Jefferson later explained why he thought the embargo was the best choice of action.
He said if American ships had sailed out of American waters, they would have been seized by Britain or France. That would have forced the United States into war. Jefferson said it was far better to stop all contact with these nations until they returned to some sense of justice.
Jefferson acted to protect American traders, ship owners and sailors. Yet those were the people who protested the loudest against the ban. They were willing to take the chance of having Britain or France seize their ship and goods. They could not make any money without trade.
The situation quickly turned into a political battle between the Jeffersonian Republicans and the opposition Federalists.
Federalist newspapers attacked Jefferson. They called him a tool of France and its leader. They charged that Jefferson supported the trade ban to help Napoleon Bonaparte.
One Federalist senator wrote a pamphlet against the embargo. He urged northeastern states to refuse to enforce it. Then he went even further. He met secretly with a British official who was sent to Washington to discuss the situation. He told the British official that Jefferson would be forced out of office because of the embargo.
Jefferson simply wished to give the trade embargo a fair chance. He considered the embargo less evil than war. But after a time, he thought, this will not be so. If the war should continue in Europe, and if Britain and France continue to act against us, then it would be for Congress to say if war would not be better than the embargo.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
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2013-11-25