ciple of the decrees was not abandoned. Such were Napoleon's orders; and in executing them Bassano did not, like Cadore or Talleyrand, allow himself the license of softening their bluntness. Russell knew the letter to be fatal to any claim that the French decrees were withdrawn, but he could do nothing else than send it to London as offering, perhaps, evidence of the "actual relations growing out of the revocation of the Berlin and Milan Decrees."1 He wrote to Bassano a letter asking the release of the American vessels captured and brought into French ports as prizes since November 1, but he obtained no answer.2 A month afterward he wrote again, remonstrating against the excessive tariff duties and the requirement that American vessels should take two thirds of their return cargoes in French silks; but this letter received as little notice as the other. Russell had the mortification of knowing, almost as well as Bassano himself, the motives that guided the Emperor; and July 13 he recited them to the President in language as strong as propriety allowed: 3

"The temper here toward us is professedly friendly, but unfortunately it is not well proved to be so in practice. It is my conviction, as I before wrote you, that the great object of the actual policy is to entangle us in

1 Russell to J. S. Smith, May 10, 1811; State Papers, iii. 502. 2 Russell to Bassano, May 11, 1811; State Papers, iii. 506. 8 Russell to Monroe, July 13, 1811; MSS. State Department Archives.

a war with England. They abstain therefore from doing anything which would furnish clear and unequivocal testimony of the revocation of their decrees, lest it should induce the extinction of the British orders and thereby appease our irritation against their enemy. Hence, of all the captured vessels since November 1, the three which were liberated are precisely those which had not violated the decrees. On the other hand, they take care, by not executing these decrees against us, to divert our resentment from themselves. I have very frankly told the Duke of Bassano that we are not sufficiently dull to be deceived by this kind of management. He indeed pretends that they are influenced by no such motive; and whenever I speak to him on the subject, he reiterates the professions of friendship, and promises to endeavor to obtain the release of the remainder of our vessels captured since November 1. I fear, however, that he will not succeed."

Even in case of war with England, Russell warned the President to look for no better treatment from Napoleon, who might then consider America as "chained to the imperial car, and obliged to follow whithersoever it leads." He pointed out that concessions had never produced any return from the Emperor except new exactions and new pretensions. If war with England became inevitable, care must be taken to guard against the danger that France should profit by it. French trade was not worth pursuing. The tariff on imports, reinforced by the restrictions on exports, created a practical non-intercourse.

Napoleon's writings furnish evidence that the Em

peror's chief object was not so much to entangle America in war with England as to maintain the decrees which he literally overturned the world to enforce. When he suspended their enforcement against American ships in his own ports, he did so only because his new customs' regulations had been invented to attain by other means the object of the decrees. When he affirmed and reaffirmed that these decrees were the fundamental law of his empire, he told a truth which neither England nor America believed, but to which he clung with energy that cost him his empire.

Russell made no more efforts, but waited impatiently for the arrival of Joel Barlow, while Napoleon bethought himself only of his favorite means for quieting Madison's anger. August 23 the Emperor ordered1 Bassano to give his minister at Washington instructions calculated to sharpen the cupidity of the United States. Serurier was to be active in effecting the independence of Spanish America, was to concert measures for that purpose with the President, promise arms and supplies, employ the American government and American agents for his objects, and in all respects give careful attention to what passed in the colonies; yet in regard to Florida, the only Spanish colony in which Madison took personal interest, Napoleon hinted other views to Bassano in a message 2 too curious for omission.

1 Napoleon to Maret, Aug. 23, 1811; Correspondance, xxii. 432. 2 Napoleon to Maret, Aug. 28, 1811; Correspondance, xxii. 448.

"You spoke to me this morning," he wrote August 28, "of instructions received by the American chargé on the affair of Florida. You might insinuate the following idea, that in consideration of some millions of piastres, Spain in her present condition of penury would cede the Floridas. Insinuate this, while adding that though I do not take it ill that America should seize the Floridas, I can in no way interfere, since these countries do not belong to me."

With this touch of character, the great Emperor turned from American affairs to devote all his energies to matters about the Baltic. Yet so deeply were American interests founded in the affairs of Europe that even in the Baltic they were the rock on which Napoleon's destiny split; for the quarrels which in the summer of 1811 became violent between France and the two independent Baltic Powers – Russia and Sweden were chiefly due to those omnipresent American ships, which throve under pillage and challenged confiscation. Madison's wisdom in sending a minister to St. Petersburg was proved more quickly than he could have expected. Between March 1 and Nov. 1, 1811, at one of the most critical moments in the world's history, President Madison had no other full minister accredited in Europe than his envoy to Russia; but whatever mortifications he suffered from Napoleon, were more than repaid by means of this Russian mission.

The new minister to Russia, J. Q. Adams, sailed from Boston August 5, 1809, and on arriving at

Christiansand in Norway, September 20, he found upward of thirty masters of American vessels whose ships had been seized by Danish privateers between April and August, and were suffering trial and condemnation in Danish prize courts. He reported that the entire number of American ships detained in Norway and Denmark was more than fifty, and their value little less than five million dollars.1 The Danes, ground in the dust by England and France, had taken to piracy as their support; and the Danish prize-courts, under the pressure of Davout, the French general commanding at Hamburg, condemned their captures without law or reason. Adams made what remonstrance he could to the Danish government, and passed on to Cronstadt, where he arrived Oct. 21, 1809. He found a condition of affairs in Russia that seemed hopeless for the success of his mission. The alliance between Russia and France had reached its closest point. Russia had aided Napoleon to subdue Austria; Napoleon had aided Russia to secure Finland. At his first interview with the Russian Foreign Minister, Adams received official information of these events; and when he called attention to the conduct of the Danish privateers, Count Roumanzoff, while expressing strong disapprobation of their proceedings, added that a more liberal system was a dream.2

1 J. Q. Adams to R. Smith, Oct. 4, 1809; MSS. State Department Archives.

2 J. Q. Adams to R. Smith, Oct. 26, 1809; MSS. State Depart ment Archives.