POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 29 



felt sure England could stand the loss of 

 our trade as long as we could stand the 

 loss of all trade. It did not lessen their re- 

 sentment that the act was passed largely 

 by southern and western votes, for surely 

 men who had travelled and traded, who 

 knew France and England, were better 

 fitted to understand the merits of a com- 

 mercial measure than a Georgia planter 

 or a Kentucky farmer. Indeed, had the 

 embargo been all that it was not, coming 

 from Jefferson and the Republican party, 

 they would have received it with suspicion ; 

 for the Federalists hated Jefferson. Was 

 he not a Jacobin, and had he not strangled 

 the infant navy of the United States, a 

 child of the Federalists, a child whose 

 growth they had hoped to see somewhat 

 commensurate with our commercial in- 

 crease ? And now, at the psychological mo- 

 ment for war, at a time when England was 

 locking arms with her still vigorous oppo- 

 nent, France, the United States were with- 

 out means of offence save the few frigates 



