62 CAPTAIN ZACHARY G. LAMSON 



to complain if his vessel was seized. The 

 fact was, that the merchants of the United 

 States played a sharp game, and were as 

 unscrupulous in regard to belligerent rights 

 as England and France were in regard to 

 neutral rights. 



On April 17, 1808, those American ves- 

 sels which had been abroad when the em- 

 bargo was passed, as well as those which 

 had escaped from the United States during 

 the embargo, received from the French 

 Emperor 1 one of his characteristic blows 



1 From 1807 to 1812 the duplicity shown by Napoleon 

 in his treatment of American commerce was simply as- 

 tounding. At the very moment he was meditating some 

 act of confiscation of American vessels, his expressions 

 of friendship for the country would be most profound. 

 Even his own ministers, not easily abashed, were at times 

 mortified and disgusted with his measures. Mr. Serurier 

 in a letter to Mr. Monroe under date of July 20, 1811, 

 writes, "The introduction of tobacco is not prohibited 

 in France. It forms the first object of culture of some of 

 the States of the Union, and his Majesty having an equal 

 interest in the prosperity of all, desires that the relations 

 of commerce should be common to all parts of the Fed- 

 eral territory." This was written within a few days of the 

 confiscation of large amounts of American tobacco. 



