Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

The foreign relations of the U.S. were shaped by the wars of revolutionary and then Napoleonic France which, except for a few brief pauses, lasted from 1792 until 1815.

Republicans and Federalists both believed in staying neutral with regards to the wars happening across the world that were the result of French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Unlike the Federalists, Republicans insisted (to the point of being willing to go to war over it) on the rights of the U.S. to trade with belligerent nations.

Neutral shipping was so important to the Republicans, who generally weren’t fans of merchants, because if America was to be their ideal agricultural state then it would require markets for its surplus agricultural goods.

Neutral shipping was important to many Americans, especially Northern merchants who were largely Federalists, because America made substantial money from its trade with Europe.

America re-exported goods from the French West Indies to France who wasn’t able to themselves due to British control of the seas and also had a very established trade with India and re-exported goods from Indian markets to European markets.

From 1795 to 1805 the U.S. traded with India more than all of the the European nations combined did.

The U.S. became the largest neutral exporter in the world.

As America was such a large trading partner with the British, Republicans believed that America was also Britain’s most important trading partner and, as such, sought to pressure the British into respecting neutral shipping.

The ability to do so was seriously limited by Jay’s Treaty which prohibited America taking actions against British trade.

Republicans despised the British for a variety of reasons with a main one being that after the Revolution the U.S. was still so commercially dependent on its former mother country.

The Republican aim to change British mercantilist policies wasn’t for more than commercial interests; it had to do with notions of honor and politics as Republicans sought acknowledgement of their nation’s importance on the world stage.

Republicans supported free trade not just for economic reasons but for reasons of promoting peace.

Republicans believed that republics and free trade led could lead to world peace and they set out to achieve it.

Jefferson viewed the trouble the U.S. had with Barbary pirates as being related to the problems with England.

England and France, to protect their commercial interests paid tribute to the Barbary States as well as bribes for the states to attack vessels of smaller nations attempting to trade in the Mediterranean.

The capture of American ships, sometimes encouraged by the British, by these states went against America’s liberal views of trade, its honor, and made the U.S. seem as if it were not capable of defending itself.

Realizing the costs of potential war were greater than the costs of a peace treaty and the fact that the frigates authorized by Congress wouldn’t be built for several years the U.S. ended up signing peace treaties with all Barbary States by the end of the 1790s which included tributes and ransoms which cost more than 20% of the federal budget.

Still, after signing the treaties, Tripoli declared war on the U.S. and seized American merchant ships again.

Jefferson authorized action against Tripoli which included an operation between U.S. agents and the pasha of Tripoli’s brother to overthrow the Tripolitan government.

While the operation made progress eventually peace was reached before the land forces could reach Tripoli.

America’s prosperous carrying trade became threatened when Britain denied the legality of “broken voyages” (French goods from the West Indies being allowed to go to French ports so long as the goods first stopped in a neutral nation like the U.S.) in 1805 and began seizing American vessels.

While many of the vice-admiralty courts deciding cases against American vessels were actually pretty impartial and the appeals process in British courts often found in favor of U.S. vessels that process took time and, more importantly, Americans were deeply hostile to the idea that the British government could dictate to Americans what trade was and wasn’t allowed.

On top of the seizing of American vessels the impressment of sailors was deeply embarrassing to the U.S.

The British rightly claimed many British sailors had deserted to U.S. merchant vessels.

While the U.S. didn’t deny Britain had a right to board American ships in British ports and search for deserters this was being done on the high seas and American citizens were accidentally impressed in the search for British deserters.

Jefferson’s tone became more warlike with regards to the British as impressment and ship seizures increased over the summer of 1805 but the best the U.S. could respond with were non-importation measures.

Negotiations, led by America’s minister in London, James Madison, went nowhere as the proposed treaty said nothing of impressment and like Jay’s Treaty, didn’t allow for retaliatory commercial actions by the U.S.

Around the same time, France’s defeat at Trafalgar ended Napoleon’s hopes of an invasion of Great Britain and Napoleon implemented the Continental System to cut off England from all continental trade.

France began seizing American shipping as a result to enforce trade restrictions on England.

Following the Leopard-Chesapeake Affair in 1807 where the British ship, Leopard, boarded the American ship, Chesapeake, in U.S. waters killing, wounding, and impressing American sailors, the Jefferson administration once again took a hardline that would hurt Americans more than any British or French trade policies had up to that point.

Along with the non-importation measures the Jefferson administration also announced an embargo for the belligerent European nations and Congress subsequently passed the Embargo Act in 1807 and Republicans, who long feared a standing army passed legislation creating one, all while strengthening the federal government, something else Republicans had long feared.

Sectional tensions worsened as New England merchants were hit hard with New England Federalists finding new life for a moment.

The Massachusetts fleet which had about 40% of the nation’s total tonnage lost $15mm in freight revenues (equal to the entire budget of the federal government in 1806).

In 1808 exports decreased 80% and imports decreased 60%.

Concern over the embargo and eventual repeal of it showed fractures in the Republican Party.