72 CAPTAIN ZACHARY G. LAMSON 



only. Thus the last blow in the warfare 

 against commerce was given by the United 

 States government itself, and American 

 vessels that had left England without know- 

 ledge of the new act, found, on their arrival 

 in this country, that they were prohibited 

 from landing their cargoes, except under 

 heavy penalties. Still harder was the fate 

 of vessels from British India. 1 They had 

 been put under bonds in India not to land 

 their cargoes anywhere except in the United 

 States. If they landed them in the United 

 States, they must pay a heavy penalty; if 

 they landed them anywhere else, they for- 

 feited the bond given in India. The United 

 States finally remitted most of these penal- 

 ties, but only after a long delay. 



On the fourth of April, 1812, Congress 

 laid an embargo on American shipping for 

 ninety days, preparatory to war. War 

 could bring no worse fate to the American 

 Marine, and June 18, 1812, war was de- 

 clared. 



1 Pitkiii, American Commerce, p. 211. 



