That there was abundant occasion for war needs no argument. The aggressive acts of Great Britain were of a nature which now would not be submitted to for a month, yet they were extended over a period of some twenty years. An official statement of the Secretary of State, made in 1812, declares that five hundred and twenty-eight American merchantmen had been taken by British men-of-war prior to 1807, and three hundred and eighty-nine after that period. The value of these vessels and cargoes, if estimated at the low figure of twenty-five thousand dollars each, would be nearly thirty million dollars, forcibly seized by a nation with whom we were at peace. During the same period several thousand seamen were impressed from American vessels, the greater number of whom were undoubtedly American citizens. Of eight hundred and seventy-three taken in eighteen months from October, 1807, to April, 1809, only ninety-eight were shown to be British subjects, but only two hundred and eighty-seven......
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