Editing Embargo Act of 1807 (section)

==Background==

After a short truce between the [[French Revolutionary Wars]] and the [[Napoleonic Wars]] during 1802–1803, the European conflicts resumed and continued until the defeat of [[Napoleon|Napoleon Bonaparte]] in 1814.<ref>Napoleon's brief return during the "[[Hundred Days]]" had no bearing on the United States.</ref> The wars caused American relations with both Britain and France to deteriorate rapidly. There was grave risk of war with one or the other. With Britain supreme on the sea and France on the land, the war developed into a struggle of blockade and counterblockade. The commercial war peaked in 1806 and 1807. The [[Royal Navy]] shut down most European harbors to American ships unless they first traded through British ports. France declared a paper blockade of Britain, but lacked a navy that could enforce it, and seized American ships that obeyed British regulations. The Royal Navy needed large numbers of sailors, and was deeply angered by the American merchant fleet as a haven for British deserters.<ref>{{cite book |first=Brian |last=DeToy |chapter=The Impressment of American Seamen during the Napoleonic Wars |title=Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750–1850: Selected Papers, 1998 |year=1998 |pages=492–501 |publisher=Florida State University}}</ref>

[[File:Official Presidential portrait of Thomas Jefferson (by Rembrandt Peale, 1800).jpg|thumb|right|200px|Thomas Jefferson, United States of America President from 1801 to 1809 and signer of the Embargo Act]]

British [[impressment]] of sailors from American merchantmen humiliated the United States, showing it unable to protect its ships and sailors.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Paul A. |last=Gilje |title='Free Trade and Sailors' Rights': The Rhetoric of the War of 1812 |journal=Journal of the Early Republic |date=Spring 2010 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1353/jer.0.0130 |s2cid=145098188 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/371950}}</ref> The Royal Navy's impressment of American  seamen increased sharply after 1803, causing bitter anger in the U.S.  On June 21, 1807, the American warship USS ''Chesapeake'' was [[Chesapeake–Leopard affair|boarded on the high seas]] off the coast of [[Norfolk, Virginia]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Embargo of 1807 |url=https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/embargo-1807#Non-Importation_Acts |publisher=Monticello and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation |access-date=December 18, 2015}}</ref> by the British warship [[HMS Leopard (1790)|HMS ''Leopard'']]. The ''Chesapeake'' had been carrying four [[Desertion|deserters]] from the [[Royal Navy]], three of them American and one British. The four deserters, who had been issued American papers, were removed from the ''Chesapeake'' and taken to [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]], where the lone Briton was hanged.  The three Americans were initially sentenced to 500 lashes. American diplomatic pressure led Britain to return them with no punishment.  But an outraged American public demanded action, and President Jefferson ordered all British warships out of U.S. waters.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Spencer C. |last1=Tucker |author-link1=Spencer C. Tucker |first2=Frank T. |last2=Reuter |title=Injured Honor: The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair |year=1996 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=1-55750-824-0}}</ref>