POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 59 



spoken, opposed to war ; 1 but it was not to 

 his credit that he used his influence to keep 

 the United States in a condition where she 

 could neither fight nor negotiate with suc- 

 cess. A tithe of the money lost to the coun- 

 try by the embargo, even the two millions 

 wasted by Jefferson on his gunboats, 2 

 would have doubled the strength of the 

 United States Navy, and enabled us to ob- 

 tain respect abroad. War there need not 

 have been, for England, at this time, could 

 not afford to fight, but as long as we con- 

 fined ourselves to lucid expositions of rights 

 and irritating recriminations for wrongs, 

 England would pay no attention to us. 



which, had it been held, would either have restored us 

 free trade or established manufactures." Mass. Hist. 

 Collections, Jefferson Papers. 



1 Extract from a letter of Jefferson's to Sir John Sin- 

 clan-. Philadelphia, March 23, 1798, "War is an instru- 

 ment entirely inefficient toward reducing wrongs, and it 

 multiplies instead of indemnifying losses." 



2 These gunboats were authorized in 1806. Two years 

 later Paul Hamilton reported that 176 had been con- 

 structed at a cost of $1,760,000. 



