Professing to be indignant at what seemed to be partiality shown to
England by the
Americans in their restrictive acts, Napoleon caused the seizure and confiscation of many American vessels and their cargoes.
John Armstrong, then
United States minister to
France, remonstrated, and when he learned that several vessels were to be sold, he offered to the
French government a vigorous protest, in which he recapitulated
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the many aggressions which American commerce had suffered from French cruisers.
This remonstrance was answered by a decree framed at
Rambouillet March 23, 1810, but not issued until May 1, that ordered the sale of 132 American vessels which had been seized, worth, with their cargoes, $8,000,000, the proceeds to be placed in the
French military chest.
It also ordered that “all American vessels which should enter French ports, or ports occupied by French troops, should be seized and sequestered.”