the process of imitation, each belligerent took care to pass at least a
little beyond the precedent; and thus, beginning with a paper blockade
of the northern coast of the continent by the British Government, the
process advanced, by alternate "retaliations," to a British proclamation
specifying the ports of the world to which American vessels were to be
allowed to trade, stopping in England or its dependencies to pay taxes
en route. These two almost contemporary events, the acquisition of
Louisiana and the insolent pretensions of the European belligerents,
were the central points of two distinct influences which bore strongly
on the development of the United States.

The dominant party, the republicans, had a horror of a national debt
which almost amounted to a mania. The associations of the term, derived
from their reading of English history, all pointed to a condition of
affairs in which the rise of a strong aristocracy was inevitable; and,
to avoid the latter, they were determined to pay off the former. The
payment for Louisiana precluded, in their opinion, the support of a
respectable navy; and the remnants of colonialism in their party
predisposed them to adopt an ostrich policy instead. The Embargo act was
passed in 1807, forbidding all foreign commerce. The evident failure of
this act to influence the belligerents brought about its repeal in 1809,
and the substitution of the Non-intercourse act. This prohibited
commercial intercourse with England and France until either should
revoke its injurious edicts. Napoleon, by an empty and spurious
revocation in 1810, induced Congress to withdraw the act in respect to
France, keeping it alive in respect to England. England refused to admit
the sincerity of the French revocation, to withdraw her Orders in
Council, or to cease impressing American seamen. The choice left to the
United States was between war and submission.