commanded all the seaways to the ports of Europe. It
accentuated the differences between the American and
British governments, and threw the shadow of the coming
storm over the exposed colony of Canada.

Not having succeeded in his struggle for 'Sailors' Rights,'
Jefferson now took up the cudgels for 'Free Trade'; but
still without a resort to arms. His chosen means of
warfare was an Embargo Act, forbidding the departure of
vessels from United States ports. This, although nominally
aimed against France as well, was designed to make Great
Britain submit by cutting off both her and her colonies
from all intercourse with the United States. But its
actual effect was to hurt Americans, and even Jefferson's
own party, far more than it hurt the British. The Yankee
skipper already had two blockades against 'Free Trade.'
The Embargo Act added a third. Of course it was evaded;
and a good deal of shipping went from the United States
and passed into Canadian ports under the Union Jack.
Jefferson and his followers, however, persisted in taking
their own way. So Canada gained from the embargo much of
what the Americans were losing. Quebec and Halifax swarmed
with contrabandists, who smuggled back return cargoes
into the New England ports, which were Federalist in
party allegiance, and only too ready to evade or defy
the edicts of the Democratic administration. Jefferson
had, it is true, the satisfaction of inflicting much
temporary hardship on cotton-spinning Manchester. But
the American cotton-growing South suffered even more.