Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/399



When in May 1803, the war again broke out between France and England, the shipowners of the United States, with their characteristic energy, were prepared to avail themselves, to an even greater extent than they had hitherto done, of the numerous advantages which a European war conferred on them as neutrals. Hostilities between two great nations must ever be a most grievous calamity, but it was greatly aggravated in the present instance by the depredations of American privateers hoisting, as might suit their purpose, French or English colours, under men, too, who were almost as reckless and daring in their acts as the English and Dutch buccaneers of the early part of the eighteenth century, some of them frequently making capture of vessels belonging to their own countrymen.

But though an examination of the State papers collected by the Americans themselves furnishes abundant proof of too many unblushing acts of piracy committed by vessels built and equipped in American ports, and frequently manned almost exclusively by citizens of the United States, there is no reason to suppose that their lawless acts were committed by the consent or knowledge of the American government. When the arm of the law is not sufficiently strong, there are always abundance of adventurers of all nations ready to take advantage of its weakness and, in the name of neutrals or under the flag of belligerents, as may best suit their purpose, to fit out from neutral ports cruisers with no other object than plunder; and there were too many of such vessels cruising about the ocean during