Was  it  to  compel  England  to  renounce  her  blockades,  and
to  cease  to  violate  bur  neutral  rights  ?  These  objects  were
obtained  by  the  treaty  of  1806,  which  Mr.  Jefferson  rejected.
Was  it  to  prevent  impressment?  How  would  the  continu-
ance of  the  embargo  "  a  little  longer "  have  effected  that
object  ?  This  matter  had  been  arranged  with  Pinckney  and


ON    PUBLIC    CHARACTEUS.  24]

Monroe,  in  London,  to  their  satisfaction,  but  not  to  that  of
Mr.  Jefferson.  There  is  some  ground  to  believe  then,  that
Mr.  Jefferson  confesses  he  misrepresented  his  motive  in  pro-
posing the  embargo  to  Congress,  in  December,  1807 ;  and
that  he  admits  the  embargo  to  have  been  a  hostile  measure
to  England ;  or,  in  other  words,  a  part  of  the  continental
system.  The  sum  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  political  wisdom  in
this  matter  comes  to  this :  He  was  willing  to  impose  an
annual  loss  of  fifty  millions  on  his  own  countrymen,  and
enforce  his  system  of  restriction  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,
to  aid  Napoleon  in  humbling  England.  This  it  would
doubtless  have  pleased  him  to  do,  even  at  that  cost,  with  all
its  consequences.  It  is  surprising,  that  this  wise  statesman
was  the  last  man  in  the  nation  to  perceive,  that  his  costly,
oppressive,  and  ruinous  measure  had  no  tendency  to  effect
his  object.
