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The Embargo Act of 1807 was a general Embargo that made any and all exports from the United States illegal. It was sponsored by President Thomas Jefferson and enacted by Congress. The goal was to force Britain and France to respect American rights during the Napoleonic Wars. They were engaged in a major war; the U.S. wanted to remain neutral and trade with both sides, but neither side wanted the other to have the American supplies. The American goal was to use economic coercion to avoid war, and punish Britain. The policy was highly unpopular with shipping interests, and historians have judged it a failure. It was repealed as Jefferson left office in 1809. The embargo was imposed in response to violations of U.S. neutrality, in which American merchantmen and their cargo were seized as contraband of war by the European navies. The British Royal Navy, in particular, resorted to impressment, forcing 10,000 seamen with American papers into service on its warships.〔Levy, 1975, p. 343〕 Britain and France, engaged in a struggle for control of Europe, considered the plunder of U.S. shipping to be incidental to war and indeed necessary for their survival.〔Kaplan, 1958, p. 355〕 Americans saw the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair as a particularly egregious example of a British violation of American neutrality. Many Americans wanted war but Jefferson wanted to use economic coercion instead. By spring 1808, New England ports were nearly shut down, and the regional economy headed into a depression with growing unemployment. On the Canadian border with New York and Vermont, the embargo laws were openly flouted. By March an increasingly frustrated Jefferson was resolved to enforce the embargo to the letter. In March 1808 Congress prohibited, for the first time, the export of all goods, either by land or by sea, regardless of destination. The strategy was to isolate the American economy. "The Enforcement Act," signed into law on 24 April 1808, was the last of the embargo acts. It decreed that port authorities were allowed to seize cargoes without a warrant, and to bring to trial any shipper or merchant who was thought to have merely contemplated violating the embargo.〔Forrest McDonald, ''The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson'' (1976) pp 144-47〕 ==Background== After the short truce in 1802–1803 the European wars resumed and continued until the defeat of Napoleon in 1814.〔He returned for 100 days in 1815 but that had no bearing on the U.S.〕 The war caused American relations with both Britain and France to deteriorate rapidly. There was grave risk of war with one or the other. With Britain supreme on the sea, and France on the land, the war developed into a struggle of blockade and counterblockade. This commercial war peaked in 1806 and 1807. Britain's Royal Navy shut down most European harbors to American ships unless they first traded through British ports. France declared a paper blockade of Britain (which it lacked a navy to enforce) and seized American ships that obeyed British regulations. The Royal Navy needed large numbers of sailors, and saw the U.S. merchant fleet as a haven for British sailors.〔Brian DeToy, "The Impressment of American Seamen during the Napoleonic Wars," ''Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750-1850: Selected Papers, 1998'' (1988) pp 492-501〕 The British system of impressment humiliated and dishonored the U.S. because it was unable to protect its ships and their sailors.〔Paul A. Gilje, "'Free Trade and Sailors' Rights': The Rhetoric of the War of 1812," ''Journal of the Early Republic,'' Spring 2010, Vol. 30 Issue 1, pp 1-23〕 This British practice of taking British deserters, and often Americans, from American ships and forcing them into the Royal Navy increased greatly after 1803, and caused bitter anger in the United States. On June 21, 1807 the American warship USS Chesapeake was attacked and boarded on the high seas off the coast of Norfolk, VA 〔http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/embargo-1807#Non-Importation_Acts〕 by the British warship HMS Leopard. Three Americans were dead and 18 wounded; the British impressed four seamen with American papers as alleged deserters. The outraged nation demanded action; President Jefferson ordered all British ships out of American waters.〔Spencer Tucker, ''Injured Honor: The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair'' (2006).〕 Jefferson acted with restraint as these antagonisms mounted, weighing public support for retaliation. He recommended that Congress respond with commercial warfare, rather than with military mobilization. The Embargo Act was signed into law on December 22, 1807. The anticipated effect of this drastic measure〔Hofstadter, 1948, p. 279〕 – economic hardship for the belligerent nations〔Perkins, 1968, p. 317-23〕 – was expected to chasten Great Britain and France, and force them to end their molestation of American shipping, respect U.S. neutrality, and cease the policy of impressment.〔Kaplan, 1958, p. 347-8〕 The Act made illegal all American outbound traffic. American vessels were prohibited from landing in any foreign port unless specifically authorized by the President himself. Trading vessels were now required to post a bond of guarantee equal to the value of both the ship itself and its cargo, in order to insure compliance with the law.〔Dumas Malone, ''Jefferson the President: Second term, 1805-1809'' vol 5; (1970), p. 461〕 Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin objected because of the administrative nightmare of trying to enforce such a profoundly unpopular policy. "As to the hope that it may...induce England to treat us better," wrote Gallatin to Jefferson shortly after the bill had become law, "I think is entirely groundless...government prohibitions do always more mischief then had been calculated; and it is not without hesitation that a statesman should hazard to regulate the concerns of individuals as if he could do better than themselves."〔Gallatin to Jefferson, Dec. 1807, in Albert Gallatin, ''The Writings of Albert Gallatin,'' ed. Henry Adams, (1879) 2:368 (online )〕 War loomed, but Congress refused Jefferson's request to increase the army to 30,000 troops from 2,800. The embargo turned out to be impractical as a coercive measure, and was a failure both diplomatically and economically. As implemented, the legislation inflicted devastating burdens on the U.S. economy and the American people.〔Perkins, 1968, p. 328-331〕 Widespread evasion of the maritime and inland trade restrictions by American merchants, as well as loopholes in the legislation, greatly reduced the impact of the embargo on the intended targets in Europe. British merchant marine appropriated the lucrative trade routes relinquished by U.S. shippers due to the embargo. Demand for English goods rose in South America, offsetting losses suffered as a result of Non-Importation Acts.〔Perkins, 1968, pp. 320, 330〕 The embargo undermined national unity in the U.S., provoking bitter protests, especially in New England commercial centers. The issue sharply increased support for the Federalist Party and led to major gains in their representation in Congress and in the electoral college in 1808.〔Perkins, 1968, p. 324〕 Thomas Jefferson's doctrinaire approach to enforcing the embargo violated a key Democratic-Republican precept: commitment to limited government. Sectional interests and individual liberties were violated by his authorization of heavy-handed enforcement by federal authorities.〔Levy, 1975, p. 315, 343〕 The embargo had the pernicious effect of simultaneously undermining American citizens' faith that their government could execute its own laws fairly; and strengthened the conviction among America's enemies that her republican form of government was inept and ineffectual. At the end of 15 months, the embargo was revoked on March 1, 1809, in the last days of Jefferson's presidency.〔Perkins, 1968, pp. 326, 336〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Embargo Act of 1807」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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