Page:Henry Adams' History of the United States Vol. 3.djvu/85

1805. The Cabinet meeting was held October 4; but he reported to Madison that nothing came of it:


 * "The only questions which press on the Executive for decision are whether we shall enter into a provisional alliance with England, to come into force only in the event that during the present war we become engaged in war with France, leaving the declaration of the casus fœderus ultimately with us; whether we shall send away Yrujo, Casa Calvo, Morales; whether we shall instruct Bowdoin not to go to Madrid till further orders. But we are all of the opinion that the first of these questions is too important and too difficult to be decided but on the fullest consideration, in which your aid and counsel should be waited for."

Again Madison wrote back his opinion. More than six months had elapsed since the President, March 23, despaired of Monroe's mission; every alternative had been repeatedly discussed; every advice had been taken. Congress would soon meet; something must be decided,—in reality delay was itself a decision; yet the President and Secretary of State seemed no nearer a result than they had been six months before. Meanwhile the European packets brought news that put a different face on the problem. Sir William Scott's decision in the case of the "Essex" arrived; seizures of American ships by England began; Pitt's great coalition with Russia and Austria against Napoleon took the field, and August 27 Napoleon broke up the camp at Boulogne