He and his party nicely calculated on which side the greater profit was to be obtained--whether the United States would gain more by going to war with England than by hostility against Bonaparte and his edicts.

"Every thing in the United States," says James in his naval history, "was to be settled by a calculation of profit and loss.

France had numerous allies--England scarcely any.

France had no contiguous territory; England had the Canadas ready to be marched into at a moment's notice.

France had no commerce; England had richly-laden merchantmen traversing every sea.
England, therefore, it was against whom the death-blows of America were to be levelled." The struggles of England against Napoleon enabled the American government to choose its own time.