During her four cruises, the America swooped among the plodding merchantmen like a falcon on a dovecote, the sight of her frightening most of her prey into submission, with a brush now and then to exercise the crews of the twenty-two guns, and perhaps a man or two hit.Long after the war, Captain James Chever, again a peaceful merchant mariner, met at Valparaiso, Sir James Thompson, commander of the British frigate Dublin, which had been fitted out in 1813 for the special purpose of chasing the America.In the course of a cordial chat between the two captains the Briton remarked:
"I was once almost within gun-shot of that infernal Yankee skimming-dish, just as night came on.By daylight she had outsailed the Dublin so devilish fast that she was no more than a speck on the horizon.By the way, I wonder if you happen to know the name of the beggar that was master of her.""I'm the beggar," chuckled Captain Chever, and they drank each other's health on the strength of it.
Although the Treaty of Ghent omitted mention of the impressment of sailors, which had been the burning issue of the war, there were no more offenses of this kind.American seafarers were safe against kidnapping on their own decks, and they had won this security by virtue of their own double-shotted guns.At the same time England lifted the curse of the press-gang from her own people, who refused longer to endure it.
There seemed no reason why the two nations, having finally fought their differences to a finish, should not share the high seas in peaceful rivalry; but the irritating problems of protection and reciprocity survived to plague and hamper commerce.It was difficult for England to overcome the habit of guarding her trade against foreign invasion.Agreeing with the United States to waive all discriminating duties between the ports of the two countries--this was as much as she was at that time willing to yield.She still insisted upon regulating the trade of her West Indies and Canada.American East Indiamen were to be limited to direct voyages and could not bring cargoes to Europe.Though this discrimination angered Congress, to which it appeared as lopsided reciprocity, the old duties were nevertheless repealed; and then, presto! the British colonial policy of exclusion was enforced and eighty thousand tons of American shipping became idle because the West India market was closed.
