During the Napoleonic wars, in 1805 the Royal Navy of the Great Britain enjoyed a tremendous victory against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the Battle of Trafalgar. The victory proved the supremacy of the Royal Navy, but led to an escalation of embargos between France and Great Britain. America was being squeezed in the middle when neither side would allow her to trade with the enemy. Jefferson saw it as our duty and obligation to oppose such a doctrine that is so "injurious" to peaceful nations.
It was at the beginning of Jefferson's second term in office, when became America the victim of several acts of hostility taken by "belligerent" nations during the Napoleonic Wars. One of these was the naval blockades by France and Great Britain stemming from the Battle of Trafalgar. This battle brought the Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies beginning in August of 1805 when 27 British ships led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeated 33 French and Spanish ships under Admiral Villeneuve of France. The battle took place in the Atlantic Ocean just west of Cape Trafalgar off the southwest coast of Spain. The victory confirmed the naval supremacy of Great Britain, and never again would the Royal nay be seriously challenged by the French fleet.
The victory was spectacular, but this did not mean that the war with France was over. Instead, it only escalated the economic war between the two nations. The Royal Navy had already begun to form a blockade against all trade with France, but now Napoleon was planning his own blockade. Just one year later in November of 1806, Napoleon would issue the Berlin Decree bringing into effect a large-scale embargo against British Trade. Great Britain, further retaliated with a series of decrees called the Orders in Council instituting a policy of Commercial warfare against France. Both Great Britain and France were the largest trading partners of the United States, and the blockade would prove to be devastating to American commerce especially the cotton and tobacco industries.
With the Battle of Trafalgar and the supremacy of the Royal navy fresh on the minds, Jefferson looked to the future, and saw the danger of the blockades to international law. In his 1805 annual address to Congress, the president referred to them as "New principles" that had been inserted into the law of nations. These were unjust laws that are not even acknowledged by other nations. France and Great Britain, both belligerent nations were denying neutral nations like the United States the right to trade with either country, on the grounds that it was aiding an enemy in the war. Thomas Jefferson was furious, and said that we reject such an unreasonable stance. As a neutral country we should have the same rights as the belligerent nation to decide with whom we trade; a decision that should take into account the reasonable interests of each our constituents. Jefferson explained that is our duty and obligation to oppose such a doctrine that is so "injurious" to peaceful nations. America would have to eventually enter into war with Great Britain. To deny trade with peaceful nations without reason would destroy the hope that justice will eventually prevail, and that in the end even the belligerent nations would follow the lead of the nations at peace.
Here are Jefferson's actual words from his address:
"The same system of hovering on our coasts and harbors under color of seeking enemies has been also carried on by public armed ships to the great annoyance and oppression of our commerce. New principles, too, have been interpolated into the law of nations, founded neither in justice nor in the usage or acknowledgment of nations. According to these a belligerent takes to itself a commerce with its own enemy which it denies to a neutral on the ground of its aiding that enemy in the war; but reason revolts at such inconsistency, and the neutral having equal right with the belligerent to decide the question, the interests of our constituents and the duty of maintaining the authority of reason, the only umpire between just nations, impose on us the obligation of providing an effectual and determined opposition to a doctrine so injurious to the rights of peaceable nations. Indeed, the confidence we ought to have in the justice of others still countenances the hope that a sounder view of those rights will of itself induce from every belligerent a more correct observance of them."
In a letter dated April 12, 1805 to James Monroe who was then Minister to the United Kingdom, Secretary of State James Madison laid out in great detail these "New principles" that Jefferson spoke of in his address. In this letter James Madison describes a case where a merchant purchased goods from Havana were brought to Charleston and then shipped out to Barcelona, Spain. The merchant paid out all duties and taxes at each stop, yet was "was taken on her voyage by a British cruiser and sent for trial to Newfoundland where the cargo was condemned by the Court of Vice Admiralty". In the letter, Madison laid out the arguments to fight the case in British appeals court.
References
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. 2021. Fifth Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: <https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fifth-annual-message> [Accessed 11 May 2021].En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Battle of Trafalgar - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar> [Accessed 11 May 2021].
Founders.archives.gov. 2021. Founders Online: From James Madison to James Monroe, 12 April 1805. [online] Available at: <http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-09-02-0264> [Accessed 11 May 2021].
Lermuseum.org. 2021. British Blockade of France: 1805. [online] Available at: <https://www.lermuseum.org/colony-to-confederation-1764-1866/1764-1811/british-blockade-of-france-1805> [Accessed 11 May 2021].
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