Note 181 — Chapter XLVIII
Reading edition
Holmes' American Annals, Vol. II., pp. 434, 435.
The manner in which this affair was presented to the public by the President and American writers may be inferred from the following:
"This vessel (the Chesapeake) was suddenly attacked within our waters in the time of profound peace, compelled to surrender, and several seamen, alleged to be British, were then forcibly taken from her. The burst of indignation which followed was even more violent than that which was produced by the Orders in Council in 1793 [1807]. Party animosity was suspended; meetings were assembled in every village; the newspapers were filled with formal addresses; volunteer companies were everywhere set on foot; and, in the first frenzy of the moment, the universal cry was for immediate war. Although hostilities were not declared, the feelings of America were from that day at war with England." (Breckenridge's History of the War of 1812.)
This state of feeling was precisely what President Madison wished to create, preparatory to his meditated war with England, in connection with the French usurper.