It is surprising how patient the Americans of those days were. But their patience as to Great Britain now gave out, and our minister at London was recalled in 1811. This alarmed the British, who promptly began to take steps to keep the peace, and offered to make amends for the _Leopard-Chesapeake_ outrage which had occurred four years before (June, 1807). They agreed to replace the three American sailors on the deck of the _Chesapeake_ and did so (June, 1812). But the day for peaceful settlement was gone. The people were aroused and angry, and this feeling showed itself in many ways. %261. The President and the Little Belt.%--In the early part of May, 1811, a British frigate was cruising off the harbor of New York with her name _Guerrière_ painted in large letters on her fore-topsail, and one day her captain stopped an American vessel as it was about to enter New York, and impressed a citizen of the United States. Three years earlier this outrage would have been made the subject of a proclamation. Now, the moment it was known at Washington, an order was sent to Captain Rogers of the frigate _President_ to go to sea at once, search for the _Guerrière_, and demand the delivery of the man, Rogers was only too glad to go, and soon came in sight of a vessel which looked like the _Guerrière_; but it was half-past eight o'clock at night before he came within speaking distance. A battle followed and lasted till the stranger became unmanageable, when the _President_ stopped firing; and the next morning Rogers found that his enemy was the British twenty-two-gun ship, _Little Belt_. %262. The War Congress.%--Another way in which the anger of the people showed itself was in the election, in the autumn of 1810, of a Congress which met in December, 1811, fully determined to make war on Great Britain. In that Congress were two men who from that day on for forty years were great political leaders. One was John C. Calhoun of South Carolina; the other was Henry Clay of Kentucky. Clay was made Speaker of the House of Representatives, and under his lead preparations were instantly begun for war, which was finally declared June 18, 1812. There was no Atlantic cable in those days. Had there been, it is very doubtful if war would have been declared; for on June 23, 1812, five days after Congress authorized Madison to issue the proclamation, the Orders in Council were recalled. The causes of war, as set forth in the proclamation, were: 1. Tampering with the Indians, and urging them to attack our citizens on the frontier. 2. Interfering with our trade by the Orders in Council. 3. Putting cruisers off our ports to stop and search our vessels. 4. Impressing our sailors, of whom more than 6000 were in the British service. SUMMARY 1. One reason which led Napoleon to sell Louisiana was his determination to go to war with England. This he did in 1803.