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 more intimate connections between the United States and France.

As the American shipowners had set at defiance the embargo imposed on the ports of the United States, their government on the 1st of March, 1809, replaced it by the Act of Non-intervention, whereby all intercourse between America, France, and England was interdicted under severe penalties, and the ports of America closed against the armed vessels of both belligerents. In communicating this act to the French government, General Armstrong took care to call special attention to its conditional character, and to disavow all hostile views and intentions, declaring it to be a measure of precaution in order to preserve the vessels of the United States from the numerous dangers to which they were exposed by the continuance of their intercourse with France. He subsequently added that "the Non-intercourse Act was a fresh appeal to the wisdom and justice of the Emperor, as a simple modification of the imperial decrees relating to the right of neutrals would instantly restore the commerce between the United States and France. The United States," he continued, "did not in fact require a repeal of these decrees, having the greatest deference for the dignity of the chief of a great empire; and declared they would be satisfied if an interpretation were given to them which would thenceforward free American vessels from harassments and capture; finally, entering into the views which the Emperor had so often manifested"—that is to say, a league to humble the power and destroy the commercial navy of Great Britain. Indeed General Armstrong declared "that he was