History has not been kind to Jefferson’s embargo; it is commonly seen as bad policy that delayed but did not prevent war and left America weaker.49 There is much to this criticism, but the options Jefferson had were such that the embargo, as he himself put it, may not have been a good idea, but it was the least bad. The country was not ready for war with Britain (or with France) either politically or militarily, and the politics of the moment worked against attempts to strengthen the army and the navy. Prevailing opinion held that standing armies were bad and that naval establishments were
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