at neutrality was more a matter of rhetoric than a reality and the practice of impressment did not trouble American shipping interests nearly as much as the seizure of their cargoes.
             Between 1793 and 1811 the British seized about ten thousand sailors, primarily English-born US citizens, from American ships. In the peak years between 1808 and 1811, about six thousand American sailors were pressed into British military service. However, many of them were actually British deserters and not Americans. The US merchant marines and navy encouraged British naval deserters to enlist, offering higher wages and much better treatment than the strict discipline on British naval ships. They also helped British seamen to obtain false naturalization papers ("Jefferson's Administrations", 1997).
             The year 1812 did not seem to be a good time for the US to go to war. The young nation was still working hard to establish the powers and limits of its national government and to build its infrastructure. For example, the construction of the National Road (or Cumberland Highway ) had begun in 1811, and this work lasted until 1818. In 1812 Louisiana became the first state to develop from the Louisiana Purchase. In May 1812, Congress included West Florida in Mississippi Territory, setting up the possibility of conflict with Spain. After the War of 1812 began, General Wilkerson occupied the Spanish fort at Mobile, Alabama, which was the only possession that the US retained after the War of 1812 was over. The US was not prepared to fight, and the weakness of its military which forced Jefferson to seek diplomatic solutions to any conflict.
             The official history states that the British Navy provoked the war by seizing American ships, and performing acts of insult and injury on American seamen. The British did engage in the seizure and forced sale of merchant ships and their cargoes for allegedly violating the British blockade of Europe...