在线英语听力室

VOA慢速英语2013 Jefferson Suspends Trade with Europe - Pgm No.34

时间:2013-06-06 09:29:33

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

 

Jefferson Suspends Trade with Europe - Pgm No.34

From VOA Learning English, welcome to The Making of a Nation, our weekly program of American history for people learning English. I’m Steve Ember.

Last time, we talked about the presidential election of 1804. Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president, was easily re-elected. Jefferson was head of the Democratic-Republican Party, known today as the Democratic Party.

Thomas Jefferson had a very good record during his first term as president. He ended many taxes. He paid government debts. And he gained possession of the huge Louisiana Territory from France without going to war.

His political opponents were the Federalists.

The Federalists were sure Jefferson would win the election of 1804. Still, they were surprised by the strength of his victory.

Jefferson won 162 electoral votes. His Federalist opponent won just 14.

In the early 1800s, Britain and France were at war with each other. The United States remained neutral.

Historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy says President Jefferson did not want to become involved in a war.

“He was sufficiently1 pro-French that he didn’t want to ally with the British, but not so pro-French that he wanted a war with the British.”

Jefferson also believed getting involved in a European war would destroy all the progress he had made at home. His economic policies had helped to pay much of America’s national debt. And he was able to reduce taxes.

But staying neutral was not easy. The United States was having trouble with Britain.

For many years, Britain had been taking men by force to serve in its navy. Britain claimed the right to seize any British citizen, anywhere. The custom was called impressment.

Conditions in the Royal Navy were not good at that time, and many sailors deserted2. Some went to work on American ships. The American ships were stopped and searched in British waters. Anyone born in Britain was seized. Historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy says sometimes American citizens were also taken.

“There was also still something of an imperial attitude in Britain toward America. They were still insisting that some American citizens had been born British. It was often difficult for them to be able to distinguish between their own subjects and Americans.”

Several thousand sailors were taken off American ships during the early 1800s.

In 1807, an incident made relations between Britain and America even more tense. Britain believed that four of its sailors had deserted and fled to an American ship called the Chesapeake.  The United States said the men were American citizens who had been forced to serve in the British navy. The United States refused to return them.

When the Chesapeake sailed out of American waters, the British ship Leopard3 tried to stop and search it. The American captain would not stop. First the British ship fired two warning shots. Then it fired all its guns directly at the Chesapeake. The American ship could do little to defend itself. The captain surrendered.

News of the British attack spread quickly. President Jefferson ordered all British navy ships in American waters to leave at once. He told people not to aid the British. He said any person — American or British — who disobeyed his orders would be arrested.

In response, the British government announced a new rule. It said any American ship sailing to Europe must stop first in Britain to get permission. Ships violating the rule would be seized. Relations between the two countries were reaching the breaking point.

Impressment was just one of the major problems the United States was having with Britain in the early 1800s. Another problem was trade.

Britain wanted to stop the United States from trading with France and its colonies. British warships4 blocked the port of New York all through 1805. No American ship could leave without being searched. Any ship found to be carrying goods for France was taken north to Halifax, Nova Scotia. There, a British court had the power to seize the goods and force the ship's owners to pay a large fine.

In the closing days of 1807, President Thomas Jefferson signed a bill banning all trade with Europe. No ships could enter or leave the United States. Jefferson did not believe that trade embargoes6 were the best way to settle America's problems with other nations. But at the time, he thought an embargo5 was the only way to deal with Britain and France, short of war. And he did not want war.

Jefferson later explained why he thought the embargo was the best choice of action.

He said if American ships had sailed out of American waters, they would have been seized by Britain or France. That would have forced the United States into war. Jefferson said it was far better to stop all contact with these nations until they returned to some sense of justice.

Jefferson acted to protect American traders, ship owners and sailors. Yet those were the people who protested the loudest against the ban. They were willing to take the chance of having Britain or France seize their ship and goods. They could not make any money without trade.

The situation quickly turned into a political battle between the Jeffersonian Republicans and the opposition7 Federalists.

Federalist newspapers attacked Jefferson. They called him a tool of France and its leader. They charged that Jefferson supported the trade ban to help Napoleon Bonaparte.

One Federalist senator wrote a pamphlet against the embargo. He urged northeastern states to refuse to enforce it. Then he went even further. He met secretly with a British official who was sent to Washington to discuss the situation. He told the British official that Jefferson would be forced out of office because of the embargo.

Jefferson simply wished to give the trade embargo a fair chance. He considered the embargo less evil than war. But after a time, he thought, this will not be so. If the war should continue in Europe, and if Britain and France continue to act against us, then it would be for Congress to say if war would not be better than the embargo.

