New England. The people of Massachusetts Bay were from the first disposed to act as if independent of the mother country."—Reeves, pp. 54, 58. The particular quotations apply to the early days of the measure, 1662-3; but the complaint continued to the end. In 1764-5, "one of the great grievances in the American trade was, that great quantities of foreign molasses and syrups were clandestinely run on shore in the British Colonies."—p. 79.

53

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 82.

54

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 121.

55

Commerce of the American States (Edition February, 1784), pp. 198-199.

56

Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 290.

57

Washington's Correspondence, 1787, edited by W.C. Ford, vol. viii. pp. 159, 160, 254.

58

Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, p. 20.

59

Chalmers, Opinions, p. 32.

60

Jurien de la Gravière, Guerres Maritimes, Paris, 1847, vol. ii. p. 238.

61

Canada, Newfoundland, Bermuda, etc.

62

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 303.

63

p. 288.

64

Coxe, View of the United States, p. 346.

65

Reeves, p. 381. Nevertheless, foreign nations frequently complained of this as a distinction against them (Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, p. 10).

66

Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 494 (note).

67

Coxe's View, p. 318.

68

American State Papers, Foreign Affairs, vol. i. p. 301. Jefferson added, "These imports consist mostly of articles on which industry has been exhausted,"—i.e., completed manufactures. The State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, give the tabulated imports and exports for many succeeding years.

69

Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 333.

70

Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 291.

71

My italics.

72

Chalmers, Opinions, p. 65.

73

Reeves, pp. 47, 57.

74

Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 281.

75

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 307.

76

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 304.

77

Morris to Randolph (Secretary of State), May 31, 1794. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 409. The italics are Morris's.

78

Quoted from De Witt's Interest of Holland, in Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 472.

79

Observations on the Commerce of the American States, 1783, p. 115. Concerning this pamphlet, Gibbon wrote, "The Navigation Act, the palladium of Britain, was defended, perhaps saved, by his pen."

80

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. pp. 296-299.

81

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 474.

82

West Indies, vol. ii. page 522, note.

83

Opinions, p. 89.

84

Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 506.

85

Ibid., vol. iv. p. 158.

86

Bryan Edwards, himself a planter of the time, says (vol. ii. p. 522) that staves and lumber had risen 37 per cent in the British islands, which he attributes to the extortions of the navigation monopoly, "under the present limited intercourse with America." Coxe (View, etc., p. 134) gives lists of comparative prices, in 1790, June to November, in the neighboring islands of Santo Domingo and Jamaica, which show forcibly the burdens under which the latter labored.

87

Chalmers, in one of his works quoted by Macpherson (vol. iii. p. 559), estimates the annual entries of American-built ships to British ports, 1771-74, to be 34,587 tons. From this figure the falling off was marked.

88

Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, p. 39.

89

This awkward expression means that the amount of decrease was rather less than half the before-the-war total.

90

June 18, 1784, substantially the re-issue of that of Dec. 26, 1783, which Reeves (p. 288) considers the standard exemplar.

91

Reeves, p. 431.

92

American State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, vol. x. p. 389.

93

Ibid., Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 301.

94

Ibid., Commerce and Navigation, vol. x. p. 528.

95

Ibid., p. 584.

96

Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. iv. p. 535.

97

Ante, pp. 77, 78.

98

Report of the Committee, p. 85.

99

Ibid., p. 52.

100

Report, p. 96.

101

Ibid., p. 94.

102

American State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, vol. x. p. 47.

103

Ibid., p. 45.

104

Ibid., p. 24.

105

Coxe, p. 171.

106

Committee's estimate; Report, p. 43.

107

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 472.

108

Wheaton's International Law, p. 753.

109

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 476.

110

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. pp. 472-474.

111

Ibid., p. 503.

112

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 522.

113

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 491.

114

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 263.

115

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 265.

116

Ibid., p. 266.

117

Ibid., p. 175.

118

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 98.

119

History of the United States, by Henry Adams, vol. ii. p. 423.

120

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 491.

121

Ibid., vol. iii. p. 145.

122

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 114.

123

Monroe to Madison, April 28, 1806. American State Papers, vol. iii. p. 117.

124

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 111.

125

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 109, 107.

126

Ibid., p. 118.

127

For the text of this measure, see American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 267.

128

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 443.

129

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 446.

130

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 195. Author's italics.

131

Ibid., p. 371.

132

See, particularly, Foster to Monroe, July 3, 1811. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 436.

133

Ibid., pp. 428, 439.

134

The Instructions to Monroe and Pinkney are found in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 120.

135

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 200, 201.

136

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 148.

137

Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, edited by George L. Rives, New York, 1894. For instances, see Index, Impressment.

138

Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 456.

139

Ante, p. 6.

140

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. pp. 123-124.

141

Jefferson's Works, Letter to T. Pinckney, Minister to Great Britain, June 11, 1792.

142

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. pp. 145-150.

143

See, for example, Naval Chronicle, vol. xxvi. pp. 215-221, 306-309.

144

Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, vol. iii. p. 115.

145

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 150.

146

Ibid., p. 493.

147

Niles' Register, vol. v. p. 343.

148

Correspondence, p. 210.

149

Correspondence, p. 219.

150

Ante, p. 7.

151

Niles' Register, vol. v. Supplement, p. 105.

152

King to Thomas Erskine. Life of King, vol. iii. p. 401.

153

Russell to the Secretary of State, Sept. 17, 1812. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 593.

154

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. pp. 427, 473.

155

Ibid., vol. iii. p. 90.

156

Ibid., p. 98.

157

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. pp. 776-798.

158

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 131. Author's italics.

159

For the American report of these interviews, see Ibid., pp. 133-135.

160

Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, vol. xxvi. p. 1103.

161

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 137-140.

162

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 140.

163

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 140.

164

Ibid., p. 139.

165

Ibid., pp. 166-173.

166

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 198.

167

Niles' Register, vol. v. p. 377.

168

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 139.

169

Ibid., p. 161.

170

Ibid., p. 173.

171

Niles' Register, vol. v. Supplement, p. 102.

172

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 152.

173

Ibid., p. 147.

174

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 290.

175

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 488.

176

That is, as restrictive of neutral shipping.

177

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 410.

178

Wellesley, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Pinkney, Dec. 29, 1810; also, Feb. 11, 1811. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 409, 412. See also Sir Wm. Scott, in the Court of Admiralty, Ibid., p. 421.

179

Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, chaps. xvii., xviii.

180

Declaration of the King's reservations, Dec. 31, 1806. American State Papers, vol. iii. p. 152.

181

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 159.

182

Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, vol. x. p. 1274.

183

Aug. 12, 1805. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 104.

184

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 158.

185

Jonathan Russell to the Secretary of State, Nov. 15, 1811. U.S. State Department MSS.

186

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 154, 160.

187

Ibid., p. 166.

188

The British Commissioners to Monroe and Pinkney, Nov. 8, 1806. Ibid., p. 140.

189

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 187.

190

American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 188. Author's italics.

191

Monroe to Madison, Aug. 4, 1807. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 186.