June 1807 just outside of Norfolk gave dramatic emphasis to the British impressments. Although the British government agreed to return the sailors abducted from the Chesapeake and to pay damages, it persisted in claiming the right to board and search foreign vessels to apprehend traitors. Although President Jefferson recognized that the Chesapeake incident had aroused Americans to “a state of exasperation” such which had not been seen since the Battle of Lexington , he knew that the success of his domestic program depended on the maintenance of peace. Having long believed that economic measures could be produced to serve as an effective alternative to war, he was now determined to make the experiment with The Embargo of 1807.Jefferson and Secretary of State Madison believed that the British, as well as the French, were dependent on American foodstuffs, the principal products carried by American ships. In this light, they also believed that the nation was willing to make sacrifices to gain recompense. So they designed an economic boycott to force the loud-mouths to recognize American neutrality and to observe the neutral right of American sea merchants. In late December of 1807, Congress ratified the administration’s embargo, which prohibited all foreign commerce. The embargo resulted in a serious economic reduction, which severely disrupted the business of the merchants and ship owners of New England primarily and other states. Those whose livelihood and work depended on foreign commerce unsurprisingly perceived in this policy an obvious bias against the interests of merchants and their accomplices, the farmers. Due to the nation’s vast eastern coastline and extended border with Canada, the embargo proved to be difficult to enforce and relatively easy to evade. And due to this, Congress passed several force acts, some resembling of previous British imperial regulations, to empower customs officials to seize ...