Jefferson hoped that the loss of American trade would force Britain and France to change their policies toward the United States. And he hoped the change would come quickly. He knew that the American people would not accept a long ban on trade.

A British traveler visiting New York City described what the embargo had done. The port is full of ships. But all of them are closed. Only a few sailors can be seen. Many of the counting houses are closed. The coffee houses are almost empty. The streets near the water are almost deserted. Grass has begun to grow upon the docks. 

America's northern industrial states felt the loss of trade most deeply. But the agricultural South also was affected8. Rich southern farmers and planters suddenly found themselves poor.

Tobacco was one of their major crops. And Britain bought more American tobacco than any other country. Because of the embargo, the price of tobacco fell so low that it had almost no value. The price of wheat fell from two dollars a bushel to seven cents a bushel. Good farmland dropped in value until it was worth almost nothing. Opposition to the embargo was growing.

The opposition was strongest in the Northeast. Ship owners and traders believed that the embargo was wrong. They continued to export goods secretly.

Some traders began sending goods over land to Canada. From there, the goods were sent on to Britain. Congress passed a law against this kind of trade. But the shipments did not stop. Too many people were willing to violate the law for the large amounts of money they could make by trading secretly with Britain.

By August 1808, Treasury9 Secretary Albert Gallatin had lost all hope that the embargo would be successful. Gallatin told President Jefferson that the embargo was defeated by open violations10.

Another of Jefferson's supporters gave the president some advice: If the embargo could be enforced, and if the people would accept it, then I am sure it would be the wisest course. But if it cannot be enforced completely, and if the people will not accept it, then it will not serve its purpose and it should not be continued.  

Jefferson, however, was not ready to give up his plan. In his last State of the Union message to Congress, he painted a bright picture of the nation.

He reported that American industry was making progress. Many goods that had been imported before the embargo were now being made at home. He said almost all of the national debt had been paid. And he said more than 100 gunboats had been built — enough, he declared, to defend the country.

Jefferson said nothing about opposition to the embargo. Nor did he talk about the serious economic problems caused by it. He said only that Britain and France still refused to honor American neutrality, and so the embargo must continue.

The rest of the nation was not so sure. Congress began debating a number of proposals to either lift or amend11 the embargo. In the first months of 1809, Congress finally approved a bill. The bill lifted the ban on trade with all European countries except Britain and France.

Jefferson had hoped to continue the embargo a little longer and with more powers to enforce it. He was not satisfied with the final bill. But he signed it anyway on March 1. Three days later, the 15-month-old embargo was dead. And the United States had a new president.

The election of 1808 and Jefferson’s final days as president will be our story next week.


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 sufficiently 0htzMB     
adv.足够地,充分地
参考例句:
  • It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
  • The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。
2 deserted GukzoL     
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的
参考例句:
  • The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
  • The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。
3 leopard n9xzO     
n.豹
参考例句:
  • I saw a man in a leopard skin yesterday.我昨天看见一个穿着豹皮的男人。
  • The leopard's skin is marked with black spots.豹皮上有黑色斑点。
4 warships 9d82ffe40b694c1e8a0fdc6d39c11ad8     
军舰,战舰( warship的名词复数 ); 舰只
参考例句:
  • The enemy warships were disengaged from the battle after suffering heavy casualties. 在遭受惨重伤亡后,敌舰退出了海战。
  • The government fitted out warships and sailors for them. 政府给他们配备了战舰和水手。
5 embargo OqixW     
n.禁运(令);vt.对...实行禁运,禁止(通商)
参考例句:
  • This country put an oil embargo on an enemy country.该国对敌国实行石油禁运。
  • During the war,they laid an embargo on commerce with enemy countries.在战争期间,他们禁止与敌国通商。
6 embargoes 5856aa30ed8eb610914f7f35794c15cf     
贸易禁运令,禁运( embargo的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Britain, France and the United States refused to lift their embargoes. 英、法和美国都拒绝取消禁运。
  • Its public position is that it abides by all UN arms embargoes. 其公开立场是,他们遵守所有联合国的武器禁运命令。
7 opposition eIUxU     
n.反对,敌对
参考例句:
  • The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
  • The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
8 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
9 treasury 7GeyP     
n.宝库;国库,金库;文库
参考例句:
  • The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
  • This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。
10 violations 403b65677d39097086593415b650ca21     
违反( violation的名词复数 ); 冒犯; 违反(行为、事例); 强奸
参考例句:
  • This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
  • These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。
11 amend exezY     
vt.修改,修订,改进;n.[pl.]赔罪,赔偿
参考例句:
  • The teacher advised him to amend his way of living.老师劝他改变生活方式。
  • You must amend your pronunciation.你必须改正你的发音。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。