30 CAPTAIN ZACHARY G. LAMSON 



the Federalists had built, and Jefferson's 

 useless gunboats, and so must resent her 

 injuries, not by war but by a kind of com- 

 mercial suicide. 



The arguments of Mr. Jefferson and 

 his supporters in favor of the embargo 

 were not such as to commend themselves 

 to a commercial community naturally irri- 

 tated. 1 There were then as now, a small 

 number of extremely wealthy merchants, 

 and a large number of ambitious, enterpris- 

 ing men doing business on borrowed capi- 

 tal. This latter class, representing nine 

 tenths of the business men of the country, 

 was coolly informed by the President that, 



1 (Copied from the National Intelligencer giving what 

 was said to be the views of President Jefferson on the 

 embargo) : 



"There are those who suppose the embargo will be 

 productive of incalculable commercial losses. It will cer- 

 tainly produce much inconvenience to the mercantile 

 world, but it will not be unaccompanied by benefits. It 

 will cause the settlement of longstanding accounts. The 

 merchant who has been trading on another's capital may 

 sink, and, is not this just ? " Newburyport Herald, 

 Jan. 1808. 



