importation of slaves. This was the first public indication of his views
on the subject of slavery. It was a premonition of the bold, unflinching,
noble warfare against that institution, and of the advocacy of human
freedom and human rights in the widest sense, which characterized the
closing scenes of his remarkable career, and which will perpetuate his
fame, when other acts of his life shall have passed from the remembrance
of men. Although at that early day but little was said in regard to
slavery, yet the young senator saw it was fraught with danger to the
Union--conferring political power and influence on slaveholders, on
principles false and pernicious, and calculated ultimately to distract the
harmony of the country, and endanger the permanency of our free
institutions. He labored, therefore, to check the increase of slave power,
by the only means which, probably, appeared feasible at that time.

But a crisis in his senatorial career at length arrived. The commerce of
the United States had suffered greatly by "Orders in Council," and "Milan
Decrees." Our ships were seized, conducted into foreign ports and
confiscated, with their cargoes. American seamen were impressed by British
cruisers, and compelled to serve in a foreign navy. The American frigate
Philadelphia, while near the coast of the United States, on refusing to
give up four men claimed to be British subjects, was fired into by the
English man-of-war Leopard, and several of her crew killed and wounded.
These events caused the greatest excitement in the United States.
Petitions, memorials, remonstrances, were poured in upon Congress from
every part of the Union. Mr. Jefferson endeavored by embassies,
negotiations, and the exertion of every influence in his power, to arrest
these destructive proceedings, and obtain a redress of grievances. But all
was in vain. At length he determined on an embargo, as the only means of
securing our commerce from the grasp of the unscrupulous mistress of the
seas. An act to that effect was passed in Dec., 1807. This effectually