THE MILITIA AND THE WAR OF 1S12. 339 



For many years Great Britain had been at war with 

 different countries in Europe, and she needed men to fight 

 her battles. Americans were many of them excellent 

 seamen, and it grew to be the practice of British naval 

 officers to board American vessels and to take American 

 seamen forcibly into the war service of Great Britain, 

 claiming them as British subjects. From 1803 to the 

 year 18 10 the list of such impressments reached the alarm- 

 ing number of four thousand. 



Against the preposterous claim of the British that all 

 who spoke English were presumably subjects of Great 

 Britain there was only one defense, and that was a writ- 

 ten certificate from the collector of customs that the 

 bearer was an American citizen. All our sailors had to 

 procure these for their own safety before they ventured 

 upon the high seas. 



To make matters still worse for our shipping interests, 

 Great Britain forbade our ships having any commerce 

 with her enemies. Such a demand enforced by England's 

 ubiquitous navy was a severe blow to our marine com- 

 merce, and the United States retaliated by prohibiting 

 ALL foreign commerce, England included. This E^nbargo 

 was a terrible blow to English merchants, who depended 

 upon our markets, and a severe restriction upon our own 

 sailing craft. 



Vessels that had done foreign trading with the West 

 Indies and elsewhere were laid up in our harbor. A com- 

 plete stagnation of commerce followed. 



Several small vessels laden with assorted cargoes es- 

 caped from Cohasset in the night in spite of the vigilant 

 eyes of the revenue officers, one of whom was stationed 

 with his sloop at our harbor. Larger vessels hovered 

 outside to receive and to give cargoes to the smaller ones 

 that might run into little harbors along the shore. 



In 1809 this Embargo was changed so that American 

 vessels were prohibited from intercourse with England 



