Question

What was the problem with the Embargo Act of 1807? How might Congress have solved the problem?

Answer 1

Answer:

Hey mate!!

The Embargo Act of 1807 was a law passed by the United State Congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson on December 22, 1807. It prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports.

President Thomas Jefferson

You might be asking yourself, 'Why would the U.S. government want to prohibit foreign trade? Wasn't trade important for the country's economy?' Yes, trade was very important, but there was another serious problem plaguing the United States, and the government was willing to take desperate measures to solve it.

Britain and France had been at war since 1803. Americans had tried hard to remain neutral in this conflict and keep up communication and trade with both countries. Unfortunately, it wasn't working. In 1806, France passed a law that prohibited trade between neutral parties, like the U.S., and Britain. French warships soon began seizing American merchant ships. In 1807, Britain retaliated, prohibiting trade between neutral parties and France.

The British also began seizing American ships and demanded that all American vessels had to check in at British ports before they could trade with any other nation. America was getting the worst end of the deal on all sides. Along with their attempts to control trade, the British also tried to satisfy their need for sailors at America's expense.

Britain claimed the right to board American ships and take into custody men who were thought to be deserters from the British navy. Most of the time, however, the British had no proof that the men they grabbed were really British deserters, and the U.S. government saw their actions as clear cases of impressment, the seizure of innocent men for forced service in a foreign navy. Historians tend to agree with the Americans; of the approximately ten thousand men captured from American ships, only about a thousand were actually British citizens.